Odds and Ends

Retaining Walls

A little more on the retaining walls. So three out of the four are done. What is still to come is the railings on top of them. The problem with that is there doesn’t seem to be any slot in the brick on the top of the wall to anchor the railing. Maybe that’s something the railing people will do.

But it does seem to me that maybe there should have been some coordination between the two of them. And then I remember who I’m dealing with. I have to be thankful after all this time they’re actually done. They also look really good.

Visiting the Dermatologist

I had my six month check of my spots a little over a week ago. There was a spot on my back that the doctor thought looked a little funny. I have similar fun things on my skin and it looked like them but was just different enough to have a look at.

So he removed it. Put a band aid on it. I got the usual instructions on making sure not to get it wet for at least 12 hours. After that I needed to keep it moist by putting Neosporin or Vaseline on it. Then covering it with another band aid. I would need to do that for about one to two weeks.

I was going to do it the next before but was too tired I just went to bed. I get up the next morning and took a look at the spot. It was on my back and in a spot I could barely reach. Putting anything on it would be hard enough. Covering it with some sort of bandage was out of the question.

I’d planned to go see movie but wasn’t sure would make it in time. I called my dad. He dealt with putting lotion on his back to help with all the itchy skin. I told him I could just reach the corner of the band aid. I was able to pull it off. I asked now what.

He suggested putting the Vaseline on the end of a pencil and apply it that way. I tried putting it on my finger tips. With a mirror and with my back to the bathroom mirror I was just able to reach the spot. I always have trouble in doing anything with mirrors like this. I always move in the wrong direction.

I got to the movie on time. It was La La Land really good.

When I got home I had to figure out a better way to get the Vaseline on my back. Also the Vaseline I had was in a tub and not all that easy to rub in. I got a new container of Vaseline. I then figure out the best thing to use to apply the Vaseline was a spatula. And I’ve been using it every since.

The thing don’t you think some one at the dermatologist’s office would have said this is in a tough spot you might need someone to help you out with this.

I just hope that the spot is fine. If anything else has to be done to it, I will have to have someone help me out.

Jury Duty

I lucked out on this one. I had been called for Petit Jury Duty for two weeks. It was to start January 27 and run through February 10. Those dates just so happen to be when one of the projects I was hired for would be in full production.

I was less than pleased. In fact I was furious. Two week. Two weeks. You had to call in the night before (after 5pm) to see if you had to report the next day.

I called last Thursday and was told I did not need to report. I was further told that the quota of jurors had been reached for this session. It was possible that I would be resummoned in the future. Sounds very royal or imperial to me.

A couple of quick points. I’m just me so adjusting what I have to do is pretty easy. I just let work know about the possibility of having jury duty. But if you have any sort of a family like kids you have to deal with how does this work.  Because it was possible that you would have to show up at 8 each morning.

If you normally picked up the kids say from after care you might not be able to do it. Probably each day would end at 5 but that’s not a certainty. Maybe you’re lucky and the court house is near where your kids are. In most cases probably not.

So if I was a parent I would have had to have made arrangements for last Friday just in case I did have to serve. It’s not like you could figure anything out after 5 the day before. Now you might have been able to get by with figuring out the one day Friday. Thinking that if you didn’t have to go at all (like in my case) you’d only be out one day. But that’s kind of a stretch.

I think this is a huge imposition on people. How do you plan your life around such complete uncertainty.

Monday's Dusting of Snow

There was a wonderful light dusting of snow this morning. Just enough to cover the trees and grass but not much else. It did produce a most wonderful effect.

Here are a few pictures of it.

More of Monday's Dusting of Snow

The Retaining Walls Progress

One of the walls in front of my house actually completed

It is hard to believe but there is actual progress on the retaining walls.

In fact three of them are completed and they look great.

One more to go.

Then the railings have to be installed and it will finally all be over.

Hard to believe that somethings so relatively simple should take so long.

The last one.

The all important drain so water has some place to go. The old walls didn't have this thus one of the reasons they started to crumble.

Time for a Smile from Peanuts — Charlie Brown and the Kite Eating Tree

More from the Women's March

Some of the bleacher. The glass building off to the right is the Newseum.

These pictures cover walking up 3rd Street and making the turn on to Constitution. The crowd built and built as the group I was in was joined by people who were walking up 4th Street. Then we were joined by the group walking up 5th and so on. Just more and more people joining.

Along the way some people stopped off at the bleachers that had been left up for the inaugural. It was a great place to rest. But it also afforded a great view of just how big the crowd was.

The long line of people in the distance are the marchers marching up 4th Street.

A closer view of the people on 4th Street.

Turning the corner on to Constitution

A view from the bleachers looking back at 3rd Street.

An Idea on Just How Big the Crowd Was on the March

The crowd was much larger than the organizers thought it was going to be. The route of the actual march was changed. It was supposed to go down Independence Avenue but there were too many people on the street.

What they ended up doing was telling people to march up the numbered streets. Then take a left on Constitution and then walk to Pennsylvania Avenue.

And wave after wave after wave of people did just that.

From the Post on the people taking Metro:

The Women’s March on Washington led to Metro’s second-busiest day in history, as hundreds of thousands of revelers poured into the District, taking more than a million trips on the system in 19 hours of service.

The figures surpassed ridership for Friday’s presidential inauguration and trailed just behind President Obama’s record-setting inauguration in 2009, when 1.1 million trips were taken.

Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said Metro recorded 1,001,613 station entries Saturday; by contrast, 570,557 trips were taken Friday, the day of President Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president.

The Crowd at the Women's March on Washington

Reaching the Stage

The view of the main stage

It took a little while but I finally got close to the main stage. I could see the stage but really couldn't see who was on the stage

Right at 10am the rally started. It went for the next four hours until the area I was in finally stated marching. And I didn't even hear all of the speakers.

I did get hear among others: Gloria Steinem, Ashley Judd, Scarlett Johansson, America Ferrera, Angela Davis and many more.

From the Post:

Activist filmmaker Michael Moore ripped a copy of The Washington Post in half, noting the headline “Trump takes power” and declaring, “I don’t think so.” Actress America Ferrera said that “our new president is waging a war” on the values that define the country with “a credo of hate fear and suspicion of one another.”

“It’s been a heart-rending time to be both a woman and an immigrant,” said Ferrera, whose parents are from Honduras. “Our dignity, our character, our rights have been under attack.”

“But the president is not America,” she said. “We are America.”

The huge crowd delighted iconic feminist Gloria Steinem, 82, who was among the first speakers. “This is the upside of the downside,” she exulted. “This is an outpouring of democracy like I’ve never seen in my very long life.”

This shows how many people were behind me at the march.

On the Way to the Main Stage

A few pictures of the people I encountered on the way to the main stage.

Getting Down to the March

The crowd inside Union Station

I went back and forth on when I should leave for the march.

Did I want to get there really early? Did I want to get close to the stage?

The program for the march was supposed to start at 10. I decided I would leave around 8. Take Metro to Union Station and walk the rest of the way to where the stage was which was at Independence and Third Street.

There was a larger than normal crowd on the station platform. The train that pulled in was pretty full but not crowded. More people got on at the NOMA stop. When it got to Union Station well there all sorts of people waiting to get on.

The train filled up with people. As I was heading out there was a steady stream of people coming into the system. Union station was filled with people every where you looked. Most of them were large groups. They could have come in by bus, MARC train or Amtrak. No matter how they got to Union Station there were a lot of people there.

The same was once you got out of the station.

Everyone was heading down to the main stage. As we got closer we were told we would have to go to 4th Street and then get on Independence and head to the stage.

I sort of snuck around that and went down 3rd Street to the main stage area..