Travel Tuesday - 2/22/22

I had something else written and then realized this is 2/22/22, or across the pond, 22/2/22.  A date sequence like that will not happen again in my lifetime.  We should do something special.  People talk about once in a lifetime trips, well this is truly a once in a lifetime date. I think the only once in a lifetime trips I have had, are to places I don't care to ever go back to.  And there are a few, I won't name names to protect those stranded in those places, and unable to escape.  There are far more I would go back to, than I hope to avoid.  

Speaking of going back, I want to go back to the transit center at the World Trade Center site in NYC.  We were there briefly last summer, what a great space, it deserves more time on the next trip.   

We booked lunch reservations last August at the restaurant on the observation level of the new tower at the World Trade Center.  A spectacular view, and a nice lunch, I am very glad we did it.  We arrived, and I was surprised that there was not an elevator for the restaurant, we paid to ride the elevator to the observation level.  A few days ago I was cleaning up a stack of paper on my desk, and stumbled across the complimentary passes for the elevator to the observation level that came along with the restaurant reservation.  Opp!  It's only money.  

YouTube Monday: Gordon Goose: Risky Life!

A few weeks ago, someone accidentally put my office Zoom account on a list to be shut off, and it WAS, in the middle of a regularly scheduled call, on a consulting contract,  that pays us rather well, when it went off. My interaction with the powers to be, was polite but frustrating, I looped my boss's boss into the conversation, and finally someone went oops, my fault! The really nice thing is the person who made the mistake, took responsibility and apologized. I had driven to the office that day, when it was resolved, I closed up shop, put the top down on the car and drove home a little early.  Sometimes the most productive thing is to leave work a little early.  I can look back and laugh at it today, but in the moment, I needed a little change of pace. Kind if like Gordon.

The Sunday Five - One Ringy Dingy, Two Ringy Dingys

If you laughed at the title, you are an experienced adult, or you are simply old.  I recently replaced my cell/mobile phone.  I don't recall if I bought in 2015 or 2016, I think 2015, so it was likely 7 years old.  It still worked, but the memory was full. The resident memory that holds the operating system and all apps, was full to the point I couldn't update or add anything, without taking something off.  And I am not a big app user.  So after putting it off for months, I decided it was time, and off the phone store.  Probably the easiest sale they had all day.  I told the guy what I wanted and needed, he said this one is best, he had it in stock, done deal.  It works, does a few things the old one didn't, does more than I want or need.  

Last summer my office changed the security protocol for remote email access.  I followed the directions, first step was delete my office email from my phone, that was easy. Second step was find or download a new mail app.  That didn't work.  So I took the path of least resistance,  I left my office email and calendar off my phone.  With my supervisory duties starting, I recently added my office email and calendar back on my phone, I instantly regretted doing so.  

1: Do you carry a "smartphone?" 

2: Apple, Android, or other?  

3: How long ago did you buy a new one? 

4: Do you always have yours on? 

5: Do you prefer phone, email or text? 

My answers: 

1: Do you carry a "smartphone?" I started with Blackberry, before the I-Phone existed.

2: Apple, Android, or other?  Android 

3: How long ago did you buy a new one? Late January 

4: Do you always have yours on? Nope. I know people who sleep with their phone. 

5: Do you prefer phone, email or text?  Email

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Saturday Morning Post - Life in Washington DC

When I first moved in Washington DC, my office was so close to the White House, that I signed a release for my information to be shared with White House security.  We were inside the exclusion zone for inaugurations, as in the Secret Service locked our building and told us when we could return after the inauguration. The office moved a few blocks away a few years ago.   

12 years ago there was a construction fence very much like this, in front of the west wing, the area of the executive offices. The official answer was it was underground utilities work, that took about three years and several hundred thousands of cubic yards of concrete.  When the new bunker was finished, there was a discrete announcement that the second half would be started in a couple of years.  

I was in the office recently and took a nice lunch time walk.  I hadn't spent much time around the White House over the past five years, for four of those the sight of the building often caused spewing of obscenities, and for a couple of years it was surrounded by a fortress, to keep people in or keep people out I am not sure which, but it looked like a prison. 

The iron fence is taller than it was before, a painful need, we have had a few people jump the fence and run for the door.  The new construction fence, I suspect is going to be there for a couple of years - and lots of concrete will be involved.  

A few years ago, one of former President Ford's daughters mentioned that the secret service would sneak here in and out for dates, through a long tunnel that emerged in a vault in the basement of a bank a few blocks away, the tunnel had been there since the 1860's.  Several truckloads of concrete were sent out immediately.  The bank building has finally been remodeled.  (It was not the building my office was in it was a couple of blocks farther away.) 

It is nice to be able to walk to the White House and feel comfortable again.  

Fabulous Friday - Shoes #3

I have been thrown out of a few retail stores over the years for taking photos.  And I am shy about asking permission.  It is usually obvious that I am taking photos, I generally use a relatively large serious looking camera and lens.  I am sometimes a little nervous about it.  

I ran across this shoe store filled with fabulous displays. There were no customers in the store, one person behind the register.  I took a couple of photos, said thank you and turned to leave.  The clerk said, before you leave - my heart sank - she continued "You have to take a photo of this shelf, they are my favorites and I want the world to see them!" 

So here they are, being shown to my little corner of the world.  Aren't they fabulous! And how nice to be encouraged instead of thrown out of the store.  Share your fabulousness with the world.  

Thursday Ramble - Red Flags

 I often like weird art, modern art, representational art, color studies and color blocks, found object sculpture. I like most art, the unusual modern stuff leaves a lot of people asking is it art, or saying what a pile of trash, but I often like it.  

Here in Washington DC, the Hirschhorn Museum has interesting shows of modern and non-traditional art.  The Museum was built in the 1970's, it is round, as in a circle, with only a small glass entry box on the ground level, most of the galleries' are on the floors above (and another space below ground level.) The building is really mid-century brutalist, with a stone panel exterior.  And as many of the buildings of that era and style have, the exterior was starting to flake and fall off. The building is undergoing a major exterior renovation.  The interior is open.  The outside is wrapped in scaffolding.  The effect on the ground level is striking.  

One of the current displays, is a room full of waiving red flags, no bulls. The exhibit has light and dark, video, and sculpture, painting and noise.  I enjoyed most of it, and was not tempted to charge the red flags.  There is also a nice space for modern art at the National Portrait Gallery.   

The Way We Were Wednesday - Open Water Swimming

I  had a flashback moment recently.  The CBS Sunday Morning Show did a feature on the South End Rowing Club  in San Francisco.  I have seen the club, watched people swimming in the bay. They do open water swimming in San Francisco Bay.  So part of the flashback was I have seen Aquatic Park, and that club, but deeper, the real flash back for me was 32 years ago, at the peak of my fitness, I did open water swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, along the coast of Florida.  

I would go out probably 100 yards from shore, and swim parallel to the shore.  I was swimming a lot, 2-3 hours a week of laps in a pool. I learned to stay afloat as a child, I seriously learned to swim so I could compete in two seasons of Sprint Series TriAthlons, with swims up to half a mile.  I recall swimming as much as half a mile, parallel to the coast in open water. It is peaceful, powerful, relaxing.  It is surprisingly fast. Wonderful memories.