sunny and cold

TV capture of the event as we saw it here at home

MLK cut outs  & Obama connect the dots drawing

MLK window

Yes We Did

cones 

striped barrels of caution

tax services 

Murray & Paul's restaurant

Yesterday afternoon I burst out of the house for a walk and some light shopping. I wanted to stretch my legs and get a few things while Keith was in a SLR digital photography class downtown. I walked with my Kodak point and shoot camera up to the Brookland post office and mailed some bills. Then dropped back down twelfth  street to the CVS pharmacy, built in an art deco style movie theater, where I hunted for rechargeable AAA batteries. I continued down the street to the YES Organic market for a few specific groceries. Along the way I decided to collect some images of the ORANGE stuff that is everywhere on twelfth street because it has been too long since I had a good orange show and tell on my blog. I found that there are orange caution cones, fencing and big striped barrels where the city is having the street scape "improved" without taking into account there is a law on the books saying they have to remove the poles and wires from the street and put them underground. I fear all the work they are doing  to replace the curbs and reshape the street scape is a wasted effort.  I suspect much of it will have to be redone to comply with the "underground the wires" law which is what all the people who live in this area think we want and deserve. I am in favor of the underground project for a few reasons. First, esthetically it will greatly improve the look of 12th street our commercial shopping area. Second, it will allow beautiful trees to grow and shade that busy neighborhood shopping and commuters corridor which are now hacked up annually to make the wiring safe from falling branches. Third, it will reduce the power outages from violent weather and traffic accidents. 

The money has been allocated to improve the street scape by an under ground placement of the wires as well as the new curbs, bump out shapes to improve pedestrian safety and new street lamps. There have been major discussions on our local Brookland discussion boards and list serves. Our voices are being heard but whether or not the government can force PEPCO, our power company, to comply with their laws is something we do not know. It seems PEPCO is trying their best to avoid burying the electric lines and removing the unsightly poles. 

The good news is that the streets are getting a little more space for walkers and shapes are going to take away a little more concrete and open up some grassy areas where rain can get into the ground and nourish the trees. 

Besides lots of orange cones I also had a delight when I noticed a kindergarten school window display celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. day and Obama's inauguration. Their sign says "Yes We Can" the slogan from the Obama campaign and further down it reads "Yes We Did" the celebration of him being the first Afro-American elected as president. I felt a very warm feeling seeing how important this is to the children of my community and all the fine work of coloring and cutting. I instantly remembered back to when JFK was president and how his death impacted my life at 8 years old. I remember the earlier "duck and cover" bomb raid drills we did along with the fire drills at elementary school in the early 1960's. I heard a story from my neighbor Chris the baker that downtown on the day of the inauguration that he a man fully grown was so crowded trying to get through the security check points that the crowd was lifting him off his feet moving him along. He saw small kids down on the ground with adults all around them in that press of excited people. That brought back memories of being a smaller person among tall adults and that wasn't  a very pleasant experience. Little me wanting to see what all the adults were excited about and not being able to unless dad or some tall guy lifted me on his shoulders to look. Shoulder riding was a lot of fun when it happened and now I don't get to do that anymore. I wonder what memories the kids that attended the inauguration will have when they grow to be my age of that day or the kids in that class will remember how charged the entire city was about the change that came to Washington DC. 50% of the people who live in Washington DC are Afro-Americans and most of them are descendants of slaves. How sad it has taken this long to bring them the liberty we all deserve under the US Constitution and Declaration of Indepenance. Even the Republican party that lost the elections to Barak Obama have joined in the elect an Afro-American excitement. They elected an Afro-American Michael Steele who is a former Lt. Governor from Maryland to be the party leader for the next 4 years. We adults may be getting the race issues closer to correct now and  the kids are paying close attention and will remember for a very long time how exciting this time was for them and how concerned adults felt anxious for the future. 

winter storm

Brookland's dentist is winter pink

cobble stones make nice patterns 

my favorite oak tree against the gray sky

The last time we saw snow on the ground was last winter so this weeks snow was welcome but the ice that followed was a bit of a downer. I had to skip going home this week and doing laundry. Next week will be wash week abundantly full of washables.  I am excited by all the changes in tone coming from the white house this week and seeing changes I wasn't even expecting. One nice change during the afternoon broadcast of the white house's press conference the reporters get to ask follow up questions again at least two questions each! It is shocking how such a simple thing makes the news so much more meaningful and the white house more transparent. After 8 years of hyper controlled secret government things are opening up again here in Washington DC like they should be in a free society. I was delighted by the blast from President Obama of the Wall Street Executives who took $18 Billion dollars in bonus pay while their companies are failing. That is shameful and just wrong. Some things just went very wrong under the last administration and they made me sick. So sitting home and watching the changes on CNN and MSNBC were stimulating in a way they have never been before. The snow was a great reason to get out and walk to the store. We have a store for organic groceries in our neighborhood now for the last couple years and it has really improved life for Brookland residents to have YES market. Walking over there was fun with Keith and I took my camera to record and share it with you. I love to look for bold patterns in the bright white snow. Found a nice pink building with bricks that are just like my Aunt Alice's home that my father designed for her years ago. They are pink bricks with a few painted white and black in an effort to look "used". I wonder if there are orange things around in the snow. All I can remember seeing was a few orange caution cones. What did you see during the ice and snow storm?

pink day

international wear pink day

 self portrait

In reality my shirt is a salmon pink and my skin is flesh colored but I wanted to push the envelope a bit with my editing tools :-) I am not sure if I like that pink hair line looks like my makeup wore off or some such mess but I love that very pink shirt after the retouch. 

guards in formation practice yelling lunging and doing what riot police have to do

red cross supply trailer ready for disaster

10 humvees for military police ready to go

Nice today on Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in my Brookland neighborhood. Streets are quiet and the gray sky is offering peeks of sunshine and massive white snowflakes fill the air now and then.  I am a little sad because it looks like Obama and his transition team decided to hide all the gays yesterday during the internationally televised concert at the Lincoln Memorial.  Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson gave an opening prayer  that vanished from TV and radio media coverage of the concert and because the sound system wasn't functioning when he spoke his prayer twice most of the crowd didn't even know he was there. Then during the concert the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC sang back ups and were never named in the bold titles that labeled all the other performers. Somehow  it seems like we gays are being deliberately papered over.  I was reading blogs about the gay censoring when I heard these muffled grunting sounds over and over and discovered the Turkey Thicket and Brookland Elementary school play grounds in front of my apartment are being used as to stage national guard troops for security detail. We noticed a red cross van was parked at Turkey Thicket Community Center a few days ago. Today the troops arrived they are wearing riot gear over uniforms. Big wooden batons, plastic body shields, face shields, hard helmets  and knee/shin guards are all part of the crowd control costume they wear. Charter Buses are parked in the lots and now starting to leave with these guards men. I wonder what they will be doing today. Maybe they are part of the security perimeter that the Secret Service is putting in place on the entire downtown of Washington DC. I took a walk after hearing these guys yelling to see better  what is going on out there and to get a few pictures.  Now about 150 national guards men are doing practice maneuvers on the tennis courts it is like a sort of all male ballet. They have portable toilets and shower trucks over there and on my walk I discovered military police hummers and unmarked vans filling the school teachers parking lot with other support vehicles. Pretty exciting to see but a little scary as my neighbor noted. I think closing all the bridges and main highways into DC from Virginia and putting up concrete barriers with guardsmen and police from around the nation seems a bit heavy handed on the security detail but we residents of Washington with no vote in Congress are getting used to the fact that the Federal Government runs this town regardless of how it impacts the people who live here. The white house security perimeter  is getting bigger and bigger closing streets they think protect that special house and as I often joke it won't be long before all the downtown will be off limits to anyone not wearing a ID card around their neck. I chose not to go to the inauguration because they have blocked easy access to the mall.  On Metro they warn there will be hours of waiting to go and to come back home. No cars, bicycles or other way to get downtown except walk and 4 miles each way is too much for me in this weather. Hyper security has blocked my joining in the fun and celebration of an event I never thought was going to happen. I remember when DC burned after Martin Luther King was killed. I lived in many of the areas that were destroyed by those fires and watched it slowly be rebuilt. Progress is slow for civil rights. I am waiting on mine to come and I think we are closer than ever before to GLBT people being normalized in our society. We are moving forward but don't forget that with every leap forward there are always a couple steps back. 

My ex-partner Don Callahan sent me an invite to join him and others around the world wearing pink today to support diversity. International Day of Pink started in Canada when a boy was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school and hundreds of his classmates decided to show there support by returning to school all wearing pink! Gay Straight alliances in schools do amazing things for todays kids. 

eat the view

Today I went to Change.org the website where you can join up and give your suggestions to the Obama crew about what you think his administration should do. If you are reading this on my blog site you can see I added a link to the Change.org web site with the topic. Green the White House. That will take you there so you can support the idea and add your vote to ask them to get a non toxic garden going and add veggies to the 17 acres of ceremonial lawns. A new Victory Garden like FDR had! What a treat to follow the White House's annual vegetable garden as it grows and produces food and herbs for their table and the excess could go to all the hungry homeless people and shelters in DC.
Also on this blog today I am posting two short videos with cute animations and story tellers to fill you in on the history of the lawn's gardens and the inspirations that moved me to vote for greening the white house lawn. Enjoy them they are both fun and if you feel moved to comment on Change.org I am sure it will help change the world!


The Garden of Eatin': A Short History of America's Garden from roger doiron on Vimeo.

 
This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

friday: storms on the way

Gustav comes to New Orleans

flood waters of Gustav

Storm flood water nears the roof line. Seeing a stop sign about to be 

swallowed up by waters from Gustav was very alarming. 

Andserson Cooper

Barak Obama 

In Brookland the wires for electricity, telephone and cable TV are all up in the air suspended by those old fashioned oily brown poles that once were fine trees. That means anytime the storm clouds form and the winds pick up, we are in danger of loosing power.  This past weekend we watched a lot of the storm coverage between the political party conventions on cable TV. I enjoyed watching Anderson Cooper on CNN standing in New Orleans' deserted French quarter. Just after Keith went to bed I thought to myself "what about trying a snapshot of the TV screen?" Our new flat TV allows me to get a decent, if not perfect, screen image with my digital camera and now remembering the storm is easier with these photos.  Anderson Cooper the celebrity news man from CNN is very handsome and kind of funky. He got his national TV start on the overnight news ABC tired a few years ago. There acting and talking kind of goofy worked for the extreme late night viewers and eventually the whole industry turned to his style with entertainment news. Now Anderson is a little more serious and always in dramatic situations when he can be. I think  it is fun to watch him and wonder if he has a boyfriend who it might be. Rumor says he is gay and I wonder about the another handsome man on CNN Rob who does weather; they have done several Hurricane live shots together.  Also on late night CNN last weekend was the guy I hope will be president in a few months: Barak Obama, I caught one shot of him before I turned it all off and went to bed. They showed and warned of several storms that are training across the Atlantic ocean from Africa where they begin as thunderstorms toward the Americas. Next is on the way up northeast coast to Washington, DC area and in the five years I have lived here we have only had one Tropical Storm come to DC. It blew down trees and branches and upset everything but our power didn't go out that time. Now with tropical storm Hanna on the way I am trying to think what I could do to prepare our garden and our house for a black out. There are no easy answers. Maybe I should be contacting friends and asking them to make room in their freezers for our extra bison steaks in case the juice gets knocked out. Gustav missed New Orleans mostly now Hanna comes north, Ike may crash into Florida early next week and there is one more way out there called Josephine still trying to get a tropical storm rating. We are having a busy storm season and cable TV doesn't know what to put at the top of the news entertainment menu disaster, debauchery or government corruption so many exciting things to cover. 

Meanwhile between storms we had a good week, Keith was happy with his birthday gifts, dinner and cake. Mom and I had fun shopping and buying him some vintage ceramics and a Blue Mason Jar of his own to match mine. He loves books and got a couple from me and a gift card for more from Jenny and Frank and he danced around the room when he opened that gift.  We need an extra library to store all our books in case you are trying to think of a nice holiday gift for us both. Wink wink... but really it is fun to have fine books. I have a bunch to make of my own this month so I better shut down this computer and start working! The storms are on the way and that could really make book binding difficult.