It a beautiful Day in the Neighborhood... to get off your backside and do something!

Well, it was a lovely day in the beltway.  I made one last trip to IKEA while I still have a car.  Didn't need anything;just wandered.  Bought a bar to hang my kitchen utensils on.  Anything to get a couple more inches of counter space.

Wandering back to the flyover zone next weekend.  Its always weird to go back.  I love seeing everyone - but my weekend is always full of cleaning and errand running, doctors appointments, haircuts.  And flying back every two weekends or so it a $500/month expense. 

Going to drive back President's Day and leave the car.  I can't afford a re-occurring $100 ticket because I can't get it to pass inspection for DC.  I will just have to deal with buses and trains full time.  Maybe I can find someone to "Slug" some with.

Is always funny to we the way everyone freaks out when it snows here.  Now I know this week's was a doozy.  But I walked over to Safeway Thursday to get some ice and milk, and I though, hey I'll get me a Tasty Cake.  Nope, the Tasty Cakes were picked clean except the LCD (little chocolate donuts - that taste like plastic?)  So I also notice the thinning beer stock and envisioned people sitting around the house with a pound cake and some crumbles and knock back the Yling Ylings.  MMM - beer and fat pills - Breakfast of Champions.

Make fun of him as you will - Jack LaLanne died this week at 96.  And the dude was buff.  Say what you wish about him fashion sense, but it took pneumonia to fell him.  Not cancer; not a stroke; not heart disease.  After 56 years of marriage to the same woman.  A little germ felled him.  Show just how fragile these containers of ours are and how we should spend a little more time keeping them up.

So I am swearing back on to more fruit & veggies and keeping up the walking.  And maybe I can sweat off the 50 years of KitKats on my keister.  'Cause Jack said, its never too late to start.

OK, this counts as Real Snow

• 50, 000 people without power.
• Cars abandoned on the thruway
• Metro buses not running.
• Metro stations closed because of arcing transformers.

OK, yesterday evening counts.  Timed for maximum effect, we got 6-12 inches of snow between 4 and 10 last night.  For some of us, this followed about an hour work of sleet and small hail.

I got off early.  The Metro was strangely empty.  Was home in plenty of time to watch people running into my Safeway buying junk they didn't need.  Saw a cop car fishtail in the alley by my apartment. Watched the dismal parade of tail lights on 66 from the warmth of my apartment.

A few glimmers of lovely humanity

• a couple with cases of water and candy bars walking along the stranded cars in Tyson's handing out goodies to stranded people.
• A announcer in Hyattsville getting plopped by a bit wet snowball on the air.
• a guy in my neighborhood snow blowing everyone's entry way
• One of the ladies in my apartment putting seeds out on the from lawn this morning for our sparrows and squirrels.

Not our snow storm...

I love snow, and this one is primo snowman snow.  Heavy, wet, eminently packable.  I think Petworth needs some snow angels.

Hoofing it in DC

Things I wish I had know about having a car in DC:

• It has to be licensed in 30 days
• To license it, you need to have it inspected in DC
• They have ONE vehicle inspection location
• It is only open until 3 pm.
• If you are caught parked in the same neighborhood 2X in 30 days without DC tags, you get a $100 ticket. 
• If you are caught again in 60 days, they will tow your car.  Even it is parked in front of the DMV while you are waiting in line to get your license and tags.
• To get tags, you also have to get a DC drivers license.
• The DC tow lot is not close to a Metro Station.

So to get your tags you have to get your car inspected AND PASSED.  You need proof of insurance, residency, and the title on your car.  Plus your out of state license, your original SSN card and that proof of residency again.  And $78 for your license.  And another $100 for your tags.

Now, the tow lot is on the bus line.  And they are VERY nice.  And open until until 6.  And when it cold, will drive you to your car.

So, Ms Ion is going back to KC.  She has some lost pressure in cylinder 3 and will not pass DC inspection.  Since CQ does not have $1500 more to toss at this effort to get tags.

I was only using her to go to outside the Beltway anyway.  So I better make one last IKEA run before she goes back...

I REALLY hate the current credit climate.

Due to, as best I can figure, to one late payment and one accidental credit line overrun ( for a vehicle emergency), all of my credit cards have moved their interest rates to USURY setting.  I feel like I am paying back money to a paycheck cash location or Guido the Killer Pimp. 

Did I screw up? Yes. 

But, I pay on time.  I pay direct to card holders.  I have paid off cars, houses and school loans.  I have a good employment history.

I have no desire to intentionally miss payments and get behind so I can use some credit recovery loophole.  Declaring bankruptcy is not an option.

But, if I cancel them, that lowers my credit score.   Cutting them up on the other hand...

I've shredded most of the little monsters, and except for a gas card, want to operate with cash.  Which means I can't rent movies from Redbox or Blockbuster.  I can't cash a check. 
And since that will leave me with a debt card from the same account my bills all come out of, I better hope I don't time grocery day with rent.

And yet. everyone is still offering me credit...

OK, I got one up on the DC Denizens

DC got a bit of an ice storm last night.  I use the term loosely because it has very few of the hallmarks of a real Bible Belt Ice monster.

• Trees bent to half their normal height
• Cars moving themselves out of parking spaces and driveways
• Broken power lines
• At least one city/county salt truck/plow stuck on the interstate.

If you want to find out about a doozy, look up January 27, 2002 Central Plains Ice Storm.

This critter dropped 3 inches of ICE on Kansas City.  FEMA took over Arrowhead Stadium parking lot to use as a collection center for branches and burn pit, and ended up buying KC a new parking lot.  I was without power for almost 5 days and without water (ironically) for 7.

So, if you are not teleworking today, take gentle steps, and drive slow, but do not whine.  I lived through "Ice-pocalypse", and you will not win.

Be Jealous... I have it Good...

Over the years I have worked at various Federal, Military & National Security sites and locations.  I have endured floods at installations where I have had to move computer equipment out on pontoon boats (the He-Man stuff; mainframes and DASD and UPS the size of walk-in freezers), dodging deer, raccoons and drowned livestock.  I have worked in Butler buildings the size of Rhode Island where a spring shower sounded like a bombing run.  I have worked in GSA buildings with Periplaneta americana big enough to saddle and run in the Derby.

I have had mid-career military officers flummoxed that the "Guy" in change was a woman.  I have had staff at large military contractors think that being their requirements liaison meant I got the complaints about not enough chocolate doughnuts at meetings.  I have seen more ROAD (retired on Active Duty) federal employees spend their last few months blocking as much changes as humanly possible and still get lauded as team players...

But no more... I have a great facility to work in.  An office.  A DOOR that SHUTS!  A boss that is who celebrates successes and milestones. Agency workers that are glad to see me and do not undermine my plans.  Most days an enormously productive and pleasant environment.  And I'm close to the Metro. 

Another mid-career Fed came to my office today.  He's been at my agency about a month longer than I have, after the military and another agency.  He ask me how I was doing, and then leaned down over my desk and with a little whisper, he said, "This is gravy... we got it so good now." 

He's right... after a whole lotta cold cuts, this is Sunday dinner.

Confessions of a Geographic Bachlorette

I recent took a promotion with a new department and for now, am a "Geographic Bachelorette". 

My husband and daughter did not want to move to the Beltway until they were absolutely, positively, without a doubt, 100%, no turning back, sure I would like my new gig and my new gig would like me.

Well, I am pushing six months now.  I love my gig.  And it seems mutual. 

But since the "fly-over family" is still hesitant to take up this adventure, I have a few things to confess:

• I like eating vegan food every night without someone whining.
• Gay sports bars are a great place to watch a football game without being hassled.
• I do not miss shoveling snow, driving an hour to work, or having to create a project plan to get everyone out the door to go to a movie.
• I enjoy hearing four different languages at the grocery store.
• I am not afraid of riding my bike downtown, taking the Metro to a game (or back afterwards), or going to a event at a hotel/bar at which I know no one.
• I get a kick out of living in a neighborhood with 7 nail salons in a one block radius.
• I think living in an old apartment building with steam heat, hardwood floors, and neighbors who leave stuff they don't need in the laundry room as "freebees" is pretty cool.
• I have found every snide remark ever made by a Midwestern about living in DC, and DC people to be wrong.  People have been polite, kind, and friendly. 

Finally:
Its great to be on my own here - the only thing that would improve it, is if I had someone to share it with.