BRAAAAAAC ATTACK!

Everyone who commutes in northern Virginia has long been aware of the monolith that DOD planned to build in the Mark Center area to house 5,000 employees as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). Personally, I've been dreading it, especially knowing that no measures have been taken to adjust the roads surrounding this monstrosity in order to BRAC-commodate the huge influx of traffic (or "Braffic," as I now refer to it).

Even though they're not dumping all 5,000 BRAC-ers on us at once, Braffic is already having an impact on my daily commute. Until a couple of weeks ago, I was able to leave my home in the City of Fairfax at 6a.m. and reach my office in Pentagon City in 30 minutes via Route 50 and Route 27. I purposely changed to an earlier work schedule to try to avoide arriving at work every day stressed out and pissed off because of the traffic. Now the commute has increased to 40 minutes. I'm either seeing BRAC-ers heading to the Mark Center via the back way, or I'm seeing folks who used to take I-395 and are now avoiding that Braffic cesspool all together. And it's just the beginning! I do not see myself ever becoming fully BRACclimated to this.

DING DONG, BIN LADEN'S DEAD

May 1, 2011 goes into the history books as a momentous day for America and Americans: U.S. forces tracked and killed terrorist Osama bin Laden! The photo above captures people celebrating and chanting, "USA! USA! USA!" in front of the White House as soon as the news was released. Times Square also filled with revelers celebrating this happy news. My pride in being an American and my gratitude toward our U.S. troops has never been greater than today. Although we must remain vigilant, we must also mark this major event. God bless the USA!

Grandi Dolori Sono Muti

MISSING YOU LOTS

A Tragedy and a Travesty

It has been more than a month now since Deep Water Horizon blew up, killed those people, sank and started vomiting copious amounts of oil into the Gulf. Why is it that BP, the government and other entities were not quicker to deal with this? And did no one think about the chemical disbursants turning the oil into sludge, causing it to sink into the ocean instead of floating on the surface? And what of the effects of the chemicals on marine life and other fragile ecosystems? I am not convinced that BP et al really tried everything they could from the start. I think they were chiefly concerned about finding ways to recoup the oil in order to somehow still make a profit from it. They have not been forthright about the volume of the spill, and have been very busy pointing fingers at anyone other than themselves.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal reportedly said that the state has lost 2,300 sq. mi. of land since the 1930s. Big oil cut canals for pipes and drilling rigs in the marshlands. As a result, salt water invaded estuaries, marsh grass died, and marshes became open water. In turn, barrier islands began to erode.

In a report I read on MSNBC.com, I read that Jindal has joined with Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser in a campaign to win a permit to dredge a new set of barrier islands as the first line of defense against the oil. But the Army Corps of Engineers has not granted the permit. Why?? What is the objection here? What's the hold-up? God forbid something constructive be done to try to protect the environment. Especially since officials say that the marsh grass cannot be cleaned of the oil. Cleaning it would kill the roots and push the oil into the muck.

Like many other American taxpayers, I feel extremely frustrated and helpless about this mess.

Reaching Back Into the Past

I recently reconnected with someone who I knew 20 years ago.

Hmm. I just read that sentence above and I now feel rather OOOLLLLLDDDD. God, where does the time go? As I write this, I am 46 years old. But I don't FEEL that age at all. Oh, and he's now 51 years old. Holy cow!

In addition to reaching out to him, I have reached out to another old friend who is now...60!!!! None of this makes sense to me. I remember thinking that 40 was old. I mean, OOOOLLLLLLDDDDD! It's very strange, this aging thing, Do not even mention the word, "perspective" to me, okay? Just don't.

I am dismayed to realize how much time has gone by while I was living my life. I realize that this is not a novel thought, but its hitting me rather hard tonight. So, I had to "let it out" via the writen word.

SNOW-MAGEDDON!!

Winter in Northern Virginia is usually rather mild. Sometimes we get ice storms, which are hard to deal with mainly because it makes the roads perilous to traverse. Once in a while, we get some snow. Small amounts. Manageable amounts. Well, THIS YEAR, we were OVERWHELMED. The FIRST storm hit around Christmas time and brought around 24" to my area. We all thought, "Wow. This is unusual, but we got a white Christmas, right?" Then came the second storm. Another 6" or so. Mind you, the area hadn't gotten around to completely dealing with the first storm, so this SECOND storm did not help things at all. Not even a week later, we were hit with a THIRD storm, this one bringing ANOTHER 20 INCHES. Holy CRAP! Now what? Well, the federal government closed, is one thing. Most stores were closed except for tiny mom-and-pop things like 7-Eleven. Metrorail was SHUT DOWN. Amtrak was SHUT DOWN. My car was BURIED in snow--snow up to the door handles, snow up to my thighs on the places near it. No one in the area could go ANYWHERE...except by ski, I guess. Then again, WHERE would one ski to? A friend's house, maybe. Dunno. All I know is that, between storms, I had to call upon my brother R to rescue me. He parks in an underground garage and has an SUV. I explained that I had run out of stuff and desperately needed to get to the store. Among other things, I was about to run out of my allergy medicine. Mind you, there were no SIDEWALKS on which to walk: you took your life in your hands because you could only walk in the street -- what there was of it - which was mainly populated by large trucks!

Being the kind indivdual he is, he and P showed up in P's SUV. They had to park at the restaurant nearby because my parking lot was largely moguls where it wasn't sheer ice. We made it up to a grocery store and back in one piece, but it was dicey in places. I was so grateful to them for this HUGE favor! I spent a lot of time either cooking/baking, reading or sleeping or watching movies.

Finally, after the THIRD STORM had finished and a couple days of sunshine had occurred, I ventured out with tools to try to dig out my car. Holy cow. Between the major storms there had been just enough thawing/re-freezing that there was ICE under the newer snow. Fortunately, I found a young lad helping another lady out and paid him to help me shovel my vehicle out. This took 2 hours. NOT kidding.

As I write this, it is now the middle of March and we STILL have large, ugly piles of snow in shopping centers. I predict it will be the 3rd week of April before all of what's left finally melts.

I have never been MORE ready for Charleston, SC!!