I am writing this on Sunday, 9/22. There are no pics this week.
We’re in the second half of a rare 4-day weekend. We started the extravaganza with an adventure that was a mixed experience. We decided to see a play called “Bell” at the National Geographic theater in DC. Tickets included free parking (always a big selling point for me). Danita was working at Godard Thursday, which is near Greenbelt. Danita and I arranged to meet at the New Deal Restaurant in Roosevelt Plaza (the Greenbelt central plaza) after work. Danita had a hard time finding the place and ended up visiting the less desirable areas of Greenbelt. It turns out that Roosevelt Plaza isn’t the best area. In spite of great reviews, New Deal turned out to be a dump. The food was OK, but the dinner was a definite dud. After dinner, I drove us through downtown DC. I found the traffic to be about what I expected. One could call it invigorating. Danita called it something less complimentary. Fortunately, the play itself was excellent. It was a one-man show which illuminated many facets of Alexander Graham’s life that aren’t generally known. The ride home was every bit as eventful as the ride in, but we managed to avoid any physical modifications to the car.
Friday we went back to DC to visit Hillwood, one of Marjorie Merriweather Post’s houses. She moved into this house in her early 70s, and knew she wanted to make it a museum after her death. The house is amazingly open. When walking into the house, one encounters two Louis XVI desks, each worth millions of dollars. They just sit out in the open, not even behind a rope. Being worth about $5 billion allowed her to make a pretty nice museum. When she renovated the house before moving in, she raised the roof and added a 3rd story. This level was dedicated to storing her clothes. Once a week, her personal maid would review her calendar and bring a selection of appropriate clothes downstairs for her to select from when she dressed. She owned the world’s largest yacht, the Sea Cloud, a tall ship. According to our docent, she was very approachable, had her own eye for art, and had a wonderful sense of humor. After we got home I looked her up and learned she was also hell on husbands, having married and divorced 4. We brought a picnic lunch to avoid the ridiculously expensive cafe. However, I couldn’t avoid having a cup of Postum while I was there. They serve it as a latte. This makes it very palatable. It tastes like warm milk, which makes me wonder why one would bother adding the Postum powder.
Saturday I went on a Columbia Bike-About. Every year, they mark out two routes through the extensive Columbia trail system — one about 10 miles and one much shorter. They put up information about interesting historical sights and generally encourage bikers to have a good time. For those who are more into walking, they also have a heart-walk nearby. This year the Bike-About started at Elkhorn Lake, just 5 miles from our house. So I rode to the Bike-About, rode the 10-mile course, and then rode home. I also picked up a T-shirt, a map of the Columbia trails, and a Columbia trail mapping app, all of which were way cool. The beginning of the ride was a disaster. Huge crowds clustered around the historic information. When the route encountered the first hill, people went off the trail and into the woods in all sorts of directions as riders in front came to a grinding halt and basically fell down while riders behind them tried to avoid accidents. But before long the short and long routes separated. Most of the people who selected the long route were able to ride their bikes, even when going up hill. I met a man who was hauling his 5-year old son in a bike trailer. His ability to climb hills was awesome, considering the extra weight he was towing. I also met a man riding a unicycle. Unicycles don’t have brakes and can’t coast downhill. Mounting and dismounting requires a good amount of space and planning. He was having an exceptionally tough time in the beginning of the ride with all the amateur riders around. But the course was well marked. The historical stops were interesting. The weather was good. It was a good time.
Saturday evening we went to the SOCA volunteer dinner. This dinner is free, and it has fewer attendees than many of the other neighborhood activities. Danita and I were taken by how conforming the crowd was. The majority of our neighborhood is White, but we have a large number of Indians, Orientals, and Blacks. Everybody at the volunteer dinner was White except for one Black couple.
Today we are looking foward to a BSO concert followed by dinner at Pierpont Restaurant in Baltimore. (Did you notice how Danita cleverly arranged the activities to avoid cooking?)
Monday will be the last day of our weekend. Bud signed a contract on a condo. Danita will spend the day at Bud’s house. A woman from the condo will stop by in the afternoon to measure furniture and suggest a layout. A lot of stuff has to happen between now and when Bud moves. His goal is to move by early October. One of the very nice things the condo (and other Erickson communities) have done is to arrange things so folks can move before they sell their house. They recommend that new residents live in their new condos for a couple of weeks before listing their house. It makes it very easy to make adjustments in what furniture and other things stay or go, and reduces the stress of the move quite a bit.
That’s a lot of news for one week. For those who are not in the loop, Mom reports that Glenn is making a tremendous recovery in rehab. I hope this finds everybody doing well.