18th Street NW, Washington, D.C.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back To Silver Spring...

Desktop Office Defense System

Yes, it really works.

It lobs the yellow clay ball up to about 20 feet. I built it from a kit that I bought.

Going Home

The Boy and I spent the long Independence Day weekend in my hometown, Montpelier, Vermont. On the drive up Interstate 89 we stopped to visit my father's grave at the Vermont Veterans Cemetary, where I shot the above picture of the view from his headstone and the one below of the state seal on a granite post at the cemetary's entrance.



Montpelier is Vermont's state capital and, while not an otherwise industrial place, it also is home to the country's last plant manufacturing wooden clothes pins.

The Boy and I took in a ball game. We watched the Vermont Mountaineers defeat the Concord (NH) Quarry Dogs (what's a quarry dog?). Both teams are in the New England College Baseball League. Fittingly, the Mountaineers mascot is a woodchuck, the local vernacular for a Vermonter.

Montpelier's Independence Day parade has become a large affair lasting over an hour and featuring politicians, performers, and community groups.

The victorious Mountaineers riding on an historic firetruck.

The sailor's of the Mighty Monty came all the way from their home port of Norfolk, Virginia. One of these days I'm going to look up the story of how the capital of a landlocked state came to have an attack submarine named after it.

The Shriners were there driving their little cars. The Boy remembered them from last year's parade and he was eager to see them again. I remember them from parades when I was his age.

Vermont's Bread and Puppet Theater performed political street theater and had their trademeark washer women and giant flying bird. I also remember Bread and Puppet from parades when I was The Boy's age.

The Boy and I also visited nearby Barre, Vermont to take in a matinee of the new animated movie Cars. We had a few minutes to kill, so I took these pictures of the old Socialist Labor Party Hall. Notice the arm and hammer over the door in the picture above.

Barre is home to the world's largest granite quarry (but no quarry dogs that I've ever seen). It has over the year's attracted and turned out many very talented stonecutters. There are several excellent examples of stonecutting to be found in Barre like the statue pictured below.

Lipstick Roses

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

I took a date yesterday to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. We had a picnic lunch and then strolled through the ponds of water lillies and lotuses before walking out onto the boardwalk through Kenilworth Marsh.

The aquatic gardens are one of D.C.'s hidden gems. It's a national park on the edge of the district where the park service grows flowering water lillies and lotuses in man made ponds. I've been a few times now. Each time there has been only a few other people there. On past visits I've seen a variety of birds, turtles, salamanders, and butterflies. On this visit my date and I saw just one small turtle, sitting on a lilly pad, and three muskrats (I wonder whether the park service considers muskrats pests or just part of the ecosystem). Going to the aquatic gardens makes me forget that I'm in D.C. and I feel like I'm in on a well kept secret.

Irreverent Humor

This is one of my favorite jokes:

A crowd was preparing to stone a woman who had been caught committing adultery.

Jesus tried to stop them by saying, “let whoever is without sin among you, cast the first stone.”

Just then a stone came flying from the back of the crowd and struck the woman.

Jesus blurted out, “Mother, I’m trying to make a point here.”