kites, kites, everywhere kites

Another catch-up post...

One of the first nice days of the spring neatly coincided with an event I'd been looking forward to having nice weather for. The Smithsonian Kite Festival happened the same weekend the cherry blossoms first popped out. There was no excuse not to head to the Mall to take it all in, so that's what we did.

The Kite festival had actual competitive kite builders and kite fliers, but the competition's relatively tiny space was hemmed in by thousands of amateurs who had flocked to the Mall for the chance to show off their own kite-flying skills, or at least felt compelled to buy a cheap plastic kite to add to the critical mass. There were plenty of bargain-bin kites, but there were also plenty of intricately-designed models to draw the eye.

For example, there was a dragon kite with 88 hand-made individual kites making up the tail. There were sport kites that seemed to fly free of their strings. And there were odd-shaped kites, such as the Panda bear that couldn't quite get up off the ground. (He was a sad panda.)

After a while we wandered south to check out the iconic cherry blossoms. What we found, mostly, was a ton of tourists lining the paths seven-deep to get photos and trample the cherry trees. Snapping a few obligatory pics was enough for us.

Back to the Mall, where the fest was wrapping up. Then the remainder of the day was spent enjoying the sunshine.

the stars at night

I'm not sure if they're actually big and bright, here, deep in the heart of Texas, because so far they've been obscured by clouds and outshone by lightning.
I've been in Austin through the weekend (and for the next few days). It's my first time to visit the Texas capital (second, actually, but I had maybe 36 months of life experience the last time I was here, so I didn't catch some of the nuances the city has to offer). Mostly so far I've eaten. Far too much. This seems to be a running theme for my visits, and one I'm not particularly motivated to change. Had one night down in the famous 6th St. nightlife district, although I didn't catch any music that distinguished itself.
Downtown has the scenery down, with park space along the river and the capitol dome dominating the center of the skyline, despite its proximity to much taller buildings. I was slightly surprised, however, that most of the establishments downtown were clearly showing their age; not poorly, but they hadn't been spruced up and given the slick modern facelift most of the areas in D.C. (which, admittedly, are generally much younger) seem to universally have. I'm generally a fan of the grit a few decades of service brings. But I'd heard Austin has been booming, and that led me to expect the artificial gleam new money and population often brings.
I think I'll have to come back for a longer trip to be able to talk about Austin's character with any real knowledge. But I can say they've got plenty of food, plenty of beer, and it's far, far cheaper than where I came from. All that is good.

showing its good side

This is the best time of year in D.C. - one of the only windows where the weather lends itself to appreciation rather than complaining.
The cherry blossoms have come and gone around town - not only ringing the Tidal Basin and framing the memorials, but also in yards and along the streets of the city. The pink and white blooms lasted barely more than a week before the green shoots of leaves took over, but the cherries were only the leading wave of a color assault which neatly coincides with the first days of unabashed and unrepentant sunshine, carrying with it actual warmth (but not yet accompanied by the oppressive force of humidity). As the delicate pink and white fades away, a vibrant second act of bright reds and yellows starts to take over, standing out from the now ever-present green.
As attention was diverted by the cherry blossoms, our yard transformed from a dormant, patchy rug to a plush, tall and very much alive layer of bright organic matter, pushing up (and up, and requiring mowing before drawing neighborhood complaints). The park behind our house has gone from a study in browns and sharp lines to a collage in which the nature of any one element is hidden behind the sheer visual obstacle of so many green shoots and coverings of every plant and tree in the area.

It's time to revel in the beauty of a city that normally is anything but.

nature doesn't like Earth Day

Or at least Earth Day celebrations the day before Earth Day.

Rain, rain came and stayed in D.C. Sunday. Most of the day it was an intermittent light rain, but there were enough downpour moments to make my drive downtown difficult and send people scurrying. The rain meant my initial plans for the afternoon were canceled, so I headed into the heart of the city to run a couple of errands and see if I could catch a bit of the free concerts promised on the Mall to celebrate Earth Day.

I arrived at the Mall just after one of the heavy precipitation events had ended. I was in time to watch crowds of plastic-sheathed people emerge from the neighboring museums and converge back on the grass in front of the stage erected for the day (although apparently after they'd already made the decision to cancel the rest of the show).

With the rain stopped and the ground more than soggy the Mall had an excellent vibe. Instead of the usual weekend hordes of tourists and the extra usual horde for an event, the crowd was smaller (only those people for whom getting wet and then hanging out on a soaked area of turf did not present the slightest obstacle to an enjoying afternoon). More than anything, it felt like a college afternoon - the crowd that remained skewed hippy, with a drum circle breaking out, lots of people going barefoot in the grass and an occasional wafts of fragrant smoke drifting through it all.

Admittedly, this atmosphere of being among a crowd with no real concern about time, weather or hygene (the perfect atmosphere for a lazy rainy Sunday afternoon with otherwise good weather - no wind, and just the right temperature for walking through the grass) was at its strongest later in the day. At first when I arrived, the central mass of loiterers were surrounded by people streaming away from the mall, the more-determined tourists who, having the neatly-planned event broken up by the rain, all seemed to head a block or so north to stand in line for the National Archives.

I detoured around the crowd and wandered for a moment through the National Gallery of Art. Since moving to D.C. nearly a year ago, I've been to the Galley a few times, but always for something specific. I haven't simply taken the time to wander through, and as I aimlessly (or nearly aimlessly - I did generally move in the direction of the one Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Gallery) moved through the rooms, I realized just how big the place is. It's a feeling accenutated by the layout; the main floor of the West Building alone is divided into nearly 100 rooms, all of which are relatively small and give the general feeling - if you stop aimlessly wandering and try to find a specific place or an exit - of being in a very well-decorated maze. It also serves to break up the visiting population - I'm sure there were a ton of people there, but most of the time I was the only one in whatever room I found myself in.

All day I avoided being caught outside in the real rain, instead wandering in the dry aftermath of the heavy falls, or perhaps in a little shower. Without the inconvenience of soaking-wet clothes, I found the weather mostly relaxing. The sky was overcast but the air was pleasant, both of which contributed to the general mood that as I roamed through the now-glistening city there was no responsibility to do anything else.

After I walked out of the Gallery, I saw the stage being dismantled. A few moments around a drum circle was enough for me, and on a whim I headed to the zoo. I had brought running shoes and clothes with me, so I decided the zoo would make a nice environment to discover just how poorly my muscles and lungs were working at the moment. I entered the grounds after the buildings had closed for the day but with two hours to go before the zoo itself closed. I don't know what the normal crowd for a Sunday at that time would be, but if there are normally any crowds watching the animals enclosed out of doors, the rain had chased them away. Once again, I had a place almost all to myself.

I highly recommend the zoo late on a rainy day, as long as it's not raining at the time. Most of the animals I passed were up and about, perhaps enjoying the last light of the day as well as a respite from the day's rain. The flamingos testing out the feeding options in a newly-formed puddle at the edge of their cage were not happy to see me run by, but otherwise everything there added to the very chill effect.

An effect that came to an abrupt halt when I returned home and realized I mountains of dirty dishes and laundry to deal with.

As always, my posting frequency has left much to be desired.

I have a few excuses (certainly more than I've had for much of the past year, when I still wasn't posting much and didn't have any other demands on my time). For one, I've actually been working. Along with my freelance work I've had one of those jobs with a real, daily schedule. The past two months or so I've been working with an online company that creates online, searchable and sortable databases of public records that were generally neither easily accessible nor easy to look through.

At the same time, I'm doing freelance, especially baseball, which means several long days. This month my time has been further whittled by a number of visitors. All of which is good, but makes it even less likely I'll put anything up here, and I wasn't very likely to do that to begin with.

coach K gave me a virus

For most of the last week, I've been sick. A hacking cough has been the main problem, but a fever came along with it for a couple of days. I'm pretty sure I can trace all this back to Mike Krzyzewski.

I covered the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament in Washington, D.C. One of the teams involved was Duke. The Blue Devils had a rough weekend, with a near loss to Belmont in the first game and a second-round loss to West Virginia. One of the stories on the opening day was the sickness of their coach, Krzyzewski, who had just about lost his voice before the opening press conference and reportedly coached the opening game with a 104 degree fever.

I never actually talked to Krzyzewski, but I did talk to most of the Duke players in the locker room, including DeMarcus Nelson, who spent most of the weekend coughing his way through answers to the questions posed to him. About a week after all that, my cough started to show up, and the week-long adventure of dealing with a virus started.

I'm convinced I caught a Duke virus, which doesn't make me any more inclined to root for the Blue Devils in the future. I am wondering, however, if I can somehow make some money off putting it up on eBay.