the inauguration is coming!

The town is about to go into full-fledged crazy mode for the weekend's inaugural festivities. I've already had the pleasure of sitting in unusual traffic jams thanks to new road closures to accommodate the new First Family, and starting Saturday or Sunday it appears cars will not be welcome at all in this city.

The news has been a steady flood of warnings - traffic will be at a standstill, Metro won't be able to move the crowds, no one will actually be able to get anywhere near the inauguration events - except hidden in the torrent are a few drops of conflicting optimism - the crowd estimates have been revised downward by a factor of at least two (from a wildly inflated initial number), the number of buses applying for parking downtown was underwhelming, there are still hotel rooms available in D.C.

It seems like this will be a massively crowded event and traffic is going to be impossible (don't even try to get in from Virginia - you can't) but outside of the near-freezing temperatures I'm looking forward to making my way into the heart of the craziness Tuesday (not to mention the extra-long weekend).