I was fairly busy at work all week. Well, except for Friday. We didn't get off, but the Air Force did, so I had time to catch up on some paperwork and the like. I had no real interest in going into the city to see any of the Reagan funeral activities. While I'm fascinated by pomp and ceremony, the whole idea of viewings strikes me as ghoulish. I suppose that's what comes from being used to a tradition where we plant them within a day.
I will note my annoyance at all the politicos falling over themselves to suggest renaming things for Reagan. We still don't know the long term consequences, positive or negative, of his presidency. My inclination is toward the negatives, but I am willing to await the judgement of history. It's not like there's any reason not to wait and see.
Anyway, the weekend was more or less fully occupied with a visit from Robert. After I picked him up at the airport on Saturday, we went to Manassas, where we explored the historic district. That included a railroad exhibit in the visitor center, a fairly thorough walk through their museum and a more superficial stroll following the self-guided walking tour brochure we had picked up at the visitor center. There's some nice architecure, particularly the old Presbyterian church. But the local history is dominated by two things - the railroad and the Civil War. I wouldn't say there is anything essential to see there, but it was worth the three hours we spent. We came back to my place and relaxed for a while, before an excellent Thai dinner at Sakoontra in Fairfax. It was definitely the best Thai food I've had in the local area. Then we watched the video of Avi Hoffman's "Too Jewish" that my mother had lent to me, which we both enjoyed. That triggered lots of discussion about the Bronx. The gist of which is that everybody important is from the Bronx.
Today, we went to Baltimore to go to a baseball game. Getting there was challenging, as something had half of I-95 northbound down to two lanes. Robert navigated reasonably well, and talked me into taking some side road through Laurel to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. That worked well enough for us to get to Camden Yards shortly before the game started. The Orioles were clearly not in their best form in their loss to San Francisco. At least, one hopes that isn't the best fielding performance they can put on. Not that there were many errors, but there was lots of sloppiness. I had to wonder why Luis Lopez was even in the game, as his lackluster batting doesn't even come close to compensating for his ineptitude at third base. All in all, it was a fun game to watch - and, of course, made even more fun by being with Robert. One fairly major nit is that they didn't play "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. Several of the fans in our section rectified that error. I don't mind if they want to play other things too, but leaving out the classics is just not right.
Robert is now safely off at the conference he actually came in for and I'm safely home and ready for sleep. Next weekend is the last one I have formal commitments for until August. I'm sure I'll fill things up, but I'm really starting to need a rest.
Copyright 2004 Miriam H. Nadel