The Latino/Western clothing store on Mt Pleasant St called El West, has recently started carrying metal, gas-powered, $600 accessories called "pocket-bikes." Pocket-bikes are one of the newest trends in personal mobility. They are currently unregulated by the Department of Transportation in the District. A recent City Paper article responded to the trend and spoke of upcoming city registrations and regulations for all low-powered cycles. I guess until that happens local dealers like El West are going to sell a whole lot of these pint-sized crotch rockets. As I walked up to the shop another happy customer zoomed off the sidewalk and down the street on his new purchase. I don't think I'd be comfortable riding one, but I like seeing these little motorcycles. They are reminiscent of the partial lawlessness of the old "Wild West."
These guys are replacing the lead water pipes on Kilbourne Pl NW in Mount Pleasant. The construction is a block up Kilbourne from where I live. The DC water authorities were still nice enough to give me a free Brita pitcher even though it wasn't my turn to receive one. Brita filters are suppose to filter out over 99 percent of lead from water. This feature is helpful in DC where all our water is leady.
Two weeks ago Goldie's Italian Pizza opened up on G St NW. His place was doing awesome business. Everyone in the neighborhood was a critic, with many good and bad reviews. Yesterday, a new Quizno's sandwich shop opened right next to Goldie's and the owner was outside at the door inviting people in for pizza. Some people thought that might be humiliating until I mentioned that Jimmy the owner of the successful Xchange Saloon invites his customers in from the door daily. I think Quizno's is the first time I've seen a door greeter on G St in a costume.
This is Rocky. He owns the barber shop in the bottom of the office building at 17th and G Sts NW. He is in the middle of remodeling the shop. He is one of the older residents of the block, complete with regular customers. I'm not a regular customer but I stop in and say "Hi" at least once a week. I cut my own hair. Buzz, buzz ... it's gone.
I went to the Watergate Safeway today. It's the supermarket in the bottom of the historic Watergate Hotel. I never ended up buying anything because the line was so long. I don't know how its frequent shoppers like Condi Rice and Ben Stein can stand waiting in those long lines.
I have been doing a lot of fun assignments lately for Photo Edit Inc. Most of the photos are for text books. One of the assignments I'm doing now is photos of small business owners for a college text called Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. An assignments I have been working on for the past couple days has been the inside of toaster and microwave ovens for a college math book. Before I left Andrew and Maris's place I went to photograph the inside of their microwave and found warmed asparagus. A forgotten part of an already eaten dinner.
My friend M.E. Sprengelmeyer gets a thumbs-up review from a passer-by who has just sat through Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 911. Even though I had drank my entire slush and ate my box on Raisinettes just waiting in line, I thought the movie was great. I wish I could have participated in the making of it. In a way I did. My friend Sprengelmeyer also had a hand in reporting from both Afghanistan and Iraq for Scripps Howard News Service. We both liked the movie a lot. I was impressed by Michael Moore and not annoyed by his monolog. I thought it was better than Bowling for Columbine from an entertainment standpoint. My friend Sprengelmeyer might disagree with me. He was also a reporter for the Denver Rocky Mountain News during the Columbine incident.
This is my friend Andrew's xylephone. This is a mallet from France.
This is the toaster oven at Swing's Coffee Shop. It's suppose to be toasty this weekend, low-80s. I guess that's not actually toasty for DC. It could be toasty somewhere else in the low-80s. Somewhere like Phoenix or Reno, some place sunny and arid.
My sister Patti and my niece Carol started their drive back to Florida today. This is Carol taking a break at the final stop on our three-day tour of DC, St Matthew's Cathedral. Carol has been limping around all day, probably a stress injury. Neither Patti nor Carol had any further desire to visit St Matthew's Cathedral after their tiring stay. However, I had placed St Matthew's on the list at request yesterday, and it had to be the end of their vacation here ... for some reason. The cathedral was, of course, closed. We stayed on the steps for a few minutes, and then headed to the bus stop. I need some rest too.
