Rainbow Fire

Rare "Rainbow" Spotted Over Idaho

June 19, 2006—It looks like a rainbow that's been set on fire, but this phenomenon is as cold as ice.

Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this rare sight was caught on film on June 3 as it hung over northern Idaho near the Washington State border (map of Idaho).

The arc isn't a rainbow in the traditional sense—it is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon). What's more, the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground.

When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus's crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors.

This particular arc spanned several hundred square miles of sky and lasted for about an hour, according to the London Daily Mail.

—Victoria Gilman

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html

Housefly Gets Glasses Made With Lasers

March 28, 2006—Pampering pets with designer goods isn't so unusual—and now even your houseflies can get outfitted in style.

An entry in a German science-photo competition, this image shows a fly sporting a set of "designer" lenses crafted and set in place with a cutting-edge laser technique. The glasses fit snuggly on the fly's 0.08-inch-wide (2-millimeter-wide) head.

Manufacturing firm Micreon GmbH submitted the insect's picture for the Bilder der Forschung (Photos of Science) 2005 competition. Selected images were on display last week in a Munich shopping center.

Micreon, based in Hannover, Germany (see map), created the fly's eyewear using ultrafast laser micro-machining. The firm notes on its Web site that the process can create objects with high precision at scales of less than a thousandth of a millimeter.

—Victoria Gilman
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0328_060328_fly_glasses.html

Cat Chases Bear Up Tree

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060613-cat-bear.html
Cat Chases Bear Up Tree

June 13, 2006—Perhaps not since the Cowardly Lion has an animal's appearance been so at odds with its attitude.

On June 4 a black bear wandered into a West Milford, New Jersey, back yard, was confronted by a 15-pound (7-kilogram) tabby cat … and fled up a neighbor's tree. Hissing at the base of the tree, Jack the clawless cat kept the bear at bay for about 15 minutes, then ran him up another tree after an attempted escape.

Finally, Jack's owner, Donna Dickey, called the cat inside, and the timorous trespasser disappeared back into the woods.

"He doesn't want anybody in his yard," Dickey said of Jack in an interview with the Newark Star Ledger.

Unlike cats, bears aren't typically territorial, roaming instead over vast areas that would be impossible to patrol for intruders. With a habitat that includes much of North America, black bears are seen fairly often in this region of New Jersey.

Full-grown black bears weigh between 200 and 600 pounds (90 and 270 kilograms) and measure as much as 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. Their diets can include fruits, honey, insects, acorns and animals as big as moose calves—a fact apparently lost on Jack.

iPods in Space!

International Space Station Imagery

high res (1.2 M) low res (95 K)
ISS014-E-08795 (29 Nov. 2006) --- European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter, Expedition 14 flight engineer, works with the Cognitive Cardiovascular (Cardiocog-2) experiment in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Cardiocog-2 will determine the impact of weightlessness on the cardiovascular system and respiratory system and the cognitive reactions of crewmembers. The results of this study will be used to develop additional countermeasures that will continue to keep crewmembers healthy during long-duration space exploration.

Hazel

agove: Hazel was already sick with EGC)

Hazel and Matilda have died from eosinophilic granuloma complex. They were wonderful cats and I still miss them. I posted this entry to Cat Behavior, a flickr.com group that I have joined:

I had a stray pregnant mom, Matila. She had six kittens and was the best mom I had ever seen. But one of the kittens, Hazel, was a troublesome girl and as soon as she could walk, she kept disappearing in the house. Mom was pretty upset about this and spent a lot of time howling and searching for this kit. Then suddenly one day I noticed that Hazel never left her mother's side! And then I saw that mom had chewed every last whisker off this kitten; right down to the skin!

Hazel never recovered her independent spirit. Whenever those two were separated (such as trips to the vet, etc), there was awful howling.

Before this experience, I had never heard of it happening either. My vet confirmed that it happens often.

Matilda

Since I am remembering this family of Matilda’s I want to tell the story of the moth. Matilda, as I wrote previously, was the best cat mother I had ever observed. She taught her family of five kittens how to drink from a water bowl by having them sit around the bowl while she drank. I then watched as one by one they tried to drink it. Repeatedly Matilda would demonstrate the technique for them as they struggled with this new skill.

Another day as the kittens were lined up on the kitchen floor (how did she get them to do this?), Matilda brought a huge moth into the kitchen. We lived in the city then, but had built the cats a large and safe run so that they could be outside. Occasionally different animals like moths, earthworms, snakes, and even birds were killed and brought into the house.

Using the live moth, Matilda demonstrated her hunting skills for the kids. Some were horrified and cringed in fear of the moth. Others tried to jump in and play. But Matilda kept them all in control until she let them kill the moth with their play.

I miss those days with Matilda and the kittens. I kept all the kittens except one which I gave to my son. There are only two left now: Zorro and Turnip. Zorro you have seen before in my photos. Turnip is in this photo with his mother. Unfortunately, Matilda is out of focus.

God Uses a Mac!

Monday, March 6, 2000
Contact: CDC, Division of Media Relations
(404) 639–3286

Why is handwashing important?

Remember Ignaz Semmelweis? Of course you don't. But you're in his debt nonetheless, because it was Dr. Semmelweis who first demonstrated over a hundred years ago that routine handwashing can prevent the spread of disease.

"Dr. Semmelweis worked in a hospital in Vienna whose maternity patients were dying at such an alarming rate that they begged to be sent home," said Julie Gerberding, M.D., director of CDC's Hospital Infections Program. "Most of those dying had been treated by student physicians who worked on cadavers during an anatomy class before beginning their rounds in the maternity ward."

Because the students didn't wash their hands between touching the dead and the living--handwashing was an unrecognized hygienic practice at the time--pathogenic bacteria from the cadavers regularly were transmitted to the mothers via the students' hands.

"The result was a death rate five times higher for mothers who delivered in the hospital than for mothers who delivered at home" said Dr. Gerberding.

This week is Hand Washing Awareness Week, a timely reminder--before flu season reaches its peak--that regular hand washing is the single most effective way to prevent the transmission of disease. Visit FirstGov.gov’s link to the Centers for Disease Control to find out how this hygienic practice gained recognition during the 19th century and to learn five common household scenarios in which contaminated hands transmit disease-causing germs.

FirstGov.gov Updates: News and Features 12/5/06 3:42 PM

You’d think a country like ours could do better than tell us to wash our hands ..... and save more than a few lives in the bargain!

A Weekend

Well, I’m sort of sick this weekend. Not flat-on-my-back-sick-in-bed, but enough so I can’t go out, can’t do housework. I am mostly sleeping. and I hurt my foot badly in school Friday so I can barely walk. But I did do all of my Christmas shopping and list making. The list making isn’t going so well on screen because I can’t compare and rewrite the lists.

And I figured out a work-around for the “1-burn” audible rule and made CDs (but not enough) for folks. (The Work-Around: make your one copy, then insert your new CD back into computer. When it asks if you want to import the tracks even though it can’t find track names on Grace Notes, say YES. After the import be sure to use -I to change the information on the import. Each import begins with track 1 and will overwrite any previous track 1s you may have.)



I trudged out in the snow to take the above photo of the progress on the siding of the house. It looks great! It looks like a new house, in fact. There was another dead shrew in the garage, and a dead woolly bear caterpillar (wooly bear is also a correct, alternative spelling). It’s red band is wide, which means a mild winter. It crawled into the garage sometime Friday during the flooding rains and died while the snow flew Saturday.



This photo and my mailbox photo are on my flickr page. I expected there to be thousands of woolly bears posted there, but I could only find four or five. Those were alive, though.

Sue came by and picked up her camera. I missed the Burke-Lyn craft fair that we always go to. I missed talking to her. She did ask me about Fibonacci and fractals and string theory but I’m not feeling well enough to be too talkative.

I have not read, I have not done housework. I am focusing on what I have not done and I shouldn’t. I’m glad I’m alone this weekend, actually......although now, this second day of not feeling well makes me think I have a fatal disease. The only really important thing I have to do is my CCV work: loads to correct and read and score.

The YouTube site is running as poorly as ever. The playlists utility does not update correctly. I tried Safari, Camino and Foxfire and it never worked right. But of course, they are a Yahoo site now so I guess we can expect the same poor quality.

It is nearly 4 PM now and I am hungry! This is the first time I’ve felt hungry in two days. The pains in my stomach have disappeared (I think!). I wish it were Christmas now. I can’t wait for everybody to get their presents. I want to bake with Christmas movies and music on the TV and radio.

Well, I guess I’ll go eat, finish the dishes, do the wash, and grade papers. And watch more Christmas movies. Today was a John Denver movie about Georgetown, CO. The whole town believed in Santa. Denver was recent widower and architect sent to this town to scope it out for development. Of course, he loved the place, they loved him, but the evil developer was going to destroy the town anyhow, and on Christmas Eve, too! But they got the place back and everyone lived happily ever after.

It’s strange how my fondest Christmas memories are of movies and not my own Christmas life.

Photo Hunters

Dead Flies

Here is the dead stuff; the macabre and disgusting. A dead cluster fly.

Pollenia rudis (Fabricius) . . . When crushed, the cluster fly has an odor resembling "buckwheat honey." . . . from the University of Ohio.

So the house should smell great, huh? I don’t have the infestation of flies that I had when I moved into the house in 2002: but it sure doesn’t smell like buckwheat honey, either!

The bedroom I want.

The photo I took from a website (long since lost but I remember that it was from a web site illustrating rooms at a local bed and breakfast) shows the skylight curtains and bed that I want. Since my bed is king size, I can’t get an antique bed. But this is light and flowery. The problem with the curtains on the skylight is that you want to see the stars, snow, or moon when you can. But you need to keep the sun out because it fades fabrics and creates awful heat.

To see my wishlist you can use the froggle link on the blogroll, click "wishlist" on my del.icio.us tag cloud, or click on the amazon wishlist script. These are all on the sidebar to the right.

You can be sure to find me a wonderful gift at any of those sites! As I become more organized the froggle list will be disabled because it is not as good as a tag cloud.

The Last Shrew of Summer

I should not say “of summer” since it was finished long ago. But “of this year” or “of this season” just didn’t have the allure of “last summer”. Buddy went out this morning at 4 AM because I was up with a massive hot flash. It was 28° out and very frosty (still no snow!). He returned at 6am with this poor shrew. I know the photo is grotesque but the shrew enabled me to try out my newly discovered camera’s macro capabilities and they work very well as we can see.

I have gotten three complaints about my fly photos: “they are gross”, “what is motivating you??” and “what’s next, dead things?” (well, yeah, I guess so). But the cluster flies are the only living things other than people and cats to photograph close up. I will look for an alive spider today in the garage. I may even try some landscape photos of the beaver ponds as they begin to freeze.

There are no hunters parked on the road this morning. No gunshots have been heard.

A syncing preference pane for iCal and gCal is coming out soon! All those hours devising ways to manually sync the two with automators, scripts and e-mail are for nothing. But it’s worth it if it works! see http://blog.spanningsync.com/ for more information!

My Second Bug Pictures

So there was a poor cluster fly hanging and twirling and struggling on a thread of a spider web from the kitchen ceiling Friday night. I immediately got the camera and shot over 20 photos until I got some that worked (above).

Sports setting works; you need the flash. But the macro that my old camera had? Where is it? I used 10x zoom here. (Update: I found the macro settings that night: see the shrew photo on the next page). I like the glistening of the fly here and the eyes again. The eyes are geometric, as is the “nose”.

I tried the red-eye affect on Mouse: no difference in the photos but I put my favorite one here just because it is a pretty picture. Mouse certainly looks fat here, and she feels fat. She is accepting the brush more often now and at times I feel she is seeking it out for relief from the mats that she always gets.


I saw Flight of the Phoenix tonight while the cats fought and went outside and back inside incessantly. Long boring beginning and very predictable (especially if you had seen the Jimmy Stewart version which I barely remember). I don’t like computer graphics; they imply a lack of creativity of the writers and directors. After that movie, I missed Holiday Inn, which I love. I settled on watching the end of Titanic in bed while I cried because of the sorrow and death of the old lady.


The kitchen is a mess, all the floors are dirty and litter needs to be done tomorrow. Busy day ahead.

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My First Bug Pictures

I finally got a presentable bug photo....a cluster fly (the infamous harmless Vermont pest).

Top: I need to work on focusing.
2ndt: Very nice! I see his eyes! I wish I could get even closer. But I can see the hair on the legs and body.
3rd: The eyes!
Last: I used the flash while cluster fly was on the window. I was going to trash the photo but then I saw the reflection of his body in the glass and thought it was a nice effect.

My goal is to be as good a bug photographer as lepike on flickr.

The Great Tile Debate

in order to use this article at school, I have copied it here..... photo by Mark Greenwald

The Great Tile Debate

Metro, the subway system serving Washington, D.C., has a distinctive look. Underground stations resemble immense, minimalist concrete bunkers. The tiles covering the floors are six-sided—large, terra cotta hexagons. Now, the board in charge of Metro is debating whether to switch to square tiles, like those typically found in most other subway systems around the world.

From a mathematical perspective, both square and hexagonal tiles do the job of tiling the plane. As do tiles of many, many other geometric shapes. And the choices get even wider when you consider using several different tile shapes together. My own bathroom, for example, is tiled with octagons and squares.

So, the decision on which shape of tiles to use actually hinges on practical considerations. One of the problems with the Metro hexagons is that they get slippery when wet. But that's a function not of their shape but of their composition and glazing. Still, the companies that manufacture safer square tiles apparently don't do hexagons. And lopping off corners to turn squares into hexagons would be extremely costly and wasteful, a representative of one tile manufacturer told the board.

Then there's the problem of broken tiles and water leakage. Metro officials claim that floors with square tiles would be easier to maintain than those with hexagonal tiles. Fewer sides mean fewer joints, and fewer joints mean less water leakage.

That's an interesting claim. The most efficient way of partitioning the plane into units of equal area with the smallest possible total perimeter is a hexagonal (or honeycomb) grid—not a square grid. So, to minimize the amount of grout required to fill the joints between the tiles, a hexagonal tiling would be more economical than a square tiling, provided the hexagonal and square tiles each have the same area.

However, if the issue really concerns the number of points at which grout joints meet, then a hexagonal tiling is at a disadvantage.

There's also the task of laying the tiles, especially when they need to cover large areas. One Metro board member who had tiled two bathrooms and a foyer in his own home argued that, as a practical matter, square tiles are much easier to handle and place than hexagonal tiles. Indeed, complex tiling patterns can be expensive and time-consuming to install. But are tilings or regular hexagons really more difficult to work with than are tilings of squares?
In the end, the Metro board put off the decision for another day.

References:
Peterson, I. 1999. The honeycomb conjecture. Science News 156(July 24):60. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/7_24_99/bob2.htm.
Sun, L.H. 2006. Board of 2 minds about 6-sided tiles. Washington Post (Oct. 20).

To see the Metro tile recommendations, go to
http://content.wmata.com/board_gm/board_docs/101906_PlatformRehab2.pdf.. You can find an audio recording of the Metro Board Planning and Development Committee meeting on Oct. 19, 2006, at http://wmata.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2.

MathTrek 10/20/06 6:00 PM Ivars Peterson

Home on Sunday

We left the hotel at 6:30 AM and thought we would grab a taxi. We got a limo instead (actually just a large black car) but the price was the same. We drove by Vermont Avenue and Martin Luther again.

Now that I was awake and was to spend so much time waiting in Union Station, I had an opportunity to appreciate how large and beautiful it is. This small photograph of the barrels and arches inside is linked to a page with more photos. (You have to look up the history of the station yourself.) I kept imagining Louisa May Alcott arriving here to nurse the Civil War soldiers so the whole experience for me had enormous romance. When you leave the station the Capitol dome is visible straight ahead.

Finally we boarded the train (Amy never left the waiting area!) and as soon as the train began moving, I fell asleep. I woke up at various times to see Wilmington, Delaware; the Delaware Memorial Bridge, New York City, and New Haven. We changed engines in New Haven and I wish I had called ahead to Anna to ask her to meet us, if only for a few minutes. It was much colder by then and I wished I had worn something warmer.

In Springfield, we went into the station and got a couple of Pepsis and stretched our legs.

We got into White River Junction at 6:30pm, just as advertised. It was very cold and wet. We tried to find a place to eat but everything seemed closed and we got lost, so we went home. The weather deteriorated as we went north: from rain to fog to snow. Lots of snow at Sheffield Heights, and during moose season, too. So I took it easy while Amy fretted and called Andy to pick her up at my house (so she wouldn’t have to spend anymore time with me as necessary!). He came soon after we arrived: with my cats!

And the next day I went back to work exhausted, disoriented and sad.

Saturday in Washington

I was pretty hungry by the time Amy and Andrew wandered in Saturday morning so that we could go to Whole Foods for breakfast again (the photo with the purple sky above). It was colder and beautiful out. Hundreds of people rushed about and the food was great. We decided to go to the National Portrait Gallery and then see what else we could do. We planned on going out to eat that night.



We began walking, just as we did yesterday: I still don’t know which streets or direction. But we went past the old convention center site where the Cirque de Soleil had set up their beautiful tents for their shows. Then we walked under the Chinatown arch and found the National Portrait Gallery (free admission).

I was very very hot so I viewed the Civil War area (where I was fascinated by John Brown and the submarine inventors and models) and then waited outside to rest and cool down. I soon left to get ice cream and cokes. Also some popcorn for the birds which were very used to people. It was fun watching them communicate to the others on the street that there was food. At one point I had attracted over eleven birds! Sparrows, pigeons, and another bird that I had seen all over the city and originally thought was a young starling. But having hundreds of birds the same age and markings meant they were not young starlings, but another type of bird.



As we walked back to the hotel we went by Ford’s Theater. It was closed for tours because of an actual performance, so we went inside the house where he died (top left photo above). It was a very powerful experience to be in the same spot that Lincoln died.



We continued to walk in the direction of the White House again and passed many architecturally wonderful buildings, including the Sun Building (Baltimore Sun) (the tall photo on the right). It was the first “skyscraper” in Washington.

I napped and rested for the upcoming long walk to Georgetown for Ethiopian food at Zed’s. Then I walked over to Whole Foods to get a strawberry cream cake that I had drooled over in the bakery. Eventually we started off down Vermont Avenue and past the Martin Luther statute again (a strange statute for a city to erect!). I wanted a photo of a Vermont Avenue sign and Andrew grudgingly took one on his phone and without even trying it came out unusable.

Photos of Hillary are in the entrance of Zed’s. The prices on the menus outside were very reasonable. We had a reasonable wait (no reservations) and had a great time learning how to eat with the sourdough steamed bread and no utensils. We shared a mishmash of different dishes between us, had some good conversation, paid the bill and walked all the way back to Dupont. The whole way! I certainly enjoy dining now: conversation, experimentation with food. No rushing in order to eat before my next class while I do many other things. Just talk and food.

I finally got into Andrew’s apartment (which, he had been saying, was disorganized and not ready for visitors). But it was great to see the work he had done and the electronic piano he has. He played for us (oh the memories there....): some Debussy, Chopin and Beethoven. Then we all walked to the hotel, had dessert very fast, the kids left, and I fell into bed dead tired.

For two whole days now, the kids have refused to walk with me but have been two blocks ahead of me. Very very irritating. I prefer Indian food, and while I am glad I experienced Ethiopian, I don’t like the bread and won’t seek it out again.

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Friday and the White House

On Friday morning I got up early as I usually do. I spent an hour or more downstairs and outside with my Coke, cigarettes and new NCTM publication (it turns out that while Rosenstein at Rutgers told us all that it is not a back-to-basics manifesto it is a back-to-basics manifesto: I am to focus on division and fractions in my classes). I returned upstairs and took a shower.

We went to Whole Foods for breakfast. But breakfast was over, so we had lunch for breakfast and then set out for the White House. Our tour was at noon. We walked the whole way. Amy, of course, was speed walking ahead of me. But for some reason I was never far behind. I have no idea what her rush was.

On one street the police suddenly roared to life in front of us, stopping and diverting traffic. Suddenly we realized that the president was going to drive by and they were "securing" the area. We waited and there he was! Of course we could not see him inside his limo. There were several SUVs behind him, bristling with antennas for the Secret Service. It was very impressive. But Amy? She wanted to hold a protest right there I guess! Anyhow, we continued on and got to the White House in time for our tour.

Our tours were arranged by the office of Bernie Sanders. As we walked down to the White House Amy told me the rules for the tour: no cameras, no bags, no nothing. I protested and decided that I was not going to go on such a thing. It turns out that I have my obstinate side when it comes to these things. I would wait outside while she toured. It was becoming so burdensome to tour our nation's first house!

The Treasury Building

But finally we decided that I would go while Amy held my stuff and then she would go. I stood for a short while in a short line. The agent at the line had my name on a list, crossed me off, and I was allowed on the grounds. I went into another building for those metal detector machines and was allowed through there. And finally, suddenly, I was in the White House! My first visit!

Portraits hung everywhere. That is my impression of the White House. Tall ceilings, rich carpeting, way-too-serious Secret Service men standing like statues everywhere. We did have to stand in a queue for awhile. There were photos of previous presidents along the wall. But inside every group of photos was a photo of Bush. Andrew had warned me of this section.

A congressman came through the hallway we were lined up in. He was too animated and friendly. His sidekick assistant began, in this awful jocular manner, to announce to us who he was and where he was going! My mouth dropped in astonishment at this embarrassing show they put on.

We finally got to the touring part. We were self-directed. There were guides within each room to tell us things that I could not hear. The Pink Room, Blue Room, this room, that room. They all run together in my memory now. The most memorable thing for me was Kennedy's portrait of him standing alone during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tears came up in my eyes. The memories of my past, of Kennedy's life, of the whole era, and of being here now made this time so special for me that it caused tears.

The Press Area on the White House Lawn (but when we saw it, it was on the opposite side of the White House).

We left through the front door and walked down to Pennsylvania Avenue. Then I had to walk around the corner past the Treasury Building to where Amy was waiting. Now it was her turn to take the tour. But wait! The president was returning! So everybody out! We were all scooted out by more agents (how many are there anyhow?) and had to wait near this huge statue on the road. Finally we could return after all of those cars we had previously seen returned. Amy took her tour and I waited for her after I walked back to the front of the White House.

There was a big protest in front of the White House. We assumed it was against the war in Iraq but it was about another, older war: Vietnam. Vietnamese were protesting that they were losing their rights. They would come across the road, turn, and return to the park. They continued doing this all day despite the heat. When Amy joined me, we walked to the Bread Line for lunch. What a great place. My favorite part was the water: chilled with mint leaves, lemon and lime. It was wonderful. The sandwiches were great too, but I was so dry because of the heat and walking that the water was the best thing. The wind had picked up and kept blowing over things as we ate outside. But I was with Amy and couldn't be happier.

I returned to the hotel to rest. Amy took off by herself (I think she went to Union Station for my camera). My walk back to the hotel was wonderful.

Later, I returned to Whole Foods for sandwiches and snacks. The kids did something else; I forget what. I played computer and watched TV and had a wonderful time. Oh I wish those times had lasted forever.

The Ride to Washington DC (Thursday)

Now I know why business on Amtrak is disappearing. There is little separating them as a passenger train from a cattle car. We arrived in White River one hour before the train was to arrive. Amy argued with me about every single thing I was taking, especially the 2nd computer that I brought for her in case she wanted to play a game alone or play a networked game with me.

We all got our stuff to the train station and parked the car in the long term parking area. If you leave your car overnight, a man comes and tours the lot and leaves a bill on your car for the parking. When you return you have to figure out how much you owe them and mail it in. If you don't, and if you ever want to park overnight there again, they have kept track of your license plate and will tow you away.

The train was over an hour late. It was cool outside, but it was exciting. A whole four days together with the kids! I didn't even blink an eye at a twelve hour train ride. All of my previous (short) train rides had been fun. So this would be even more fun.

We sat backwards until Springfield. The scenery was great in most areas of Vermont. But the trip dragged on and on and on and on. There was a smoking stop in Springfield. Then in New Haven. It was not dark yet. I wish I had told Anna we were going to be there so that she could meet us. I still missed her nearly every single day.

The bathrooms on the train were just awful. Small and filthy. They were never cleaned the whole trip. The food was worse! The train was cramped. After 8 hours you begin to feel it. Amy had brought food but not enough for this length of time. I had made many assumptions: that the food on the train would be better, that there would be longer stops so that we could buy something somewhere. I assumed that Amtrak had actual train stations that served a purpose. But none of that happened.

The conductors changed occasionally. The last one we had wanted to set the world's land record to Washington so that we would not be late. How do you make up 90 minutes on a train? Somehow he managed to cut the time lost down to 30 minutes. He was reasonably good tempered but I still didn't like him. He was too familiar, and played favorites with too many people.

We finally got into Union Station about 11:30 PM. We got a cab to Andrew's building and he came down. Then we all walked to Rhode Island Avenue, with all our bags, to the Helix Hotel. Nothing about this reunion came about the way I visualized it. I had no time with Andrew, and Andrew seemed tense. He did not want us upstairs. All I wanted was to go to bed. Andrew and Amy walked way ahead of me as if I had cooties (that continued the whole weekend).

The Helix is a fun hotel. Clean, pretty, very fifties retro. The furniture in the rooms is flimsy but the bed was great. The TV was great. But you could barely turn around in the room because it was so small. My room was on the tenth floor overlooking the front of the building, with the patio area for the restaurant/bar directly underneath.

Once in the room, I could relax and be myself. The tension left me. This was going to be a great trip! I didn't get to bed until after 1 AM.

But I had left my camera on the train at Union Station. So all the photographs for these four days are from my 2003 airplane trip to Washington or are from flickr photos.

Technorati tags: Amtrak Washington+DC Helix+Hotel
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