Vic Socotra

22 August 2008

Arlogance

Cruz the dog slept in this morning. His was stretched with regal ease on the Iranian carpet near the bed. I was able to sneak right around him to get the coffee. He must have been exhausted. He gets so jazzed when he comes down to Camp Pink, what with all the fresh smells and familiar, yet stimulating activity.

He did not get up in time to read the note in the paper about lovely Arlington, which has been announced as the top wealth center in the Nation. They say we are well-educated here, and have the best access to20top-flight jobs and access to the Federal Government’s Defense and Science enterprises.

The place is literally awash in credentialed people and government enterprises, and it is no wonder that they have coined a term for the way we feel about ourselves. “Arlogance,’ which is a useful combination of Arlington and arrogance.

It’s a handy term, since we are so young and darned good looking here. It is almost painful to go out to lunch=2 0over in Ballston where I work, the people so hip and purpose-driven. The term works for me a lot better than the one the County government has been using of late. “Civic Charisma,” is one that surfaced at the Capitol City Brewery last night.

The usual suspects gathered for the last monthly happy hour of the summer. I had to stop on the way to walk the dog, and prevent any untoward incidents in the unit above the pool.

It was a bit of a20watershed. We have some grand plans for the social hour, transforming a casual sudsy gathering into a powerhouse social network. We are looking around for a charismatic name, something like “Thursday 2.0,” to bring together the young and upwardly mobile members of our trade. We intend to leverage the fact that alcohol is not yet something you can harness to the complete on-line experience.

Lucy Diamond should have copyrighted the term. She just built a place here in Arlington, and is right in the moment when fuel and fashion have joined to make us a compelling place to live.

When the group meets again next month the shadows will be much longer, and the Congress will be back, and our little jurisdiction will be bustling with the new legislative season, dividing up your money.

The dog was happy with the way things worked out. He got a late afternoon walk, and then a bonus excursion around the building after I came from the garage in holding the tax bills. I glanced at them as the dog looked up at me expectantly and tossed the bills on the desk.

Arlogance is contained in the notion that properly you have purchased and paid taxes on once is not really yours. The seventeen-year-old truck costs a couple hundred to garage here in the County. The Hubrismobile costs a cool grand, which goes to the County Charisma General fund.

Cruz does not worry about that stuff. He is still excited about more mundane things like the elevator, since there are treats at either end of the ride. I supposed he has distilled the essence of Big Pink, since it is the same for me. Rich coffee sends me off in the morning, and warm food and powerful elixirs wait for me on return.

He has more fun than I do when we are out, since above all he is excited about the bushes on the Route 50 side of the building.

Yesterday morning, we circled the church, since he casts his nose wide at the beginning of our visits. He soon gets into a steady groove as he settles in, using the new tree just to the right of the main entrance, then the postage-stamp of grass at the end of the parking lot for more contemplative business, and then a bee-line for Ann’s place by the pool, where exotic treats fall from the sky.

She was not up yet this morning, and the construction site for the monstrosity across the way was just coming alive. The workmen are putting up the brick façade on the massive four-story complex, to convey the illusion of stability and permanence. The location and the size are classic reflections of Arlogance. They held the developer of the million-dollar townhouses closer to Ballston hostage. They would not permit him to build on his land unless he agreed to put two of the gigantic new structures on the old Buckingham Village lots.

Sarah One is hopeful. She thinks the affordable units will be filled with County employees: Cops, Firemen and teachers. I nodded earnestly in agreement. I mean, the County wouldn't warehouse all the peo ple evicted from areas being charismatically remodeled right in this sleepy little neighborhood without being honest about it, would they?

The workers are making great progress, and I suspect we will have the first new occupants, some of them subsidized from the General Fund, moving into the neighborhood before the first snow threatens the commute.

The dog had little interest in that. The work site was more interesting when the old buildings were there, and there was plenty of fast-food wrappers strewn along the curb.

There are more palpable things to experience in the here-and-now. Yesterday, when the world was a little wider, he was sniffing along earnestly until I realized the logical conclusion at the end of his nose was the foot of someone sleeping in the side doorway of the Iglesia.

Man or woman I could not tell. It seems that misery is even handed on that score, at least across the street. It is good sleeping outdoors at this time of the year, with only a dirty white blanket necessary to keep the elements at bay.

I steered him around the possible confrontation and he didn't seem to mind. He has a bit of the palsy these days, but is otherwise OK. The Ex had called a couple weeks ago, concerned about his imminent demise, and the funeral arrangements.

She has always had the ability to go from “a” to “z” without need for the intermediate points, sort of like the County, and I gathered that the funeral would follow the cremation which would follow the decision for euthanasia.

I assured her that if death was happened to be on the menu some morning, I would take care of it.

I did not say it, but if death is necessary for a more efficient schedule, I am certainly better suited to working from home to get an extra walk included in his routine if he needs it. I would certainly offer to let him move down here for his Golden Months. I could move into the office and let him have the master suite.

I took the brief period of silence to check the bank account. The Annual bonus check hit the account sometime while I slept, and I managed to spend it at the County tax site in just three clicks of the mouse.

Easy come, easy go.

Cruz came in, looking like he could use a spin around the building. I have to agree with him. Life is good here in the Capital City. We have access to just about everything.

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