04 April 2006

Mighty Wind

It is certainly not the first Spring, nor the first warning of high winds. Comes with the season. Still, the band of storms that swept over Big Pink was a mighty one with jagged bolts of lightning. It is the remnants of the system that generated twisters in Arkansas and Tennessee on Sunday, killing twenty-four.

I was practicing my French as the storm came in. I have suddenly joined an international corporation without moving my desk or submitting a resume, and the language skill might be useful. Most of my most polished phrases were learned in the alleys of Marseilles, though, and I suspect I will need an improved vocabulary.

There is a lot of utility for French these days, and I might be able to use it when I report for Jury duty at the U.S, Court of appeals next month. I put the summons on my refrigerator with a magnet to remind myself. to report. The court is part of the Eastern District in Alexandria, where confessed hijacker wannabe Zacarias Moussaoui is being tried.

My fellow citizens decided that he is eligible for the death penalty, should he be convicted, and the Defense intends to summon a string of witnesses from his native France. They are expected to testify about the endemic racism of French society that forced him to learn how to fly commercial airliners into American buildings.

I only have problems with the death penalty when they execute the wrong person, but in this case, it appears that Mr. Moussaoui wants to be killed, having missed his opportunity. I think I am therefore opposed to helping him on his way to martyrdom.

I wondered how I would answer that question on the jury questionnaire, and if I could get lucky and be selected for a similar trial that would have me sequestered for years. Then I wondered at how black the clouds were to the west, and how might the winds were likely to be.

This was the first big storm that I took head on at Big Pink. The unit on the fourth floor faces due west, and the sullen dark clouds were visible for an hour before they swept over the building, and the blast of wind and rain crashed against the windows.

>From my unit down at Poolside, I had to peek around the corner to see the storm sweeping in. Being in the crotch of the building, the wind had nowhere to go but up, scouring the pink brick.

I considered storm shutters, and reinforcing the door to the balcony as the storm hit. But it was too late, and there is nothing that can be done today,  since the steep plunge of temperature behind the storm front will have wind gusting to almost fifty miles an hour through the afternoon.

There are wires down in the District, and early as it is, the traffic is backed up from the US Senate exit on the freeway to the wilds of Dale City, far to the south.

It would be a good day to spend working from home, telecommuting. But there are some dignitaries visiting the office, and times being what they are, it is important to make an appearance and look interested.

Tom Delay, the former majority leader of the House, is apparently going to make an appearance here, too. He is quitting the Congressional race for the seat in Texas he has occupied for decades. The radio says he is going to move to Northern Virginia permanently and make a home here in the capital.

I assume he will want to live close-in, in Arlington, so that his commute is tolerable. I can't imagine that he will be taking the bus or the Metro down to K Street to whatever lobbying firm he will join. With the number of former movers-and-shakers downtown he will have a certain anonymity that is now impossible in his hometown of Sugar Land, Texas. He is a former pest exterminator, which has a certain irony.

They say that the indictment of his former deputy chief of staff on corruption charges had nothing to do with his decision, nor the pending indictment on money laundering charges in the Lone Star State.

Most people who leave Washington say they are seeking to have some more time with their families. They are looking for less traffic and stress, and a break from daily revelations in the Post.

Like many Arlington residents, I will welcome the former Majority Leader if he chooses to live among us. Big Pink would be a fine place to get to know the common folks. But until the weather thing settles down in a few hundred years, I think he would like to get one of the units that faces east, toward the capital, where he spent so many years.

There are pluses and minuses to it, I know. I thought that the Western exposure was beneficial, putting the bulk of the building between me and the initial effect of weapons of mass destruction. But facing west, the kinetic effects of a mighty wind can be inconvenient as well.

Sometimes you are damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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