DEC-B-7

 

RETURN TO MARYLAND FOR “YEAR’S END” CELEBRATION WITH A VISIT FROM MICHAEL AND JUDY

AND THE TWINS, FOR THE SHORTENED WEEK RUN-UP TO NEW YEAR’S DAY AND THE START OF THE NEW SEQUENCE OF EVENTS, TRAVELS, TAPES, DISCS, PHOTO ALBUMS, AND “NEXT YEAR’S YEAR-END-LETTER-’04!”

 

December 28--31, 2003

 

            Greetings from year-end in Maryland!  It was a late re-entry after my Christmas time visits in New York State, Chicago area, and then the Grand Rapids Christmas homecoming, with the cancellation of the United flight out of GRR and the long bus ride to O’Hare taking a four hour chunk of time out of the time that would have been spent getting around home in Maryland.  AS it was, I arrived after midnight and had to taxi in from Dulles, a $65.00 run to GW to get the A-4 that I had parked there in the plan to get the Washington Flyer and Metro to return, which would have taken place had the return not been delayed past the operating times for all those other conveniences of public transportation.  So, I paid for United’s mechanical glitch and tardy arrival.

 

            But, I am awaiting a call now from Michael and Judy since they arrived yesterday in McLean, Virginia, and I know they are interested in seeing the house, as well as I am interested in seeing them and the twins.  So, we will rendezvous right after I—and they—unpack.

 

            I got unpacked and began to put aside those things that should be carried over to Derwood.  When I could talk with Michael, he mentioned that their Christmas celebration would be held tonight and the twins would need their nap at 1:00 PM so that I could probably not see them today.  But, they are hoping to spend the day on Tuesday as they said—at Derwood—but they probably mean in some form of entertainment together after we make a walk through of the wreckage of Derwood.  Then Judy will take the van and kids back to Mc Lean and I will get Michael out to BWI for the flight he has at 7:00 PM.

 

            I went to the Great Indoors, a huge sprawling complex on Shady Grove that has been converted from the Sears warehouse, which it was when I first was here in the area.  I walked in with the list from Bray and Scarf with the note on the bottom saying “We will not b e undersold—bring us the written quotes of any other dealer.”  The same statement is made by the Great Indoors, but with the additional statement that they will give 10% of the difference in the quoted price as well as match it.  I then had an agent pull up the Viking Professional entire system I had priced out at Bray and Scar, and nearly every price had a decrease of several hundred dollars.  So, they will send me the further prices by fax and I will then carry that over to Bray and Scarf.  I will then trigger the order to start production on the appliances to have them ready before the first of February, the same time at which the furniture should be ready for delivery.

 

            I then went to Derwood to see if there was any mail delivery—but the big plastic bin of mail is being held until Monday.  I am going to try to pick up some items that I have carried and pull out the times that I have need of by weekend.

 

  But, the same things that I had reported as most annoying before are still true.  The attic is blacked out where the big fluorescent lights and incandescent bulbs are ready to light but the electricity has been disrupted.  I see that they have put ventilation tubes and vacuum exhaust systems in the attic by the simple means of plowing through the stacks of things there and simply pushed over. So, the attic is even more a trashed mess than it was before.   I then tried to enter the guest bedroom, but as it was before, it has been locked and the little key over the sill is gone since the sill itself is gone.  So, somewhere in there are the packages that I squirreled away for Christmas packets, but I cannot access them or the items that I had packed in the bedroom, since it has been locked and my interim files are put away and the packages with my hunting clothes and shotgun are irretrievable since they are paced up to tightly in the storage areas, and cannot even seen the area where I have my goosed hunting gear in the attic.  So, I was frustrated again and turned away without picking up the stuff I had gone to retrieve.

 

            What is different in the house is the plumbing seems to have been developed all through the house, with a network web of plastic pipes run through the flooring and walls cut open for pipes now in place.  These large caliber plastic pipes have replaced all the copper and steel pipes which are in a twisted mass at the dumpster where the kelvinator oven has just been tossed, the last appliance or furniture item to suffer this ignominious disposal.  So, as I am sending up the orders for the new appliances, the last of the old ones is in the dumpster.

 

            The ceilings and walls are all stuffed with the insulation material in wraps.  Also new, there is a wrought iron railing outside between the brick posts.  There is a bill here from Petro from a new filing of the new tank, the worry about whether the last full fill had leaked or was incorrectly hooked up.  So, the furnace is running which should answer the complaint from the plumbers that the house was cold. I set the thermostat down so that I am not heating the outside, but it seems the next big step will have to be the completion of the electrical net through out the house.  Then the dry wall and the painting process will have to begin.

 

            It seems that the heavy layering of the 44 tons of crush and run did not protect the edges of the drive way and that it will probably have to be repeated.  The deep ruts just off the drive will need to be leveled and filled in with new crush and run, and the main stretch of the driveway and its edges will need to be filled in and graded, probably after the snow and frozen ground is thawed in spring.

 

THE VISIT WITH THE TWINS AND ANOTHER VOYAGE

INTO “AIR AND SPACE:

IN THE NEW Udvar Hazy NASM

 

                        It was a wonderful visit, with of course, a supporting cast of characters that made it even more enjoyable!  Devin and Jordan were in rare form and they were good about their Christmas presents, except that Devin’s favorite thing to do with his crayons and colored pens is to rip open the boxes to spill them out.  It was a good visit when I arrived on Monday evening after the two of them had awakened from their nap, and they were soon in full play mode.  I was invited to stay for the dinner of lamb and pasta (very specifically “pasta”, not the “bisghetti” which Michael used to say—so the twins have an advantage there!  We made some plans to return the following day and to follow suit from our exploration of the Texas Air Show, with the opening of the large new “annex” to the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) which can hold the 80% of the collection of large original objects form the history of air and space.  There is 30 million cubic feet of display space in this megamuseum, which cost 311 million dollars, of which the first 65 million was given by Steven Udvar Hazy, a Hungarian immigrant who made billions on leasing aircraft, now owing 18 billion dollars of rolling stock.

 

            We timed it ideally.  The museum opened on December 15, the day that the Wright brothers did their first heavier than air controlled flight in Kitty Hawk.  The ceremonies there, including a flyover of every know currently flyable aircraft and a reproduction of the Wright’s own flyer was a rained out bust, but here the new museum opened to a rave review.  They expected five thousand visitors per day but have got over fifty thousand.  The traffic backs up for miles on the Exit 9A of the Toll Road along the Dulles access highway, and the parking fee is $12.00, even though the museum is free—your tax dollars at work.  We left around 9:15 to get through the wasting traffic rather rapidly and then awaited the queue for the museum opening at 10:00 AM.  The twins were all revved up and could run around and see the big aircraft and the famous pantheon of flight.  I had always said that the atrium of the NASM on the Mall held the collection that only America could produce—the original Wright Flyer, Spirit of Saint Louis, Freedom and Friendship 7, the first capsules of space travel, and the Bell X sound barrier breaker, and every other milestone in air and space, including the backup module to the first vehicles to be propelled out of our solar system.  And, for added chuckles, you can touch the moon. 

 

            But, now, in this huge hangar, with an air traffic control tower attached and a giant Space ship docking area, the list of the originals includes: the SR 71 Blackbird, the fastest aircraft ever built, which I saw on its decommissioning run to Washington, when it landed after setting the cost to coast record of 68 minutes; the first 707, the Concorde, the Enola Gay—the intact B-29 Superfortress, the Gossamer Albatross, the first manpowered aircraft to cross the English Channel, and Saber jets, Mig-21’s the early helicopters, the gliders and aerobatic planes, and standing off in aloof silence, the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

 

            The kids mostly liked the Air traffic control tower, where you can watch planes on Dulles access approach zipping in to General Aviation or to the big Commercial airliners like the 777.  I met my Human Sciences thesis advisor Peter Caws and family and also Kenneth Fisher, on the board of the Panetics Society with me.

 

We wandered and the kids reached the end of their energies and became hungry and cranky by the time we had made the complete sweep.  I have a suggestion for anyone who would like to do this in the near future—go to the NASM on the Mall downtown and take the hourly bus that goes out to the Udvar hazy in a ride that costs $8.00—less than the Washington Flyer shuttle to West Falls Church Metro from Dulles!

 

MICHAEL AND I RUN, TALK, AND TOUR DERWOOD

BEFORE I DRIVE HIM TO BWI FOR DEPARTURE

 

When we returned to McLean, Michael and I took a run through the running trails of McLean, in the 55* F temperature—predicted for all of the New Year week.  When we returned the twins still had not gone down for their nap, since they were still buzzed, and we got them fed and napping at the time Michael packed up and I drove him in the new Audi to Derwood, for his first look at the house that he once lived in—no longer at all like what it has become.

 

            It just happened that this was a busy day at Derwood, with Glenn still there from the six o’clock start of the day with all the county inspectors present to go over all the details of the construction except for the plumbing, which has a separate Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission inspector.  All the items eventually passed the inspection.  The plumbers were there and I asked them to add two outside faucets to water the herb garden in front and one to enable a car wash out back.  Dale Kramer was here also, so I could introduce them both to Michael.

 

            Michael then took his stroll through the cavernous house and could see how radical has been the change.  He went through the Great Room to library, and the Breakfast Room and decks, then to the upstairs and saw it all, I showed him the “Grandkids Room” in the finishing basement, where his art work on the wall is about to be covered over by dry wall.  The plumbing should be finished with all the dense network of connections and fittings done in plastic pipes everywhere replacing the copper piping, and at several points the dry wall that had been cut into to access the pipes, was totally now stripped away.  Now the electrical system and new panel and circuit boards can be completed, taking out the old fuse box.  The coaxial cable has been stripped everywhere and replaced with hundreds of yard of wrapped wire.  So, now the high gear can begin, with the dry wall being installed on Friday, and a fat forward to interior work and painting.  I have submitted the order for all the furniture, and the kitchen appliances is in a dueling bidding war between Bray and Scarf and the Great Indoors, both of which claim that they will never be undersold.

 

            Glenn was very satisfied after his long day with the inspectors, and said that now he will issue a new timetable for the walkthrough and completion, and I had told him about the change in our plans for the canceled January 8 walkthrough.  I also cut a new check for the next phase.  The new oil tank was refilled for heat to keep the interior workers warm.  The New Year will see a lot of fast inside work being done.

 

            Michael and I talked about each of the Michigan families I had just visited in Grand Rapids and about the possibility of seeing Donald or Andrew and Kacie.  He had been down in Gainesville in August on Kacie’ birthday.  So, I delivered him through the high alert security systems in BWI, and he flew on to San Antonio to start his new job at the University of Texas health Science Center on January 12 after leaving health South on January 9.  Judy and the kids will follow on Friday, as she is staying with her sister Laurie for a few days.

 

            So, it is now New Year’s Eve, and the sum of my celebration might be to send you this note and wrap up the year 2003.  I will watch the Rose Bowl when Michigan wins it all tomorrow, and on the night of new year’s Day I will go up to Dale Kramer’s hose so we will be ready early in the morning to go goose hunting with a guide.  We will then make the plans about leaving on Friday January 9 to go to Cumberland, the prior holiday plans that included the Greyfield inn having been canceled when the walkthrough would be later.

 

            So, as my last message for the old used-up year of 2003, is the same as that of the first of the new 2004 year of hope and potential---Happy, Blessed, Challenging and Fulfilling 2004 to you!

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