05-JUL-A-2

 

AN UNUSUAL CONFLUENCE OF COINCIDENCES

HAS ME ON A SOMALILAND DIPLOMATIC CIRCUIT

 IN GIVING INSPIRATIONAL TALKS AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE SOMALI DIASPORA

 

THEN, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF PACKING UP DERWOOD

TWO YEARS AGO ON MOVING OUT, I COMPLETE THE “UNBOXING CHORES” FALLEN TREE LOG STACKING,

DECK STAINING AND HOMEOWNER DETAIL WORK ON “SETTLING IN”

DURING THE FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND

 

 June 30—July 3, 2005

 

            I found myself to be the honored guest, keynote speaker, and the only European fellow as well as the only non-speaker (or understanderer!) of Somali at the political party rally in support of the opposition candidate for the Somaliland Presidency on Thursday night in the Alexandria Sheraton Hotel.  Ismail, who had been my bellhop at the Park Hyatt has a limousine that he is getting started in another business since it seems that the Park Hyatt is closing in mid-July for at least six months.  Despite their astronomically high room rate, they are closing it is said for renovation, but if they are closed six months, they will not have to retain any of their current employees, and all who must apply if and when they re-open will have to do so at starter pay. So, he is already busy with a large clientele, not simply who are Somali, but since he uses Arabic, he gets the whole of the Gulf State clientele as well.  So, he picked me up in his comfortable limo to take me from GW to the Sheraton Alexandria. 

 

            I met an engineer from GWU and then Faisal, who is the Welfare and justice party candidate for the presidency of the Somaliland state and was the part of the program that was soliciting support from among the well-heeled patriots of the Diaspora. I had brought the photo album of my Somaliland stay and also the “thumb” that I had first seen as a mass storage device when it was worn by Edna Adan in Hargeisa.  There was no computer or projector to show the pictures of a homeland many of the elegantly robed Somali women had never seen—I turn out to be a Westerner, introducing classic Somalis to their homeland Somaliland, when most had never been there!

 

            I therefore talked about my information learned during the visit to Hargeisa the capital, and Berbera the Red Sea port.  I spoke of the Somaliland distinction of being the only democracy in the Horn of Africa and the legal invisibility they have which keeps them from incurring any debt, with the “sea anchor” to development that many African nations had accumulated that essentially put them at the mercy of international bankers to whom they appealed for debt forgiveness.  They were very warm and enthusiastic to hear the only white man in the room speaking positively about their homeland, and they were astounded to hear that the medical missions had brought free medicines and operations at no charge.  When I had finished, I got a standing ovation and then sat on the platform and answered a few of their questions translated form Somali to my response in English.  I then had to sit with glazed eyes during a prolonged political speech by the candidate Faisel, who wears a suit, but carries a forked stick like a baton.  He referred several times to “The Doctor” and cited me as the kind of person with whom they should make Westerner alliances.  It was after Eleven O’clock when the party broke up and we posed for the pictures that seemed mandatory.  I noticed that more people form the audience sought to have their picture taken with me than with the potential future Somaliland president, but then, all those Somalis look alike! They are proud of the fact that as an Islamic state (and they open the meeting with an incantation in Arabic as a prayer) they are proposing full suffrage for women with several officers of the government being female. All of my dealings with the cabinet ministers are, of course, with the party that they are running in opposition to, but they recognized me as a political neutral if not a naïf. 

 

            I also noted that, during my speech, I could look over the crowd and noticed that a mouse was prowling along the carpet in the elegant ballroom of the Sheraton, a near-Africa kind of experience, but since I was the only one facing in that direction and everyone else seemed in rapt attention on me, no one else noted this invasion of the rodents.

 

A THOROUGHLY DOMESTIC INTERVAL OF TWO DAYS IN COMPLETING SEVERAL “HOME CHORES” BEGUN BY MY SISTERS AND STACKED UP FOR COMPLETION

 

            I had a long “To Do” List when my sisters had departed, some of which was to complete the stacks of things they had gone through but did not know enough to dump them all outright.  I am glad that they did not, since many of the stacks had single copy papers or unfinished manuscripts in them that I need to work on later. I had gone through all the original art work form the era in which artists’ drawings were then photographed and used in the journal publications of which I used to be such a regular contributor.  I had a lot of heavy lifting to do, and in the two mornings early before the sun had heated up to the nineties, I had stacked all of the pine logs that Arnie had chain sawed at the upper circle of the house along the drive, and then on the second morning, went down the steeper hill and carried up all the log segments that were stacked along the drive to the garage.  I hope no kids get the idea that it would be fun to push the stack of these cylindrical logs over and watch them roll down the steep hill, since I just had to claw my way up the same steep slope and would not want to do that a second time covered with mud and bark and sweat—but, of now, the cut tree logs are all stacked within reach.

 

            I have gone around the house doing the little repairs of the things that I can do, postponing the big things I cannot—like the water heater had started leaking when my sisters were here, and the AC/heat/Ventilation switch has gone out, and other than making email and phone messages regarding this to be repaired, (in the service silence of a long holiday weekend) there is not much more I can do there.  I cleared out the stacks of things that were piled along the basement wall taken out of the black plastic trash bags by my sisters, and now mostly in the recycling bags.  On July first I begin paying for a second trash pickup as well as the paper recycling, so I will have to batches of things to carry down to the street.  I am waiting for the weather, which should clear later in the holiday weekend, at which time I will put on the waterproofing and staining of the deck, exactly a year from the time it was first done (over the course of a very full hot day—which preceded a downpour later that night).  I wanted to hold off since I had ordered a number of items after my sisters left, including a wrought iron frame park bench with deer outlines and a seasoned wood seat and arms—and anted to waterproof that at the same time. It will go along the rhododendrons now spectacularly in bloom, above the alcove where the hammock is hanging.  I will only much later tackle the idea I have had for some time to create a path down to the unused part of my property—on which I continue to pay high taxes but without use—the garden area adjacent to Ed Luber's House.  I wanted to get a pathway to it and an arch bridge over the Butterfly Creek to a gazebo down at the garden where I could put a barbecue spot.  I would then hack back the deer-fenced garden plot, which now has four inch diameter tulip poplars growing up in side it—protected from the browsing deer. I should enclose a few in it to start the recovery process next year!

 

            I got new test Reeboks light running shoes in the mail and started out putting some serious miles on them to the degree that the excess degrees of temperature would allow it.  I will be running a couple times this week in the pre-dawn cooler parts of the day with Joe, who likes to start earlier than anyone else since he has no disadvantage in the dark.  I will probably join in his family at a picnic and also the fireworks I have taken them to each year, and ironically, I have a number of chores to be done over at his house that are not dissimilar to those done for me at my house by my sisters.

 

I ran around the Folk Life Festival on the mall which has the shrieking music of Oman and the hopping of men dancing as one display, and the rest is largely for the 100^th anniversary of the National Forest Service—the Smokey the Bear types and their displays. There is also a bunch of tents with Emroe type folk showing the cooking of American Cuisine, but I shuffled off before I learned anymore of it.  I have a bit of venison and a few salmon fillets and a single large rockfish fillet still to cook up—now THAT is American cuisine.

 

 I have been laying in wait for the woodchuck that only showed his head once, but he is smart enough to want to keep that extremity, so I have not seen him again though I am ready for him. I have also bought a sporting weapon in view of a change in the legislation in Maryland that now allows crossbows to be used during the bow hunt archery season, so I have a 190 pound pull crossbow being delivered for the fall season and some extra “bolts” as they are known instead of arrows

 

“On the “Photo Safari” side, I also bought digital trail camera to put out here to see the big bucks this late summer and fall, and will put that over the big buck salt lick that I got for my Christmas present with Milly from Meijers. I should be able to get a series of pictures of the big boys around the house to keep track of them.

 

I met with Keith Carr and also heard from Milly who has authorized payment form my account of the heavy premium for the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust which I must pay for but do not own and cannot control.  I hop[e that it will be able to carry its own weight sometime soon in the coming years, since I am also laying out tuition checks form having taken extra courses this summer.  I also heard form Keith that in a large swap, Legg Mason has acquired all financial management services from Citi Group while its brokerage is ceded over to Smith Barney.  The implications of this are lost on me, but it seems that my accounts are now parts of something much larger and more aggressive in the management of each. 

 

NEWS FLASH: WEATHER REPORT STIRS IMMEDIATE ACTION TO SUBTRACT YET ONE MORE ITEM FROM MY “TO DO” LIST

 

            No, the news is not that NASA has spent $333 million dollars to launch a 300 pound space ship directly into a comet 83 million miles away to see the impact crater which should be about the size “of a football stadium” since the comet is half the size of Manhattan about ten miles across—and this will throw enough dust into the surroundings that it should be seen in the northern hemisphere right near Jupiter, just after the fourth for July fireworks.  Nor is the news that Microsoft wrote a check for 788 million to settle a suit by IBM—petty cash, it seems.  Nor that “swing voter” Sandra Day O’Connor has announced her retirement after 24 years making it likely that TWO new Supreme Court justices can now be put up after an eleven year hiatus in nominations for the bench.  No, the news is that a cool front is coming down from Canada, so there will be little likelihood of rain in the coming holiday weekend after a torrential rainstorm again the night before last, with waterfalls cascading down my steps at the hammock side of the house.

 

            So, I had broomed off the decks and picnic table and immediately set to work on staining them with the waterproofing, figuring I would have to wait for the later arrival of the new “park bench” with the deer motif to waterproof that at a separate sitting.  So, I have just come in from what was a full day long job last summer, the first time it had been done, and this time I could start with the picnic table and work through both decks and the railings and spindles for each in just a few hours working fast to beat the sunset.  So my day began packing firewood logs up the steep slopes to stack them in a cordon at the drive, and it ended in deck staining, almost “zeroing out” my “To Do” List.  Of course, now I have to begin on another similar list, and that is the one that Joe has for me, ironically containing some of the same items my sisters had done for me here!  We will run at 6:15 AM, then I have to hang pictures and string up things on the piano wire I had bought, and then examine Joseph (I am the only Local Med Doc around these parts who is on call to make house calls, it seems.)  But, now I have a very large list of undone writing projects which will take priority after the chores are done at Joe’s and the chores off my list have been trimmed back considerably after two concerted days’ efforts.  My sisters would be proud to see that I had moved right into it, and actually thrown away a great deal of the stuff to be sorted, as well as finishing the projects—except for the garden plot, which will be a few more years in getting close to being used.

 

SUNDAY EARLY MORNING RUN WITH JOE AND DC CRC, BEFORE RETURNING TO REARRANGE THE DECK CHAIRS ON THE NEWLY STAINED AND WATERPROOFED DECKS

 

            The day began even before the sun was up.  I had fetched Joe and we had a dawn run of eight measured miles, with less wear and tear from such a run than the heavy hauling the day before in packing away logs and deck staining.  We caught up on much news, and Joe want me to play the Calvin College commencement speech by GW Bush for him, which I may do when I get to the pickup for him and the kids for the fourth of July fireworks at the Montgomery \County Fairgrounds.  I also had a chance to do the house call on Joseph who is fine, and then hang the picture over their sofa on the special picture wire I had got from the Great Indoors.  So, our July Four started as January One and most other holidays have with a good run. 

 

            I went to DC CRC church where the cupboard was almost bare, since many people are out for the holiday.  That must be the case with Michael and Judy and the twins, since I called several times yesterday to wish them a happy fourth birthday and to thank Judy for forwarding the picture of them opening the package from their Grandpa.  They looked cute and energetic and made me wish they were going to be making a summertime visit here now that Derwood is getting all gussied up for them.  I returned home by way of several public libraries to see if I could send an email or look over those I have missed, but they all seem to be closed.  So, I came home to spread out the deck furniture on the now-restained deck which is still tacky from my late finishing painting of each deck last night.  The decks—and the house look good, with floral bouquets spread around still from the trimmings for the last visitors. So, here I am, all dressed up and no one to entertain! L

 

            So, I have hoped to bag the second appearance at a Somaliland fund-raising function tonight, even if limoed there, and have come back to “coffee up” to prepare to start on my ELDP writing projects.  I have kept one wary eye out for the woodchuck should it re-appear.  I am also going to have to concentrate on the writing tasks for another reason.

 

            Right now, within the hour, on a Victorian porch of the Wemsley House cottage on Lake Chautauqua, five years ago, I met a young lady named Virginia Bell Croskery, who subsequently corresponded, called and visited me.  And thereby hangs a tale. She is singing the role of Alice in Falstaff in Italy this evening, no doubt oblivious of this anniversary of sorts , although the events that followed are the main reason she had made this second annual “retreat” to Europe to undergo her own self-styled “self-esteem rehab program.”  I wish her well in this pursuit.

 

 

 

FOURTH OF JULY HERMITAGE OF THE SECLUDED WRITER

FOLLOWED BY A LONG SUMMER RUN,

FOLLOWED BY FIREWORKS

AND TRADITIONAL HOLIDAY WITH THE AUKWARDS

 

            Well, it took some doing, but do it I did. After a high inertia toward getting started on all the ELDP writing projects (I did not even know until tonight just how many and how long each must be!) I got up and set to work this morning on the first of the assignments.  I sat in one place—the glorious sunbeams streaming through the skylights into the colorful Game Room resplendent in isolation—and started and completed one of the papers, which I now discover to number almost ten.  Each must be completed before my departure for Eritrea as each are due in two weeks or during my absence in Africa.  I had looked up the September 24 1975 visit I had made to Prague (then) Czechoslovakia, and found photos of me walking over the Charles Bridge in exactly the same place I ran across it this May 22, 2005, a difference in exertion just thirty years apart.  At the Jan Huss martyrs monument in Old Town Square across from the town clock I have a photo at that time thirty years ago and this year, as the professor to whom I shall be submitting this paper on the Health Care Systems in Transition in the Czech Republic and Hungary is greeting me at the Finish Line of the Prague International Marathon—so I will include those photos for comparison of the interval in time.

 

            On that same page of pictures is the one I had referred to when my sisters were visiting—I had once taken a picture of Michael whom I had put on the overgrown fence with the spectacular autumn colors behind him as we picked apples in an orchard on Needwood Road, unaware that I had just taken a picture of what would become my backyard a few years later!  It is amazingly open and wild, with no development anywhere nearby, where now there are “starter mansions” all lined up in planned developments. The times, they are achangin’.

 

            So, I completed the first of the many papers still to be pulled, like rabbits, out of a hat, and then went to run Lake Needwood Bike Trail to Aspen Hill, passing deer and rabbits on the run.  I am glad that I had this uninterrupted period of this holiday, which was not spent in typical pursuits despite nearly ideal weather for it, but I now go over to the Aukwards for a trip up to the Montgomery County Fairgrounds for the holiday festivities and the traditional fireworks display that is always Joe’s favorite, since he is almost aware of seeing some of the explosive displays on peripheral retina that is still present.  If I had not done the earlier list of Derwood chores, or if I had had any interruptions, I might not have been able to pull off the writing chores in my isolated hermitage on a forced schedule, so it is just once in a while good to be alone.  I must try for that again several times over to produce more of these manuscripts, but for now, we will go and see some fireworks to greet the traditional holiday finale.