Regal Cinema Lucky Strike

We went out on a date downtown recently and didn't have time for dinner out before the movie. We went to Gallery Place where there are lots of stores, restaurants and a movie theater that has first run shows.There's even a Lucky Strike bowling alley right next to the Regal Cinemas in case we get a yen to knock down pins one night. But this time, we quickly got some badly cooked savory crepes (cold and the mushrooms were a little off!) at a stand in the alley where the guy cooks them right in front of you, and then we went to the movies where we saw the follow up movie to "Wall Street" starring Michael Douglas.  This was "Money Never Sleeps" which somehow never seemed to be as exciting as it should have been.  But we had a good time anyway as there's nothing like going out on a date when you're married and hanging out doing things together even if the food and the movie are not perfect.

Vans Full of Money

You see these vans full of money all over the city if you stop and look a while and don't let the hustle and bustle of the traffic blur in front of your eyes. While waiting for the Route 80 bus at the Kennedy Center, along came this big ole Hummer-looking Dunbar money pick-up truck on a Sunday (!) afternoon. It reminded me that in all cities you will see these trucks going by, doing their business. I don't spend much time wondering how much money is in them, or where they are going, or what happens next with the boxes or bags of cash they carry. Is it cash or do they also take checks?  I do observe how there are usually two or three guys guarding what is other people's property and what a responsible, invisible and thankless job they have. I find myself always a bit more alert if I focus on these vans as movies have conditioned me to think of hold-ups and shoot-ups involving money vans. Alas, I've never been a witness, thank God, and don't have to worry about the car plate number of the get-away car or ducking the bullets if they start flying.  But, like the water we take for granted, the bags of money are being moved about within a system of their own. Seeing the van on the street is just the tip of that iceberg, in my humble opinion.

Aggravating Glitches in the Ole City Today

I should have known when I missed the bus this morning that this was one of those days when things would go wrong. Once at work it turned out my computer was infected with some nasty virus that SOMEONE had sent me so I couldn't use it. I tried to use another available computer but all the settings and seating and configurations were not familiar so I gave up and took a break. I went to the bank to deposit some checks and guess what, there was no pen to fill out the form that goes with the deposits and I hadn't carried my bag with pen with me as I'm trying to carry less with the slipped disk I have. There was no one around to borrow a pen from so I trudged back to my office for a pen and tried it again. Lo and behold there was a pen at the bank by then and which I didn't need. Some trick that! Then I went down to the Metro station to see if I could get loaded on my Smartrip card the money that WMATA owes me -- from when a bus ate my $40 when attempting to add money to the Smartrip card on a bus. Guess what? I waited too long at Step #3 of the Smartrip reload process and it timed me out. Guess what? I tried it twice more and it still said 'Transaction Canceled.' Determined to get MY FORTY DOLLARS, and at the suggestion of the Metro station manager, I trudged again, in the heat, back aching, to another Metro station, and Lo and Behold, the card loaded the $40. So something worked. Determined to see if I was now on a good luck roll, and looking forward to lying on my back on a nice soft bed, I went home and found all the electric clocks blinking again --a sure sign that PEPCO turned the power off again. The neighbors tell me they do that to save power but I think it's because this is an old neighborhood with old wires and overloaded transformers and the demand is high (all those YOUNG PEOPLE with their always-on battery charging laptops & iPhones & iPods & iPads, air-conditioning on all day set high and X-boxes and TVs going all the time). But fortunately for PEPCO, they had the power on and I was able to lie down in some cool air and gather my wits from all the glitches of the day. Then I looked at my garden and thanked God for green and pink things.

Blogging and Ads

I had no idea that this blog could lead to me making money. That is, when setting up this blog there's an option to "monetize" the blog. So I clicked on that tab and filled in my name and address and slam bam wham, thank you God for the ham, I could get paid depending on if people click on things in the right hand column. I'm not supposed to click on them, so I won't. But the question is, why can't I click on the ads I'm serving up to readers too? If I am interested in the product or service or whatever. Oh, well, seems to be one of those blog mysteries. But don't let that stop you from clicking on them all. Don't worry, you don't have to buy anything, it's okay to look. It's because we don't read newspapers anymore. Or watch the ads on TV.