There Goes that Elusive Verizon FiOs Truck!

Sometime in the past month I actually for the first time ever saw a FiOs truck go by me here in DC. Big and white and shiny with a picture of a giant TV with blue ribbons tailing along the side of the van, it surely looked like something new in town as I sat at the bus stop watching the traffic go by.  You have to realize that in my neighborhood no-one has Verizon FiOs as they haven't laid the fiber cable yet here and I've heard it will be years before it will happen. While there's some diehard over-the-air free TV types, most either have cable or satellite TV and most get Internet either via DSL or a bundled cable TV package. Some spring for 4G wireless but that really adds to the bill.  As a DirecTV subscriber AND a Verizon DSL subscriber, we'd like to lower the costs of all our electronic communications so we keep hoping FiOs will come to our neighborhood soon.  We receive Comcast promotion cards in the mail all the time, trying to persuade us to switch back to cable TV in a bundled package with their phone and Internet. We also see Comcast trucks a lot.  And I have a neighbor who works for Comcast and he says it's a great company.  Somehow, though, we've come to really like our satellite TV service as the service people are extraordinarily nice when you talk to them about adding a TV channel or two or otherwise adjusting the bill. But, there I was at the bus stop and there went that elusive FiOs truck and I started to imagine having all my communications service on one bill, and a really fast and strong connection and maybe even a bit cheaper than all the different providers we have now.......hmm....

Slippery Ice Brings out Samaritan Neighbor

Stairs now have salt on them

I thought I was walking carefully enough down the front steps this morning when I left the house but oh no, on the second step down my feet went right out from under me and I slipped and bounced down the stairs on my back, banging and bruising my left elbow and lower spine all the way down. Basically, the steps were coated and crusted in clear ice, like a sheet of glass, after a night of freezing rain. When I got to the bottom --  about a four foot drop! -- I just laid there looking up at the sky, skirt blown up, yelling in pain. A kind neighbor heard my cries and came over and helped me to climb back up the stairs -- on all fours -- back into my house. He also helped pick up some of my belongings that had scattered out from my bag and made sure I was okay and got back into the house without further slipping and with my possessions.  He was very kind and thoughtful and I later realized that he was in the middle of taking his two children to school and had taken time away from leaving them in the car to pay attention to me. It's a wonderful blessing to have neighbors who are kind and act as Good Samaritans!

Neighbor Back from Iraq

My neighbor is back from Iraq and visiting her parents a couple of doors down from me. Of course, I have a hard time seeing her as a soldier for us all since she grew up with the other kids on my street, including with my son. I have pictures of them all splashing around running through water hoses and generally having a fine old time on the sidewalk. But here she is, back from a tour of duty for a few months and then I think she returns. Her son stays with her mother, so I get to see him all the time, probably a lot more than she does!  She told me the story of how this little boy, he's less than two years old, telephones her in Iraq on the Internet using Skype so he knows what she looks like. When they met at the airport he ran all the way up to her she said, then he put his little hands on her face, to experience her three dimensionally, because for him, his mother's face has been two-dimensional for far too long. [If that doesn't bring tears to your eyes, your heart may be a little bit stony.]  When we talked, she had no complaints about the job she's doing except to say she couldn't get to wear a bikini at the base swimming pool as there are some Muslim Iraqi soldiers also on the base in training with the U.S. and apparently the Command accedes to their value system. I got the impression she didn't really like this rule, but obeys because, well,  she is a fine and disciplined American soldier She's in her desert uniform here and looks totally amazing, fearless and strong.

Fountains are Cool

My neighbor has a fountain in his front yard and I've been thinking about adding one too. Some little splashy thing, perhaps one that birds can also bathe in. The fountains pictured here are up on Capitol Hill and are a delight to walk past in the morning, if my job compels me to go to the Hill in the morning. One fountain is slightly hidden on a plaza between the Senate buildings and the Korean war monument.  I was up there again recently and saw the other more famous fountain with those very nude Neptune and Nymphs boldly splashing in front of the old Library of Congress building. When I got home, the temperature had dropped even more from the 80s into the 70s and it just was so much cooler and more comfortable. There was even a good breeze as well so I watered my plants and the tree in the street and hosed off the birdie doo and flower pollen from the car and generally had a good time squirting water about, pretending to be a water goddess. Thank God for living in a watery zone!

Watching the Gardening Flower

On Sunday mornings I usually have an hour or so to relax since we usually go to Church at 5 p.m. and this morning was no different. I sipped my coffee and watched my garden grow from the front porch and it was just a delight. The new rose bush has the brightest crimson flowers, the pink crepe myrtle is about to peak with its frothy fronds, the roses of Sharon are blazing away, the little red gold marigolds are starting up and even a few day lilies are still hanging about. An interesting smoky dark blue bird, slightly larger than a sparrow, hopped along the neighbor's fence with something wriggly in his beak, catching my eye due to his (her?) lovely color. There was an amazing breeze that swept into the tree across the street making the leaves rustle and rattle and making me think of rivers and trees. Feeling energized, I watered every plant that called out to me, "Me thirsty!" and then transplanted a few seedlings into bigger spaces so they could grow better, taking care to make sure I didn't rip my back out again. But it was glorious and sunny and stayed that way all day even when I went inside and cooked Sunday dinner.