At the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens
It's now been 138 days since we arrived in Arlington, Virginia after leaving Addis Ababa አዲስ አበባ on Authorized Departure (but who's counting, right?). After all this time, finally there are signs of movement that I may be returning to post. Nothing is official yet, and even if it were, paperwork would probably take weeks to process. Still, it does appear that sooner rather than later I'll be back to determining if relationships entered into for immigration purposes are legitimate, as well as assisting American citizens who are destitute, ill or incarcerated; or, in the event of their deaths, helping the next of kin in sending the remains back home. In other words, all that oxymoronic diplomatic work that some people on Facebook somehow think is "Corrupt" (yes, with an upper case "C").
While it would be a relief to stop living out of a couple of suitcases and to be reunited with most of my worldly possessions, the downside to any move back to Ethiopia would be time spent apart from my wife and daughter. Shu-E and Amber most likely would go to Taiwan until family members are given the approval to return to Addis. There's no way of telling at this point how long they would have to stay there, but any lengthy separation (particularly if it were to last through the end of the year holidays) would not be something to look forward to. Stupid pandemic...
In the meantime, I'm still doing what I've been doing these past 4½ months. When not teleworking, I spend a lot of time on our 21st-floor balcony, looking out at the world below and beyond. I've put up a lot of sunset photos on this blog (as well as on Facebook) in recent posts, but I've been up early enough a few times to see some sunrises as well:
There are still a lot of rainstorms moving from west to east, most of which miss our area but must make southern Maryland a wet place to live. I caught this rain front while the sun was going down:
And, of course, there are the dusks. This is the view of one sunset as it reflected off the clouds in the east...:
...while this is the same sunset as it looked in the west:
Then there are the occasional odd phenomena, like this juxtaposition of rain, thunder, sunshine and a rainbow:
I'm also continuing to go on extended walks at least once a week, in a token attempt at getting some exercise. I'm currently up to 150 minutes one-way on foot from our apartment building to the Potomac, and then continuing along the Mount Vernon Trail. The round-trip times have now exceeded four hours, and the step count is past 20,000:
Sometimes on the way back to Ballston I'll detour past Arlington National Cemetery, the outside of which is where these memorials stand:
I've now reached (and continued past) Gravelly Point, which is a National Park Service-administered area within the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Located next to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, it's a popular spot to watch the jets take off or land (see here for the first time I visited, last summer). Last week the planes were approaching the airport:
Yesterday (Thursday), they were flying off to parts unknown (to me) from the airport:
At one point, a B-52 (presumably from Andrews Air Force Base) flew overhead. I hadn't seen one of those since I was a young lad living near March Air Force Base in southern California during the latter days of the Vietnam War:
We've been stranded relatively-speaking in Ballston for most of the time we've been here, due to the fact that we don't have a car with us. Occasionally, though, we'll rent a vehicle in order for my wife to shop at some of the large Asian supermarkets in the northern Virginia suburbs. This week we rented an economy car for several days, one of the reasons (in addition to shopping) being to drive down this morning (Friday the 21st) to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) 臺北經濟文化代表處 in order to pick up Amber's new Republic of China (Taiwan) passport. Shu-E has been less than pleased with her dealings with the good folks at TECRO, some of which you can read about here. At least it didn't take the girls long in the office to get the precious travel document, and so afterward we drove to the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in the northeastern part of the District of Columbia (I had taken my daughter there on a cold autumn day almost eight years ago). Shu-E was hoping to see some spectacular lotus flowers, but when it comes to blossoms, my family is often too early or too late. Friday morning it was the latter, though there were still some pretty sights to be seen (and photographed):
Mandatory face coverings mean my wife is more willing to be photographed, but still sternly warns me not to share this on Facebook. She didn't say anything about my blog, probably because no one will see the picture, so here she is:
See The Day of the Triffids or the Star Trek episode "This Side of Paradise":
This greenhouse was erected in 1913:
Assuming the lotus position:
Hopefully the next time we meet again on these pages the news will be more definite. Until then, stay healthy and keep wearing those masks, even if it does make it more difficult to eat Belgian chocolate ice cream.
At the Breeze Bakery Café
Outside of Vivi Bubble Tea at Eden Center
Hammertime!:
