15 posts tagged “dc metro area”
Later this evening, John Mohammad, the man sentenced to death for his part in the DC sniper serial murders will most likely no longer be alive.
I've thought about it a bit; it must be strange, no macabre I guess, to wake this morning to know this will be the last time to greet a new morning. It almost begs the point, 'Why bother?'
But he's got it easy; the people whose deaths he is responsible for had no inkling when they woke on their fateful day that the hours they would remain alive on this earth were finite. And like 9/11, its hard to explain, perhaps it is unexplainable for those who weren't there to appreciate the enormity of his crime.
Until they were apprehended, he and his accomplice held the greater DC metro area in terror and in thrall in a way that touched all. Personally a couple of things stand out for me as markers of that time. One was a Saturday morning perhaps in the middle of the murder spree (I don't call it anything else; it is what it is), I was out on an errand and noticed just how light the traffic was. People, out of terror just stayed home. Likewise at a gas station very near home, after one shooting farther south at a gas station, the owner of this station put up a tarp the shield customers. This is a photo of that gas station.
And then there was the day we were out on the road and on the radio there was a report of a shooting farther south and further to the report (erroneous) of a white van. Shortly afterwards we saw a white van pulled over, its driver with hands on head, scared, bewildered, the mob of police officers surrounding him and his vehicle -deadly serious.
And of the victims, two stand out. One a man whose wife was killed in a nearby Home Depot, right before his eyes, and a young boy, who nearly died had it not been for he was with an aunt, a trained ER nurse and got him the immediate medical attention which saved his live.
So am I lusting for blood? Depends on your point of view. I don't see myself as such. His crimes are what they are, cold and calculated. He made his choices and the consequences are what he will face tonight.
Picked it up at Baltimore today and brought it down. Now its been a while since I've used a stick shift however things went smoothly. Until we exited The Capital l Beltway and were about to merge onto VA 236 west, I had to bring the car to a full stop due to traffic, then as I put the car in motion, releasing the clutch and applying the gas, the car stalled. No big deal that, but for reasons I am trying to figure out, I could not turn the ignition key and then the steering column locked- and here we are right where traffic from the Capitol Beltway merges onto VA 236; not the best place for a car to become disabled.
After several attempts to turn the key, told son to get out of the car and get behind the guardrail and there we both stood in the rain, waiting for AAA to come. In the meantime our next door neighbor of all people pulls up offers an umbrella and also offers to take son home- which he did. Then the State Police and AAA arrive at the same time 10 minutes later. I had to hold my breath in the interim as there was more than one driver hell bent on merging on to the road and failing to see the Passat until the last moment, and yes the flashers were on.
Anyhoo AAA towed the car back home where it now sits somewhat forlornly. The tow was under 3 miles so no towing charge, and son his bless his heart, saw how wet I was (really wet) and went and prepared me a hot cup of coffee and brought it out!
Now brother Pound Salt has opined that son is a bit immature and perhaps he is, but at 18 how many people can say there were 'mature'? Hell, there are some people, some living under this very roof who are much older and still not mature (ain't me!) And, according to Pound Salt, I am an enabler as I continue do things for son such as preparing him (insert disgusting, foul expletive here) breakfast on weekday mornings; that I need him to start becoming a man by making him (son) prepare his own (again, insert disgusting, foul expletive) breakfast. I guess preparing son's breakfast in the morning does have its dividends :-) :-)
Getting back to the Passat, I wonder if somehow I triggered an anti-theft device. When the weather clears, I will go back out, disconnect one of the battery cables to see if that unjams the system.
After the break-in, the landlord, wanted of course to have me take a look at what possible damage there was to the apt. Went into the city yesterday (not fun) and saw that outside of work that's needed to get the police fingerprint dust off the walls, the apt. is otherwise untouched.
From the physical evidence I saw, it does indeed seem the burglars just put a ladder up against the open window, cut through the screen that was there and then entered as easily as pie, going out through the doors, since once in.....
I do feel very sorry for this kid. Don't know where she comes from, but I am guessing it may be a place where windows can be left opened without fear of a break-in. DC, even in the best of neighborhoods, is simply not that kind of place. And as she has no renter's insurance, I assume she's now out for the items of value she lost.
Hard lesson to learn, but at least she didn't have to learn this through physical injury as well.
Got a call from one of the tenants in the pm yesterday telling me she'd been away from her unit for a couple of days and her unit had been broken into while she was away. Besides having stuff stolen, she tells me the burglars have stolen her apt keys, which include keys to a commom area for her unit and the downstairs unit.
Ok, need to contact the landlord/neighbor for who I watch over this apt for and its real early morning in Hong Kong so I can't expect her to be looking at e-mail. Go catty-corner to the folks now living in her house to see if they have emergency contact #. Find out the parents aren't home, just the kids and their grandmother; they know nothing.
Ok, perhaps if I send a message to the landlord's/neighbor's Crackberry, she'll wake and look at it. Send a note explaining the situation and also see the tenant has sent a note as well, but to a conventional e-mail account. Get a call shortly from the landlord/neighbor, who is very drowsy and is in the 'What the hell is going on?' mode. We agree to get a locksmith to change the locks quickly. Am also told this is the first time in al the years she's let the place out, that there's been a break-in.
Call the girls who live in the lower unit to explain, they know and are on their way back. I get on Angie's List to look for locksmiths who'll come that night and who'll accept credit cards. In the meantime there's a flurry of e-mails between landlord & tenant, with calls to me from the landlord because tenant does not have rental insurance and does not have money to pay for a locksmith and does not feel she's should pay. I stay out of it, telling the landlord the thing now is to get the locks changed.
Finally find a company, one in Alexandria, who seems very nice and professional. Tell locksmith to call when he's ready to go there so I do not spend time sitting on my butt. Then the neighbors catty corner to us call, they are in Denver, I get their son's # which I figure I might need another day and apologize for bothering them.
Shorty afterwards, I get an e-mail from the apt. tenant whose unit was broken into;........ uh she's found the keys, they weren't stolen after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So call locksmith tell him his services are no longer needed and apologize, contact landlord........
It was frustrating, but I can see not being mentally able to take deliberate calm stock of things to see what is missing especially at her age. Still why the hell were keys left in the apt. to begin with? And suppose its good to have one's crisis-management skills tested every once in a while........
Grrrrrrrrrrr!
Virginia is a state (are there any others?) which holds its gubernatorial elections on odd or off-election years. This makes for steady work for members of both political parties as there is always a campaign in progress or to gear up for.
So last night a small, local political rally was held for the candidate I intend to vote for. A crowd of maybe 60-70, mixed by age bracket and gender came for the chance to meet the candiate up close & personal and for free food (now which was the greater motivator?). Chatted with some neighbors was told to send a copy of my resume as there might be something and then the candidate pulled up. To be fair to the man, this small local gathering was probably at the tail end of a very long Sunday for him, but his talk was far from inspiring. The warm -up speaker, a county supervisor (councilman) , who I worked for during his election campaign, gave a much more rousing speech.
After the speeches were finished and hands shook, and the raffle was over, the crowd slowly broke up, heeded back to their homes for Sunday Night Football or whatever.
Another feature of where wife works at is the large number of employees who are immigrants, stepping up on the first rungs of the ladder. Many are Asian, but there are also Muslims too, more noticeable perhaps in that they (as most are women) wear headscarves at work.
It dawned on me as I was checking out this morning, at a register manned by a Muslim woman, that this must really be a trying time for these employees as its Ramadan and they are working 8 hours a day in a grocery store.
The apts I am looking after for a neighbor need to be inspected by the DC government to make sure they are up to occupancy codes. I did a pre-inspection last week, found some minor issues and had them taken care of.
Today was the day an inspector from the DC government was to come- time window from 10:00 to 15:00. The landlord & I sat there for 5 frickin' unproductive hours waiting for this person to come. Calls to the man's office were not returned and a final call before we left to return was 'Well I don't know what I can do about it'.
Had a bad feeling about this from the outset; found another DC government agency, the water authority is staffed by people who should get up each morning and give thanks they are civil servants, for they wouldn't last a week in the private sector with the level of incompetency they displayed in handling a water pipe leak, on their side of the property line.
Yeah there might have been an issue which kept this person from coming today, but if that is indeed the case, a phone call to us is 常識!
Mad enough to kick the dog, but don't worry, I won't.
Postscript: The inspector was contacted, not by me and the story is there was some sort of unspecified emergency, yada yada yada. Bullhockey. Pardon me for being old-fashioned, but when one is 'on the clock' it is imcumbent on you to let your supervisor and or a co-worker know where you are, or what is going on, and how you may be contacted in need be.
Spotted today in DC while waiting to let a contractor into one of the apartments I'm taking care of.
I
Know
Jack
Son took this mid-day, a few days ago.
What is amazing is that the deer were/are completely unfazed by human presence, taking their time, nibbling on someone's flowers here, munching on someone's shrubbery there. Absolutely no need to go and survive in the wild. Also very unusal for a doe to have three fawns.
Bro. Pound Salt, an avid deer hunter, would probably salivate had this passed by his front door.\
Post Script: Last night, these deer came out again to munch and we quickly noticed the group was minus one fawn- probably hit by an automobile.
