Snow, Trump and Star Wars

For those avid readers of my blog, I have not disappeared in the cracks over here. We've been busy but not doing much of real excitement to post about. The last new year post is a big one to try and follow.

The absolute turning point of the week, or year, or even century was the inauguration of President Trump. We did not go to see this as we couldn't bring ourselves to be part of such a dreadful occasion. It was raining and wet and nowhere near the crowd size of either of Obama's inaugurations, despite Trump thinking the media are lying again and your eyes confirming for yourself. This guy continues to lie and blame everyone for everything. The Capitol looked beautiful both by day and night. The night shots were taken by a friend during the week. You may recall that Deb and I had our picture taken on the balcony where the middle flag hangs, back in October. It is a spectacular view to look from the balcony up towards Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. 

But the day after was more noteworthy, the Women's March against Trump and everything he stands for. Wow, I could not believe my eyes. We did not attend this either but to see the massive turnout in every US state and countries overseas, it was definitely a big moment in democracy speaking out.  The march was planned for about 1pm and I was meeting a friend late afternoon in the city as we were seeing the 6pm showing of Star Wars Rogue One at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum IMAX theatre. We planned our meeting point and time to avoid the march as it should be well and truly clear by the time we meet. SO WE THOUGHT.

I took the metro and as I got closer to the city, I became a sardine as people were jamming into the metro. As i exited the station, I became a trout swimming upstream against the mass of people wanting to get into the metro. But, as I popped out onto the surface, I was met with loud chanting, signs, crowds and a real energetic buzz. The march was right in front of me on a different street to that planned. I'm not sure why or what, but I think they gained momentum after the initial march and decided to march again to the White House. I had to cross the street with this mass of people but, I had two hours so I hoped it would clear by then, and it did. But the city was full of people, mainly women - so many women with signs, pink beanies that looked like pussy cat ears and an absolute firm agenda to get their message out. The signs covered mainly womens rights, civil rights, human rights, abortion, equality and respect. There were some clever Putin signs and lots and lots of pink. It was peaceful and certainly gave me goosebumps. While I did not march, I certainly got the feeling of what it felt like to be on the edge of one of the biggest democracy movement marches since Vietnam I think. I enjoyed chatting with women who marched and many had come from far and wide to be here in DC. They say that 500,000 turn out in DC alone. I think 120,000 attended Obama's inauguration and probably about 40,000 attended Trump's. Don't quote me on that though.

This week was our first week of Speed Development Training for running. It's about 3 months long and is aimed at improving our pace over 10km. Deb and I are in different pace groups - she's quicker than me. 

Tuesday night is track night with interval workouts at a high school track. This is Deb on the far left and way up the back on the left is me, the little orange speck.  

On Saturday is the long run and we got to see a new location which was just beautiful. It's a big park area with picnic places and dog friendly. I worked out that I can ride my bike from home to there so I'll be checking that out in the summer. Running in cold weather is an adjustment. Canberra is cold but when it gets really bloody cold, it's about the right gear to run in. Not too much, not too little, and don't slip in the wet, snow and ice !!  

Last weekend we saw our first NBA (basketball) game. Each year the Emb organises tickets to a game and tries to pick when an Australian is playing. This year, we saw the Washington Wizards play the Philadelphia 76ers' because the Australian Ben Simmons was the NBA's number one draft and the 76ers got him. However, he broke his foot early in the season so he didn't end up playing. But it was a great night, we got to form the tunnel where the players run on and got down on the court before the game. We were supposed to throw shots after the game with the Wizards but that got cancelled sadly. I'm not a basketball fan but I enjoyed the game more than expected.

 

We saw the first snow fall for the year two weekends ago. It was beautiful. It snowed for several hours and it was bloody cold outside. It stopped in the afternoon and I decided to shovel the steps and driveway. I was worried it would snow again overnight and/or freeze making it hard to get the car in/out. It was quite easy to shovel the powder but it's not something I'd like to do a lot of.

The dogs didn't mind it at all. We went for a walk the next day and they ran around like it was normal. We have to be careful of their paws from both the cold and also the salt on the roads as it can burn and irritate their paws. We can buy little dog boots but I don't think either of them would like to wear little booties. 

We saw Hidden Figures at the movies. It was excellent. It's a true story about three women who were mathematicians at NASA when they were doing the Mercury program to get the first man into space. The women were African American so it was remarkable to see these women battle sexism and racism to be part of American space history. It's well worth viewing and more impressive to google these ladies after the movie to read more about their inspiring lives.

And I went with a friend to see Star Wars Rogue One as mentioned earlier. I was a bit lost with where the movie fits in the long Star Wars story but I still enjoyed the story as always. I'm always intrigued with the many characters and creatures and costumes. Seeing it in 3D at the air and space museum IMAX theatre was a total blast. 3D has come a long long way and it's quite impressive. The museum shows movies regularly so I'll keep an eye out for great movies to see on the huge screen.

A couple of snow pics to finish this week's post. This week will be my last week of work and I have some interesting things planned which I look forward to posting about next week.