Cover Me - I'm Going To D.C.

I mentioned earlier that family matters have occupied much of my time lately. Nothing major, but just a lot of time-sinks. A few examples:

A friend of ours was unexpectedly in the vicinity. She's an editor for Reuters and was at Ft. Hood for the Hasan trial. Since our weekend lake house is only about an hour from there, we went up to keep her company. The trial ended on Wednesday but she didn't leave until Saturday. Lots of fun, great catching up with her, but it involved four days of showing her around Central Texas. (I shouldn't complain - four days of eating BBQ and visiting honky-tonks. Tough duty...)

Speaking of the lake house, a couple of days after we left it and returned home a neighbor called. Turns out a pack of feral hogs passed through the neighborhood and rooted up our yard. I had to go back up there and do what I could to minimize the damage. Damn pigs...

A few days after that friends of ours from Houston dropped in. By then we were back in our main HQ in Bergheim. We spent the Labor Day weekend grilling, drinking, playing golf, drinking, sitting on the back porch, drinking...

By now I'm sure you're feeling sorry for me. But seriously, folks, it hasn't all been fun and games.

Several years ago my parents moved from a condo they owned to an assisted living facility. The condo has been rented out since their departure. The tenants moved out at the beginning of August, so we decided it was time to sell the place. Since I'm now retired, guess who became responsible for fixing it up prior to putting it on the market? Yes, it was your humble correspondent. Painting, cleaning, minor repairs ... all that good stuff. Nothing overwhelming, but very time consuming.

In the midst of all that, a pipe broke in my father's assisted living apartment (my mother passed away after they moved). Again, guess who got to clean up the mess? And just to make things more complicated, while we were making arrangements to repair the pipe and replace the mildewed carpet, my uncle died.

It wasn't a total surprise. His health had been failing for a while, and last week he was moved into a hospice. But what it means is that I have to put everything on hold as far as my Dad's place is concerned while I head up to Washington D.C. for the funeral. I leave tomorrow (Sunday) and return late Wednesday evening.

My aunt and uncle actually live outside the immediate D.C. area in New Carrollton. They've lived there in the same house for the past 50+ years. The area has changed over that time, from your typical white-bread suburb to a more diverse makeup. It's now about 15% white and 60% black. While not making any racial judgements, I will note that the property values and general 'feeling comfortable' index have gone downhill over the years. (Here's a different perspective, but IMO you can read between the lines.) Anyway...

In any event, I'm flying into BWI because it's about half the cost of flying into D.C. direct. However, that amounts to double jeopardy, since Baltimore is at least as much if not more dangerous than D.C. Couple the crime rates (much higher than what I'm used to) with draconian restrictions on self-defense (I have a Texas concealed carry license. That doesn't cut much mustard in MD or D.C.) and I'm feeling a little nervous about my visit to our nation's capitol. And just to top things off, I'll be flying back home on 9/11 - no security issues there.

Pray for me...