Mr. Mike goes to Washington

(sigh,.. if only our soldiers in Iraq were half as well equipped)

Wow, I need to update over here. DC was interesting. I have been here a few times before, but I never recall it being so hot. My friend Lily lives only a mile and a half from the Capital, and with her work schedule, I had plenty of time to continue the walking. Capital security was intense. On one of my walks, I absentmindedly wandered to close to the Capital building. A heavily armed officer (soldier?) exclaimed in a rather sharp tone, “Sir, without proper ID you are going to have to go back out to the main side walk.” I said, “Okay” trying to look as meek and unterrorist-like as I could. As I veered to the right to head to the sidewalk bordering Constitution Ave, three more heavily armed officers blended out of the woodwork to point the way; where did they come from?

All the while I was thinking, “As if there is even ONE terrorist plot penciled on a napkin to take on this place. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of everyday main street towns are wide-open and likely terrorist targets.” Whatever. I walked by the Capital three times in three days. I got a kick out of what the people operating the cameras, or on roof security detail, with binoculars might be thinking. “Hey, haven’t we seen this character with the red backpack three times already? He must be casing the joint.” Imagine me at Gitmo, then shipped off to one of those countries were torture is part of the college curriculum. (I know they are working on getting it here on U.S campuses, but it so hard to get accreditation).

As I said, it was very hot! I found something interesting and survival-worthy though. Even on the days when it was 105 to 110 degrees, drinking lots of water and sweating profusely made it bearable. I walked 12 miles on the hottest day and it was not that bad. Of course, the occasional museum visit helped. On one day, I visited every room in the National Gallery of Art, 136 rooms or so! I also made it to the new WWII memorial (see pic below). Actually, I think I may have seen everything.

I have been keeping up with the Paleolithic experiment; I suppose that sometime next week will be a good time to finalize it, at least officially. Truthfully, this high protein grazing way of eating is not so bad, I might just keep it up.