Inauguration Day

I arrived in DC Monday afternoon and made it to my apartment by five o'clock.  Because of the six-hour time change, I went to bed early and woke up early, like 4:30.  I turned on the TV about 5:30 or so, and CNN was already doing live coverage from the Mall.  Or really from Pennsylvania Ave., close to the Mall.  I was really surprised at the number of people already on the Mall that early in the morning, in the dark, at about 18 degrees.  In fairness, I forget if this was temp or wind chill.

My first task for the day was to go buy a gophone from Radio Shack and get it going and then switch the SIM card to my phone.  (I didn't want to spend the day figuring out a new combination of buttons to push to do various things.)  There is a Radio Shack at the Pentagon City Mall, one Metro stop from my stop at Crystal City.  I went down there, but the line was coming all the way out of the station, so I decided to walk.  I took off and made it about half a block, when I decided I was dangerously underdressed for the trip, and came back and got my overcoat and scarf and hat with ear flaps.  I'm sure I looked very stylish.  I got the phone and went to the Pentagon City Metro to come home.  When I got to the southbound platform there were two other people waiting for the train.  The DC-bound platform was packed -- SRO.  Their train came first, and the cars were already packed, SRO.  It left and the platform was still packed.  My train was empty, the way I like them.

I have since read on the Metro site that they did over 1.2 million rides Tuesday, eclipsing their old record of 8 million, set the previous day.  (There were lots of happy Obama people in town.)  

If you watched the inauguration on TV you had an idea of the numbers of people.  It is a long way from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol,  24 blocks, to be exact.  The street numbering system starts at the Capitol, Capitol Street, then 1, 2, etc.  The Lincoln Memorial is at 23rd St.  So that's over two miles of people just on the Mall.

On my walk to the mall I passed lots of people walking up to cross the bridge at the Jefferson Memorial.  The bridges were all closed to vehicles.  Everyone was in a festive mood.

I have been watching cable news in the evenings -- when one doesn't watch it, and then comes back and is immersed in it, one can truly see how bad it is.  "Anchor people" who evidently don't know or don't care about American history and/or politics are pontificating about whether Obama is doing good, bad or indifferent and how long the "honeymoon" is going to last.  I wish I could call them up and say "Give it a rest -- he's been president 4 days!"  But that sentiment seems not to be the guiding principle for the news media.

I'm off this morning to Johns Hopkins to have my eyes peered at.  Hopefully by tonight I'll have info to report.