We gather together to make a health care reform statement to our Senators; dinner with Rex at Bombay

I had to deliver some photos to a client in Anchorage, so I decided to time it so that I could go straight from the drop off to the "Send Congress back to DC" event, held for those who pledge their support for health care reform to urge our Senators to vote for reform. As it happened, I hit a couple of traffic jams coming in and so had to go straight to the event, because they were going to shut the doors shortly after 6:00 PM and then no one would be allowed to enter.

Shortly after the meeting began, the host, Jonathan Teeters of Organizing for America, asked all those who had health insurance to raise their hands, then all those who had lousy insurance to raise their hands and finally, all those who had no insurance at all to do so.

This guy sitting next to me raised his hand when the "uninsured category" came up. It had been my intent to ask him a couple of questions afterward, but he got up and zipped out, just before the event ended.

He did a lot of shouting, though, all on cue, and in favor of health insurance reform.

This is Jonathan Teeters himself, holding a bundle representing the 5000 petitions received so far from Alaskans who want Congress to pass a good health care reform plan. That would include me, as I have previously made known.

The highlight of the event came at 7:00 o'clock when Senator Mark Begich made a planned surprise call from Indiana, where he had stopped with his son on their drive back to Washington, D.C. The surprise call was announced five minutes beforehand to give the crowd a chance to practice the response they would shout out for Begich to hear when asked a couple of different questions.

Before this happened, Begich chatted for awhile, telling folks how, as he and his daughter have been traveling, they stop here and there, to get breakfast or dinner, buy gasoline, wander around a park or something and just chat with people. He said that he does not tell them that he is a US Senator and the only Alaska politician most of them would recognize is Sarah Palin, so they don't even suspect.

Again and again, in these casual conversations, Begich said, the subject of health care comes up and people are frustrated. Some have lost jobs and with them their health care. Some are afraid to move to a new job and lose their health care. Some have health care, but get shafted by their insurance companies when the time comes. Some have no health care at all.

Anyway, when the time came, Sarah pointed to the script, and, minus a tiny sprinkling of silent nay-sayers, the crowd shouted out the very words that she points to here.

Senator Lisa Murkowski did not show, nor did she call in. So Jonathan's father videoed the crowd while they shouted out this message to her.

Here folks are, shouting out their message to Senator Murkowski. Mike is the guy in front and he has health insurance and had not been too politically active until the Bush versus Gore election was settled under suspicious circumstance in Florida.

That angered him, as he believes that Gore was cheated out of the victory that should have been his and America has paid a high price. Now, he wants his voice to be heard.

In some ways, it was kind of a funny moment for me. It is my training as a photojournalist that when you cover such events, you do not shout, cheer, clap, jeer or do any such thing. You shoot pictures, you gather notes and you do not display your own sentiments. You pretend that you have no sentiments.

But I had not come as a journalist. I had come as a regular citizen, frustrated and angered by a health care system that absolutely threatens to destroy him. Still, when the call came to shout out, I tried, but I could not shout. I squeaked. It just didn't feel right to shout. It goes against my grain. I'm not a shouter, anyway.

So there you go, I went to this event to make my voice heard by our Senators and then, when the time came, I didn't even make it heard. And I didn't cover the event as I would have if I had been in photojournalism mode. I just shot these few pictures pretty much from the place where I sat.

Still, I have at least made a tiny record of the event, a statement that it happened.

Afterwards, I delivered the photos to my client and got together with my youngest son, Rex, who I had not seen for awhile and took him to dinner at Bombay. I had hoped that my beautiful and intelligent daugther-in-law, Stephanie, could come, too, but she had to work. The waitress, a young Philipina woman who had been terrified to eat Indian food for the first few months that she worked here, saw me taking this picture and volunteered to take one of both of us together.

She did pretty good, too. So here we are, Rex and I together, in the photo taken by the waitress who finally conquered her fear and found Indian food to be quite delicious.

Rex and I had a good visit. 

And, as always, being in this environment took my mind right back to India, to Sandy, Murthy, Vasanthi and all the rest of the family there, to the Indian highway, the bandit monkeys, the elephants that bless people and those that at night appear suddenly at the side of the road in the headlights of your courageous and skilled taxi driver.

It is so sad. I have so many photo stories from India that no one has ever seen, not even me, save for when I took them, because I have had no time to do anything with them.

One day.

Dummies in and on machines - the problems they cause (and why I continue to ignore the Palin controversies - and Kohring, too - in my Wasilla blog)

Why the hell do I bother? Damned if I know. Bother to keep a blog, I mean. It takes time that I do not have. Even so, I think I will continue to keep it. Maybe if I keep it long enough, some rich person or philanthropic organization will come to me and say, "Quit wasting your time doing other stuff! Here is $64 million dollars and 39 cents, tax free. Go and blog."

In the meantime, you will recall that yesterday I had rounded up a tiny handful of my pre-blog photos and I posted a few here. The above, taken in October of '05, is also from that group, and although I do not really want to think about the marsh being frozen right now, it leads directly to the new images that follow, so here it is.

I was glad that day when I walked into the marsh and saw that this truck had got stuck. Glad, because it never should have been there. My friend, the property owner, had his signs posted. He did not want machines tearing up the marsh, which he describes as a meadow.

"Walkers always welcome," his sign said - but it forbade the trespass of all machines.

The driver of this vehicle saw the signs but drove on in, smashing and crushing all before him as he charged forward. He (possibly a she, I suppose) was a DIM - "Dummy In Machine." We have many of them around here, and DOMs too - "Dummies On Machines." DAMs also - "Dummies Abandoning Machines." They do this kind of thing all the time and they will even drive right through your yard, if it suits them.

So I was glad this one got stuck. He would be stuck for awhile.

And this is what he and his dummy peers have wrought. That fence now extends far out into the marsh and this is a very recent development. This was the first time I saw it that way. And do you see the clause that says, "walkers always welcome?" No. It is gone. It would seem that my neighbor is just getting exasperated and so is building barriers that he hopes will keep everybody out. Thanks to the DIMs and such.

I believe that I am still welcome, because the owner and I have known each other almost since the day he moved in with his wife and dogs and we get along well and sometimes we talk about earthquakes. That's what he does. He assesses property for its proximity to fault lines and its potential to wreak havoc upon structures by earthquake. I take some comfort that he is my neighbor.

So we talk about earthquakes. And late last summer, we wound up at the same bar to watch Obama make his acceptance speech and it was so good, we wondered what McCain was thinking - how could he possibly answer such a speech?

And of course, his answer to the articulate and well thought-out words of Obama came right from our own little town and Wasilla and the United States of America have never been the same since.

Now, especially after a week such as this, some may come to my blog and wonder why I ignore all the nonsense that is being wrought out there as a result.

I could probably triple or quadruple or even quintuple my blog readership if I jumped on the blog band-wagon - and it is a mighty big bandwagon - and started ranting about all this. 

But there are enough bloggers doing that. I don't need to. The instant I start, I will polarize this blog and that will be that. 

Except for the part where I photograph things as I drive, walk, and bike about Wasilla and in this way create a somewhat impressionistic image of this little town, I have yet to find the resource and time to meet my larger goal and dig into the soul of this place.

Even though I lean left, I have always been able to get along with people of different viewpoints. When I am able to make this blog what I want it to be, I will need to communicate with the left and right, the middle and the fringe. If I can't, they will not communicate with me - except maybe with one finger.

So I cannot polarize this blog - not too much, anyway.

Plus, on these matters, I have nothing of substance to add.

If I could sit down with our governor, her supporters, her enemies, talk to and listen to them and then find a way to thrash it all out in words and photos, that would be one thing. But that day has yet to come and right now the only thing that I could accomplish would be to blow off steam. That would accomplish nothing.

Plenty of bloggers are doing that already. And each morning, those who go to bed loving Sarah Palin get up loving Sarah Palin and those who fall asleep despising her wake up feeling just the same.

And this goes for Vic Kohring as well. I did get into a big argument with him once, but I was not blogging then. It had to do with Alaska Native hunting and fishing rights. On this, we disagree sharply - as do the governor and I. 

Well, I ramble, to no good end. Maybe I've polarized myself a bit here. Like say, with those DIMs, DOMs and DAMs, Oh, well. I am quite tired. I should not be writing at all. I will stop now.

While taking care of final income tax matters, we stumble upon a tea party; the bad good news is that we have a tax refund coming this year

Poor Margie! She had been working so hard on our taxes, but today it paid off when we learned that we have a refund coming. This sounds like good news and it is, but the reason is bad. Being self-employed, I pay my taxes quarterly and I paid enough after the first quarter of last year to cover the entire year.

That's because I earned very little money after that. All because I stood upon a rolling chair to take a picture.

But this, the year of the great recession, is also going to be the year that I get going again.

As we went out to settle these tax matters and to dine at Taco Bell, I found myself in a perplexing situation. I needed to turn right out of the Fred Meyer parking lot onto the Palmer-Wasilla Highway toward the Parks Highway, but this kid was sitting there on his bike, waiting for a break so that he could cross the road.

Several times, a break came and I could have gone, but it must not have looked a break from his perspective, because he just sat there. Still, I could not go, I could not assume that he was going to just sit there, because his is a precious life and I could not make such an assumption about it.

So I sat and waited and waited and waited.

Then finally he went. I turned right, immediately thereafter.

Up ahead, someone who I do not even know insulted me. Or maybe the insult was directed not at me, but the driver of the red car, perhaps the white. Or maybe the driver of the black truck described himself. Perhaps he takes pride in being recognized as such.

Before we left the house, we had seen news clips of people holding "tea parties" across the country. I didn't even think about the possibility of a tea party being held in our little town, but, of course! This is Wasilla. People here love tea, and would not pass up a chance to stage a tea party.

As for the website posted on the sign, I checked it out and you can, too, right here. It also contains a link to Glenn Beck's website, who the website creator holds in high esteem. 

One day, I hope to photograph and interview Glenn Beck, as part of a project that would also have me interview and photograph Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada, for both share a common bond that in an odd sort of way links each to me.

I'll probably never find the time or the money to do it, though.

Plus, I have other priorities that rank above this part of the project.

Once, in Dupree, South Dakota, I bought a piggy bank. It was ceramic, red, made in Mexico and it looked Mexican. I thought that if I put just one quarter a day in it, in just a couple of decades, I would have saved so much money that I could retreat from all jobs and fully dedicate myself to my work. So I put the first quarter into it.

That night, some kids stole it. The next day, I found the shattered remains of the bank spread across the sidewalk. The quarter was gone. I did not feel bad about the quarter, but I felt bad about the piggy bank.

I have never managed to save anything, since. And though I dabble at it here and there, I remain financially unable to dedicate myself fully to my work.

I think I am going to be a pauper in my old age.

If I can have a hut, enough food to eat, and be able to sit there and write, intelligently, I won't care. I would do that right now, but too many people depend on me to keep a roof over their head.

I have said it before: I have observed enough of this life to come to one conclusion about God-granted rights. God grants us but one right - the right to struggle to survive for as long as we are able. Not to survive, but to struggle to survive. 

Beyond that, God gives us no rights at all. How many people die on their first day of life? All these exercised their one God-given right, but it didn't work out for them. We envision rights, we create political systems and codify the rights that we desire in Constitution and in law and then we fight with each other about what these rights mean; we defend the rights that we seek even as we try to take away those that the other guy seeks but that we find offensive, be our reason noble or petty, informed or based on emotion.

Should these people in this picture and those who feel as they do find full success in their quest, I wonder what kind of rights I would be left with?

The light turned red for me, right here, beside this lively boy.

Very recently, many Americans rose up to take their country back and succeeded. Now others, most of whom thought they were taking the country back when they elected George W., want to take it away, again.

I drive on from the tea party and see joggers on a bike trail. I admire joggers, not necessarily for their politics but for their jogging discipline. I don't jog, but I do ride a bike. 

And so passed this day as seen from my Ford Escape, right here, in Wasilla, Alaska.

A narrow view of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama - Part 3 of 3: The new president is sworn in; how the people near me reacted

"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood.  Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.  Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."  - Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

To the sounds of "trumpet and fanfare," President Elect Barack Obama arrived at the Capitol building as his image appeared on the nearby Jumbotron. He looked confident and proud. The applause was loud, the shouts joyous, the people waved American flags with enthusiasm.

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.  They are serious and they are many.  They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.  But know this America:  They will be met."

And there was pride - a kind of pride that many in the crowd had never felt before, had not believed they would ever feel, but now they did feel it.

Perhaps the "majority" of us cannot fully comprehend the degree of the pride that radiated from the faces of so many of the African Americans who were present, but we can recognize it, celebrate it, rejoice in it.

I, as a white American, also felt a kind of pride that I had never before experienced, pride in the fact that the country that I now lived in had become a better nation then the one that I had grown up in. The notion that such an event could ever happen could not have even been believed in the United States of my childhood.

No, I am wrong to make the above statement. At least one man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., believed it.

Despite the almost universal acclaim given him today, I recall the attitudes toward Dr. King that prevailed in the community that surrounded me back then and that attitude was mean and derisive - and no, I did not live in the south. I lived in California.

I recall, too, how, in my community, Dr. King was mocked and ridiculed, deemed to be a dangerous man, a Communist, out to destroy America, after he spoke these words:

"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"

Much later, I listened to the those words and was suddenly struck by meaning that had eluded me in my youth. When Dr. King spoke of how "we" would be "free at last," he had included me, a white man who had already believed himself to be free, but who was actually bound and restrained by the limitations that a racist society imposes upon itself.

Now, on the National Mall, I recalled other images from my youth and early adulthood, images of Black Americans turning their back on the flag to raise their clenched fists in the opposite direction.

Here, I saw them clutch the American flag with pride, I saw them wave the American flag as they cheered and smiled big, I saw tears come to their eyes as they embraced that flag. There seemed to be a feeling that, finally, that flag had embraced them.

"Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less.  It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.  Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."

President-Elect Obama had created a controversy among many of his most dedicated followers and volunteers when he chose the Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the Inaugural address. When Warren, known for his anti-gay comments, stepped to the podium, the reception seemed polite but cool.

Yet, when he began to pray, people around me began to cry. They could not stop their tears, particularly when Warren spoke these words:

"Now today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.

"We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership.

"And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven... Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all."

""For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.  For us, they toiled in sweatshops, and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip, and plowed the hard earth.  For us, they fought and died in places like Concord and Gettysburg, Normandy and Khe Sahn." 

When Itzhak Perlman and Yoyo Ma began to play the violin and chello, I did wonder not only how they were able to manipulate their fingers in the cold, but also how they kept their stringed instruments in tune.

It seemed impossible, yet the thought that they were bow syncing to a recording of themselves did not occur to me.

Some were upset about the "fakery" when the news came out that what we actually heard was a recording the team of Perlman, Ma, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill had made the day before. The news did not bother me. These virtuosos had faced a choice - do what they did or risk a clumsy, out-of-tune performance. How much criticism would that have brought down upon them?

"We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth.  Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began.  Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week, or last month, or last year.  Our capacity remains undiminished.  But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed.  Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."

As an enthusiastic crowd cheers, waves the American flag and throws confetti, Barack and Michelle Obama walk together toward the swearing-in. Blogger's note, 2/4/09: This replaces a similar photo taken a short time later that went up with the original post Please note that a "click" on any photo will bring up a larger copy.

"For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.  The state of our economy calls for action, bold and swift.  And we will act, not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.  We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together." 

I will let her expression describe her feelings as she watches Barack Obama prepare to be sworn in as President of the United States.

Joy. 

All around me, I could detect only happiness, joy and a true feeling of hope, unity, sisterhood and brotherhood between groups of people so divergent in bloodline, origin, culture and nurture.

"We'll restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.  We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.  And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.  All this we can do.  All this we will do." 

After placing his hand upon the Bible of Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Please note the men perched on the building behind, including the ones with the scopes.

And note the trails from the jets that continually circled above.

More pride.

 "As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.  Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man -- a charter expanded by the blood of generations.  Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience sake." 

President Obama speaks. "These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics.  Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights."

In whatever direction I looked, I saw happy faces...

...enraptured faces...

...and the transformed smiles of those who had suddenly forgotten how cold they had felt through the long, short, hours that they had endured after arising at 3:00 AM to come down and stand immobile in the frigid air.

"Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.  They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.  Instead they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint." 

And then there was my own daughter, Lisa, who, as an Obama volunteer, had worked so hard to get this man elected. She had done so even though she knew that no matter what she and the other Alaska volunteers did, there was no chance that Barack Obama would receive our state's three electoral votes.

Still, she could make a statement that there is much diversity in the minds of Alaskans, that we do not all think the same nor fall inline with one way of thinking, that even on Main Street, Wasilla, Alaska, there is room for divergent thought and viewpoint among genuine, real, patriotic Americans.

Now, as she listened to the man whom she had worked so hard to elect speak, she got her payoff. And when she heard him say these words, "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth," she felt the reward of her hard work. It was the first time that she had heard a President make a statement about who just who the American people really are that did not exclude, but rather did include her.

President Barack Obama speaks from a position directly in front of us, yet we can identify him only on the Jumbotron.

"We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense.  And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken -- you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you." 

The speech concludes. The new President takes his seat. Lisa joins in the applause. She is the whole reason that we came. She was so thrilled when Barack Obama won the election that she immediately bought herself a round-trip ticket to New York City (Washington, DC, was too expensive) so that she could attend the inaugural. She did not have funds for a hotel, so she thought she would just camp out.

Margie and I had planned to take a vacation at this time, to go to Utah and Arizona, so that we could see family, and Margie could warm herself in the southwest sun and enjoy the winter daylight that Alaska lacks. 

Instead, we decided to change our itinerary a bit, and so accompanied Lisa to the Inauguration.

"Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations." 

The ceremony ended, but the warm, euphoric feelings continued. Soon, of course, those feelings will be tempered by the enormity of the task that our new president faces. He will come under fire, and much of it will be directed towards him from those most responsible for creating the perilous situation that our country now faces. In fact, that fire has already begun.

I made a phone call from the Lincoln Memorial to a hard-right conservative who is most beloved to me. He brought up the fact that even as Obama was in the process of taking over the Presidency, jobs were being lost daily, by the tens of thousands. "They're calling it the Obama effect," he told me. He was quite serious, and, despite the last eight years, believed his own words.

I saw the true Obama effect, and I hope that you can see it in the pictures above, in the faces of those who attended the Inaugural.

Later, he told me that Obama had signed an executive order that meant the United States was now going to be paying for abortions. He said this in such a way as to imply that the government would be paying for abortions across the board, throughout the Country. In fact, what Obama had signed was an order that lifted the Bush ban on US aid to international family planning organizations with services that include advice or help to women who seek abortions - a very different matter.

So these are the kinds of distortions and obstacles that will be thrown at our new President as he works to lead us out of the mess that we are in.

True, as the situation grows worse, I suspect that even many who now cheer him will grow impatient and will issue their own harsh criticisms of the man they helped elect. Perhaps I will, myself.

Obviously, none of us can yet know how well our new President will handle the many crisis that he inherited and he will undoubtedly make some bad mistakes. For this, he will be loudly condemned.

Yet, it is my personal belief that, right now, the United States of America is in need of a leader the likes of which we have not seen at least since World War II. A great leader. As Colin Powell said, a transformational leader. One who can not only inspire us but convince us to make the kinds of sacrifice that we modern day Americans do not like to make.

Considering the challenges, without such a leader, it seems unlikely that United States will continue as the great power that it has been since World War II. Looking at all of our national leaders, in all parties, I do not see the potential of such a leader except in one individual: our new President, Barack Obama. I do believe he has that potential. Whether the potential will be fulfilled, I do not know. 

I wonder what I can do to help him succeed?

I suppose I could begin by finding a way to rapidly pay off the new credit card debt that I added to the old, just to travel to Washington, DC and back. This would mean I would have to put off some immediate gratification in order to help bring about a more prosperous future. I like that immediate gratification. I would like to think that I can now indulge in it, and let the future take care of itself.

Hmmmm.....

A click here will take you to the full text and video of President Obama's speech.

Outgoing President says Goodbye; Chris Matthews through the window - Inauguration post must wait one more day

President Bush says goodbye. As he does, a low, murmuring "boo" rises from many spread throughout the crowd. Then voices, scattered throughout, begin to sing, "sha-na-na-naah, sha-na-na-naah, hey-heyeeh, good-bye."

As for me and my inaugural post, I was unable to complete it today. When one's wife gets hurt far from home and enters a temporary state of helplessness, her care takes precedence over the blog.

I did get the pictures edited down to a reasonable number, however, and I do expect to post it tomorrow.

Still, I felt that I needed to post something today, so I thought I would throw in the outgoing President and then deal with the new one tomorrow.

I know - the nomination of President Barack Obama will be ancient history by then, but sometimes things go that way.

After the inauguration concluded, the three of us (Margie, Lisa and I) happened to walk by the portable studio MSNBC had set up on the National Mall as Chris Matthews and guest Norah O‘Donnell told viewers what they had actually saw this day. Matthews said the "booing" of President Bush had been in poor form, but was an accurate reflection of how the nation as a whole felt about the man.

 I shot a few pictures through the huge studio windows.

Lisa wanted to get on TV, so she took a seat on the MSNBC bleachers, which are frequently panned by the cameras. She was enthralled, and stayed there for hours and hours and hours, not giving one damn about the cold that had all of DC talking.

I would have been happy to stay, too, but cold and exhaustion had overwhelmed my Margie, so we walked to the Metro, rode the underground train to Friendship Heights, where she fell and broke herself.

I did not tell Lisa until I picked her up at the  Friendship Heights Metro station and then drove her back to the home where we were staying. She was having a great time, and I could see no point in putting a damper on it prematurely.

Besides, she had never before navigated the Washington, DC Metro system on her own and I did not want her to be distracted with worry and then maybe wind up on the wrong train.