8/16: Latest News from the Plastic Water Bottle Front in The Imperial Capital!! -- Plus Extra! On DC Hell-icopter Noise
For links to previous editions of this blog, see (which has a map of NW DC)
*** Image from, "Use trash to make your own basic helicopter model"
*** Image from, "Use trash to make your own basic helicopter model"
Today, during my near-daily stroll/jog in the NW section of Washington, DC (taken later than usual today because I've been under the weather), I picked up, as my self-imposed citizen duty calls, three plastic water bottles (PWBs) -- two on Porter Street, one near the Giant supermarket on Connecticut Avenue.
You may be asking? (Not that my minor adventures in picking up s--t in the Imperial Capital will ever be a Kipling novel).
Why/what do I do with my non-political, "on-the grounds" public-duty-produced trash pick-up in the NW quadrant of Washington, DC that I document on this silly blog?
To keep it simple -- I don't want to bore you with my picking up/throwing out sticky prophylatics (in the recent past, with a tiny branch I found along tree-lined Tilden Street), not to speak of Corona beer bottles filled with urine and junk-food packages invaded by ants and excrement (if the I identified the brown/yellowish human waste on the paper napkins accurately) .
A most amusing/intriguing "trash detail" is dental floss (produced by Dental Floos-Picks); empty plastic pill containers (newly found); on the other hand, cigarettes butts are beyond my reach; at my age, I can only stretch my back so such ...
So how I can properly/succinctly inform you of my early/mid-morning promenade/jog ecologically-focused activities, assuming you are interested ?
Answer: You might be interested as a sample of what a simple ordinary citizen can do, in a very minor way, to alert us about our ecological situation. (By no means an "example.")
I get up, relatively early in the morning, put on my aged jogging shoes; on my way down Tilden Street, I pick up the PWBs (plastic water bottles, if they're any; usually there are), eventually put them (along with the other trash mentioned above) in waste receptacles available on Tilden Street, Rock Creek Park picnic areas, Porter Street, and Connecticut Avenue, all in NW DC.
Good news: If it's any indication of citizens' concerns about "trash-all-over-the-place," seldom are the trash cans empty.
Long live America! Our trash cans will never be empty!
Believe it or not, I occasionally get thanked for (I assume) "being a good citizen" at an (again I assume at a grass-roots level) by passers-bye, among them one lady of a certain age who makes it a point, she told me, to "pick up left-over poohs" along one of the Imperial Capital's main arteries, Connecticut Avenue, where pets (poor things -- where else can they "go") leave their calling cards behind.
***
AN ELUCIDATION
(No need to read if you're not interested; the earth will survive)
Why/what do I do with my non-political, "on-the grounds" public-duty-produced trash pick-up in the NW quadrant of Washington, DC that I document on this silly blog?
To keep it simple -- I don't want to bore you with my picking up/throwing out sticky prophylatics (in the recent past, with a tiny branch I found along tree-lined Tilden Street), not to speak of Corona beer bottles filled with urine and junk-food packages invaded by ants and excrement (if the I identified the brown/yellowish human waste on the paper napkins accurately) .
A most amusing/intriguing "trash detail" is dental floss (produced by Dental Floos-Picks); empty plastic pill containers (newly found); on the other hand, cigarettes butts are beyond my reach; at my age, I can only stretch my back so such ...
So how I can properly/succinctly inform you of my early/mid-morning promenade/jog ecologically-focused activities, assuming you are interested ?
Answer: You might be interested as a sample of what a simple ordinary citizen can do, in a very minor way, to alert us about our ecological situation. (By no means an "example.")
I get up, relatively early in the morning, put on my aged jogging shoes; on my way down Tilden Street, I pick up the PWBs (plastic water bottles, if they're any; usually there are), eventually put them (along with the other trash mentioned above) in waste receptacles available on Tilden Street, Rock Creek Park picnic areas, Porter Street, and Connecticut Avenue, all in NW DC.
Good news: If it's any indication of citizens' concerns about "trash-all-over-the-place," seldom are the trash cans empty.
Long live America! Our trash cans will never be empty!
Believe it or not, I occasionally get thanked for (I assume) "being a good citizen" at an (again I assume at a grass-roots level) by passers-bye, among them one lady of a certain age who makes it a point, she told me, to "pick up left-over poohs" along one of the Imperial Capital's main arteries, Connecticut Avenue, where pets (poor things -- where else can they "go") leave their calling cards behind.
***
Part of the area of my near-daily peregrinations is the magical Rock Creek Park, about which there is a very informative recent local newspaper article:
Fritz Hahn and Kara Elder, "In the heart of the city, Rock Creek Park offers places to picnic, play or just get away from it all," The Washington Post (August 15)
images from article:
Max Martin, 6, peers through a hoop used for Game of Graces, a game played during the early 1800s, at the Peirce Mill family day in Rock Creek Park. (Marlena Sloss/The Washington Post)
***
Bad image from, with the nevertheless humorous caption: This bench in Rock Creek Park commemorates French ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand, who was the only man who could keep up with Teddy Roosevelt on a hike in the park. Credit: National Park Service
Rock Creek Park, this gracious, generous, grandiose (thank God I found another "G") homage to Nature -- and Americans' willingness to support it with their tax money in its (as most as possible) pristine state -- today it is not infrequently invaded by occasional narcissistic scooter riders (they, avoiding that dreadful, in their opinion [I guess], time-consuming activity, actually hikin', walkin' -- [just kiddin']), who selfishly leave their means of "transportation" behind (I'd call it a War Against Walking/Pedestrians/Civilization [an unpopular word these days]) "wherever" -- on the trail, next to the trail, on the grass, etc. -- like preadolescents disposing of their toys on the first day of kindergarten class after they get bored.
21st century scooter-trash litter at its worst.
I won't focus on Rock Creek Park family/community-picnickers who don't always "do their thing" with their trash (there are numerous waste disposal receptacles in the picnic areas: Thank God to America for Making Us Clean (Again ... :)), although, from my near daily experience (especially on weekends), these community-focused families do try to keep the area clean, with the kids enthusiastically pitching in, if I can pass judgment of their activities.
***
Sadly the sanctity of the Park -- I can think of no other word to describe its ethereal quality -- can be also violated by noise straight from Hades created hell-icopters flying at low altitude, often (if not always, I hope) on a daily basis:
Today, June 16, there were six overflights in the space of some sixty minutes when I took my promenade in Rock Creek: a record number since I've been doing my pick-up-trash routine during the past few months, if I can trust my memory!
Only God (or better put, the military and the police -- am kiding) seem know what these insufferable flying mechanical bugs are buzzing about, so loudly (I've tried to find out by calling government agencies, both local and federal, on numerous occasions, but to no avail).
Bill and Gabrielle Stevens, who are retired and in their 70s, have lived in their Bethesda home for 20 years. The couple, shown last week, say they might not have bought the house had they known they would face such high levels of aircraft noise. (Hannah Natanson/The Washington Post)
There have been fine articles pointing out (rather than preaching) about the noise produced by these 'copters, including by Hannah Natanson, "Like 'living in a war zone,'": Washington-area residents say increased helicopter traffic is giving them nightmares," The Washington Post (June 23)
See also the detailed, informative piece, "Helicopters of DC [:] An overview of the helicopters flying over Washington, DC," which includes useful links and 10 photographs of 'copters (all identified), including;
See also the detailed, informative piece, "Helicopters of DC [:] An overview of the helicopters flying over Washington, DC," which includes useful links and 10 photographs of 'copters (all identified), including;
US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron
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