Way Back Machine 2002

Chronology of the Weiss family

JAN – JUN 2002

G to M - “You know you have really bad taste in TV”

M responds, “You mean my whole life has been wasted” (from Apr 2001)

JANUARY – 6^th-8^th M&A in Atlanta. Got 1^st class seat on DC-Atlanta trip but it was too early to have alcohol. 9^th brief but unforecast ice storm ties up traffic in Md suburbs. M makes it to metrorail and at 710am while waiting for train see rainbow in North sky (earliest ever saw rainbow in day and first time ever saw rainbow from icestorm). 9^th B arrives home from Israel. She is angry with Long Island RR and British Airways for various travel outrages. G got sick while A&M were out of town. Paid neighbor to feed cat.. 10-11^th Dave Jackson, friend of G visits. 1^st visitor to ask us to change conversation subject (G&M were discussing Klingon blood wine). 12^th B at another wedding –this time in Balt. Jan 15 Ann has outpatient surgery on foot. As Novocain wore off it was painful but by 24 hours it was better and in 96 hours she could go downstairs by herself. M took her to hospital, G took her home; went to wrong hospital (Howard instead of Holy Cross) because of mistake looking in phone book. B’s comment when seeing commercial for dish washing substance- shows someone putting yummy looking cake in dishwasher and the cake disappears in the washing cycle. “They shouldn’t be allowed to show such horrible things.”  Also that week the Redskins fired their head coach and we had a snowstorm. M went to another GW B-Ball game.  B&G back to school mid Jan. M in several cities, towns in Alabama 29-31. Among other highlights, in front passenger seat when rental car hit deer. Some of the deer fur staying the grill. Car was drivable and we drove it about another 180 miles.

FEBRUARY – 1st. A out with B for bank changes. 5^th- New floor in kitchen; furniture from Atlanta delivered on same day.  5^th unusually dry; temp outside was above 40F at same time dew point was –1F. 8^th M loses Harry Potter #2 book finds it on 13^th. 3rd G loses drivers license and credit card; finds license on 14^th. 11^th-13^th M in El Paso (southern terminus of Rocky Mtns- a monument says so).  Original flight home cancelled (2 hours after cancellation, electronic boards still said flight was on time) so M had goes home by Albuquerque, Cincinnati. Gets 1^st class on Alb-Cin flgt (5 beers). At 8:02pm it was 2002 (hrs); 20-02 (day/month); 2002.  G tells a story about himself. He was in car, saw a video store and had a sudden need to rent a video. After finding one, then going to car to get video member card he changed his mind on what he wanted to get. Then he went out again to check car because meter was running down, then got back to store, changed his mind again about what video he wanted then finally made up his mind and realized he didn’t have enough money and still didn’t have new credit card (it had come in mail but he hadn’t stopped by yet to get it.).

MARCH – February ended dry. Previous six months have averaged between 25% and 50% of normal precipitation.  On 6^th, former 4 time mayor, convicted drug abuser and admitted adulterer and sex offender (both misdemeanors) Marion Barry announces candidacy for an at large DC council seat saying, “… I have a duty and responsibility to the people.”  6^th – County gives permission to disperse estate of my mom (over 12 months since she died) 13^th Balt Oriole payroll now, post Ripken, lowest in AL, coincidentally the VP in charge of payroll is Syd Thrift. 22^nd hideously cold ground freezes B&G home for spring break. 23^rd G walks 10 mi to Kemp Mill, this time bringing another Potomac resident. March has almost normal rainfall.

APRIL – 1^st U of Md wins NCAA men’s Div 1 basketball championship for first time. Rioting after semifinal was bad, not as bad after final. Beth reports walking to her apartment during peak of final ‘celebration’. 4^th. Marion Barry announces he is not seeking candidacy any longer subsequent to announcement by his 4^th wife that she is filing for divorce and announcement by Park Police of cocaine dust in Barry’s vehicle and white powder near his nose at a press conference. 5th-9^th M in SW Missouri and NW Arkansas (card playing trip) – also saw a show and music/water machine and ran into a transvestite convention in Eureka Springs, AR. 12^th – Azaleas and dogwoods beginning to bloom before the Cherry Blossoms have faded. 19^th fourth day in a row with high near or over 90F and pollen counts up to 2500 (90 is considered excessive in this dept). 19^th M hosts conference call between M (@ work), A (@ home) and VISA customer rep about frozen account; account unfrozen in 30 seconds. 21^st M gets $50 cash at grocery store checkout but leaves before taking it; comes back ½ hour later and store gives him the $50 with no problems; even more, on 24^th, while shopping again, one of the checkout clerks asks him if he got his $50 back (she had done the reconciling on that register on the 21^st). 27^th Derek Lowe throws first no hitter in Fenway since 65 vs. Tampa Bay. Lowe was 1-4 last year with 6.75 ERA but came within 6 outs of a no hitter vs. Balt. Earlier in season. 28^th first heavy rain in many months; over 1.5”. Also on 28^th about 730pm, F5 for about 1 minute (wind > 260mph) Tornado hits La Plata, Md. One of 5 strongest tornados ever on E Coast. Hundreds of structures damaged in 24-mile path (most was at F1-F3). Turns out La Plata is tornado magnet; has had one in 1926 (an F4), 1 in 1975 and 2 in 1994 (tornado had hit U of Md campus Sept. 24,2001.  

MAY 2^nd. Mike Cameron (who was hitting .260 with 5 Hrs coming into game) hits 4 consecutive HRs in game for Seattle. First since 1959 in AL. Both Cameron and Bret Boone had 2 HRs in an inning (first time ever for one team in one game). May 3-8 M in Portland. On way there, plane leaving National had two aborted take offs and then had to refuel. The plane flew by Mt. Hood with view of Mt. Adams and Mt. Ranier simultaneously. On 11^th, Columbia Hospital announces it is closing. Columbia is where M and Beth were born 1950 & 1979. We had hoped that if Beth’s kids were born there we might get free parking that day because of the 3-generation thing. 18^th snow in Albany and Binghamton, NY (latest snowfall ever with records going back to 1790). 19^th, M&A in Balt., met LT Gov. 19-23^rd cold spell in DC, several minimums in 30s, snow in parts of Md. 22^nd  Shawn Green (LA) coming into game with .230 batting average, hits 4 HRs, Double and single. 19 total bases breaks 48 year old MLB record. Only 14 people have hits 4 HRs in a game and this is 2^nd this month (Green hit 3 more HRs in next two games) 23^rd Beth graduates from Univ of Md. Last graduation ceremony ever at Cole Field House (her college –about 800 graduates had a ceremony 9am –1245 and another 1pm to 345 pm Took 2 hours to read all the names. Afterwards Beth allowed Gm M and A to help clean her room. When one speaker told about sleeping thru a test, G said he once slept during a test (actually a 15 minute nap between beginning to answer and end of written material).

May 28^th-June 4^th B, M & A in San Francisco. (Beth’s graduation gift). B & A especially liked Teddy Bear factory. M liked Muir Woods – all like Alcatraz and Sea Lions at Pier 39. M & B saw models of imperial walkers at Ports of Oakland and Alameda also saw Coit Tower while A was at Museums of nautical stuff. B&M saw nice Pacific sunset. Hot at Alcatraz (which is unusual), very cold the day and a half we were at Berkeley (Sabbath with Chabad). M&B saw a whale near Santa Cruz. M passed 14 miles of congestion using HOV lanes near San Jose ; got free trip both ways on Golden Gate Bridge (also carpool related) and a free parking place near Fisherman’s wharf. A got a bit scared going down hill in cable car. B now knows difference between cable car and streetcar (rode that also) B also liked the bison at GG park. Saw W Wohlfieler for first time since 78 and B Shoemaker for first time since 75 both nice visits; former including view of Forster City lagoon which abuts W.W.’s house; latter including visit to Muir Woods which is near San Rafael where BShoe lives. G guarded the house. 2^nd Robert Person (Phil) gets first win of season; pitches 5 shut out innings and hits two HRs, 7 RBIs-not a record in 1964 Tony Cloninger had two grand slam HRs in a game while pitching for Atlanta). Now is 1-3 on season w .154 BA. 6^th Wye Oak, Md.’s State tree- 500 yr old 35-foot circumfrence at base, etc. falls in moderate wind storm. 9^th-13^th B in Georgia, NC and SC with her uncle & G-ma. 10^th-12^th M in South Dakota..  17^th G, who has been reading a novel on line says, “…and there was no editing; there were, like, a thousand spelling errors and I hadn’t even written it”  24^th at Big Train baseball game in Bethesda. George Will, signing/selling his baseball books before game, threw out first pitch. Fast ball traveled only 30’ before hitting dirt then bounced left and didn’t even cross batter’s box. 25^th Md residents warned of an infestation of snakefish (up to 40” & 20 lbs, these things eat other fish but could also bite small pets, can travel from pond to pond using their fins&tail and can live for up to 48 hrs out of water) – one such fish (12 lbs) was caught on July 1. 28^th a check Irwin had given G for his high school graduation that G had lost in June 2001, was found by B while cleaning in advance of a paint job (and deposited in July 2002).

Chronology July – Dec 2002

 

“You’ve backed everything up right” – Ann

July – Beth goes to 3 weddings. Oldsmobile has major cooling system problem (bottom value blows out and intake manifold leeks oil into coolant reservoir). M gets Boog Powell’s autograph.

Kid in line back of M: Who is that?

M_                   Boog Powell

Kid                  Did he play baseball?

M                     For the Orioles. In the World Series several times, many HRs

Kid                  when?

M                     70s

Kid                  Did Orioles have a team then?

George worked at a summer camp for 6 weeks. Pulled 60 hr weeks doing kitchen and related work. It wore him down and when he returned home in Aug (to rest) he said he will take courses next summer.

Aug – Ann & Martin on cruise. Ports of call; Venice, Piraeus/Athens, Malta, Naples (saw Pompeii while there), nr Rome, nr Florence, Monaco and Barcelona (wrote to B&G via email from ship). Beth goes to 3 more weddings. At end of month B is speaking to a friend.  Friend:        What do you do this summer?

            Beth                I went to 6 weddings.

            Friend              Whatever will you do with all those husbands?

We have made the decision to dump our dial up Internet Provider and get a broadband IP.

Sept – G does Rhashanah mussaf at Hillel. Complains that congregation didn’t know the liturgical responses well enough.  New IP is Comcast (our cable company). G installs a wireless router so our two computers are a local area network. Problems immediately with cross routing. That fixed, the next problem is frequent freezing up.

Oct-     Another major cooling system with the Oldsmobile. M decides to give it to charity. MLB season ends.  Balt SS Mike Bordick ends season with 106 games w/o an error. Atl pitcher and former starter Mike Scholtz ends season w 54 saves for MLB record. Barry Bonds (SF) ends season with MLB records for walks, on base average and slugging percentage. Is oldest player (38) to win HR crown (NL) and batting average title MLB).  Beth has accident 0.25 miles from house on way to part time teaching job – teaching Jewish history at a nearby Synagogue (she has two other part time jobs – free lance reporting for PG sentinel and journalism marketing and is also tutoring some immigrants so she needs to drive). New Hyundai (<6k odometer) is totaled; Beth too scared to drive for a week. One week later, Ann gets egregiously bad advice from Dell tech support and hard drive is erased (most of this file is from memory – M has back up of 1986-2002a chron files).  It turned out that one big problem was congestion in the Microsoft registry. It took a while to understand this. Then we obtained some free soft ware that cleans the registry during each log in. Several of the Sniper’s murders were within 5 miles of the house.  World Series is between two ‘wild card’ teams (a 1^st), records: most runs, most HRs, worst starting pitching, 1^st rookie to win game 7 since 1909. Since 1982, the home team has a cumulative 18-2 record in the 6^th and 7^th games of the world series.  Oct 30^th the max temp was below 40F at both Dulles and BWI. Lowest Oct max in 200 years. Oct 30^th and 31^st, Wizards score only 68 pts in 1^st game, 3^rd lowest in franchise history, the next day they beat Boston 114-69, worst loss in Boston franchise history.

Nov On the 1^st, we have a heavy frost across the street, no frost on our side. Nov 5 Irwin gets G about 8 good leads finding a winter internship.  Nov 6-8 M in Alabama (biz). Nov 10-12 M&A in Atlanta (visit A’s mom & brother & others). Nov 14^th B gets offer for full time work (assistant to exec director of an association). She had been doing about 5 part time jobs. Two of the part time jobs are in the evening and she will continue them for a while. Nov 16-17 about 3” rain on top of about 6” in previous few weeks pretty much end a drought around here that had lasted over 24 months.  Nov 18^th-20^th M in Montana. M in Bismarck, ND airport on the way home, gets North Dakota cribbage board and plays cribbage. Nov 21^st B is about to make a turn into oncoming traffic on a one way street is saved by a homeless person motioning her not to do it BNov 22^nd-23^rd B in Georgetown. Nov 26^th M breaks rake while doing leaves. This is 4^th rake broken in 6 autumns at this address (we’ve also been through 3 vacuum cleaners here).  Nov 28^th Irwin and Cheryl visit for thkgvg.

December 1^st Mike & Nadine Postol visit for 3^rd night of Hannukah. Dec 2-3 M in Jackson, MS. Dec 3^rd Beth complains that driver’s side back door in new car doesn’t work. M verifies. Dec 4^th door suddenly works again. B verifies. On 3^rd, Beth gets gift of a snuggly soft hood and gloves from Russians she is tutoring; later they gave her chocolate made in Russia (with both Cyrillic and transliterated Cyrillic 5^th snow 6” well forecast event. This year our county has a ‘clear sidewalk in 24 hour’ law for residential units as well as business (we also have a cat leash law and other intrusive junk). The county exec said he asked the police not to enforce the ‘clear side..’ law this year, however, if people call and complain about their neighbor (they do this for cats), it gets dicey.  Dec 10^th -11^th  well forecast freezing rain event. 2^nd unscheduled leave day for fed govt. Dec 13^th Wash Wizards score 65 in game (28 in 1^st half) both record lows. Dec 13-14^th Aaron and Sofia visiting Beth. M picks up G and friend to see ST Nenesis on 2^nd night. Dec 15^th Michael Jordan gets only 2 pts but Wizards win easily anyway. Dec 22^nd Despite two 10-yard and one blocked punt, Redskins win easily. Dec 13-14^th and 20-22^nd two friends of B&G visit (different ones). Dec 13^th, the Epson printer we bought from Staples in July gets stuck (it has both an Epson and a Staple warranty). After several calls to Epson they tell us to bring it back to Staples. On Dec 20^th Staples said to bring it to an Epson dealer. Epson said the nearest Epson dealer to us was a CompUSA dealer. On Dec 22^nd, the CompUSA dealer said they would charge us to fix it and couldn’t access the Epson warranty.  Later the Epson home office agreed to send us a new printer (we have to send the old one back). It arrived the 24^th about 6pm and amazingly it worked and we sent the old one back on Epson’s UPS label (i.e., free to us). Beth is now on step 4 of a 12 step program to assemble a desk in her room (she completed work on the 28^th). 23^rd family goes to the festival of lights at the Mont county arboretum; first time doing this, lights in designs of snails, spiderwebs, bears, candles, flowers, rain, etc. on 30 acres of tended gardens. Was $10 for the 4 of us. 26^th M meets G at the White Flint bus stop after work – not intentionally (G doing a winter intership).  28^th we bought a kitchen island (rolling cabinet w butcher block top) from our friend Trina Bellek who is moving to Hawaii to take over a horse riding biz and add a breast cancer surgery recovery clinic to it. 27^th-29^th Beth in Great Neck, NY and attended an Iranian wedding (prayer book was in Hebrew and Farsi). 27^th-28^th David Jackson (Skokieson) visiting.