CityLife: The Case of The Missing Subaru

We've been very busy unpacking boxes and moving into our new place, but here's a quick update on life in the city.

I was walking back to our new place last week and couldn’t find our car. This may be very normal for some of you, but I don’t normally misplace items—especially items as big as a car. I was 100% certain of where I had left it—a prime parking spot in front of our building.  After looking up and down the street, I asked Ginger to meet me outside—just to make sure I wasn’t crazy or going senile.  After a quick walk in both directions, she quickly confirmed that the car was not on the street.

Such is life in the big city.  We’ve all heard horror stories about rampant crime and how anything/everything of value will get stolen/trashed/destroyed if you live in the inner city. I guess I was semi-expecting it. So as I was reaching for my phone for the eventual call to the police, I happened to look in the direction of the Auto Repair Shop a few doors down.

I should note here that our area is almost entirely residential.  The only exception is an old car repair place that looks like it’s been around since the 1950’s (see the photo below). There is only room for 2 or 3 cars inside, and I noticed that one of them was a white Subaru Outback.

Capitol Hill Auto Service Center

Wait a minute---we have a white Subaru Outback, and closer inspection revealed that the license plate was ours! That was my car up on a life inside a strange auto garage.

Long story short…..there was another Subaru Outback (although it was green) scheduled for a tire change and it was sitting on the street as well. One of the mechanics walked down the street and stopped at the first Subaru he came to….and strangely enough---the key fit! We quickly sorted out the mess and 5 minutes later, I was driving away with my original car, old tires and all.

There never any shortage of unusual things happening here. In addition to almost getting a new set of tires, in the last week I came across a man blowing his "shofar" in front of the US Capitol (I later saw him in front of the Supreme Court as well) and this trio making music on the side of the road. (Yes---they had wheels mounted on the upright piano and had pushed it out onto the street corner.)

Blowing the shofar on the steps of the US Capitol.

Street corner music. They were really into a scrappy rendition of "Memphis Town"

Just another story of life in the city….

Come back soon for a visual trip around DC during my favorite time of the year: Fall.  

CityLife: 7 October 2013

Life in the city, like life everywhere, gives us plenty of examples of the best and worst of the human condition. (I believe this will be a recurring theme over the next year.) People in DC aren't necessarily better or worse than they are in other places I've lived, but the urban environment, close proximity and national spotlight tends to bring attention to the bad and minimize the good.

We've been in the city now for almost a month, and during this time, we've experienced a mass shooting, a man setting himself on fire on the National Mall, a car chase that ended in another fatal shooting on the Capitol grounds, and a US Government shutdown. Due to our close proximity to the US Capitol (5 blocks away), all of this happened within a mile of our place.

The Navy Yard shootings shocked many people here, especially when considering the fact that it occurred on a military base and in a "secure facility".  Even more personal to us, it's where Ginger works. And most recently, the community (not the politicians, but the local residents who live here) have been frustrated by the Federal government shutdown. For some people, the shutdown will have little impact on their life, but for many people in the DC area, it touches many areas.

There is something terribly sad and ironic about the Lincoln Memorial surrounded with barricades and fences. The Memorial is an imposing & constant reminder of Abraham Lincoln's effort to unify the Union, yet it's barricaded and "off-limits" due to our current Congress's inability to compromise and work together.

We got out this weekend to experience the reality of the shutdown. The National Mall, which would have been crowded even though it is October, was eerily quiet. There were no lines at the food trucks, and many of the parks that we often use for recreation were closed and the streets blocked. The Commissary, where we do much of our grocery shopping was closed. A friend who works as a DC Tour Guide hadn't worked for a week. Everyday, I discover a new way in which the shutdown has impacted life in DC.

Bad news for museum-goers.

An empty World War II Memorial, except for the solitary NPS ranger.

 

Many of the green spaces in DC are administered by the Park Service; as a result, all of them are closed.

Lest you think all the news from DC is bad, I have seen (and continue to see) inspiring examples of people rising above their circumstances.

In the aftermath of the Navy Yard shooting, acts of kindness and solidarity flourished. We were contacted by people we barely knew and had barely met-a realtor, a next door neighbor, a random friend of a friend---strangers we hardly knew but who knew Ginger worked at the Navy Yard  The Washington Nationals gave away free game tickets to anyone associated with the Navy Yard. All across the city, you could find examples of solidarity and perseverance in the face of mindless violence.

Local support for the Washington Navy Yard.

In the case of the man who set himself on fire on the National Mall, passing joggers (the Mall is a huge draw from runners) stripped off their shirts and extinguished the flames. Despite the constant message that big cities are impersonal and city dwellers shun involvement, random strangers did get involved. (The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital and tragically died soon after. In a bizarre twist, he thanked his rescuers before he was airlifted to the hospital.) I've seen this all over DC since I've been here: locals giving directions, helping neighbors and assisting those around them.

At this point, I need to affirm that I don't have some simplistic view of human life, that everyone is happy and nice to each other all the time.  We certainly see crime, substance abuse and homelessness here, just as in other communities. But I've been encouraged by the good that I've seen, and good continues to happen here.

It reminds me of a quote by the late Stephen Covey: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response." Good and bad things happen everywhere....it's how we respond to these events that are important.

We are not victims.  We are not automated robots. We have the freedom and the ability to chart our own future.  Choose wisely.

In other news..we are moving into our new place tomorrow!  Stay tuned for details.