Hot and Humid - First Hour on Vacation

It was in the 80's and humid this afternoon in downtown Washington, D.C. We are heading to the Delaware coast tomorrow, and I felt like I was officially on vacation after making a presentation this afternoon and wrapping up a follow-on meeting afterward in an office building just north of the Supreme Court building and northeast of the Capitol Building. As I started walking back to Capitol South Metro Station, at the corner of Maryland Avenue and First Street NE was a snack vendor kiosk being tended by the proprietor and his wife.

We both made eye contract and I wished him a good evening, and then asked, "What do you have that's cold - any juice bars?"

"Yes, what would you like? Strawberry, papaya, coconut?"

"I'll take the coconut. How much?"

"Two dollars."

I opened my wallet and pulled out two singles. We made the exchange and both smiled.

"May I leave the wrapper?"

He gladly obliged, and I began walking south on First Street while trying to keep my tongue from sticking to the frozen bar (1), with my jacket draped over my left arm and brief case strap over my shoulder. I know enough from experience to take my time walking in weather like this or I will end up dripping like a leaking faucet by the time I sit down on my seat in the train heading back to my car parked at the Landover Station.

The tourists are all over Washington - groups of middle school kids, dad's taking pictures of family members - mom with the two kids, the two kids together, then one-at-a-time in front of the Neptune relief sculpture fountain in front of the Library of Congress (2). ("Daddy, why are those naked people taking a bath across from the Capitol Building?") In the same vicinity, I could hear a Northern Cardinal calling in one of the trees - perhaps singing song of a Siren; but that is another Greek story that has to deal with large bodies of water, not large bronze bodies in water.

I am also old enough to not be inhibited in public places, knowing that I am a faceless entity wearing a tie in a city where ties are in style year-round. So while I was walking and thinking how I had wished I had taken a photograph of the vendor and his wife in front of there business an eighth of a mile back, it came to me: Take a shot of the half-eaten coconut bar with the Library of Congress in the background.

... so I did.

I was doing fine eating the slowly melting and disappearing treat up until I was trying to compose my picture. Now the bar was beginning to drip onto my umbrella and down the wooden popsicle onto my fingers. (did you know the bottom of the juice bar is melting while the top is still frozen?)
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(1) I remember once in high school buying an frozen orange juice bar during break on a cold foggy morning, and my tongue sticking fast - it was panic time. I don't know how long I had to wait or whether I went in doors to help it thaw, but I can still see the imprints of my papillae on the surface of the bar when tongue was finally dislodged.

(2) The Library of Congress also served as the lodging several days for a Cooper's Hawk earlier this year. See information by clicking here. After seeing a Cooper's Hawk in our yard last month, I have an appreciation for the size of the bird trapped in the library.