Rememberembrace - Memorial Day

Rememberembrace- November 17, 2010

Sex in the City - Garden Edition

Hidden among the trimmings

Well, this settles it - we for sure have female and male Eastern box turtles in our back yard. Last year at this time, we saw two, and were fairly sure they were opposite sexes (click here). This morning, everything was confirmed. I was cleaning up a pile of tree branch trimmings from last week. As I was picking up each branch from a pile and chopped them up with a pair of hand shears into a yard waste recycling bag, I noticed a half shell of a black walnut nut shell?....or was it a champagne bottle cork?.....in the pile of branches with leaves. No, it was a small tortoise. I showed it to Jan, asking what she thought it was - she guessed first time correctly. She got my camera, and was a willing portrait prop - a small miracle given she does not like things that move on their own other than grandchildren, dogs, and cats (1). It likely turned out to be the most photographed reptile of its kind this morning. After we were finished admiring our find, I put it in a shaded and moist bed at the back of the yard - well protected. After ten more minutes of pruning, when I went back to the release point, it had disappeared somewhere in our constructed habitat - just like its parents do - its the turtle way.
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Close up of a young Eastern Box Turtle

Reproduction does not come readily or easily to Eastern box turtles.  It can take a female box turtle at least five years, and possibly a full decade, to reach sexual maturity. When she is ready to breed, she must first encounter a mate, which may or may not happen depending on whether her home territory (which she won’t leave) happens to overlap with a mate’s home territory (which he won’t leave). She may then lay eggs, but they will be few in number and may include some infertile ones. If the eggs make it to hatching, the hatchlings will be extremely vulnerable to predation and few if any will make it to adulthood. Given the odds against reproductive success for box turtles, this is why it is so important to the long-term viability of any local population to leave it intact and not remove any adults. (2)

Eastern Box Turtle natural range

Box turtle mating season begins in the spring and continues through the summer. A male may mate with the same female several years in a row, or with several females, depending on availability. Interestingly, females can lay fertile eggs up to four years after a successful mating. Females make their nests in the leaf litter and lay 3 to 8 eggs per clutch.  Incubation lasts about three months, and temperature determines the sex of the young.  If eggs are incubated in a temperature range of 72-81 degrees Fahrenheit, the hatchlings will be male.  If the incubation temperature is 82 degrees or above, the hatchlings will be female. (2)
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(1) See about a previous close encounter but clicking here.
(2) From the Maryland Zoo Website. Click there for more information.

Comparative Statuary - General Jose de San Martin

San Martin - Washington, D.C.

My usual walking route to the Truman Building is from Foggy Bottom Metro stop. My return route walking to either the Whitten Building or Metro is straight south along 23rd Street towards the Lincoln Memorial Circle,  then over to the Vietnam Memorial, then to the World War II Memorial, and back to the center of the Capital Mall near the Washington Monument. My slight deviation turned up another new statue - the General Jose de San Martin Memorial on Virgina Avenue near the State Department, and the Full Count statues described in a previous blog. The statue is a replica of a statue of the General in Buenos Aires, and was presented as a gift to the United States from Argentina in 1925 - President Coolidge spoke at the dedication.

It popped into my mind when I saw the lone figure on Virginia Avenue this past week, that I had seen the original last October in Buenos Aires. After a dinner at a restaurant that specialized in beef - grass fed,

Cuts of beef roasting

off the Argentine pampas - another conference attendee from Germany I had just me and I did a little tourist site-seeing near our hotel. We came upon a large plaza with a beautiful statue in a grand setting - the city's skyline just beyond the treeline. The Plaza 
San Martin memorializing Argentina's "George Washington" is expansive, the statue very detailed - people and pigeons alike rest near it and leisurely walk by, and an old man shouted at us in Spanish - we just kept on walking admiring the statue and ignoring him, not knowing if he wanted to tell us about legendary accomplishments by the General, or that he had a dislike

Monument to Jose de San Martin - Buenos Aires

for people who looked like northern Europeans. Buenos Aires had the feeling of a European city - everyone spoke Spanish, and many seemed to smoke cigarettes. All of the boulevards were crowded with cars, but everyone seemed polite - yielding generously when needed. The city I saw, looks like the one I had seen on television - through the eyes of eager real estate seekers on House Hunters International. I tried to imagine what it would be like to live in the city, even if for just a short time - I would have to learn more Spanish.

Loureatha's Office Window

Room 220-W Window

While waiting for a conference call, I saw this view from my chair in a secretary's office at the USDA Whitten Office Building. Loureatha used to work out across the Beltway at the Carver Center in Beltsville where I got to know her. She has been working downtown Washington, D.C. for some time now - in some of the best and most visible office space in the entire capital city. This is a second floor window at the end of the west wing of the building. The potted plants on the window ledge, the scattered papers on the table below, and the outside light fixture make this otherwise remarkable view a little bit prosaic - something you could see from any office building anywhere in the country, but the Washington Monument in the distance brings you back to reality - this isn't just any office window in any city.

Walk in the Park - Full Count

After leaving the Harry S. Truman building much easier leaving than arriving (see the previous post), I I turned left on C Street and started heading kind of south, figuring I would eventually get to my next meeting at the Whitten Building. It was a good thing I had headed in a bit of a different direction, because there was a sculpted piece in 

Full Count - John Dryfuss

Washington, D.C. that I hadn't seen before - Full Count, by John Dreyfuss (1). It seems that there is a statue in every park. The baseball theme with a pitcher standing out in the grass all alone made me think about Jamie Moyer, and how a month or so ago I found out that he had injured himself in the Dominican winter league - this could mean the end of his career. His contract with the Philadelphia Phillies was allowed to run out this past year. While waiting for his elbow to recover, Moyer is working as an analyst on ESPN. I wonder if this is the first time there has been a son-in-law/father-in-law, Digger Phelps, duo working for the same sports network. The Phillies news hasn't forgotten him - Moyer hopes for a comeback in 2012. Looking from left to right at each of the images, the series of photographs tell a story (2). Since I hung around looking at the sculpture taking photographs, I thought it best to take a cab to my next meeting - not the kind of thing that Moyer would do, especially someone who will try to come back at age 49.
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(1) Full Count is on display in the grassy area between the Federal Reserve Board's Martin Building and Virginia Avenue.

(2) Never mind that there are streaks of bird droppings on the pitcher - obviously, the umpire isn't doing his job of keeping the the game moving along. With staging of the photo series, I think the next pitch is a strike - what about you?

Watching and Waiting

I did a two-talk day today. First to an advisory committee, and then to a group of delegates who have been working for a couple of years on a position paper about biofuels. I took a cab from the Crystal City Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia to Harry S. Truman Building. I couldn't get to the 21st Street entrance because the President's car had arrived just a couple of minutes before me - just a little bit of bad timing (1). If I would have caught my cab a little earlier, maybe I would have had a Kodak Moment. It was still interesting - the notable yellow

At the corner of 21st Street and Virginia Avenue

police line ribbon was stretched across the sidewalk, and I was standing at the corner of 21st and Virginia Avenue with a group of State Department employees who couldn't get back to their offices. The composite photograph done with the Photoshop software using the File / Automate / Photomerge commands shows the scene: flashing police and Secret Service cars and SUV's, officers with hand phones, and a line of police motorcycles. After a little while I was told that I could walk around the building the long way to the C Street entrance. My host met me there and got me through security. It is pretty cool the coming and goings that are a part of daily life in the Washington, D.C. area. I was pretty proud of myself - both talks for the day were finished last night before 11:30 PM. That was better than the situation I wrote about in Human Nature a couple of months ago. I was still up early finishing some paperwork and taking a conference call at 7:15 AM with folks around the D.C. area and in Beijing. I'm ready for bed and a few pages from one of several books I'm juggling at the same time. It might be nice to listen to a quiet song to relax with - watching and waiting for the next burst of effort to get ready for the next set of deadlines.
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(1) Both Jan and I heard on the radio (separately), that the President was going to give a policy speech at the State Department this morning. I figured it would be before noon, so was surprised that it was at mid-day, but I knew right away what was up when I arrived and the street was cordoned off.

Must Have Been the Gas

2010 Toyota Prius

Today was remarkable - for a commuting day. I filled my 2010 Prius up with gas at the Shell station near our home on the way from work Monday evening. With the tank full, I drove to the BWI Airport and back to Annapolis Tuesday morning, then to work and home, and today to work and home. End result: 60 miles per gallon - remarkable. The best gas mileage I have had is 56 mpg, with around 55 typical during the summer and around 49 in winter. I normally fill up at the Exxon Station at the corner of Hillsmere and the end of

167 miles at 60 miles per gallon

Forest Drive, before it turns into Bay Ridge Road. Because the Giant Grocery gives gas points that are redeemed at Shell Stations in town, I went there instead: 60 cents off per gallon - remarkable. If you are going to have to drive, this is the way to do it. I don't know how high I can run up the gas use efficiency - it will just be a matter of my driving style, the kinds of miles, and a slower than usual emptying tank - remarkable. Maybe it's what is in the tank - it may be that I may a Tiger by the Tail, rather than a Tiger in the Tank.