Friday, January 16, 2009

Maybe in 2013...

This weekend, of course, is the lead-up to Tuesday's presidential inauguration. There will be balls, parties, a big free concert, etc...and I doubt we'll get anywhere close to any of it. (Although I'm really curious to see what crowds will actually be like--will it be the throngs of millions that were originally anticipated, or will so many people have been scared off by reports of the large crowds that it won't be as big as expected? Yogi Berra once supposedly said of a popular restaurant that "no one goes there nowadays, it's too crowded." I wonder if that will be true of DC this weekend?)

Anyway, the free concert on Sunday will be just a 5-10 minute walk from my office, so even though I have no desire to brave the crowds then, I thought I might amble over there at lunchtime just to see everything getting set up, soak in the atmosphere, etc. But then I just checked the weather...despite looking out my window at a brilliant blue sky, the current temperature is 13, with 30mph wind gusts making it feel like -6 (that would be -21 centigrade for our European friends).

So...experience a small slice of history and get frostbite in the process, or miss out on it but stay nice and toasty in my office? I think I'll take nice and toasty, thank you very much.

(For what it's worth, the current temperature in Gretchen's hometown of Madison, Wisconsin is -12, which makes what we're having feel like suntanning weather in comparison. I just need to make sure we have reminders of this every time Gretchen does silly things like suggesting we move to Wisconsin.)