2012 Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington, D.C.

What better way to resurrect the Scot-Spot after a long hiatus than to talk about flowers. What can I say, I'm all about nature. There is nothing more peaceful than walking through a beautiful garden on a sunny afternoon.

However, when it comes to cherry trees, thousands of others agree, as evidenced during the 2012 Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C.  Due to the warm weather, the trees bloomed earlier than usual, peaking on March 23. How I came to be here on this fabulous day is a tale of random, wanton spontaneity, sprinkled with a touch of boredom.

I had purchased a Nikon D5100 as an early Christmas present last November, but  I really hadn't put it to good use yet. I had tested it out on random things, such as the sky, abandoned buildings and squirrels, but really didn't use it to its fullest potential. Knowing that the festival was fast approaching, I thought it would be the best venue to try it out for sure. I knew the vivid colors of the flowers and blossoms under an azure sky would be a lovely subject.

Little would I know that because of the aforementioned early peak, my window for the best photos was very short. That, coupled with a very unfavorable weather report for the following weekend, spurred me to act quickly. Luckily, I was blessed with a ridiculously light workload for a Friday. So, I had packed all my gear in the car the night before in anticipation for booting it towards Washington as soon as the shackles were released.

Having grown up in the area, I knew full well driving into town would be a sadomasochistic exercise. Anarchy reigns during the festival. To this end, Metro was my salvation. Of course, once I arrived at the Tidal Basin, the grounds were writhing with the mass exodus of the unwashed yuppie masses. It seems that at least once a year most people feel compelled to return to worship the sun god and woodland spirits, as our ancestors of old. I suppose I was no different.

I completed a lap around the Tidal Basin, fighting the tides of tourists who didn't seem to know which direction they wanted to go. The whole time it seemed I was a small boat tossed about on the stormy seas. And I didn't even have the Captain to share my misery with.

Truth be told, it really was an enjoyable experience. I'd like to thank the gentleman who, as I was setting up the camera and tripod by the Washington Monument, shook my hand and wished me a blessed day. All because I said I was doing this for my blog. Flowers really do bring out the best in people.

Flooding In Central Pennsylvania, Part Deux

Now that the threat of small streams and creeks overflowing have subsided, all eyes have turned to the Susquehanna River itself. Though this flood is not one of the worst that's happened here in the Harrisburg area, its effects are still devastating. Though there is significant property damage, loss of life has been minimal.

For some reason, I have a fascination for natural disasters. Of course, I don't like the human suffering component about them, as the horrors in Japan defy description. Nonetheless, there's something about the awesome power of Mother Nature that mesmerizes. Humans can try all they might to try to harness it, but she will always prevail.

Here are some images showing the Susquehanna River today, just after it crested at 20.09 feet around noon today.

Corner of Front and Market Streets, West Fairview. Don't expect that car to run anytime soon.

North Front Street, on the Susquehanna - Middle Paxton Township line, near Fort Hunter.

North parking lot on City Island. Don't let the banners on the poles fool you, this is definitely March. The City of Harrisburg is so broke that it seems they couldn't afford calendars this year.

This unknown bicyclist made it a point to tell me that the water was "cold." Never mind the strong current.

Parking garage in City Island's south parking lot.  You can see the "Pride of the Susquehanna" riverboat to the right; normally it's dry docked on the pavement for the winter, but it's actually floating again in this picture.

Flooding In Central Pennsylvania

First of all, I want to convey my thoughts and prayers to all the victims and their families of today's major earthquake in Japan. To put things in perspective, that makes the widespread flooding occurring here a mere nuisance. I'm almost embarrassed to even post about the flooding.

However,  that is the big story here in Pennsylvania for the moment. I thought I'd share a couple pictures that were taken earlier today down the road from where I live. Since I live in a narrow mountain valley with only one main road, flooding effectively cuts me off from the rest of the world. So, just for today, I'm enjoying my little "castle" with the nature-made moat effectively protecting me from the oncoming hordes. For some reason I thought I saw a large wooden rabbit earlier.

These photos were taken earlier today, on Clarks Valley Road (PA Route 325) in Middle Paxton Twp., Dauphin County.

Westbound. As with every flood, some fool thinks their Nissan is an amphibious assault vehicle. That is the farthest they were able to go before their engine quit.

Several locals looking on at the spectacle. We tried to stop them. Honest.

This poor family (not poor literally) gets the brunt of the floods every time. You'd think they'd get the hint...

I wouldn't be going that way any time soon. Then again, this is someone's driveway.

This old stone arch bridge always intrigued me. One of these days I'm actually going to take the time to research it. I'm actually standing on the newer "singing" bridge on the highway, facing North.

This bridge is about 200 yards further up the road, heading Eastbound. The water is about three to four inches from the deck.

BEWARE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SPAM!!!!

This is an alert to avoid, whenever possible, the social networking site known as WAYN.com (Where Are You Now). A long time ago, I had signed up on WAYN.com for gits and shiggles, just to see what it was like. I was attracted to its travel theme. However, as soon as I created an account, I realized it was a big mistake. I immediately was spammed by every creeper from Amsterdam to Angola. Needless to say, the conversations, if you could have one (you need to pay money to access the enhanced features), were not travel related. Discouraged, I walked away from the site, never to use it again. However, it doesn't end there.

Just today, I received an E-mail from the site stating that somebody with some crazy name (Mbupu? Mwananabala? Ghaddafi?) wanted to be my friend. I didn't click on the E-mail for obvious reasons, but this reminded me nonetheless that I still had an active account with WAYN. So, I did what I thought was the logical thing, and logged into the site to deactivate my account. As soon as I logged in, my browser went haywire! I was redirected to one of those fake virus scan sites, and a program was trying to download and open automatically. Luckily for me I use Firefox, which has excellent blocking capabilities, and also luckily for me, is that these cyber-miscreants were dumb enough to create their own pop-up windows that looked like Windows XP (I use Windows 7 now, fellas!) I also have Microsoft Security Essentials which is a great anti-virus utility. I strongly recommend it, but I digress.

I just wanted to put the heads-up out there to avoid WAYN.com. It will certainly save you a lot of headaches.

Update On Dad

I just found out about an hour ago that dad's blood test came back with a low T-cell count. We (as in the rest of the family) are also noticing that his speech and memory problems are beginning to become noticeable again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's only a side-effect of the radiation treatments he finished about two weeks ago, along with the industrial-strength chemicals he has to ingest on a daily basis. He does have a final follow-up appointment with his surgeon on Wednesday and there's another MRI to come soon. Hopefully it doesn't reveal any unwanted surprises.

Other than that, we're taking it day by day. The Christmas tree finally came down today, so now it's just dreary blah-ness for the next two months or so.

My Own Health Scare...

First of all, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday.

In all this taking care of everyone else, I somewhat neglected myself. Just before Thanksgiving, I was knocked on my butt with some sort of infection that nearly swelled my throat shut. Mega doses of antibiotics got rid of it, but not without losing about ten pounds. Because I couldn’t swallow, I had to eat baby food! I have to give credit to my ex for helping nurse me back to health; then again, I was practically evicted from my parents’ place as my illness would put my dad, with his lowered immunity system, in danger. I just hope I don’t have to go through that again.

God Bless the Cancer Survivors

As I'm sitting in the waiting room while my dad is having his treatment, I am struck by the many different folks here who are going through the same thing he is. They are all here for different reasons: the grandmother who relies on oxygen to breathe; the twenty-something man who needs a hand held device to speak. Rich, poor...cancer sure doesn't discriminate. Yet, they're here, with the hope that they can beat it. I can't get over how positive the atmosphere here is, also; you'd think that a cancer ward would be a bastion of desperation and despair. However, that's not the case. Here, there's no such thing as if they'll beat cancer, it's when. This makes my problems seem a little more...petty.