Bryan Strawser

Wash:

• The hurricane is Bush’s fault - it’s because of Kyoto and Global Warming!
• The levees are Bush’s fault - it’s because the Southeast Flood Control Budget was cut a record $71.2m!
• The slow FEMA response is Bush’s fault - it’s because he appointed someone with no disaster management experience the head of FEMA!
• The slow National Guard response is Bush’s fault - it’s because all of the Louisiana National Guard is in Iraq! BRING THEM HOME NOW!
• The….. is Bush’s fault…. it’s because….!

Rinse

Cycle

Repeat

Rinse

Cycle

Repeat

So predictable…

And now for some scotch.

Too tired and busy last night to post the final update on the 1400 mile drive, but here is the update.

I made it to Woodbury, Minnesota around 430pm CST yesterday, having followed the path below:

One sees many interesting things on a 1400 mile drive, but the only one I took a picture of was outside of Madison, Wisconsin at a rest area. It’s the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial:

I’ve now bought the new washer and dryer and a new grill - looked at some other things and have much to do. Closing is tomorrow at 10am.

You might have also heard of that bitch, Katrina? Yeah, thought you had. That’s on my mind too tonight.

Pulled out of Boston’s Nine-Zero Hotel this morning at 5:45am EST, pulled into the Residence Inn in Toledo Ohio about 7pm EST. The cat managed to not puke until we got to the hotel, so that’s an improvement over what has happened in the past.

Here’s the map for you Google Geeks out there:

It’s about 774 miles - I drive a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid, and averaged 40.4 MPG for this trip, so my fuel used was only around 19.16 gallons so far.

In fact, at 500 miles, I took this picture with the Treo 650:

Now for pizza, some old James Bond on the telly, and out the door by 6am for the remaining 660 miles to go to the new home in Minnesota. Closing is Monday morning….

When checking in for tonight’s flight back to Minneapolis - the last one before the move in three weeks - I found I was auto-upgraded to first class and had finally made an elite level.

Took long enough - but what a nice feeling that was.

Last year, when I was in DC, I missed the opening of the World War II Memorial by only a few weeks. I had planned on this trip - if I had any free time at all - to see the new memorial in spite of everything else that DC has to offer. Fortunately, our meetings on Thursday ended early, and we were able to skip down to the National Mall to spend some time at this long overdue memorial to the men and women that served to liberate Europe and the Pacific:

My home state was well represented:

At the center of the memorial, with the Lincoln Monument in the background and facing the Capitol is a field of gold stars on a wall with the inscription “Here we mark the price of freedom”. Each store represents one thousand deaths. There are four thousand of them.

I wrote about my hometown and my family’s contributions to the Second World War last year in World War II: The Price of Freedom and a followup post.

General Grant looks over the reflecting pool and the National Mall:

On Thursday, spent some time in the late afternoon walking around the White House complex..

The north side:

The south side:

Here we see the media setup just off of the north side of the White House:

As usual, the Secret Service was out in force:

And no trip to the White House is complete without a picture of Bush made up as Osama Bin Laden with a big sign reading “The Real Terrorist”:

On Pennsylvania Avenue near the FBI Building: