Crisp fall weather is finally here, and I love it! To mark the occasion, I took a long walk in Rock Creek Park yesterday. It's so nice there this time of year, with the bugs and humidity finally gone. I didn't see any wildlife, or thankfully encounter any coyotes, but I did hear a lot of unusual bird sounds. The foliage wasn't very spectacular, with only a few trees in the yellow and red stages; they seem to be going straight from green to brown this year. Still, it's soothing to watch the leaves fall from the taller trees and flutter to the ground, and to hear them crunching underfoot while walking along the path. I love the sound of the leaves going under the wheels of cyclists going by, and the sight of them floating down the creek like little boats.

I took my camera on my little hike, and have started posting the photos in a new Rock Creek Park set on Flickr. 

The downside of the season is that it is a bit depressing, and the shorter days and falling leaves are a reminder of our mortality. What really seals the deal is the return of Eastern Standard Time in a few weeks, plunging millions into premature darkness every day for the sake of a few farmers(?) and/or schoolchildren. Why we don't have year-round Daylight Saving Time is unfathomable, or at least split the difference and leave it at that.

It's during the shortest days of winter that Rock Creek Park gives a more sinister impression. The natural beauty is still there, but the shadows are longer and darker, the sunlight weaker, the sounds of unseen animals a little more menacing. Thoughts turn to Chandra Levy, and the old stories of stone altars with animal sacrifices in the park. Scary, but remember that spring is around the corner!

Inspired by the essay that appeared in the New York Times on the subject, I've been thinking about what buildings in Washington DC I'd like to see demolished, and replaced by pretty much anything else. After mulling the choices for a day, my list of terrible DC architecture follows:

1. The Hirschorn Museum - this circular concrete bunker has all the charm of a cinder block, and replaced a perfectly fine old brick building that once stood on the site.

2. The Kennedy Center -  the white, gold and red colors are garish, and the boxy shape is uninspiring. Again, I would have preferred the arts center had simply restored the existing brick buildings of the Heurich Brewery that were originally located there.

3. The FBI Building - I wish they'd just move to a secure campus already, and give the huge lot over to commercial developers. When the FBI building was built, dozens of small businesses were displaced. It would be nice to get a little of that retail back.

4. Department of Energy/HUD/Department of Education - this trio of executive agency office buildings represents an architectural "axis of evil". Walking past any of these brutalist edifices simply deadens the soul.

5. The National Museum of American History - soon to emerge from an interior makeover, nothing can be done to liven up the bland exterior of this 1960s museum. It seems that everything that was built in the 60s and 70s is tainted by bad design or shoddy workmanship. The Fort McHenry flag and other artifacts deserve a better looking home.

There are obviously many, many more buildings that can be added to the list, but that's all I have time for now.

With my ongoing diet and exercise program, coupled with trying to save money, I'm a frequent customer at the Subway franchise in Columbia Heights, at 3306 14th Street NW. The 6" turkey or vegetarian sandwiches on wheat bread are low in calories and fat, and high in fiber and nutrients, so I've really done well in adding them into my routine.

Best of all, the employees at this Subway location are wonderful, and I just wanted to thank them here today. By now, all the employees there recognize me, and know what kind of sandwich I usually get. There's always a line of customers, and the employees barely get a chance to catch their breath, but they always seem to be able to muster a smile and appear to have a cheerful attitude. The two women who work there on weekday evenings are particularly helpful and pleasant. They recently told me they were from Eritrea; I wonder what their lives were like there? It's not very far from lawless, violent places like Darfur and Somalia.

Quite frankly, I don't know how they remain so upbeat when confronted with all those surly customers. We have quite a few "characters" here in Columbia Heights, and there seems to be a large percentage of difficult customers the Subway employees have to deal with. You know, the high-maintenance types who demand "extra tomatoes, but I want them on the side - no, that's too much mayo, take some off, toast the bread by itself first, cut the sandwich into 4 pieces", etc. If I worked there, I'd go postal in a couple of days, after serving up some "spit sandwiches." So, kudos to the polite, efficient, calm folks working in the Subway store in Columbia Heights. Thank you!  

For decades, I've consistently disliked dried fruit: raisins, craisins, prunes, you name it. Raisins in particular were the focus of my ire. Nothing was more disappointing to me than biting into a chocolate chip cookie, and discovering that the "chocolate chips" were actually  raisins. So sneaky! Why would anyone want to dry out a perfectly juicy grape?

All of a sudden, I've discovered a newfound taste for dried fruit. Go ahead, call me a flip-flopper, and use it against me in the fall campaign, I don't care. I'm snacking on raisins as we speak! I keep a box in my desk for when I get hungry, and at home I've been experimenting with those more upscale, resealable packs of dried fruit. I've tried out a couple of different kinds of raisins, dried mango, pineapple, dates, and have a bag of dried blueberries I'm dying to open.

In a quest for more fiber, I've even been eating California Mission figs. It tastes just like the inside of a Fig Newton, unsurprisingly. The flavor seems like it would pair well with red wine and cheese, so I have to try that sometime. I may even try the ultimate in geezer confirmation fruit: prunes. Mr. T has grown up, and is getting old, apparently. 

At the gym, each of the cardio machines is equipped with it's own video screen, which receives about 30 channels of programming. There are the usual local broadcast channels, sports channels, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and several music channels. You plug in your headphones, and can channel surf as you wish while working out. The stressful part about it, for me, is that everyone situated behind you can see what you're watching, and in my mind, they're judging me by it. I know, I'm being paranoid and neurotic - blame it on my parents.

I usually watch CNN and MSNBC, and my number one rule at the gym is to never, ever watch Fox News channel. Not only are they a right-leaning mouthpiece for the loathsome Bush administration, their cheesy graphics and lurid headlines shout out "misinformation." Once, as I was channel surfing by, I saw they were doing a story of diverticulitis, which my brother has, so I watched it for a few minutes. As I was exercising, I looked around frantically, as if to say "I don't normally watch this!"

I have a whole set of rules for watching the music channels as well. If I had my druthers, I'd watch some cheesy 1980s videos, but if one comes on that's too embarrassing, I feel compelled to change the channel. And I really, really dislike rap music, but feel the need to pause for a second on the Rap channel so I don't look like some kind of old fart who doesn't "get" hip hop. Also, if any music video comes on that features sexy, bikini-wearing women gyrating around on the screen, I immediately change the channel so nobody thinks I'm a letch or horndog!

As if to prove my own thesis, sometimes I glance around to see what others are watching on their video screens. I've noticed that some, mostly women, gym-goers watch those celebrity and entertainment-oriented shows, like Entertainment Tonight, TMZ, and stuff on VH1. Yuck. I actually have seen a couple of people watching CSPAN, confirming their political nerd status, but I've never seen anyone watching Fox News. My wife reports that she once saw a woman wearing a Bush-Cheney '04 tee shirt who was watching Fox, and that everyone was staring at her like she was insane. Hee hee. 

Remember the dental torture scene with Dustin Hoffman receiving an unwanted root canal in the 1970s thriller Marathon Man? It wasn't particularly gory or bloody, but the tension and atmosphere as the Dr. Mengele-like, ex-Nazi dentist sets up his tools is chilling. The relevant clips have been pulled from YouTube, but you get the idea.

So, whenever I think I should go to the dentist and get my teeth cleaned, that scene comes to mind, and quickly puts the kibosh on the idea. The last time I went to the dentist, they told me I had to have an impacted wisdom tooth removed by an oral surgeon, and I just laughed and declined their suggestion, so I'll get in trouble for still having the tooth. It doesn't hurt, and I figure why go through all the pain in the event I'm hit by a bus anyway, or there's a great leap forward in dental technology, and they no longer remove wisdom teeth like construction workers jackhammer open the sidewalk.