Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Tuesday, April 14, 2020 -- Mattie died 550 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2009. We took Mattie for a walk in the hospital's rose garden and came across this bank of azaleas. Azaleas are special to me as I always told Mattie they bloomed in celebration of his birthday. 



Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 602,989
• number of people who died from the virus: 25,402

Peter and I are busy at trying to figure out the technology to make our Foundation's Walk virtual. It may sound easier to host the Walk virtually, and it is in some ways it is, but there are challenges. First you need technology to make a virtual event possible and run smoothly. Then of course the coronavirus makes it harder to ask for donations and also to get people to focus on issues other than the LARGER one at hand. 


There are many apps for cell phones that enable companies and non-profits to host walks virtually. I think we found the right one today! We want to work on creating a walk challenge in which all our registered walkers can access, through their cell phone, a leader board so that they can see the number of steps and miles they and others have walked toward our cause. The beauty of using such a platform is that everyone throughout the USA can participate in our event and see messages and goals reached in real time. 

We did our usual long walk around the National Mall. We passed the White House. In all my photos you can see few to NO people around. 

Thomas Jefferson memorial. 

The World War II Memorial and Lincoln Memorial in the background.  

The Washington Monument.

Ironically we have walked past the Washington Monument many times. However, we never paid attention to this stone in front of the Monument. The beauty of the city is there are NO crowds of people now. Making it easier to see things we never had the opportunity to see before. Peter is standing next to the Jefferson Stone in front of the Washington Monument. I had Peter pointing in two directions. Behind him is the White House and to his left the National Capitol Building. This stone is a meridian for the District. The Jefferson Stone marks the second prime meridian of the United States [A prime meridian is the line of longitude in a geographic coordinate system defined to be 0°] even though it was never officially recognized, either by presidential proclamation or by a resolution or act of Congress.