Saturday, April 28, 2018

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2008. Only three months before Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. That day, Mattie came home from school, and given that the weather was lovely, he wanted to fly his kite. Ironically in a certain part of our commons area, there is always a breeze, which makes kite flying very possible!

Quote of the day: Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results. ~ Ifeanyi Onuoha

I have been fighting my own private battle in DC regarding graffiti and encampments. Both of which have become OUT OF CONTROL over the last decade. Can you see this big MTG sprayed on the wall in front of the State Department? No one seems bothered by any of this except me! To me both graffiti and encampments say volumes about the health of our city and society in general.

I have been looking at this nightmare all throughout winter. My photo doesn't do justice to how horribly ugly it is! Today, we walked passed this area with Sunny and I am happy to report it is GONE. We are back to having a clean wall, but I know it won't last long!

Meanwhile, right near us we have had a man camping out on a major street of the city. Again this photo does not do it justice, as he literally took up an entire block with his clothes, materials, newspapers, bedding and the list went on. I have been complaining about him and our tent city down the block since March. 

So this was the BEFORE photo.....

This is AFTER! Today was the FIRST day in which our side walk dweller was removed. Along with his belongings, camp material, clothing, and trash. Do you see how big this portion of the sidewalk is? Well picture it taken over by an encampment!

The Mayor's office mentioned to me the outreach they are doing to help the homeless. My response was it isn't helping and having people live in our public spaces is not effectively assisting them in having a better and more productive quality of life. 

Before starting Foundation Walk tasks for the day, we walked Sunny down to the Washington Mall. Sunny loves the Mall, mainly because the Mall is filled with trees and squirrels. It was a glorious day today, which required us to bring water in tow for Sunny. We snapped a photo of him during a water break. 

Sunny through the tulips!!!

Meanwhile back in our home..... it is beginning to have that warehouse look again that makes me edgy! Many of our bins for the Walk are out of storage and sitting in our living and dining rooms. Mattie's room is our staging area for the raffle. Peter and I worked on wrapping raffle items today. We have 9 out of the 10 done!

My floors are covered in something Walk related!

I am still awaiting one item in the mail, before I can wrap the tenth raffle basket. Once that is done, then we will do our staging of the baskets, in order to capture a quality photograph.