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THE WEISS CHRONICLES
Chronological Account of the Weiss family with contextual remarks, some weather, sports and other news.
You can write to me at: mhw20854@yahoo.com
The people in the Weiss family are: Martin, Ann, Beth and George. I also sometimes write about other people or our pet.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Late and Giant Lily
The other very tall lily plant has just about reached peak bloom.
One image is from night on July 31, the other day on Aug 1.
The other tall lily plant has peak flower status on July 11 and you can go back to that post to compare and contrast.
The flowers on this lily plant (also called a lily tree) are an interesting feature of this hybrid. The flowers are upside down and have a very faint fragrance. The plant itself has about a half dozen stems, each with flowers.
Its nice to have dozens of flowers from one plant.
As usual, click on the images a few times for nice enlargements.
Big Tree Down
The people two door down from us had one of their front yard trees taken down.
It was an oak tree that was at least 80' high. It also had a thick trunk.
The image, taken at night with flash, is George near the trunk of the tree.
These neighbors moved into the house in 2015. The husband, Igor, built a large menorah in his front yard for Hannukah.
People who saw the menorah asked me if he was a Chabadnik or a Messianic. It turns out he is just a Jewish guy, not particularly observant, who had some excess tubing and wanted a project.
The Dahlia Plantation
We were invited to an open house by Alan and Hannah Fisher.
Alan has turned their tract home yard into a dahlia plantation with dozens, probably over a hundred, dahlia plants. He is also some sort of officer in the national dahlia society.
The image shows us in front of a long row of dahlia plants, only a few of which were blooming. The ones near us got some sort of award.
Alan place an umbrella over the blooming dahlias. Heavy rain can, apparently, get into the stem and rot the bulb.
Friday, July 29, 2016
Sabbath Flowers include tall Phlox
This weeks flowers include more crape myrtles (at the top).
They also include some of the giant lilies (left and right just above the rim of the vase).
For the first time this year, they also include tall phlox, both some red and some pink (in the middle just above the rim of the vase).
As usual, click on the image a few times for a close up.
Tall phlox differs from spread phlox as the latter blooms in the spring and hugs the ground. The phlox I have are up to 2' tall (I don't pick the whole plant for the vase, just the branch with the flowers).
We've had the tall phlox blooming before but it has been attacked many times by deer or rabbit. This week the varmits left the flowers alone. This might be due to the latest repellent, Irish Spring Soap.
This week's stuffed animal is our platypus who is a tenured professor of Interdisciplinary studies and who's offspring is executive assistant to the professor emeritus in the Department of Gender and Ethnic Studies (obtained on merit, insists the professor, not via nepotism).
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Third Store Gives me and employee discount
Tonight I was doing mashgiach work at a kosher grocery. Near closing time, I went shopping. The check out clerk told me she was instructed that I could get an employee discount (10%) and I did.
This is the third store that gives me a discount.
The others are a Persian short order meat place and a pizza/italian/mexican place.
The caterers give me free food during work hours but no discount since I don't have catered events (not yet anyway).
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Agamemnon to Alexander exhibit at the National Geographic Society
We went to this exhibit today with Stuart and Ellen Share.
I'm kind of amazed the Greeks let all these items out of their museums (about 20 museums or institutions lent items).
The top item is the Crown of Meda (the original) who was one of the wives of Phillip of Macedon (though not the mother of Alexander the Great, aka Alexander III, - his mother was Olympia).
It is made of gold and simulates a myrtle leaf crown (about the late 4th century BCE).
The second image shows two masks that were in Mycenae graves in the 16th century BCE. The one on the left is the original that was found by Heinrich Shliemann in 1870 which led him to say, "I have gazed into the eyes of Agamemnon".
The other one is a copy of one he found subsequently and he decided this second one was the real mask of Agamemnon. Actually, the masks both date from a time that was before the events that were later recalled as the Trojan war.
None of these items have ever been outside Greece since they were placed in museums.
The third image is one of the largest statues ever unearthed in northern Greece and is undoubtedly Macedonian (it dates from the time after Alexander's death) but there is considerable debate on who it is. Some say it is Alexander's mother Olympias, other say it is Alexander's oriental wife Roxanne (from the area now called Afghanistan).
Anyway, this exhibit is well worth seeing.
I used a commercial lot just a block away and paid $14 for 3 hours - valet parking - using the parking Panda website.
Monday, July 25, 2016
We're Number One - in Heat Index
About an hour ago, the heat index at Dulles Airport hit 107F. The temperature was in the mid 90s, the dew point in the mid 70sF. Actually it was worse at National Airport with a Temperature of 96F, dew point 77F and a heat index of 113F.
I'm at work in the industrial kitchen today and it is hot but I have a fan.
This was, per the map on the left, the highest heat index in the country at that time.
Of course, some stations in the southwest will likely top DC during the day (Lake Havasu, just south of Las Vegas, was 104F at 10:15 their time).
Friday, July 22, 2016
July 22 Flowers for sabbath - first Crape Myrtle flowers
The flower at the left top is a day lily.
There are several bunches (sometimes called panicles) of crape myrtle flowers in the middle.
Above the crape myrtle bunch in the middle is a purple cone flower.
Below that bunch is a pink rose (seen nicely if you enlarge the image by clicking on it a few times).
At the bottom just above the lip of the vase is a giant lily. The lily below the crape myrtle bunch on the top left is a giant lily left over from last week.
Our pumpkin farmer appears in this image. He will tell you that the way you know when a pumpkin is ripe is that it turns orange.
Also a bencher is in the image.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Surprize Thunderstorm July 19
At about 9:30 pm on 19 July, a thunderstorm developed over Germantown, Md (about 10 mi NW of our house).
The first image,
which shows the density of lightening strikes in the vertical dimension and precipitation in the horizontal 2 dimensions, is
from the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post and a link to their
article is here.
The storm began in our vicinity about 10pm and continued for about 45 minutes with some heavy rain, wind and about 15 seconds of hail.
Parts of the area were hit worse. In southeast DC, about 10,000 people were without power at one point as trees were blown down and lightening hit electrical sub stations.
Hail up to golf ball size (second image taken on Capital Hill) was reported.
Near as I can tell there was no damage to our house or cars and there was very little debris in the yard this morning when I looked for it.
The storm wasn't predicted by any of the forecast services (the evening probability of precipitation was 10% at about 9:00pm).
Monday, July 18, 2016
Catering Problems at the TrumpHotelDC
I was on an emergency mashgiach job today (I had asked someone else to do it but things didn't work out). The worst part of this was a tasting for 8 people at the Trump Hotel DC which is under construction (Trump has a 60 lease on the site of the Old Post Office at 11th and Pennsylvania Ave). The ramp to the work area was closed and we set up in the outer construction area which was partly covered. Also the hotel said at the last minute that they couldn't provide a table or electricity so we used one of the large metal carriers as a table and used sternos in another carrier as the oven. Of course it rained also and the winds got pretty strong for a while during the cooking. The food was taken to the part of the hotel where the tasters was. The hotel actually opens in mid September. As some of the other hotels, they will probably order kosher meals from a caterer, at least for a year or two.
Friday, July 15, 2016
This week's sabbath flowers
The big lily on the right is one of the fragrant purple passions. The bloom is at least 5" wide. It escaped the deer by being next to an azalea bush I think.
There are a number of purple cone flowers in the middle.
On the top left is one of the day lilies.
UGA, our stuffed bulldog (inherited from Ann's mom who went to the University of Georgia Med School in Augusta) is in the background.
UGA both apprehends and, in his own idiosyncratic style, verbally accompanies (but not legally interrogates) terrorists. He keeps asking the terrorist, "Wassss Up?" until the terrorist gets annoyed enough to give information.
Since its not interrogation, it isn't enhanced interrogation and obviously since its not physical, it's not torture.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Roof damage leads to fingerprinting
We had a hailstorm on May 2 and recently had an inspection that showed some damage. This led to an insurance claim.
That led to a check issued by the insurer which had our mortgage company as one of the parties.
That led to a requirement to get a notary to verify our signatures for a package of information for the mortgage company.
The notary took our fingerprints.
This is just one of a string of fingerprint stories lately. Another is for access to our synagogue. See our March posts here.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Industrial Kitchen Work
I was on mashgiach duty today at a downtown hotel.
The previous night a mistake had been made. Several serving implements had been washed in the hotel's dishwasher.
Thus they had to be kashered. I used an industrial vat like the one shown in the image. I borrowed a $800 insulated 15" glove (like the second image but with more insulation padding) so I could get the implements out of the boiling water without killing myself.
An interesting additional item. This meeting had fancy food but no alcohol and no soda. The attendees drank water with their lunch (though they had coffee and orange juice for breakfast).
G and the Lily Tree 2016
For several years, I've taken a picture of George and one of the best performing lily trees in our front yard.
The first image was taken today. As can be seen, another lily tree is a few weeks from bloom (assuming the deer don't damage it) and I'll plan to get an image of that one when the time comes.
The second image is from a similar vantage point in 2013 when the lily tree was taller than George. I think the competition for nutrients and sunlight with the rose bush is limiting the height of the lily tree but that's just a guess.
For other images, you can go to the July 2015 page where I collected several other images of this kind.
Friday, July 08, 2016
Another Sabbath, some new flowers
We still have blooming star burst giant lilies (near the bottom of the display).
We also have a new blooming of the purple passion giant lilies (click the image a few times for enlargement) although the stem isn't as big as the one the star burst lilies is on.
I had hoped to add some day lilies but most of them have either bloomed or the deer have gobbled off the flower buds.
Coke Bear is in this image.
Coincidentally (or maybe not), Goldberg's bagels in the shopping mall near us switched from Coke products to Pepsi products for their fountain drink machine. The people at the local place told me it was a company wide policy.
Monday, July 04, 2016
July 4 Fireworks in Rockville, MD
It started raining in Annapolis about 2pm or so on the 4th.
We decided to go to our car and drive home.
Then the rain let up about 730pm and I decided to go to the Rockville fireworks (the image is from the county's website for the event).
The city had moved the venue a few years ago (second image from general Rockville site) to one with better parking and easier post event traffic dispersal.
I got a seat about 200 feet from the launch site which was about a tenth as far as the event on July 3.
Thus I was able to get at least 90 degrees of sensory experience.
The weather was still in the low 70s and even though the fireworks began about 30 minutes late I really enjoyed them.
July 3 [Really 3] fireworks on the Severn River
Ann and I were in Annapolis for July 3-4. The weather forecast for July 4 was iffy and there was a cruise scheduled for a fireworks display on July 3 so we took it.
The cruise was a 3+hour affair. There were at least a dozen fireworks displays near the Severn River. One of them was the premier event. It was a display at a place called Sherwood Forest (image shows a daytime view of the inlet near this community).
The Severn is about a mile wide at this part of the River (about 4 miles from where the river meets the Bay - which is the site of the US Naval Academy) and we were about a half mile from shore. Thus the fireworks were not as horizon to horizon as I like them. However, the general trip, the music on the boat and the multiple displays were nice.
The image of fireworks on the water is from the internet and is of an event somewhere else (I'm not good at taking long range images - in fact not even so good at short range).
The temperature during the cruise was in the low 70s or upper 60s which is very low for this area this time of year. I found it comfortable, Ann was a bit cold.
Friday, July 01, 2016
Another Flower display
Its definitely lily season. The highest flowers are day lilies, still doing well.
The big flowers in the middle are giant lilies. This is the 'starburst' variety as opposed to last week's purple prince variety.
Near the rim of the vase are some purple cone flowers (you can see them better by clicking on the image a few times to enlarge it). They have several more weeks to flower also.
To the right of the big vase is a 'mini rose'. I plan to place this near one of the lilies that seems to get nibbled by deer.
In the background is Jolene (named after a former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration).
She is waiting patiently for the opening of the first 'higher speed' rail line in California from Bakersfield to Merced.
Currently this is scheduled for 2019.
However it will only be about a 95mph Amtrak line (hence 'higher speed') until sometime when the route to the SF Bay area might be completed.
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The other tall lily plant has peak flower status on July 11 and you can go back to that post to compare and contrast. 
