Change I Could Have Done Without ...

This morning on the radio they were talking about President Obama coming to town and warning people that there would be traffic tie-ups downtown as a result. I wondered what it must be like for people in D.C. who have to deal with presidential motorcades all the time. I dismissed the report though; he was giving a speech down in the financial district and I am strictly a pedestrian.

When I got to work, there were cops all over the neighborhood surrounding school and the streets were being cordoned off as if there was going to be a parade or something. The guy walking in front of me asked what it was all about and a cop muttered something about the president. It struck me that it was sort of weird that they'd care about him way up here when he was speaking further downtown, but I shrugged it off.

I pretty much forgot all about it and went out to lunch around noon. In the deli I saw the president on the TV and thought about the radio guys this morning talking about his overexposure. (Did you know that at this point in their respective presidencies that George W. Bush had had 3 press conferences and Bill Clinton 8? Our current president has had 22! But talking is his thing.) When I got back to my building, I realized what all the hub bub was about: the motorcade wasn't just passing near our neighborhood, it was passing in front of my office.

All of my fellow pedestrians found there was no way to get across West 3rd Street, and the cops were making no exceptions. I always love the people who think they have the one excuse that is going to convince the cops to let them through the barricade. There was one lady in her 60s with a jet black wig and a cigarette who pleaded with the cops, but they were having none of it. So I stood for 10 minutes and looked 25 feet across the street at the door to my office where they weren't letting anyone out of the building.

Finally, the motorcade sped by, a blur of black SUVs and at least one limo with the presidential seal on it. I know he was with Hillary Clinton, but it's anyone's guess which car he was in. In the picture below you can see the back end of the parade of cars just beyond my office. The administrative assistant from across the street called me to say he got out of his car and waved at some people. I hope no one told that to the lady with the wig and the cigarette. She had somewhere important to be.