The DC area has certainly had an extraordinary "up" and (not quite DC, but close to home anyway!), and our near neighbor, Baltimore, has been grappling with a tragic "down" quite recently.....
First, the exciting, fantastic news: the new reigning World Champion in Figure Skating for 2024, announced on Saturday, is Ilia Malinin, a brilliant young figure skater born and raised right here in Fairfax County, Virginia, who executed not only the four quadruple jumps for which he is already known and called "the Quad God," but he tossed in a couple more as well -- an astonishing feat. SIX quadruple jumps -- no one has ever done this before.
The not-so-good, and indeed extraordinary and tragic, news comes from our neighboring city, Baltimore, MD, when about an hour after midnight 03/26/2024 a cargo ship unexpectedly lost power and crashed into a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which then horrifyingly, all-too-rapidly collapsed into the water. Unfortunately at the time, there were eight workers on the bridge doing repairs; two of them were rescued, and now, hours later, after all search-and-rescue efforts failed, the others have now been declared dead. For the city of Baltimore, its citizens and its nearby neighbors, this is a devastating situation.
The bridge was a major conduit to traffic going around (rather than into inner city) Baltimore, and also served as an access to the Port of Baltimore, where many cruise ships come-and-go throughout each calendar year. Needless to say, normal activities in that immediate area have come to a halt and it will be quite a while before there is restoration to the bridge.
Some days bring us delightful surprises, other days bring us shocking and very, very sad news.....
