My Inauguration Blog

"Frozen Flag" by Greg Fischer. (Taken during one of our North Carolina ice storms more than several years ago; can't remember exactly when.)

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Okay, this shall be my "momentous" post. Well, not that the post itself will be momentous -- unless you consider the fact that I'm actually (sort of) blogging about politics. I guess we could say that's momentous, in that it's probably going to be the only time I'll even come close to expressing a political opinion here. Or anywhere, for that matter. It's just not something I'm comfortable doing. Come on -- you know how wishy-washy I usually sound. It's not that I'm a fence-sitter or anything; I usually do get off on one side or the other. It's just that I'm a Libra! (Oh yeah, and I'm also not very good at expressing myself most of the time, so you couldn't possibly know what side I'm on anyway.)

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Wow -- maybe that paragraph should have come with a digression alert! Oh well...

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No, it's the subject of this post that is momentous, of course -- The Inauguration of Barack H. Obama as our 44th President! Now that was kind of awesome, wasn't it? Jordyn was here, because -- oh -- another momentous occasion -- today was the first Snow Day of the year(!) and I was more or less thinking that it would be neat if we could make that one of her childhood memories. George W. was already in office when she was born six years ago, so this is the first President to be inaugurated during her lifetime -- never mind what color he is!

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So Greg turned on the tv around 11:30, and we all sat there and watched the past Presidents (and all the other dignitary-types) come in -- well, actually, I guess they were going out -- brrrrrr! (Oops -- digressing again. See -- I told you I'm not comfortable discussing politics!) We saw Aretha sing, and Yoyo Ma and the other musicians (the spelling of whose names I'd have to stop and look up if I were to list them, but I think you probably know who they are, so just read on, ok?) perform their number. (Hey -- they were pretty good, eh?)

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Then Biden was sworn in. Then Obama. And Jordyn was totally prepared. Her 11-year-old sister, Taylor, had recited the Presidential Oath for her, and told her that there were 35 words in it. She was all ears, because she was listening to hear if he would actually say "I promise" (He didn't), and I think she was planning to count his words (But he went too darned fast). She listened, though. And I have no doubt that she'll remember...

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After that, she was ready to go out and play in the snow some more. (I admit I couldn't make it through the whole speech without getting up to go to the bathroom.) I liked the speech. I like Obama. I'm just going on gut feelings here (as usual), but I trust him as much as I would trust anyone to do the job he's been elected to do.

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Now would you like to hear the really cool part?

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I can't remember the name of the minister who said the invocation (sorry), but just as he got to the words of the "Lord's Prayer," a pudgy little bird (perhaps an oriole? Definitely not a hummingbird) got right in front of our living room window and did that buzzy-wings-hover thing that I thought only hummingbirds could do! Now I don't know exactly what that means, but I know it means something momentous!