There was some wild excitement displayed in the 4th Floor Conference Room on Friday. There was noise, of course, but it was louder than the sirens that normally call attention to the street at all hours of the day.

There was some of that calling attention of course, the sound of which brought the smaller of the two ladder trucks based at the station beyond the condos to the east. The trillium is the rental place the Chairman hired to accommodate some of the floating staff. We prefer that to being “vibrant homeless” or something. Creative Section discussion halted as an ambulance crept, lights still blinking to the condo complex across the remnants of the old SAIC parking lot.

The parking lot had been an article of continued discussion since some of us moved here. That included a moment of discussion with Denby, the General Manager of the Trillium complex where the Chairman set up shop earlier this year.

The Boro neighborhood around us is under re-development. The Rotonda condos across the old parking lot have been here since the farm that belonged to Mr. Tyson was transformed to a modern mid-rise commercial center with SAIC in the middle of a vast lot and embraced by the half-circle of the Rotonda.

There are some stories from over there that still echo, years later. Miles thinks there may be a story or two in it, He has a note from the Chairman to follow up on that, since that complex has had two lives.

Some of us worked in the Pentagon in days of yore, and the corner belonging to Farmer Tyson was “way out there, almost to Dulles.” The rural crossroads out there had been called “Peace Grove” after the Civil War and before Mr. Tyson took over. It was transformed into a bustling commercial center in the 1960s when they plowed up the Capital Beltway and threw up the magnificent Tysons Corner Mall.”

“I remember going out there for Holiday when I was on the OPNAV staff on the 4th floor of the Pentagon. It was a long ways to get out there, and it was literally a different world than where we were down by the Potomac.”

Rocket slapped his jeans as he laughed. “Yeah,The Rotonda was filled with young people doing all sorts of youthful things. Most of those folks were still idealistic, attracted to affordable new-construction housing and the pulsing energy of all that money being printed on the other side of the River.” He paused, eye looking back across decades. “The parties out here were legendary, and that continued for some thirty years as the property began to come apart at the seams from the thuds, bumps and giggles”.

The roof was literally falling in by 2010, and refurbishments continued for much of that decade. It has been returned to a certain ’70s elegance and is a place some of the Boomers have considered as an investment opportunity. Or retirement home. There is no word on whether the parties are still in progress.

Which brought the parking lot below the window to a place on the morning meeting agenda. Both Rotonda and Trillium residents have been restive about the vacant asphalt between our two complexes. Rocket and Vapor had a word with Denby about the general dissatisfaction of our staff with working around a crumbling parking lot sti adorned with csagging chain link fences, shredded black plastic privacy banners that now fly merrily though haphazardly across the street. Denby had assured them that the matter was purely temporary.

“He was a little evasive about things when we opened this annex to the HQ. He was positively upbeat about what was being done, and he invited us to watch out front. He said “once a few zoning issues are settled” we can expect construction of some nice residential condo units.”

Vapor shrugged. He had done the story for the morning product about the strange three story additions to some of the little Cape Cod house in the county had caused concern. The effects sloshed over into what was going to replace the broken concrete still marked with bright lines of order under some inoperative lighting pillars.

“Home ownership had faded as one of my goals. So how did Denby seem? Upbeat or depressed?”

Rocket smiled. “Denby said we could see the results of his dynamic leadership this afternoon. If we want to watch, he can have someone bring refreshments out front.”

“To see what?” a plume of drk gray smoke floated over with the roar of a mobile overhead laoding tractorsand the clinking scurry of from front-end loaders. There was a clank as some metal oles were ripped from the concret and bounced across the broken asphalt.

“He said they were going to make it look green with some cover over the broken stuff. It is only until next spring when they can start building again.”

“So, that netting they are putting down on the slope is going to make grass grow under the snow?”

“That is the gist of what Management claims. I suggest we mix a thermos of something tasty and go down and watch. It looks like they are tearing up the old entrance now and some of the rubble piles are already smoothed into something else. Some of hte conversation from the crew is in English, so we should be able to follow along on audio. And the old concrete barriers are piled up in a way that makes ’em look a bit like Stonehedge.”

“I will like the look if the green gets started and begins to sprout before next Memorial Day.”

“That is the time to start tearing things up again, Shipmate!”

The two laughed as they headed for the galley to mix up something suitable to drink as the earth movers moved. The rumble suggested it going to be a lively and entertaining afternoon on the hills all the way out- almost- to Dulles..

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