Tough afternoon here. Spring is back and literally pounding on the big windows that just got washed for the season.

No kidding. It was what some of the afternoon resembled as we attempted to piece together what was happening in the Gulf and down below the window. We let Miguel handle that part after he got done swinging down and across the window from the anchor point on the 6th Floor balcony. The Chairman is thankful buiding management is giving it a good washing to start summer viewing.

Miguel decided we would have more leverage for discussions about the new Acting Secretary of the Navy over at a place someone in that Senate campaign had recommended when we were working on it back in 2023-24.

You can imagine the Navy section of our Boomers were alight about that matter, since we had worked on Captain Hung Coa’s Senate campaign in the strange Virginia election two years ago that produced the strange Spanberger Governorship.

We wish everyone the best, of course, and Acting Secretary Coa in particular, temporary or permanent. The is a longer story about a Secretary who had been appointed because of his worth to the 2024 campaign. Another guy named Mike Duffey had specific acquisition experience that was thought useful, and he was installed on the SECWAR staff to manage buying a new sea-going Service. You can imagine things were just not working out in the fierce tempo of something that looks a lot like war. We thought Hung Coa was ready for the Senate. We wish him the best as the Acting Secretary.

So there is that and then there is the matter of the pub crawl over in the NW Sector of the Imperial City across the River.

Bar del Monte is a relatively new Italian restaurant over in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Adams Morgan. Street Address is 3054 Mount Pleasant St. NW, Washington, DC. It opened in March 2024, coming from the 2 Amys bustling wood-oven pizzeria over on Macomb St. Del Monte is known for simple seasonal Italian dishes, plus pizza and skewered lamb dishes- kebobs- that are fabulous. Expect the unexpected with the no-reservations format, which many highlight as one of DC’s stronger new restaurant openings.

Of course, you can compare it with solid local tradition with what fifteen minutes can get you across the Potomac.

When we have business on the east side of the river in Adams Morgan in NW, we make a point of using Bar del Monte as our place for deployed basing. There are great places that make this little jaunt a weekend favorite.

We are thinking about going over right now.

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com



Vic Socotra – Purveyor of glib words to…