Your loyal and humble blogster awoke at 5 a.m., waaaay before dawn, to prepare for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI. But wait, you say, isn't the leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 4 p.m.? Right you are, but the security for the pope's events in Washington is absurd. TV crews going to AAFB to feed the landing of the pope's jet to their networks need to pre-set between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Everyone else — reporters and photographers — have gathered at the Westin Hotel at 14th and M streets Northwest and need to queue up at 10:30 a.m. There will be security sweeps here at the hotel, then again at AAFB from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

As a veteran of presidential trips, your blogster has no idea where at Andrews they are going to put several hundred reporters, but just a guess — we'll all be standing on the tarmac for at least three hours.

More TK.

— Joseph Curl, senior White House correspondent, The Washington Times