The Snow in the City

This week has been brutal, work, work, work and then some more work. But I am still here, today I am in DC (downtown) instead of Ashburn, because I had to be here bright and early, and because of the snow. No one wants to be stuck in the suburbs of Northern Virginia on a snow storm. Trust me, no one. So here I am observing for the first time snow in Downtown. It is not much different than the suburbs, just more people walking around and more cars. Lots of honking, and wetness everywhere, but mostly importantly people. DC is infamous for shutting down at the possibility of 4 inches of snow (and they say there are many size queens in the city) and it is refreshing to see that nothing seems to be closed, and that people are not running to the garages to get on their Aviators (or whatever name those awful SUV's are) and then drive home for 3 hours. It is also refreshing to know that as of late the city will be ready before the burbs.

With that I have to go, because I need to continue working.

Veeeeeery Cold

One of the changes with the new Administration in Klingle Road is that we try and walk to the metro the days I commute to the downtown office. After trying the buses, the metro is the easiest option, it is faster, more reliable – as reliable as the Red line gets though. The only problem is the metro is far away, mmmh, let’s qualify that not far, far away, it is up the hill behind the house. This means you have to walk down hill from Klingle land, cross the park and the creek no less, and then go up the hill towards Connecticut Avenue land and the Uptown.
Today I decided to walk to the metro. It was good and bad, it was good because I had not had breakfast and the climb with the cold guaranteed I deserved the bagel I am eating as I type this, but it was bad because the temperature was well cold. I mean cold, cold, there was frost on the leaves and the cars, there was wind coming towards me and not helping me and since I am short I can not wear long coats, so I was wearing a gray winter jacket, and as I walked up the hill my slacks got sooo cold I was not sure if they were there any more. From the waist down all I could feel were my legs and the chilly air, and nothing else. But even in these harsh conditions it still took me 10 minutes only, so I know I am whining, I do. Finally I made it to the station and in another 10 minutes I was in Farragut North and in another 10 I was sitting down in my cube. I did stop at Starbucks to get coffee and a bagel. Such are the hardships of my life.

PS. The other drawback of metroing from Cleveland Park is that there is not enough time to read more than 1 page, and so I do not advance in my readings, so I am forced to people watch. Wait that is not a drawback!

The First Snow

Today Washington woke up to its first snow “storm” – that is the name the weather people on the radio called it - for this winter season. By our standards it comes early, and as usual it threatened with chaos and school closings. As usual in DC, whenever there is the slimmest hope of having some form of snow, everyone goes into panic mode, and people went to the grocery store yesterday, got de-icing salt and milk, water and lets not forgot toilet paper. You think I am exaggerating, well last night as I was prepping up for a swim team board meeting, I was watching the local news and they had 3 stories on the snow that was coming, and had of course nice old people buying salt at Home Depot and stuff. Obviously when the snow comes, nothing happens, except empty toilet paper ails in Supermarkets.

I was lucky enough to witness the now today, and lucky in an interesting word, because I experienced it, because I had to take Manolito – for all those novices, Manolito is my car – to the dealership for the very expensive 20,000 miles tune up. I chose to do it on Wednesday because I can take the Metro to work and then take the Metro uptown to pick up the car in the afternoon. As planned the alarm clock went off at 6 am, and I woke up, hopped on the shower, cleansed, shaved and scrubbed and by 6:40 I was ready to go. As I opened the door, I see that it has started to snow, and it was breath taking. Yes it was cold, but it was so quiet and calm. The snow fell upon the cars, the streets, the trees and yards very much like confectioners sugar when it is being sifted, slowly covering all the non moving surfaces, not in clumps, but in small tiny flakes. It was quite the spectacle. I walked to my car, brushed some of the snow off, and drove to the dealership in Bethesda, in awe of it. The fact that it was 6:40 and the light was just starting to change, from dark to light, made a great difference. It took me 15 minutes to reach my destination. At 6:56 I was by the dealership’s door, waiting for it to open.

That was my morning. Obviously the ride in the metro was fine and then the walk in the city was ok, but very routine. Oh well, at least I had an amazing morning.

Phote Tease

Because I am lazy, and I have nothing to say, I am uploading some pictures for you to peruse
1 - a little parable, selective trash ?

2 - Remember all the complaining I did about the shoes for the High Heel race, here they are:


3 - Today and yesterday I took some pictures of the end of fall in DC, most of the leaves have or are already falling: