Mid-day in Bethesda, After the snow

Last night I went to bed to the sound of snapping limbs and flashes from transformers arcing. Surprisingly, I woke up with power, but with no internet/cable TV. I think I got off pretty lucky. I headed out around lunch time and saw someone else who was lucky, a very large branch had snapped part way off and was hanging about two feet above their car. That's close.


The roads now are good, the sun, warmer temperatures, and plowing have really cleaned up the major roads, if you can get out of your neighborhood you can probably get to where you are going.


The sidewalks in downtown Bethesda, MD are spotty, there are lots of them that haven't been shoveled yet, but many have been.

There is lots of snow still stuck to the branches of trees but it is steadily falling off, so look up before going under a tree to make sure you aren't going to be hit by a chunk of snow.

The snow is coming down hard in Bethesda

After a day of rain (and jokes about schools closing on account of light drizzle) the snow finally arrived. Wet snow coming down at a rapid rate, just like the weather people promised. Traffic, which was moving steadily at 4pm was barely crawling by 5pm It took me 45 minutes to go about 3 miles leaving downtown Bethesda, MD. The plows that I had seen earlier in the day were strangely absent. I'm not sure if they were on higher priority roads or just stuck in traffic like the rest of us.
There has also been some thunder and lightning, the first flash I saw I thought was a transformer blowing up, but the streetlights remained on. Hopefully the power will remain on, this heavy, wet snow is perfect for bringing down trees so we will get to see if all the tree trimming Pepco has been doing has the desired effect. (Minutes after posting this I saw reports on twitter of people in Bethesda loosing power.)

We should get around 5 inches and most of it will be done by midnight. Hopefully the road crews will have enough time to clear out the roads for the morning but I wouldn't be surprised to see Montgomery county schools closed for a second day.

What "Track Problems" look like

Metro is famous for using vague wording. Currently the are reporting "Track Problems" at Bethesda Metro Station. There are probably a dozen emergency vehicles around the station and they aren't letting people down the escalator. A co-worker of mine reported being smelling smoke in the station. The fire department tends to overreact when things involve metro so it could be minor.

Snow, Ice, Rain, Snow

I woke up early this morning to the sounds of ice pellets hitting my window. That always gets my attention. Overnight we got a little snow, followed by some ice pellets, then it warmed up a bit and it changed to rain. As I write this we are back to ice. Montgomery County Schools are closed today but that seems to be more fear about what could happen later today than current conditions.

The forecast is for rain/ice this morning then this afternoon getting some snow. It looks like Bethesda, MD will get 4-6 inches with more to the north. It could get messy this evening with the rain/slush turning to ice. For those of you new to the area that means everyone should go to the food store over lunch and buy all the milk, toilet paper, bread, and chips. Then, leave work 15 minutes early to "beat the rush" and get stuck in traffic until around 8pm.
Montgomery County plow trucks are out, there isn't a whole lot for them to do at the moment but I did see one waiting on a side street and the one pictured was pushing the slush off the road on Cordell Avenue.

Coming Soon: Geste Food and Wine

Another Food and Wine place is about to open in Bethesda, MD. Geste' Food and Wine will be offering Beer & Wine to go, with a Cafe offering Pizza, Salads and Sandwiches. This looks like it will be a neat little place to have lunch, the menu includes Pizzas (white, Chicken Al Pesto, Margherita, Caprese and others), Salads (Calamaportebello, Arugola, Greek, etc) and Paninis (Chicken Pummaro, Prosciutto & Mozzarella, Calabria Turkey, etc). This looks interesting and I can't wait till it opens so I can try it.

4801 Edgemoor Ln
Bethesda, MD 20814
telephone: 301-718-1675
(Next to Chipotle, where the Crossfire Grill used to be.)

They do have to decide on how they will present their name. The sign says "Geste Food and Wine", their Craigslist posting (for manager/cashier) says "Geste, Foods & Wines" and their website says "Geste Wine & Food".

Alert Montgomery

Montgomery County, MD has a great service that notifies you about school closings, severe weather, and other emergencies. It is called Alert Montgomery and it can send the alert to you through email, text message, or pager (I can't recall the last time I saw someone with a pager). It is very customizable too, there are around a dozen categories of alerts with many options within them. For instance, I have signed up to receive alerts for severe weather, rush hour traffic, police alerts for my district and school closings. If you have kids in a public school you can sign up for alerts for that specific school as well.

If you are not into email they are active on twitter and facebook too.

WooHoo, Snow in Bethesda!

Today we got our first real, accumulating snow of the season. It looks like the total will be around 1.5 inches. Since it has been cold the past few days the snow started sticking immediately.

Roads around Bethesda are generally good. Primary and secondary roads are wet and neighborhood streets have been treated with a sand/salt mix.

Montgomery County public schools stayed open all day but canceled evening activities.

This year's Winter Wonderland

This year Bethesda will again have it's Winter Wonderland weekend. It starts on Friday December 3rd at 8pm at Imagination stage (4908 Auburn Avenue) with a free Choral Concert featuring American University Gospel Choir, BlueLine, Euphonism, and Georgetown University Phantoms.

On Saturday from 1-4pm it continues in Veteran's Park on the corner of Norfolk Avenue and Woodmont Avenue. There will be live Ice Sculpting from 1-2pm (see the picture below from last year's Wonderland). From 2-4pm there will be Santa Claus and singing by some local schools (Garrett Park Elementary School, Our Lady of Lourdes, Seneca Valley High School, St. Jane de Chantal, Watkins Mill High School, Winston Churchill High School).

Fixing the drains at Montgomery and MD-355

The past few rainstorms have resulted in a huge puddle in the middle of the road on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Montgomery Avenue in Bethesda, MD. I wrote about it (and took pictures) back in September. The cause of the problem was a clogged storm drain right at the corner.

The good news is they have started replacing that drain. Yesterday they were pulling out the old pipe and putting in a shiny new pipe. You can see from the picture below that the old one was in really bad shape. It had corroded through in many places and had lots of dirt built up in the bottom.

They only replaced the dozen or so feet closest to the drain, I don't know if they will be back after the holidays to do some more or if they are done.

New Restaurant Kabob Bazaar opened today

As I was out and about today I noticed that Kabob Bazaar is now opened. I spoke with one of the people who works there and it turns out that they just opened today. It is where Javian used to be and before that was Mongolian Grill. There is also a Kabob Bazaar on Wilson Blvd in Arlington.

7710 Wisconsin Ave, Bethesda, MD