Once a Reston resident

The year without a summer?

Where is the brutal Northern Virginia heat?  I understand that the temperatures only got into the seventies yesterday.  That's definitely not like July in Reston. 

Of course things are all relative.  My friend in New Jersey was begging for some seventies a week or two ago.  Then there is my friend in Halifax, Nova Scotia who seems to be stuck at 55 degrees and drizzle.  Last week I noticed temperatures in the thirties in Edmonton, Alberta.

Part of the continent seems to be having trouble finding summer.  I would have never expected this to happen to Reston which has never seemed to have any trouble heating up in July.  I always thought heat in July was a part of the Reston experience.

Even this week, the Reston forecast has four days in the lower eighties and one day when it does not get out of the seventies.  For the heart of the summer that is strange weather.

It is exceptionally hard for me to relate to those temperatures since we have been through a few weeks when ours have regularly touched ninety degrees.  We have even seen some mid-nineties and a couple of times got in the upper nineties which is unusual for the beach area of the Southern Outer Banks.

This past weekend I was handing out fliers at the Bluewater GMAC Rental check-in.  I was in shorts, tee shirt, straw hat, and Birkenstocks just to stay cool.  I stayed for only two and one half hours because I ran out of fluids and was worried about getting dehydrated in the heat.  Interestingly many of the people checking in from the north were making comments about the blue skies and heat.

I heard a number of people say that it was nice to finally find summer. I do not pretend to be a weather expert, but I expect we will hear about this trend soon.  The situation is bad enough that I have not had any communication from my Boston friends in a month.  Boston seems particularly sensitive about their summer weather.

I can understand why.  When you miss summer, things like home grown tomatoes and grilling outside disappear.  The quick dip in the swimming pool late at night does not happen.  One of the things I enjoy most is going to the grocery store late in the evening over on the beach.  I like the blanket of warmth and the coastal breezes that inevitably greet me as we get out of the car.

Summer is still here along the beaches of Emerald Isle.  I suspect we still have some rental spots available. There are plenty of ways to have fun in our heat especially if you get out on the water.

But if you cannot make it, we will try to enjoy summer for you.  Of course there is still August which is almost always hot and humid in Northern Virginia.  You can always hope.

Waiting for the calls

Sometimes it is hard to believe that Reston is on the same planet that we inhabit. As I have been relaxing while waiting for my father's day calls, I have noticed that Reston is a balmy 75 degrees Fahrenheit this Sunday.

That pales in comparison to the 93 degrees that we have recorded here on the Carolina coast.

Our heat has been great for some vegetables like tomatoes.

The lack of northern warmth would not be so unusual except it seems to be very persistent this year. From Northern Virginia north seems to be having a hard time with summer. We have two grown children in Reston.

One of our children has been complaining that her flowers need sunshine. At the same time we have been hearing warnings to stay inside between 11 AM and 4 PM in order to miss the worst of the sun and heat.

As of four o'clock this afternoon all three of my grown children have made their father's day calls.  We ended up with a voice mail from one since she underestimated the time it takes us to go from church to home. Still I appreciate hearing from our children on father's day. Most of our other calls are initiated from our end.

Sometimes I think the old fashioned phone is becoming a lot art.

I went away to military school at the age fourteen.  I got in the habit of calling home either Saturday or Sunday of each week.  When my wife and I moved to Canada, we kept up the tradition.

There has been a subtle change over the years, and Reston being the technological leading edge that it is, has been at the fore front.

We used to call a place and talk to anyone that picked up the line.  Now it is more typical to call a cell phone with pretty good odds of talking to one specific person.  I would guess a high percentage of Reston homes might only have cell phones.

Sometimes a phone call required some subtle negotiations to get to the right person.

With cell phones taking over homes, a little of the mystery is gone.

It is a little different down here at the beach.  Cell phone coverage can have a few holes, but even here people are more and more dependent on their cell phones.  At our office, it is very rare for anyone to be put through to voice mail.  Mostly we redirect people to cell phones.

Of course if someone has both your cellphone and land line phone numbers, use of the land line number can be a gamble on not getting you.  Whereas a cell phone call might get someone almost all the time assuming the person carries the phone.

We recently switched our land line to an Internet one through our cable company.   Now caller ID is on our television screen.

You can depend on technology to continue to change us in subtle ways while the weather continues to do what it pleases.

Tonight after the worst of the heat, we will be sneaking over to the beach again like we did last night.  It is a way to relax and get out of the heat, but I still have my cell phone in my pocket even when I am fishing in the surf. 

Where bridges still rule the road

With a world defined by huge multiple lane highways, anyone from Reston who ventures down to Beaufort, NC must think they have dropped off the face of the earth.  After all the main roads narrow to two lanes.

Then there is the famous Galllant's Channel drawbridge which seems to open at the most inconvenient times.  Yesterday we were headed to Beaufort from Cape Carteret with the hope of seeing the replica ships, the Nina and Pinta.

We were on a tight schedule since I had to work at 1 PM in the Bluewater Real Estate office.  Just as we were approaching Beaufort, the traffic ground to a halt as the drawbridge opened.

Since I have been here on the beach for nearly three years, I no longer get very upset about delays.  I have lost the tan line on my watch arm. That happened when I stopped wearing a watch.  However, I was wondering how the Maryland and Virginia cars who zoomed past me on the short causeway were handling the delay.

I know from experience that North Virginia people do not like to stop even for red lights.  They can also get a little aggressive around parking spots at their favorite shopping and eating spots.

Imaging the morning Toll Road grinding to a halt because of a drawbridge would send chills down the back of anyone who has tried to make a meeting  before nine AM meeting in Tyson's Corner.

I am not sure why boats have the right of way over traffic, but I guess it adds charm to Beaufort and give visitors something to talk about.

It is a short wait and much more enjoyable than a two hours waiting in traffic as they clean up an accident on the two lane traffic.

To create memories that you want to keep and will help you forget drawbridges, read this, What Makes a Vacation Memorable?     

Reston worries about its housing market?

I see from this Restonian article that the real estate blahs are also wandering the streets of Reston which at one time seemed to be immune from any bumps in the real estate market.

Our streets as you can see from the picture look a little different here on the coast.

Real estate has seen some similar challenges on the coast, but we have not seen many foreclosures. Also on the coast of North Carolina we never got too far beyond reasonable housing.  Our market even at the peak had new single family homes available for $219,000, and those homes were just seven or eight miles from the beach.

Now that the bubble has gone from home prices, you can buy one of those homes for $189,000.  We still have our share of more expensive homes, but the reality is that you can get a really nice three bedroom home with two baths in a community on the water with a swimming pool, clubhouse, and boat ramp for under $330,000.  Given the grand scale of American real estate, that is still a deal since the taxes on the home would be just slightly over $1,000.

Real estate is a very local business.  It can be very weird.  I can remember when we were looking for my daughter's townhouse in Reston.  She got faxes every morning, and often before she saw them,  the homes they were gone.  She ended up in a great spot, but paid $250,000 for a townhouse that was 30 plus years old.

At the time the price seemed ridiculous, but it was bought far enough before the bubble, that she got a great buy.  Now we are close to the bottom of the real estate cycle.  There are some great buys especially here on the coast where there are few buyers.  Yet most people have seen their portfolios decrease enough that buying a second home is seen as impossible.

Still the ones who manage to come up with the money will find some great buys.  I am getting ready to list this home in Pine Knoll Shores.  It occurred to me that $599,000 would likely buy a lot less in Reston than here on the coast. 

The Pine Knoll Shores home is across the street from Bogue Sound, around one half mile from gated private parking for beach access which costs $100 per year, and has over 3,300 square feet.  You can hear ocean waves from the immaculately landscaped yard.  The soundside golf course is just down the street as is the local marina.  More information is at this link on the Crystal Coast electronic village.

In Reston you pay for being close to the Toll Road and easy access to Washington.  Here on the Crystal Coast you pay for access to water.

They are different worlds.  Traffic is the bane of a Reston resident existence.  We like to see some traffic since it means tourists are coming and local businesses will thrive.

Heat in Reston slowly cooks you, heat here on the coast makes the ocean waves inviting.

A weekend in Reston often means fleeing the city and sitting in traffic.  Here we worry more about boat traffic on the weekend than car traffic.  Fortunately the ocean is pretty big and the county has more water than land.

A local eating place in Reston is often a large chain restaurant, a local place here is often like the Fairway, a small family run restaurant.

Reston area jobs are often high paying.  Here on the coast, jobs are a challenge to find.

The prices in our respective real estate markets reflect those realities.  Given a choice people would probably chose Reston style jobs in a pleasant laid back coastal environment like Carteret County.

Unfortunately it does not work that way.  The good news is that people often find times in their lives to appreciate places like Reston and NC's Crystal Coast.

I still miss the convenience of Reston, but there is a lot that I no longer, but my priorities have changed. You cannot even tell that I ever wore a wrist watch.

Read more about North Carolina's "secret to share" at the Crystal Coast Living Blog.

Ah, Reston takes a shortcut to summer

When I came in after my kayaking trip this afternoon, I sat down to check my email.  I happen to check the Weather Underground site and found that Reston was flirting with 91 degrees Fahrenheit.

I immediately got a flash back to some springs long ago when Northern Virginia would have a couple of weeks of spring weather and then go directly to the miserable summer heat that often engulfs the area.

While I managed to several of these years almost without spring, they were never fun.

First off I was usually stuck in a suit during the worst of the heat.  I can even remember hiking the tunnel to the Pentagon on one particularly nasty day when the temperature reached into the nineties and the humidity made the walk almost deadly.

Of course the city air is filled with heat and some fumes which does not help the situation.  It does make you really appreciate air conditioning.  I know that I would come home and get out of my suit and into shorts as quickly as possible.

Since I am not longer with Apple, I am a little luckier, starting in March my work uniform as a Realtor on the NC Coast switches to shorts.  While Reston and other inland spots are cooking in spring heat, we are enjoying a climate cooled by ocean breezes which will also warm us in the fall.

This is a great time of year along the coast.  We even took our boat out on Friday.  It proved to be a great day.  Perhaps spring will try to take hold of Reston's weather once again.  But unfortunately, I suspect heat will be a way of life for the DC metro area until next winter.

Perhaps a little of this would help

I checked the Restonian this evening and was surprised to find a story about a murder in Reston.  It made me think back to this afternoon when I was standing on a deck watching waves crash into the beach here on the North Carolina coast.

While waves cannot wash away crime, but they certainly help to soothe the modern mind. 

I always felt very safe in Reston.  I am not sure why since it would be a rare morning that you could not hear sirens somewhere in the background noise.

Maybe I felt safe in Reston because the news in the Washington Post overwhelmed anything that might have happened in Reston.  Also news in a modern community like Reston does not travel by a grapevine. A lot happens that you never hear about personally.

If a crime takes place, you likely will not find about it unless the police knock on your door and interview you to see if you know something about it.

Here in the world of small towns on the coast, news does travel by grapevine.  We were driving out of our subdivision this afternoon as one of the children of some friends was walking home from the bus stop.  She flagged us down to tell us about an outside light fixture catching fire on a neighbor's house the previous evening.

We live about five houses away but heard nothing, certainly not the fire truck. We continued on our journey to my workplace to check my snail mail and got another version of the story from the daughter of the 88 year old lady who lives in the house.

When we returned home, we were flagged down by yet another neighborhood youngster.  In the space of a couple of hours, we heard three versions of what happened.

The first thought might be that so little happens here that anything is exciting news.  There is a certain amount of truth to that.  However, our neighborhood would be much more connected than a Reston one.

Some of it just has to do with numbers. Our little piece of heaven, Bluewater Cove, only has forty two homes.  While we do not know everyone, we know several folks well and many others well enough to strike up a conversation.

It is a completely different world than Reston.  There is a fair of community interaction here, and some things happen that are unlikely to happen in Reston.

This past weekend, I was backing out of my driveway as my neighbor was mowing his yard.  I motioned to him that he could just take his riding mower over and do mine while he was at it.  We both laughed, and I headed on out not thinking any more about my joke.

When I came home late Saturday evening, the joke was on me.  I was surprised but not shocked to find that he had mowed my yard.  Not many people have neighbors who look after each other like some do in our subdivision.

There is a pretty good support network here.  Finding someone to check on things or feed the cat when we are out of town is not very difficult.  We often have to worry more about whose feelings we might hurt if we do not ask them for help.

Big cities like Reston are great in their own right.  Usually very good jobs are available, and you do not have to worry about everyone knowing your business. Every service known to man is usually available.

But we all those services and people comes some less desirable people and certainly more crime than we would see in our rural area.

Living in a peaceful rural coast area is pretty easy on the nerves.  There is a good deal of comfort in knowing that we live in a much smaller community where people have the time to get to know each other and perhaps keep an eye on those who need watching.

I suspect the 88 year old lady who had a total stranger bang on her door and tell her that her house was on fire appreciates his efforts almost as much as those of the neighbor who went to his own home and got a hose and put out the fire using another neighbor's spigot well before the fire truck arrived.

Sometimes it is good to be out in the boonies near those waves.  For a story of some friends visiting us on the coast check out this post, On Being the Local Experts For Visiting Friends.

Not unexpected visitors

Not long ago we had a great weekend visiting our kids in Reston.  We managed to spend a very enjoyable afternoon in the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum at Dulles.  It was a real treat.

We had not been up to visit since last year when my daughter had just finished landscaping around her townhouse.

She had gone to a lot of trouble to pick deer resistant plants.  She even paid extra to get one plant that was poisonous to deer.

While I was hopeful that her efforts would be successful, I was not surprised to see that the deer have eaten much of her landscaping including the poisonous plant.

The deer vanquished us in southwest Virginia.

We actually gave up growing tomatoes at our Roanoke, Va home.  The deer would come by and bite the tomatoes and drop them on the ground.  It looked like a bear had been rolling around in the vines.  We never had the problem while our Lab, Chester, was alive.  Once he was gone, I tried everything but it the deer seemed to have won.

We are removing the remnants of three azaleas that have graced our Roanoke home for twenty years.  The deer have killed them.

My daughter and I went out on Sunday to pick up sandwiches for lunch from Potbelly.  When we came back there was a deer grazing in one of her neighbors yards. The deer was not even afraid of us and continued grazing while we were getting out of the car just yards away.

My daughter is now thinking of putting up a fence.

I wish there was a better solution, but deer are becoming just as much an urban pest as they are on the  mountainsides in southwest Virginia.

On another note-

My apologies for the few posts.  I have been exceptionally busy writing for the blog where I actually get paid, Crystal Coast Living.  If you are interested in beach living drop by and see why North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks are such a special spot.

If you are really interested, check out the nice water view cottage that I just listed on the White Oak River or the reasonably priced home just minutes from the Emerald Isle beaches.

Snow Envy

I hear it in my daughter's voice when we talk about the weather.  She would really enjoy just "one good storm" this year.  She is certainly not alone.  Many people in the mid-Atlantic from southwest Virginia on up the coast to Washington are disappointed that snow has so far missed them.

I got the picture in this post from my daughter this evening.  It is of Reston's early morning snow which I guess started disappearing by ten AM today.

Northern Virginia is one of those funny places which might be far enough north for some serious snow, but often the area is just too warm.

We have actually had cold air dam up against the mountains in southwest Virginia and enjoyed snow while Reston was getting rain.  Strange things happen when weather, mountains, and oceans start mixing.

I was actually honored when the Roanoke paper printed a picture I had sent them of some snow on the beach that we had on inauguration day.  The picture was taken in Emerald Isle.

Unfortunately it has generated some complaints from Roanoke folks that we have gotten more snow on North Carolina's coast than Roanoke has seen.  You would think Roanoke being surrounded by mountains would get some significant snow, but they are as snow deprived as is Northern Virginia. In fact Roanoke is in the midst of something of significant snow drought.  They have not had a good storm in a while.

I keep reading reports that a March storm is going to hit the metro Interstate 95 corridor, and from past experience I know that there is plenty of time left for that.  Just maybe it will actually happen, and all of Virginia will turn into a winter wonderland.

Some of the biggest and longest lasting snows that I can remember have come to Reston in March. A few years ago in March, I was pretty sure that Reston was destined to be a glacier.

Well I am glad the DC area got at least a dusting of snow in places.  Perhaps that will be a hint of things to come.  At which point, I will be the first to say, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Right now I am wishing for spring weather and hoping our spell of warmer weather lasts.  With a view like this, why would you want snow?

One of those empty road days

I talked to our Reston based grown children yesterday.  I guess the inauguration ate all of the traffic.

There were always a few days when DC area traffic magically did not materialize.  It was always such a treat to not be swamped by vehicles.

I would guess that long time residents would be reminded of the days when Reston not the packed place that it is today.

Having day without a lot traffic just shows how nice Reston could be if there were a lot less people on the road.  I wonder if the parking lots were also empty or did people just use a non-commuting today to go shopping?

We had a great day on the coast.  It snowed for the first time in six years.  As I wrote on the Crystal Coast Living Blog, it came as a real surprise.

The good news is that it was that best of all snows, the kind that looks pretty and never sticks to the road.  It was an ephemeral snow which actually pleased me since we did not move to the beach to deal with snow.

Actually I have to admit that this snow hardly qualified as snow.  It certainly was like some of the snows that I can remember from my Reston days.  There were at least a couple of years when I was pretty sure that Reston was becoming a glacier.

I suspect the traffic was back in full force today.  It never hides for very long.  My commute home from work included the sunset in this post.  I drove by the Croatan National Forest Tideland Access Point.

The scene was exceptionally peaceful with Swansboro in the distance and a blazing sun gradually dropping into the river.  I imagine that some Reston area commuters would enjoy a few minutes in the fading sun by the White Oak River if they could work it into their schedules.

The city challenge and the country cure

There were times of the year when I worked in Reston that I really did not want to be there.  One of those periods happened to be just after the winter holidays.

It is always hard to go back to work after taking some time off, but going back to the grind in January was especially hard.

For some reason the city streets always seemed colder in January.  Most people were consumed by work rather quickly with the result being that holiday cheer and memories of the recent vacation disappeared pretty quickly.

If you add to that the long time before another chance for a few days off, January could be a very depressing time. A nice city snow storm can make that even worse.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to clean snow or ice off a car when you are dressed in a suit. Northern Virginia does not handle snow well so I was always pleased when the storms missed the area.

It is probably a good thing that I did not have my feet half in salt water during my Reston days.  When I think of pulling back onto the Toll Road and heading to Tyson's Corner for an eight o'clock in the morning meeting in January, it gives me the shivers. If I had any way of escaping to the coast in those days, I probably would have tried it.

The post holiday traffic added frustration and along with normal workplace challenges made it hard to handle the inevitable letdown from returning to your desk in the city.

It seems so much easier to get back into the groove here at the coast.

Of course it is a much easier groove. 

There are no early morning traffic jams. Getting to work most days involves going upstairs to my office.  Before I can sit down in front of the computers, I have to take the cat for a walk on the deck.  While the grass is not green in winter, the view from the deck changes little otherwise. It is a calming view that would be hard to duplicate in the city.

Usually once a week I have to do a half day of duty in the office which is about seven minutes from my home.  In addition I try to drop by the office at least once a day, but we usually combine it with a trip to the grocery store, post office, or a hike on the beach or one of the local trails.

Winter is not a busy time at the beach or in real estate these days.  Budgets are not being done.  People are not under the kind of pressure that corporations feel the need to exert at the beginning of each quarter.  Some restaurants here even close for a week or two to give their staff an extended vacation.

The coastal weather is just nice enough that if things are slow, an escape to the beach for a few minutes is always possible.

The intensity of Reston and Northern Virginia keeps an unbelievably complex web of businesses going.  That happens even in the dreaded post holiday days.

Our Coastal Paradise operates on a different wavelength far from the pressure cooker of the DC area.  The pay is a lot less, but stress is not as much a part of life here.

Perhaps we are the place to which the steam from the pressure cooker escapes. Once in a while the escape might be permanent with a coastal lifestyle becoming a way to avoid the pressure cooker.

I think we are fortunate that people are able to handle different things at different points in their life. That ability to tolerate pressure for an extended period of time is what keeps us moving forward.  The opportunity to continue to contribute to society without putting your head in a vise is one of the great safety valves of society.

I am glad that my time in the pressure cooker has passed.  I like the ocean waves a lot more than the Dulles Toll Road.  Reston is still a great place to visit, I just would not want to working there these days.  I would rather have the opportunity to walk the beach.  After all, it is only five months before we can go swimming in the surf again.