Once a Reston resident

Not a backyard bird in Reston

The weather has been unusual to say the least.  Snow in New Orleans and rain in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Mostly here on the Carolina coast, we have had colder than normal weather with some rain and wind mixed in for good measure.

Rainy days were never my favorite days in Reston. Puddles in parking lots and accidents on the highway always seemed to make them a challenge

It has not kept us inside very much on the Crystal Coast. A little rain does not melt a sweatshirt or tee shirt.  We took advantage of sun breaking through the fog after a shower to capture this Pelican landing near Swansboro, NC.

Still I miss my sunshine as I am sure everyone in Reston does.

Where we live in Cape Carteret, NC our sunshine peaks in April at about 70% of the time.  December and January are the low points of the year at around 55%.

That might sound negative until you start comparing it to other spots.  Reston makes it almost to 65% in June before declining to about 45% in January.

Cleveland, Ohio has a terrible sunshine curve. While it almost makes it to about 65% in July, it has a steep drop before bottoming out at 25% in December.

Some rain, fog, and even some cooler weather is not nearly the problem out in the boonies that it is in the cities.  Mostly we are rescued by our more casual dress.

When I lived and worked in Reston, bad weather seem to know when I had an appointment in downtown DC.  There is nothing like trying to stay dry and clean in your best suit while walking the streets of a city.

My area associate used to describe New York as the only city that makes its own gravy when it rains.

My college years in Boston and work time in Reston taught me that city snow is far from pristine.  You need a full force blizzard to get really nice snow and keep it that way for a while.

On our farm in northern New Brunswick where we lived from 1974 to 1984, we could count on fresh snow on many morning during the winter.  Three or four inches of snow just groomed the trails nicely, and the snow stayed white almost forever.

As I take a glance at the weather tonight at 10 PM, Reston is at 39 degrees.  Here on the coast, we have just slipped below 60 degrees.  The closest town, Fredericton, NB, to our old Canadian farm is at 23F with light snow.

Tomorrow morning, Friday, December 12, Reston gets a mixture of snow and rain and with a high temperature of only 36 degrees.  I am glad that I do not have to head inside the beltway with that wind and weather.

Fredericton is even worse, they will go from snow to ice pellets to freezing rain to rain with a Friday high of 53F before going back to snow and a high temperature of only 19F on Saturday.

I think that I am ready for summer already.  If not summer, I will take those five days next week when the temperature is supposed to make it into the mid sixties.

Here is a short video clip of our very damp coastal day. We know how to do rain here on the coast.

Some cause for celebration

Today I read with great interest the approval of the Silver line to Dulles.  I think it is a wonderful  step for the region and for Reston in particular.

Like almost everyone in the Reston area, I have spent a fair amount of time sitting in traffic while trying to get into Washington, DC.

The idea that I could take metro and avoid the traffic is very appealing.  From the online survey, it seems that about 90% of the people agree with me.

While having metro to go to Tyson's or DC is a great idea, a metro system would work even more magic if it helped Reston residents travel more easily within Reston.  That's a steep challenge, but it is possible.

When I was in college in Cambridge, MA in the late sixties I became a great fan of metro.  The combination of a metro system and buses allowed you to get almost anywhere without a car.

It would be fantastic if you could get from Wiehle and a few other spots to Reston Town Center by rail, it would certainly eliminate many cars.  The detailed map with the report in the Post is anything but detailed.  I think the challenge is that with a metro following a major road, you end up being a little outside the target area where people would like to walk.

Still I suspect whatever gets built will help the area.  There have been times when I was stuck before reaching the beltway when I wanted desperately to be rescued by a metro system.

With Thanksgiving being over, I am certain Reston has already been transformed into a Christmas shopping mecca.  I already have three posts with holiday thoughts Seasonal Peace on the Beach, Holidays on the Horizon, and The Almost Empty Beach.

If the holiday stress is starting to get to you, try my December YouTube Movie of the Beach.  Don''t expect any excitement, the movie is designed for pure relaxtion.

I assume the Reston Christmas parade went off with our a hitch.  Many of ours here on the coast were rained out last weekend. 

The rescheduled Beaufort parade was today, and the new date for the Emerald Isle Christmas parade is Saturday, December 13 at 4 pm. 

Right now we are looking at a forecast high of sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit that day.  While it is a long way off and the weather is certainly subject to change, that is just the kind of temperature that I would pick for a Christmas parade.

This much cooler than normal fall continues to produce very nice sunsets but not any great warm weather like last fall when we saw temperatures into the seventies and eighties.

Perhaps we are just getting winter over with early this year.