ThayerAvenue.com

#SRATW at 6:38 PM at Thayer & Fenton. I don’t even know who might have lost water in all this, but not me [fingers crossed].

Special thanks to WSSC.

It appears there are some problems with permanent residency declarations at the Thayer Avenue Safeway. I always get the creeps when I walk through the underground garage, but now it appears as if people are taking to sleeping in cars.

Yes, it actually has a “NO TRESPASSING” sign and says “NO SLEEPING” on the back window. One would think that locking the doors would be an easier solution. Maybe we can call this the Sleeping Safeway from here on out.

In Other News…
From the looks of this story in the Washington Post, I don’t think the photo below, which I took during Snowpocalypse I on December 19, 2009 (at the aforementioned Thayer Avenue Safeway), was an accurate representation of actual usage. Or the stocks really dwindled too far below demand.

Thanks to BMSTT for the No Sleeping photo.

Perhaps we should say “the week” (with a much larger radius than just Thayer Avenue), but anything more than 24 hours and everything goes down the shitter anyway. I managed to snag some freezer space from a neighbor for expensive meat-stuff, but at least I have the opportunity to thoroughly clean and wipe down the inside of the refrigerators. Luckily, I had just taken these off the grill before the rain started, which made the immediate impact of the power outage a little less painful.

Ironically, Pepco’s site went down, too, but it’s back online with these sad statistics (as of 12:30pm on Tuesday):

We heard the term “multi-day event” on Sunday night, but the ramifications of that are really starting to hit home. The cool air through the open windows this morning was nice, but if those birds sit right outside again at 5:00 tomorrow morning, I will reach through the screen and crack their tiny skulls.

Skateboarding Is Not A Crime
I was walking through the plaza last night and snapped a photo of one of these new notices – of which there are many.

My daughter has become greatly enamored of skateboards now, which I’d gladly promote. But as she was running at full-tilt across the ice rink concrete slab, there were very nearly several collisions with many of the other stir-crazy kids out there. Add skaters into the mix, and I can appreciate the issues. That notice to the right of the metal sign tells you to go into The Box for more detail, which Silver Spring, Singular has documented here.

Stay cool out there. Hope the lights come back soon.

Well, it finally happened to me, too. At approximately 1:52AM this morning, my doorbell started ringing incessantly. And I don’t mean a couple of little presses. I’m talking a full-fingered, 30-rings-per-second diatribe that sent my heart racing. I was a bit disoriented and took my time walking downstairs to peek out the window. Without a thought, I assumed it was the woman I mentioned last week. By the time I tried to surreptitiously look out the blinds, she was gone.

I called the Montgomery County Police non-emergency number (301-279-8000 – put it in your cell phone *now* if you haven’t already), and I wasn’t the first person that had called. Someone else was kind enough to submit a description:

• Black
• Female
• 5′0″-5′2″
• Chubby/Obese 140-170lbs
• Smoker (could tell by smell)
• Pleasant voice, no ghetto accent
• Late 20s to early 30s
• And she spoke like she’s anxious or in a hurry when talking to you

There was also a black SUV parked on the corner of Thayer and Houston that may or may not have contained an accomplice. And here’s the kicker: she told someone she had locked her keys in her car, yet she was carrying a set of keys.

I hope she was picked up by the cops, because if she tries to pull that shit again, there will be an entirely different outcome.

First of all, I know things have been quiet here. But beyond restaurant openings and such, there’s just not that much I care to write about. Plus, when ESSCA is out of session there’s less fodder for ridicule. I do love the listserv, though.

For example: A 24-hour laundromat is going in at the old TOTAS location on Fenton, and someone on the list was concerned about it being open 24 hours – presumably because, you know, crime might happen. Like the crime-ridden (not) 24-hour 7-11 or the Greyhound bus station right nearby. Oh – and for those of you who don’t have enough to complain about, El Cafe Caracol on Sligo Ave plays loud music at night. And there may or may not be a constant drone from the air handlers on top of Silver Spring Towers that keeps some people up at night. Welcome to the ESSCA listserv.

In other news…

Thayer Avenue WSSC Work

Basically, they’re about to come in and rip shit up like they did on Georgia Avenue. But they were much nicer about it. If you didn’t get the notice…

We’re happy to advise you that we will be rehabilitating the water main infrastructure in your neighborhood. This letter provides you with important information about the upcoming construction.

Work began on or before June 7 and completion estimate is August 11, 2011. Ouch.

For the record…
I, for one, will not boycott the 9:30 Club. I just went to see OK Go there last month, and as long as Seth puts on great shows, I’ll go. His problem? Once the Fillmore is built, I will certainly go to 9:30 less often. Something he’s just going to have to deal with. This is a minor blip, as far as I’m concerned.

And one more thing (UPDATE)
Some woman going by the name of Cynthia is panhandling on Thayer Avenue. She went knocking on people’s doors after midnight on Monday saying her boyfriend hit her and she needed cab fare to Germantown. And evidently she also made some other offers for moneymaking that weren’t so timid. Police were looking for her but no word yet on whether or not she was picked up.

…have the neighbor’s nephew do it. When all the attention turned to primary roads, JD’s nephew came to town with his snow plow to make a little extra money. When there was nothing going on, he took care of our block of Thayer. They even helped shovel out driveways. Awesome.

Suck it, Bonifant!

Also, I am shocked at the number of people that got out and drove in this. If you went out and got stuck like some of these people, I have one word for you: schadenfreude.

Attention people of Earth: Speed bumps are there for a reason. And it’s not to pull a Dukes of Hazzard move.

Half of the 700 block of Thayer was flanked by police vehicles last night when, just after 6:00, someone (according to eyewitnesses) decided to test the limits of the traffic calming devices. Luckily, the driver walked away with minor injuries. Not sure if the other car helped cause the flippage or if it was just a casualty of war, but let this be a lesson: Slow the hell down, people. There are no less than 12 kids living within four houses of this mayhem. Assuming speed did cause this, I have absolutely NO sympathy for the driver.

Thanks to D Stegmeier for the photos.

The lights are on and people are home. I went by last night and spoke to the new manager. His family owns a few stations in the area, and he’s hoping to start garnering neighborhood business again. Not sure what happened to the old owners, but this is a vast improvement. The gas prices are competitive, the garage is waiting on some equipment and certification, and the store is CLEAN. I don’t know if you ever went by and had to walk up to the window to get something, but the only reason I went before was proximity (and a pay-at-the-pump feature that the Bonifant station severely lacks).

Go. Buy some gas. Walk inside and grab a soda or something. I’d like these guys to stay around for a while.

As many years as I’ve been here, and as many times as I’ve walked or driven by Thai Market, I have been in but two times – both to pick up take out food from the counter on the left. Those of you who have been or walked by and looked know what I’m talking about. I always thought the food was okay, and we preferred to go to Thai Derm. Everything changed when I went exploring this weekend.

Finding a comfort zone
One of my biggest fears walking into the store was that I would be totally overwhelmed, not know what I was doing, and look like a total cracker. I did, but that’s okay. I went in initially to get ingrdients to make chicken panang. I assumed I would need panang curry paste and coconut milk, but there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cans of curry paste. And rows of cans with coconuts on them that may or may not contain milk.

I sucked it up and asked the woman at the front counter for help, and she didn’t even bat an eye. Walked right to the red penang curry paste in the “Wall of Tin” and handed me the proper stuff (click the thumbnail images for larger pictures). When I asked what coconut milk to get, she walked me over to where it was, handed me a can and said, “This is exactly what you need.” Done. I trust her implicitly now.

I asked her about the sweet little crunchy things we sometimes get on top of mango and sticky rice at Thai Derm. She nodded in understanding and said, “mung bean.” Took me to a different section and handed me a red bag filled with dried beans. *Not* what I was expecting, and I think she saw it in my face. She carefully explained how the beans needed to be soaked, as with any dried beans, but then here’s the kicker: chuck ‘em in the deep fryer until they’re crispy, golden, and delicious. I’m really starting to like this woman.

Exploring Thai food beyond the takeout menu
Now that I had established a certain comfort level, I began to explore on my own. If you’ve ever had Thai coffee, you know how delicious that dark brew and sweetened condensed milk can be. Not only did I appear to find the coffee secret (Café du Monde Coffee and Chicory), I found something we regularly shop for and have trouble finding. We make cold coffee concentrate, and the best stuff for that is chicory coffee. Whole Paycheck rarely carries the caffeinated kind, so this is like a Festivus miracle for us.

Starting to get adventurous, I looked at what appeared to be popular snack foods. Have you ever had Tom Yum soup? It’s that amazing lemongrass soup served at most Thai establishments, sometimes with chicken or shrimp – one of my all-time favorites. Well, the swell people in Thailand decided to take that flavor and turn it into a crunchy shell around peanuts. Really. This stuff rocks. As does the packaging. And then, last but not least, Headless Ching Chang Anchovy with sesame. Crunchy little fish with a sweet and spicy glaze, spinkled with sesame seeds. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

Given that I didn’t buy the coffee, all this still came up to less than $9.00. Very impressive. Chicken panang is going on this weekend, and I’ll be back for more. You should go. And put yourself in their hands. Trust me on this.

Thanks to an alert ThayerAvenue.com reader for this info – and the photo.

Tuesday morning saw some interesting police activity on Thayer Avenue. While the photo above gives some immediate context (with that god-awful house at the corner of Houston and Thayer on the left), the thumbnail below will take you to a much larger image. This is the end of the activity, unfortunately, as everyone was getting back in the vans, but reports indicate there were at least a dozen or so officers, clad in black bulletproof gear with large automatic weapons.

They walked a bit down Thayer from where these vans were parked, “inspected” a house, and then left. Appeared they simply stayed on the periphery and had some discussions about what to do, or perhaps debated the merits of early-20th-century residential architecture. Who knows. But it didn’t appear to be anything requiring firearms discharge.

If anyone has any more information on what the hell is going on in our ‘hood, would love to hear it.