ThayerAvenue.com

In a quick hit on relevant, up-to-date news, Sushi Jin had a fire last night that pretty much decimated their food supply, closed them down temporarily, and even hit some local businesses with carryover outages. Willow Street Yoga announced that their Silver Spring studio would be closed tonight due to some clean up and repair because of the fire.

Courtesy of The Google – Sushi Jin in less-fiery times.

Silver Spring Patch reports that no one was injured and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. When I first heard there was a fire on the block, I assumed that it was one of two things: (A) Someone set American Apparel on fire; or (2) Quiznos got out of hand with the toasted sub thing. Neither of those have turned out to be true.

As you may have noticed…
The holiday season took its toll on putting much time into the blog. Hoping to get things fired back up with more news from Silver Spring that’s fit to print. For Thayer Avenue residents, that includes talking about gems like this:

This makes sense, as our beloved Safeway provides a respite for homeless people, poorly-stocked shelves, and mediocre store-brand dairy products. Discuss amongst yourselves.

If you live on the Ave. and have tested your area for FiOS availability, you’ve been running into this for the past, oh, two years or so.

Look! We have four great Verizon services! None of which is FiOS! Soon, I hope, all that will change.

Last week, there was a Verizon technician at Grove and Thayer doing some preliminary testing (or somesuch). No word yet on actual date for installation and function, but we should be up and running in the not-too-distant future. The speeds on RCN are bringing me down, and I hope I haven’t been putting future stock in something that’s only marginally better. The lesser of evils, perhaps (i.e., NOT Comcast).

I spoke with a rep, and they said there should be a flurry of trucks and service activity before the official unveiling, plus a direct mail barrage. I’ve been getting plenty of direct mail from Verizon, and that hasn’t changed a thing yet.

ALL YOUR CARS, VANS AND TRUCK ARE BELONG TO US

Don’t Forget…
Taste of Fenton is Sunday. Be there or be square. And don’t park on the north side of Thayer between Grove and Houston. You *will* get your car towed. And yes, I may be the one to call the towing company.

#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.