Germantown Life

So, what is life like in Germantown? Well, there's a lot of traffic in certain spots. The worst is 270 with all the commuters... towards DC in the AM, and towards Frederick in the PM. The 270 exits in Gaithersburg and Germantown get a bit backed up during rush hour, too.

Since I moved here, the most prevalent crime story has been people getting hit by Metro buses in DC. I see a lot more car accidents here... about 3 in a week. The speed limit gets lax enforcement in general. It's 55 mph on 270 down here, but the flow of traffic is closer to 70 mph.

There are several huge recreational complexes around town. The towns of Germantown and Gaithersburg sort of just run into each other, so it's hard to know where the borders are. One way to tell is Gaithersburg has green on white street signs with a "G" on them.

The biggest laugh is how quickly schools get delayed or canceled. North Dakotans can hang their hats on trudging through 6 to 12 inches of snow. Around here, schools close if there's a couple inches. Part of the deal is that the snow is the wet sticky stuff that leads to icy roads instead of the light fluffy stuff that blows everywhere.

Germantown itself isn't much larger than Grand Forks. There are little shopping complexes on the main corners. For example, Milestone Center is pretty similar to 32nd St. There's a Kohl's, Target, Wal-Mart, Giant (grocery), Best Buy, Pet Smart and other shoppes and businesses.

Slushy Snow Today

It had looked like a freezing rain and sleet event, but it turned into snow today. When I left for work this morning, there was light freezing rain. A band of heavy precipitation dynamically cooled the atmosphere swiftly during the morning, allowing for all snow to fall. It was close to an inch-per-hour snow rate. Visibility was less than a mile at times.

When I went for lunch, there were already 1 to 2 inches accumulated. Streets were in pretty good shape for the most part. A few slick spots made for some interesting maneuvers. By the time the snow had ceased, we had anywhere from 4 to 6 inches on the ground. Deep enough for the dog to romp around some and deep enough to break out the big boots.

Parking lots became mushy piles of slush this evening. We also had some additional light rain (close to freezing rain... temperatures were hovering around 32) that helped create those puddles. It has stopped precipitating, although there may be a few sprinkles or flurries hanging around tonight.

So, we have snow cover once again! It will probably stay around for a while, but it has a much higher water content than the last snow, so if we really do hit the 40s this week, more puddles of water are in store.

Goodbye snow!

All that snow and sleet is still hanging around this morning, but after today and tomorrow, I suspect that it will disappear except for the very high piles in parking lots. People around here aren't used to seeing snow stick around for this long. This snow had a high water content, so I'm betting it's gonna be a wet soppy mess around town as the stuff melts this week.

Snow and Sleet

It snowed and sleeted several inches up here. I don't know if I've ever seen such deep sleet. It holds you up above the ground whereas you'd sink in snow. Some spots, I'd guess 6" deep easily. I was able to walk with the dog on top of the stuff and only occasionally break through about a half inch worth of shoe.

It took a while to dig out the car this morning. A thin layer of ice on the windows and on the front windshield about 1-3" of snow/sleet piled on. I'm happy we avoided the major ice storm, and it was interesting to see how road crews work around here.

I took some photos, so maybe later I'll post some here.

More interesting times

Work is getting more involved now that I've been here a full 2 weeks. It snowed again about an inch. It was the light powdery snow like in North Dakota. Temperatures dipped into the single digits here (low of 5), so it's not like I'm getting a free pass on winter here. Today's temperature got up to 25. Not bad!

I went to watch the Caps play the Bruins last night. It was my first time into the city on the Metro red line. I enjoyed the experience. One of these days, it'll be real nice and I'll go down to the Capitol, White House, and the Mall. I'm looking forward to the cherry blossoms... I'll definitely go during that time frame... sometime in March is what I hear.

Most of the birds I see around here are Canadian geese. They hang out in flocks on the lakes around town. There is some sort of hawk that flies around nearby. Crows like to hang out on the tree in the parking lot at the apartment complex. There's also a squirrel and a homeless black cat. Honestly, though, I haven't really tried to go bird watching yet.

Awesome!

It's a new month and we got some wet snow. Last night, it was wintry mix. A thin layer of ice was on the car, but with temperatures near freezing, it was pretty easy to get it off. This weekend will be my first Saturday-Sunday at my new job. I'll be getting my first paycheck next week.... yay!

I loved listening to the Sioux Hockey game on webcast last weekend. Beat the Gophers! Hope I can listen again soon!