bdh3
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Reston Road Trip
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Dec 11 06:11 UTC 2000 |
Headed out for wunnerful Reston, Virginia, the planned community.
Arrived at O'Scary in plenty of time for the flight to
Washington-Dullest only to be hit with an 'equipment delay'. The
original departure of 1316 was listed as 1335 but even as that was
posted I overheard one of the flight crew tell another they were trying
for a 1345 'push back'. We boarded about 1350 and then sat at the gate
while 'mechanics lookes at the left wheel brakes'. Mind you, I ain't
got a problem with the mechanics looking at anything they think ought to
be looked at, but I am starting to wonder at this point if the delay has
anything to do with the lifting of the injuction against the
mechanics... Finally, we push back and taxi on out to the runway and
wait our turn in line and then after the announcement '...prepare for
takeoff', pass the active runway to the hardstand where we park next to
a whole gaggle of United (all United, no other airline). A member of
the flight crew gets on the intercom and explains they are awaiting the
mechanic's release 'which they say was sent twice now'...gotta have that
hardcopy in the logbook before you can take off doncha know. Finally, we
start to roll, and I get paged... (I'm sure it all has nothing to do
with the lifting of the injunction and all that, the flight crew did a
wonderful job of 'keeping a straight voice' as they announced the
results of the same 'work to rule' tactics they used this past summer -
and I thought they all owned the airline...). Dunno who exactly was on
the flight, but they took a high altitude and flew rather fast and
managed to make up most of the time (burned a lot of fuel/$$ so it must
have been a democrat bigwig or three who needed to get to DC post
haste...).
While we were waiting to board, Mary Wilson had managed to charm one of
the stewardesses- lately when prompted to 'say hello to the nice ...'
she does so in one of her languages. This time it was spanish, and the
stewardess replied in spanish, Mary Wilson switched to french, and the
stewardess switched as well, on to japanese, and the japanese reply,
then portugese, and the reply, mandarin, a reply, cantonese (I think)
point and counterpoint. The stewardess took over by switching to german
(she is) and Mary Wilson was speachless and quite amused. For the
duration of the short flight the 1st class stewardess checked on her new
friend (in steerage) and smuggled some of the goodies back to her
(pretzles is all you normally get)
Jun Ma greeted us at the gate when we arrived and we headed back to pick
up the luggage (main terminal is gotten to via great big high shuttles
(many of which have 'tails' at both ends so the planes whom they share
the taxi ways treat them appropriately)). Stopped by the gas station
where I got sodas (counter the dehydration of flight) and asked which
map was best to purchase in order to navigate to the hotel in Reston
where we were going. No need, I was told (bad sales person, bad. Take
money not give free advice) its "just on down the road a couple exits,
you drive right by it, you can't miss it". We stop at the hotel and I
get on the house phone and ask to be connected with whats-her-name's
room (she's gone down on the 0500 flight to spend the day working at HQ)
and I am informed they '... don't have a guest of that name'. I ask
isn't this the such and such hotel (major chain) and they say 'oh, no,
thats just on down the road a couple exits' - sure enough, its a
'planned community' and I finally get to where they do have a person of
that name checked in and I am at the right place (two large hotels of
the same chain practically in sight of each other...). Anyway, the ma's
hang out in the room or at the excellent pool/hot-tub 'baby sitting'
Mary Wilson while whats-her-name and I attend the company christmas
party at a nearby country club which will remain nameless (they never
did let senator barry goldwater join on account him being a jew and like
that). (No, not Burning Tree, but you are close.) Whats-her-name wore a
new gown and I my tux (it being black tie). (Hadn't worn it since I got
married in it and it still fit although I did had to buy a new set of
studs and my black patent leather loafers had a couple cracks.) (Tux is
a little loose under the left arm - room for the holster I wasn't
wearing (and never did, I was joking but my tailor didn't realize it)).
A good time was had by all, and since the company paid for shuttles to
and from the country club there were no 'wilbur mills' of note.
Reston, VA is a planned community, home to many buildings with addresses
but no names, phone numbers which answer with only the last four digits
of the number, and many other interesting sites. I kept having
'stepford' moments. Most all the restaurants and stores are national
chains, but with tiny signs and none are allowed to occupy 'signature'
buildings - even the 7-11s occupy 'colonial modern' buildings. The exit
numbers on the highways are all after the exits themselves -I guess to
let you know what you missed. And there is one odd intersection -
lawyers road and lawyers road - that doesn't really seem all that out of
place. No mass transit apparent, other than the airport shuttles for
the hotels and the quaint trolleys that one can ride around the shopping
malls for free. And everything is very very clean and well groomed.
A scary place in a way.
Whats-her-name's new company's computer facility is not a marketing
showpiece (whew, its a 'dot com startup' and I was worried about
'potemkin villages') and I had some interesting 'techy' chats with some
folk that 'work for a government agency'. Saturday was mostly a hang
out at the pool/hot-tub or watch cartoons sort of day, very relaxing
although I did manage to get a few billable hours in as it turns out the
hotel where we are staying is a customer for whom I am doing some work
for now. (just for grins I called the data center and arranged for them
to introduce me so I could get onto the network from one of their local
PCs. Why the local hotel could easily have access is a question and a
potential problem not yet realized that I shall perhaps bring up in
future meetings...never hurts to drum up new biz). A relaxing weekend
of good but unremarkable food that one could have identically in any
major shopping mall in any major US suburb (with the exception of a
'dumbed down' pakistani 'take out' we found) although for twice to three
times the price. It is a planned community - all the gas station prices
were exactly the same. A scary place.
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scg
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response 1 of 5:
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Dec 11 07:31 UTC 2000 |
I've been ammused by "planned communities." Reston, VA, Schaumburg, IL, and
Southfield, MI all look pretty much the same. They're all bland boring
sprawl, where you can go long distances without the scenery changing, where
it's impossible to get from buildling to building without a car. Southfield,
as far as I can tell, just happened that way. That doesn't make it ok, but
at least means the layout of the place can be written off as a bad accident.
Reston and Schaumburg, on the other hand, both point out over and over again
that somebody planned them that way.
Reston does have some interesting oddities. They have a downtown that was
described to me before I ever saw it as "Briarwood without a roof." The
description seems to fit, not only in the architectural style, but also in
the surroundings, including the big pedestrian unfriendly road that circles
it, and the sprawl that surrounds that. Last time I was in Reston, I was
shown a planned commmunity within the planned community that seemed a bit more
pleasant. This was a development, I think called Lake Anne, that I think was
an example of what gets called "new urbanism." It had a town square on what
appeared to be a fairly big artificial lake, with stores around it and
apartments up above. Behind the town square were some other community
buildings, including a school. Branching out from the town square were a
bunch of apartment buildlings and town houses, all connected together by foot
paths (decorated with some interesting sculptures). Cars seemed to be kept
to the outside of the development. It was quite a neat place to walk around.
There seem to be some pictures of it at
http://www.northva.com/reston/anne.htm.
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