Finally Got Some Rain

Dark clouds and much needed rain rolled into Bowie at the end of last week - finally. Below are some pictures that I captured.

I thought these clouds looked kind of cool.

I call this one Sun Shines Through Clouds over Buckingham. That's Bowie's Buckingham section - not the palace.

Here are some menacing looking clouds as seen from the Safeway parking lot at Market Place.


Safeway didn't have what I needed, so I had to go across the street to Giant.

Speckled Paint

I live in one of the Levitt sections of Bowie, Maryland. For those of you who aren't familiar, that means that my house was built on what was once a colonial plantation known as Belair Estate that contained a horse stable known as Belair Stud and Stable. The stable was world renown, and it produced two Triple Crown winners (father and son Gallant Fox and Omaha) as well as Nashua, the first horse to be sold for more than $1 million. Belair Estate was sold in 1957 to Levitt and Sons, the home builder run by William Levitt - known for developing planned communities in assembly line fashion. Levitt's first planned community was the famous Levittown, New York, followed by Levittown, Pennsylvania, Willingboro, New Jersey and Belair at Bowie, Maryland (later annexed by the City of Bowie).

In order to support assembly line like production of houses, Levitt limited the styles of houses, and common materials were used in all homes. One of the common materials that was used is what residents refer to as speckled paint. I didn't live in Bowie during the early days of the Levitt houses, but I have heard stories about the interior of some houses being painted completely with speckled paint. I've also heard recent stories about original homeowners selling houses that still contained rooms painted with speckled paint.

I had only heard speckled paint stories until I started doing home improvement projects on my Bowie house. This weekend I was working on a room remodeling project that includes replacing existing trim. I found some remaining speckled paint on the underside of the top door jam for the closet. Here it is in the picture below. The speckled paint can be seen on either side of the bi-fold door track.

On the back of some of the trim that I removed, I found a sticker for Hardware City. This wasn't original trim since Levitt and Sons used to make their own.

Before there was Lowes and Home Depot in Bowie, there was Hardware City. Hardware City was more like the hardware stores that I grew up with. When I first moved to Bowie, I tried to go to Hardware City to support the smaller store. The problem was that they rarely had what I needed, and I ended up going to Lowes anyway. I eventually stopped going to Hardware City because it was a waste of time, and they have since closed.

I also founds a 1956D Wheat Penny tucked behind some old trim - perhaps it's been hiding there since the house was built 43 years ago.

BGE Gets Low Customer Satisfaction Rating

Baltimore Gas & Electric ranked 15th in a J.D. Power & Associates customer satisfaction survey of the 17 largest utilities in the East. I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise to Bowie residents. I previously posted here about BGE's efforts to improve reliability in Bowie, and I guess it's appropriate to cut them a little slack until they complete that project. The situation seems to be better now than it was in the past, so BGE may be paying for past sins in the survey.

Of all the places that I've lived, I've never seen power outages with the frequency and duration as the power disruptions in Bowie. I think it was the summer of 2005 when we lost power for four days from a thunderstorm, and a couple of weeks later, we lost power for another three days when we received the remnants of what had been a hurricane and a tropical storm before it arrived in Bowie as rain and high winds.

BGE has said in the past that conditions are unique in the Levitt sections of Bowie, but the outages that I recall affected Anne Arundel County residents as well. Some people have speculated in the past that BGE gives more attention to the Baltimore area than customers to the South.

To BGE's credit, whenever we do have widespread outages, crews are brought in from other companies around the East to assist.

Even if/when the reliability issue is resolved, there is still the issue over billing. Some customer's bills have mysteriously doubled from one year to the next. BGE seems to have two general responses:

1. You must have doubled your electricity usage.
2. We installed a new meter on your house. Those old meters just weren't working right, and you've been undercharged all these years.

And what recourse do you have if a utility claims that your usage was higher than you think it was? Last summer we received a $600+ bill from Washington Gas for one month's worth of natural gas for our hot water heater. The bill is generally between $20 and $30. Luckily they adjusted the bill, and the description on the bill suggested a new or faulty meter. But if they hadn't adjusted the bill, I'm not sure what I could have done.

Check out this blog post and a related update to see how you can save on your electric bill in Maryland.

Bowie to New York City Commute

I have to travel to New York City and Jersey City on a regular basis to meet with clients. Although a flight to Laguardia takes less than an hour of flying time, the total travel time adds up once you include the drive to BWI, arriving early, parking, passenger screening, boarding time, flying time and getting to where you need to go once you land in New York. Laguardia is not near any place that I ever need to go. And most of the travel time is not very productive.


In Bowie, we are lucky to have Amtrak service close by. I can usually get to the New Carrollton Metro station in 15 minutes. There is no need to arrive an hour or so early to go through screening. No need to take your shoes off when you check in, and you can bring more than 3 ounces of liquids.

On Monday, I went from home to train in 30 minutes. And once I was on the train, I had time to sleep for a bit and prepare for the day's meeting.

The trains are equipped with power outlets, so there is no need to worry about laptop battery life. I also have a Verizon air card, so I have Internet access for most of the trip (not in the tunnel under the Hudson).

Another benefit of taking the train is that the trains generally take you near where you need to go. If you're going into New York Penn Station, you are generally a short subway ride away from your destination. If you need to go to Jersey City or near World Trade, you can get off at Newark Penn Station, walk across the platform, and take the PATH train.

I never buy a return ticket in advance because I never know for sure when the client meetings will end. The train stations have handy kiosks, and I have purchased tickets less than five minutes from departure time.

Unfortunately the faster Acela trains do not stop in New Carrollton. Although those trains save some travel time, it also takes more time to get to Union Station.

Ridership is currently down, and ticket prices have been lowered. The best prices are available for advanced purchase.

I have had celebrity sightings (of sorts) on my last two trips - both on the platform at Newark Penn Station.

The first was former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich. He was traveling with a small posse. I never voted for Ehrlich, but I did have a good laugh when I saw his cameo appearance in The Wire as a security guard in the Maryland State House in Annapolis. Ehrlich and his posse took my train to Baltimore.

The second celebrity sighting was on Monday. I was waiting on the platform when I saw Frank Lautenberg, one of the United States Senators from New Jersey, board an Acela train. My travel companion said, "who?" I didn't know this at the time, but Lautenberg was the primary sponsor of a bill that provided more funding for Amtrak. It's nice to see that he also supports Amtrak as a passenger. I guess Joe Biden wasn't the only senator that liked to take Amtrak.

The picture above shows an Acela train heading North through Old Bowie. I took it during one of the many trips with my kids to Old Bowie to see the trains go by. More on that in a future post.

Bowie Needs Rain

I was mowing the lawn tonight when I saw this patch of dry and cracked dirt underneath the swing. Family and friends from New England have been complaining about all the rain that they've been getting for the last three or four weeks. Would be nice if they could send some of it our way.

The Belair Drive Blogger

Every neighborhood seems to have one house that kids are afraid to go near.

This phenomenon is nicely captured in the movie Monster House, where a young boy named D.J. is scared to go on Mr. Nebbercracker's lawn, but his curiosity causes him to obsess about his neighbor.

Bowie may have it's own Mr. Nebbercracker living on Belair Drive. Check out the signs that are hanging on the tree in this front yard.




And the signs on the fence... If you can't make out the letters written on the fence above the signs, they say, "WARNING, I SHOOT TO KILL."



Bowie's Mr. Nebbercracker (not his real name) blogs from his front lawn. He always has an easel-like device in front of his house, and sometimes he posts his thoughts. You can't really read his posts from a passing car, but you can read it from the sidewalk - or if you dare to stop your car and take a picture for your own blog.

This week's posts had to do with unwanted pregnancies and teen driving - two topics that are sometimes related.


If you can't read the above sign, it says:

Practice Birth Control
It's Plain Common Sense!
Stupid is as Stupid Does
Your 5 Minutes of Self Gratification versus a Kid for Life?

And the sign above says:

Now that Maryland has passed your kids to get a licence to
drive...Reality!
1) They will drive like you ... Ha Ha
2) They will drive like cops do (joke)
3) They will drive like their friends do???
*Make sure you have enough
common sense to teach them to always be aware of the stereotype drivers...we all
know who they are!

These aren't the most articulate posts that I've ever seen, and I've never known anyone to get pregnant as a result of practicing self gratification. The real Mr. Nebbercracker was a much better communicator.

I previously posted here and here about a more tame sign on this lawn. My guess is that Mrs. Nebbercracker put up that sign.

Bowie Fireworks

This year, family and friends saw the Bowie Fourth of July fireworks a couple miles away from Allen Pond - at the Maryland Science & Tech Center. There were maybe 100 or so other people there as well. No traffic jams getting in or out, but we missed the Allen Pond festivities.

This picture gives a sense of the distance.

I zoomed in for the other shots.

This parking lot was our viewing area. This is one of two office buildings that opened up at the Tech Center in 2008.