A quick reminder as you dig out from Christmas Day's kickass winter storm, Reno residents are required to shovel the snow on the sidewalk in front of their properties. And you can't just shovel it anywhere you want, either. It's illegal to move snow from private property onto public property (read: the road). So, you pretty much have to toss it into your own lawn.
It's just a fact of life in Reno. Besides, you don't want to get behind on your shoveling. Big, icy berms just flat out suck.
I love pouring over demographics in some effort to decipher a community's personality. Though a higher education degree doesn't guarantee one has any common sense, it's some kind of a start.
According to stats at point2.com the 89523 ZIP code, aka Northwest Reno, has what appears to be a large number of adults with bachelor's degrees and higher.
Take a gander at the sampling below:
Number of people who have achieved the following levels of education: No High School - 310 Some High School - 670 Some College - 3908 Associate Degree - 1669 Bachelors Degree - 5475 Graduate Degree - 2551
If I were guessing (a dangerous game, I know) I'd assume two factors send this number upward: the neighborhood's proximity to the University of Nevada, and all those doctors and lawyers living out in Somersett. And, oh yeah, my one miserable year of law school. Still can't shake those nightmares about contracts exams.
Last storm was a dud, but here's the view out my front door at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Weather.gov tells me the following about tonight and tomorrow:
This Afternoon: Scattered showers. Cloudy, with a high near 39. Southwest wind around 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Tonight: Rain likely before 10pm, then snow. Low around 28. Breezy, with a southwest wind around 20 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Monday: Snow showers, mainly before 10am. High near 31. West wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible.
Monday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 19. West wind around 5 mph.
Back in October, we placed our plump, firm and shiny new pumpkin on the front porch, where it greeted everyone who graced our door. I'd purchased it around the middle of the month at the Winco on Northtowne Lane.
It greeted trick-or-treaters on the evening of Oct. 31, and, as the weeks wore on, it became clear the uncarved beauty would serve us well into Harvest season and Thanksgiving.
Then, the first snow came and the Great Pumpkin hadn't budged. It also had aged quite nicely, I have to say. A fine sheen of frost covered it every morning, and all I had to do was brush off the occasional bit of snow or ice.
So now we find ourselves a week before Christmas and the Great Pumpkin is still there. Unbothered, unfettered, a silent sentinel warning that if you come into this house, you need to understand one thing - our gourds don't mess around.
Now I'm determined to see how long it'll last. Pretty shortly, as it ages, I'll move it to the back yard, but I'll send photo updates documenting the pumpkin's inevitable decline.
I can't say for sure when Aztecas, the Mexican restaurant on Robb Dr. closed, but I'm guessing it's a fairly recent development. Only a couple of months ago, all seemed well at the trendy (ish) place, which served up above-average fare from south of the border.
Along with an impressive tequila selection, they even had those really cool Mexican sodas like you see at the grocery store. It was a Mexican joint actually fit for a date. Whatever that is.
Sadly, as I drove by today, I had to shake my head and stare as another local business had clearly bitten the dust. It's only been a few months since The Purple Bean, Too, next door closed, forcing me to drive over to the original location off W. 7th St.
So, adios, Aztecas. We barely knew ya, but you'll be missed.
Never never again. That's my approach to having to stand in line at the post office, thanks to the merciful addition of the Automated Postal Center at the Northwest Reno Post Office (Peavine Station).
I sell books on Amazon as a side business (my pack-rat tendencies are finally paying off, sorta), so I mail a lot of stuff. In the past, that meant rolling the dice and hoping you wouldn't get stuck in a line out the door. Given that the post office is also in the business of passports, if someone with an itch to go to Paris gets ahead of you, you're in for a long wait.
But no more.
They added the machine about a month ago, and it's a life saver. Just walk up, answer a couple of questions, punch in a ZIP code, drop the package/letter on the self-serve scale and, voila, your postage is printed out.
Only one complaint, and it's a minor quibble. I like to ship Media Mail with some of my heavier items, and the machine only offers 1st Class through Next Day service. Fix that, and you've got a customer for life.
Dire predictions of multiple inches of snow and sub-zero temps apparently turned out to be just that; predictions.
A nice howler of a wind blew in Thursday night, usually a portent of heavy snow, but the white stuff never materialized up here and we woke up to a cool, but clear morning. In fact, the wind only seemed to have blown the existing snow away in many parts.
Here's what the weather service says specifically about ZIP code 89523 for the rest of the weekend:
Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 34. Calm wind.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 19. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
Sunday: A chance of rain, snow, and freezing rain before 10am, then a chance of snow. Cloudy, with a high near 36. Southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Sunday Night: Rain likely before 10pm, then snow likely. Cloudy, with a low around 28. Breezy, with a southwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Above photo: Revenue Corner can be found at WB I-80 and McCarran
For the longest time, it was fun to watch people coming off westbound I-80 at McCarran, pull up to the red light, stop quickly, then turn onto McCarran, only to get nailed by a cop. Invariably, you'd hear the siren first, then a motorcycle cop would spring out of the bushes to the right (next to the IHOP). I dunno, maybe the FOURTEEN signs reading, "No Right Turn On Red," could have been your first clue, but so many people ignore it that they might as well name the spot Revenue Corner.
I don't run that red light because there's no damn point in it. Plus, it really is a trickier turn than it looks, so I truly side with the law on this one. I'll even go out of my way not to be first in that lane to avoid a-holes behind me honking at me to go.
So, it was with some amusement the other day that I noticed they've changed the game on us. Now, instead of sitting to the right in the bushes, motorcycle cops are set back a good five hundred feet under the overpass to the left.
Touche' RPD. It's a good move, because locals accustomed to scanning the bushes for a motorcycle cop will take a quick look, then go ahead and run the light, only to be caught unawares from behind.
As they say, forewarned is forearmed.
Below, a google street map view of the new trap's location.
Finally got a little snow up the hill here, but it wasn't much, to be honest. Most of the quarter-inch covering our Peavine southern slope backyard had melted by 10 a.m. as the sun shone through and the winds had finally settled.
The roads in Northwest Reno were a different story. Even in my Jeep, it was a bit like an ice rink when I headed down Beaumont to pick up breakfast from Raley's. It's always funny, and a little disconcerting, to watch people get reacquainted with snow driving, particularly those two-wheel-drive owners who slip and slide at every turn.
The plows were out, but they didn't hit the steep slope of Beaumont until about 9:15. National Weather Service tells me there will be a chance of showers through the rest of the weekend, but the next most likely chance for anything significant is Sunday night into Monday.
Reno blogger James Ball was born in 1973 and raised in North Georgia, attending the University of Georgia in Athens. He and his wife, Pam, moved to Lake Tahoe in 1995, eventually settling in Reno in the early 2000s. They live in Northwest Reno with their two boys, Thomas and Alex. James is a web editor at the Reno Gazette-Journal.
