Untimely Service

Our mantle clock stopped working last week. Gone were the familiar quarter hourly chimes that had become part of our household rhythm. Even in a day and age of digital clocks, mechanical timepieces have endured.

They are high maintenance devices compared to their digital cousins. In addition to regular winding, the clock requires a lube job about every two years. If you don’t keep it well oiled, it will eventually freeze up. That’s exactly what happened to our clock.

It’s a pretty common problem according to Ben, the Hands of Time service manager. People simply forget to have it done. I asked Ben if they sent out regular clock lubrication email reminders to their clients. “We just started sending postcards,” he told me though he expects they will eventually switch to email. Apparently change comes slowly in the clock repair biz.

So do repairs.

The good news is that you can still get these clocks serviced right here in HoCo. The Hands of Time clock shop in Savage Mill has a staff of four fulltime horologists. The bad news is that they are one of the last remaining clock repair shops in the area. That means they almost have too much business.

Even a seemingly simple lube job can take a couple of months. Most repair work takes longer, like five months longer.

It looks like its going to be awhile before we hear those soothing quarter hour chimes in our house again.

Take Me to the River but Don’t Wash Me Down

River bathing is another issue that the HoCo Parks & Rec Department attempts to address in their new sign on the Patuxent Branch Trail. As follow up to this post George Berkheimer got confirmation from Jennifer DeArmey, the Park Operations Superintendent, that naked bathing was an indeed an issue in the park this past summer.

Really?

Considering that only a year ago the river water in Savage was described as having bacteria levels higher than a dirty toilet these river bathers may actually be worse off after their bath.

Scene This Week In…

It has been awhile since I’ve updated the STW pics in the right hand column. There is a reason for that of course. I just don’t want to throw any old thing up there. I try to make these pictures at least mildly interesting or amusing.

And there has be two pictures, from two separate parts of HoCo. When I originally conceived this idea I was going to limit it to Columbia and Ellicott City scenes.

I don’t do well with limitations, particularly the self imposed kind. This time around the scenes are from Savage and Ellicott City.

The Savage scene comes courtesy of my Biz Mo colleague, George Berkheimer. George spotted this new Parks and Rec sign on the recently reopened Patuxent Branch Trail and emailed it to me.

Who knew that nudity was a problem on HoCo trails!

George speculates that it may have something to do with the popularity of the Savage waters for swimming and cavorting.

“I suppose some people don't bring swimming suits and just strip down, but I haven't seen it myself and also haven't inquired about the reason for that particular prohibition yet.”

I note that in the graphic that the female figure is only holding the bottom portion of a swimsuit. Does this mean it’s okay to go topless?

Keeping with the same theme, I spotted this bumper sticker a car in the parking lot of Ellicott Mills Middle School last week. According to this article by Chris Mercer in Beverage Daily wines that depict an animal on the label tend to sell more to the "younger, fun-seeking consumers.". I wonder if a suggestion of drinking in the buff works the same way?

No matter, you can’t do either on the Patuxent Branch trail anyway.

One less Gadget

I’m a little hard on my gadgets. In addition to my recent smart phone debacle, I have dropped my digital camera more than a few times. As a testament to the toughness of Sony cameras, the optics were unaffected from this repeated battering…until the most recent drop.

After the latest spill the camera was suddenly challenged to produce pictures that weren’t blurred. I had resigned myself to the fact that it had succumbed to its injuries. I needed to get a new camera.

                

I should note here that I am not a big fan of cameras in phones. Rarely have I used a picture in this blog that was taken with my phone. Though it has a pain to always carry around both a camera and a phone, for me at least the end result was always worth it.

My new Droid X may have made me a convert. Yesterday I gave the phone’s camera feature a workout during a visit to Savage. We took in a little hike down the Historic Mill Trail, said hello to Santa, enjoyed some live music at the Whatchamacallit restaurant and finished up with a beer at the Rams Head Tavern.

 If this phone can replace my need to carry around a separate camera, dropping my phone in the toilet may have produced an unexpected benefit. So far so good

HoCo Patches

There is a new player in the HoCo loco news scene. Patch, a hyper local news website backed by AOL, now has three "patches" up and running in HoCo; Ellicott City, Columbia, and Savage-Guilford.

AOL describes Patch as a hyper loco news site "run by one professional local editor who, along with freelances, provides quality original news and information to its community."

They have targeted "communities of 15-100k population that are drastically underserved by media and would benefit by having access to local news and information about government, schools and business. These could be inner-city neighborhoods or distinct towns."


I wouldn't exactly characterize HoCo as "drastically under served by media." It's more likely that they were attracted by our awesome demographics. Consider that the inaugural Patch communities were all in New Jersey and Connecticut, suburbs of one of the largest media markets in the country. There are no Patch sites in West Virginia or Kansas. According to this report by Joseph Tartakoff in The Guardian "Patch is selecting towns to expand to based in part on a 59-variable algorithm that takes into account factors like the average household income of a town, how often citizens vote, and how the local public high school ranks."


"Once in town, Patch will vigorously target local businesses by courting them to "buy banner ads and also letting them set up their own business listings, which they can convert into ads."


The company plans to have 500 Patches up and running by the end of this year which is a huge increase from only 12 just a year ago.

The inaugural Columbia Patch home page includes a video clip of Mary Kay Sigaty at the HoCo Chamber Candidate Forum this week. The Savage Guilford Patch features Dennis Schrader and Jen Terrassa at the same forum. HoCo Risings hip makes a cameo appearance.

All in all Patch is the real deal and a welcome addition to those of us insatiable for more HoCo loco content.

Welcome Patch.

Santa Heim Merriland?

Savage is the featured community in the Where We Live section of The Washington Post today. In relating the storied past of the mill that is the centerpiece of the District 3 town, Laura Barnhradt Cech describes the period just after World War II when the mill was transformed into a Christmas village by Harry Heim. “He even went so far as to ask state legislators to change the name of Savage to Santa Heim, Merriland.”

It’s a good thing Shane Pendergrass wasn’t around then. Could you just imagine the desk slamming that would’ve gone on in the House of Delegates if that had come up under her watch?

Savage blogger Janis Markopoulus also got a nice little shout out.

Dirty Water

If the people in Savage would really like to thin the crowds that gather at the river to party they should post this bit of news on a big sign in the park. According to this story by Kate Yanchulis with the Capital News Service, a recent study by the University of Maryland found that the Middle Patuxent River in Savage Park “had bacteria levels much higher than the dirty toilet.”

“Savage Park, a public park on the Middle Patuxent River, by far had the most bacteria of the seven samples -- 1,752 colony-forming units of enterococci bacteria in one 100 ml sample following the rain. The park does not have a public beach, but bathers were in the water when News21 visited July 7.”

Perhaps a graphic of someone swimming in a toilet would help deter the crowds too.

Savages in Savage

It seems as if outsiders are destroying the peaceful tranquility of Savage lately. According to this story by Kellie Woodhouse in The Howard County Times residents recently gathered to address the problem of “large weekend crowds from outside the area have made it difficult to enjoy the trail and picnic area near the river.”

HoCo Police Chief, Willam McMahon met with about 100 residents last week who demanded action from his department.

“They say that the crowds drink alcohol, swim in the river, leave trash along the river bank, bring unleashed dogs and park in no-parking zones. They also contend that there has been theft and vandalism in the area.”

It seems that the police have had some difficulty distinguishing between the Savages and the Savages.

“Police said they had not cracked down on illegal parking, drinking or swimming because they wanted Savage residents to enjoy the area as they’re accustomed to.”

And then there’s that…

The HoCo Uber Lib Club

I suspected that Mary Ann Maher might be a little more than left of center politico when I saw her hanging out with Angie Beltram at Liz Bobo’s legislative “be in” back in February. It now appears that those suspicions were well founded. Progressive Maryland, a far left leaning advocacy organization has endorsed Delegates Liz Bobo (District 12B), Shane Pendergrass (District 13), and Frank Turner (District 13) for reelection.

They also endorsed Mary Ann Maher for District 9A. This kind of endorsement might be helpful down in Savage but no so much I think in District 9A.

She’s toast.

Monday Morning Memo

Just as things begin to clear up around here we learn that a second major storm is headed our way tomorrow afternoon. According to Mr. Foot and his forecasters we can expect, “snowfall by 7 PM Wednesday to reach or exceed 12 inches along the I-95 corridor from Baltimore north to Philadelphia as well as southeastern PA.”

Great. Where are we going to put this stuff?

Late yesterday afternoon, just as we were preparing to trek down the street to JD and Danielle’s annual Super Bowl party, my Sunday newspapers finally arrived. As I was perusing them this morning I noted that Elkridge and Savage got a mention in The New York Times yesterday.

“Matthew Kramar, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., ticked off some of the big regional snow totals, mostly in the higher elevations — 33 inches in Bayard, W. Va., and in Smith Crossroads in Morgan County, W. Va., 32 inches at Howellsville, Va., 29.5 at Frostburg, Md., 28.5 inches at Savage, Md., and 30.3 inches at Elkridge, Md., southwest of Baltimore.”

Fellow local blogger HoCo Rising took this nice little video of the conditions in the Village of Dorsey’s Search in Columbia.
In previous posts about The Big Kahuna I failed to mention the spectacular sunset on Saturday evening. Bob O captured that moment from his home in the Turf Valley Overlook neighborhood in Ellicott City.

I am about to venture out to take Peanut to her moms house in Catonsville. After that I need to swing by the office on Dobbin Road in Columbia. I’ll put up another post when I get back.

Put Your Pay Cut Where Your Mouth Is

Delegate Shane Pendergrass thinks the “top officials” of the Howard County Public School System “ought to take a pay cut to help avoid facing the General Assembly's wrath when members convene in January to confront a looming fiscal 2011 shortfall…”

According to this story by Larry Carson in The Sun, the delegate from District 13 in Howard County thinks the school officials should “think about what message they want to send.”

And it isn’t like the school officials haven’t already made cuts in their compensation.

“Cousin said Wednesday that all senior school officials salaries were frozen this year, and administrators have stopped taking expense money for milage, a savings of thousands of dollars to the board's budget.”

Delegates make $43,500.00 for ninety days work. Shane claims that she has given back eight days pay like all other state employees. If she wants to set an example that’s a pretty insignificant amount considering it is a part time job. I believe delegates get some other pretty nice perks as well.

Hey Shane, how about leading by example and giving up something significant before asking others to make sacrifices?

Nice Day for a Ride

This afternoon Mama Wordbones and I loaded up the bikes and headed over to the Patuxent Branch trailhead on Guilford Road in the Rivers Corporate Park in Columbia. It was nice and cool down along the river as we cruised down to Savage. Our plan was to bike over to Savage Mill for a few beers on the outside deck at the Rams Head Tavern. As we pedaled into the parking lot at the mill we heard the sounds of happy screaming kids coming from the woods around the perimeter at Terrapin Adventures.

The relatively new outdoor adventure center has climbing towers, zip lines, kayaking and this pretty cool three person swing.

We opted to stick with the beer on the deck plan.

Did It Really Happen?

This past Monday I put up this post about a shooting in Savage. Over the following days I kept scanning the newspapers for the story thinking I’d do a follow up post with a link to it.

I never saw anything about it in The Sun, The Washington Post, The Columbia Flier or The Howard County Times.

This got me wondering if in fact it really was a shooting. It certainly appeared that something major had occurred. The Royal Farm store was roped off, detectives and uniformed police officers were all over the scene and one of the even asked that I not take pictures. When I asked one of the workers at the quick lube place next to Royal Farms what happened they told me there had been a shooting and that the victim had been carted off to the hospital.

Are things that bad in Savage that a shooting isn’t deemed newsworthy?

Somehow I doubt that.

Still, I’m left to wonder what actually happened Monday afternoon at the Royal Farm store in Savage

Shooting in Savage

As I was cruising down Route 1 this afternoon I noticed a good deal of police activity around the Royal Farms store in Columbia Junction. As I approached the store I saw that it was roped off with crime scene tape.
A bystander informed me that a man had been shot multiple times as he exited his truck on the side of the store.

A Local Snopes

Last night Mama Wordbones and I attended a cocktail reception to celebrate the newly constituted Reese & Carney law firm. On September 1st, Reese & Carney officially became Carney, Kelehan, Bresler, Bennett & Scherr. The event was held in the Great Room at Savage Mill.

I spoke briefly with Jen Terrasa, the County Councilperson representing District 3 (which happens to include Savage). I asked if she was in favor of General Growth Properties proposed zoning changes for Columbia Town Center. Being an adroit politician she avoided making a commitment. I’ll cut her some slack on this since it is still early and no public hearings have been held.

We got to talking about blogging and the internet and its impact on local politics. We both lamented the fact how bad or even outright false information often gets taken for gospel. It was Jen who suggested that it would be great if we had a local rumor checking site like Snopes.com where residents could check the veracity of any local rumor they may have heard. She shared with me how one of her constituents had heard that the council would be voting on GGP’s plans at the end of this month. I could only laugh at the thought that government would ever move that quickly. That only happens when Wall Street needs $700 billion.

But I digresss…

I told Jen that I also thought a local Snopes site would be a good idea. I mentioned to her that James Howard had already created a search engine for local issues. Perhaps he could take that to next level and address this concern too.

Just an idea anyway…

Ducking Traffic

Yesterday I convinced Mama Wordbones that it was just too beautiful to spend at home working on the yard. I mean, how may August days do you get in Maryland when the temperature stays below 90 and there is a slight breeze?

In order to entice her further I suggested we check out the Patuxent Branch Trail that connects Lake Elkhorn to Savage. This trail is a unique collaboration between the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks and the Columbia Association. Part of it follows an abandoned B&O rail bed that connected the old quarry’s in Guilford with the branch serving Savage Mill. If you want to know the full railroad history of this trail you can find it here.

The trail passes under Broken Land Parkway, Route 32, Broken Land Parkway South, Guilford Road, and Interstate 95. There is something otherworldly about riding your bike through a bucolic stream valley with the continuous roar of traffic high above on the interstate.

After the approximately 5 mile trek down from Columbia, you can stop in for a nice cold brew at the Rams Head Tavern in Savage Mill before heading back.

We are already planning on making a return visit in the fall. It sure beats doing yard work anyway.