We are open and have power, as does most of the King street retailers. We had a great crowd last night..many folks without power who were seeking the air conditioning. This tree came down on King street yesterday near Route 1. We lost a great old oak tree in the storm:
This is the front door to an office building in Old Town:
When i got home last night, i realized just how lucky I was to be a knitter. With a few candles, I could occupy myself for hours before bed, while my husband struggled to keep himself busy with a book and an iphone. I have to admit that I had to stop working on my sweater when I reached the point of picking up stitches. That just wasn’t possible with dark green yarn in the dark.
This morning I ran a five mile loop around Del Ray – heading down Mt. Vernon Avenue to Glebe and then turning onto Russell Road and coming back to the King Street Metro. Almost everyone inside this loop has no power.
Here are some sights:
But there are businesses open! St. Elmo’s has power and was hosting coffee and breakfast for the residents of our neighborhood without power. The hardware store on the corner of E Howell and Mt Vernon avenue does not have power but opened its doors for residents who need supplies to repair their homes. Owner of ACKC, Eric Nelson, was outside his cocoa bar on Mt. Vernon Ave and said that he hopes to get open today and that no, the chocolate hadn’t melted yet! (I might have asked if he needed to dispose of chocolate…I could help with that ya know)
So if have no power today, head on out to Old Town and Del Ray and check out your local businesses who are pulling through. While we might lose a few hundred dollars worth of food in our fridge at home today as temperatures rise, restaurants like the Evening Star are likely losing thousands. If you are seeking air conditioning because your house remains hot, hit your local small businesses who have power and use this is an opportunity to discover your neighboring businesses. Go into places that you haven’t ever gone into before. You might be surprised at what you find. And then tomorrow if the power is back on, go back out to those places that lost one or two days of business and help them out with some business (because you likely won’t have your own fridges back to normal again!)
PS. We have free wifi, cable and AC so if you need a place to get some work done or just to watch the news, come on over!