We returned just yesterday from travel to Vietnam and Cambodia, distant places where we were mostly beyond the reach of the internet for two weeks. I’ve been fascinated by changes which took place and disappointed by things I’d hoped would change but didn’t while we were so far away.
As we got out of our cab from Dulles, we were struck first by something unchanged for over two years--the seemingly endless demolition and repair mess of the neighboring condominium smack dab in front of our house. On the other side of the house by the lake, however, there was a totally new phenomenon in progress. Pokemon GO hunters, armed only with their smart phones, were doing battle with amazing fictional critters lurking on or near our pontoon boat at the cluster dock. A couple hunters explained to me that Lake Anne was one of the hottest spots in NoVA for the Pokemon app, which was entirely new to us. Around the corner, we saw more hunters storming the Lake Anne Brew House and the Kalypso Restaurant as their phones lit up with more targets. Quite a far cry from Angkor Wat and villages we had just visited along the Mekong River.
We had looked forward to stopping in at the new Lake Anne Coffee House and Wine Bar on our return. When I walked by there, however, it seemed to have gone back in time. The interior looks like it has just been gutted with internal reconstruction barely underway. Christmas maybe?
When we journeyed out to restock the fridge and get some take-out, we happened to drive by Reston Town Center. Here, a new building had risen from what was a huge hole in the ground only two weeks ago beside the old Ruby Tuesday site. Across Reston Parkway, I noticed that the huge “Now Leasing” signs had vanished from the Harrision Apartments complex. Filled up while we were gone?! A little further on, it seemed to me that the signature hotel being built fronting the Metro Station had doubled its height, reaching several floors higher into the sky during our short absence.
Next it was time to catch up on the news. Reston Association is still struggling with the Tetra/Lake House fiasco. At its meeting this Thursday, the RA Board will pick three presumably independent stalwarts from the community to assist in selecting a contractor to review/investigate what happened with Tetra that resulted in huge cost overruns, including possible unbudgeted expenditures. The review will include negotiation of the RA purchase, property appraisal and inspection, presentation for referendum, and expenditures to prepare the building for occupancy. Hopefully, the review will be thorough and transparent, concluding with a report to the community detailing what went wrong and safeguards to prevent recurrence.
There were a couple of other events worthy of note which took place during two weeks in July. The deterioration of our system of government took a giant leap forward with the Republican Party’s formal nomination of Donald Trump, a narcissistic, hate-peddling demagogue, to be President. And, Hillary Clinton, the iron woman of American politics, selected our own Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, a solidly decent antithesis of Trump, to be her running mate and the next Vice President of these United States.