And Then The Snow Fell….

I relocated with my family to North Carolina from New Jersey in 2004, in a bid to escape the crowds and high costs associated with living in the New York City suburbs. Under the best travel conditions we could get into Manhattan in about thirty-five minutes, a possibility on a clear Sunday morning or very late at night.

These days we reside in Cary, a large suburb wedged between Raleigh and Durham. In its own right, this city of nearly 150,000 people has a lot going on for it, hosting national sporting events including college soccer and baseball. Cary reminds me of my New Jersey home town, Ridgewood, but much more spread out.

But when it comes to snow or the threat of wintry precipitation, the similarities between these two communities comes to a slippery halt.

Today, I’m witnessing a Triangle spectacle: people panicking over the mere threat of snow. The Triangle was once defined as Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, but the sprawling metropolis now encompasses at least four counties and more than one million residents.

Residents include natives as well as many transplants from the northeast, midwest, and California, a mixed bag of people who uprooted their lives in pursuit of a job, schools, retirement, and other reasons.

Clearly, some people are accustomed to driving in the snow, but a lot of people here aren’t. Worse, we’re just far enough south to where most cities and counties don’t invest all that much in snow removal equipment and road salt which means that whatever falls usually melts and refreezes within moments.

We found out how ridiculous it can get when in January 2005 a surprise one inch midday snowfall closed down schools and businesses at once, sending everyone scrambling to pick up children and head home. That storm made national news because everything iced over and traffic came to a halt.

Reports quickly came in that children were stranded at school, interstate traffic was backed up for more than twenty miles, and the entire area was paralyzed under a thin, icy grip.

It took almost a day for traffic to clear which meant that young children had to stay at school overnight with their teachers and some people slept in their cars. No joke – the entire Wake County Public School System, which relies on busing to transport kids all across the county – had to warehouse thousands of students for a night.

Our little adventure on January 19, 2005, became the butt of jokes on national news, with local leaders pointing fingers, forming commissions and studies, before finally establishing a working plan in a bid to avert repeating the debacle. That plan was outlined one sultry night in the middle of the summer when people were on vacation or too hot to care.

Well today the snow began to fall on this last day of school for 2009. Temperatures were in the upper-30s and began to drop in the early afternoon when the snow began descending. Soon, we received calls from our boys’ teachers announcing a one hour early release, with my wife and I hoping that the botch job of 2005 wouldn’t repeat itself.

Thankfully, the snow shower was brief and wet, which meant that our boys made it home early with no worry that this Christmas they’d spend it snowbound at school.

Yes, I know that I am exaggerating which is something I tend to do after a week’s worth of work, several lengthy edits, and with Christmas just days away. But I’m also giddy because since I do work at home I don’t have to contend with what promises to be a very messy evening commute.

See Also — North Carolina State University: January 19, 2005 Winter Storm

Is Time For You To Ditch The Home Office?

I’ve been battling some very dark thoughts lately.

Nah, I haven’t been hatching a diabolical plot involving international espionage nor am I thinking of embarking on a crime spree (I’ll let our free spending politicians do that), rather I’ve been giving serious thought to ditching my home office. Yes, after nearly seven years of working from home in either a poorly heated and damp basement (when we lived in NJ) to the spare bedroom in our NC home, I’m thinking the time to move up and out is at hand.

Giving The Kids Some Room

You won't get me to wear a tie or suit on a daily basis, but having the opportunity to kick back and throw my feet up on someone else's desk has a certain primal appeal to it.

Of course, an important part of that reason is needing to give my office to one of our boys so that he can be free of his brother, but that isn’t the only reason – I crave solitude, especially when I am writing and am finding it increasingly difficult to do that at home.

You see, it isn’t just the family (and our cats) who are hanging around but there are neighbors, sales people even daytime visits from Jehovah’s Witnesses who are intruding on my peace. Just like the good ‘ole days when people were actually home during the day I’ve learned that this phenomenon is very much alive and kicking – people can be found at home during traditional working hours at least where I live.

Look, Madge, He Must Be Out Of Work

Some of this is my fault because I’ve been known to either take a nice long walk during the middle of the day or bring out the lawn mower or leaf blower to do some yard work. By all appearances I’m either retired or unemployed, so I must have time on my hand, right? Yikes, no.

I started to check out the local real estate theme late last year, visiting Craigslist about once a day to see what was posted. Commercial rent prices in the Raleigh area vary widely with the prime locations downtime or in nicely landscaped office parks charging a mint while some smaller, out of the way offices are going for a song.

One of the best arrangements I’ve seen so far are those professional office suites where the lessee would like to sublet a room to one working professional (that’s me!) at a price that is $300 or less per month. Yes, and some of these locations are quite nice with central heat/air, internet connection and all utilities included. With a private room I can sequester myself deep in the bowels of an office, coming out from time to time to have human contact which I don’t get working at home.

Yes, the occasional phone conversation is nice and social media allows me to stay connected, but that only goes so far – who the heck are you people on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Digg et al anyway? Hmmm?

The Garage Looks Nice

But don’t count on me leaving home just yet – just when I think about making the move, a client halves my work citing the economy or some other project comes to an end. When that happens, I have to quickly redouble my effort to make up for loss income which means if I have another monthly bill to pay, then things become a little bit tighter.

Gee, you think that unused garage space could be converted to an office instead?

See Also — Launching Your Own Business? Consider These Steps First!