Weather Or Not

I was duped over the weekend. I was duped and I should have known better.

I fell for it. The hype, the hysteria, the madness. I felt like Chicken Little waiting for the sky to fall and it never did.

To be honest, I wanted the snow. Five inches, ten inches, two feet - I wanted to be snowed in. No where to go. Stuck in my house with my family. (Yes, teens included). We spend weekends running from one activity to the next so the possibility of being stationary, quite appealed to this ol' gal. But again, I knew better.

I have mentioned before that I have some meteorology knowledge. I spent three years studying weather through Mississippi State University. Weather has always been a fascination of mine from the time I was little. My heroes: Bob Kudzma, Joe DeNardo, and Dennis Bowman. Yes, you know the names, you remember their faces. I looked up to them - wanted to be them. I would perform my own forecasts in my living room. We had a wooden front door that appeared to have tree stump lines going from side to side. The lines were bowed like those found on a weather map indicating the jet streams. I would stand in front of the door and talk about the weather making it up as I went.

When I was in between having my first and second children, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest my life. I was working in radio at the time and I really didn't know which direction I wanted to go in. A friend of mine was making the transition from doing traffic reports to becoming a weather gal and was wrapping up her schooling. The more I thought about it the more those childhood memories came into play. Maybe, just maybe, this was my calling. Maybe I knew it way back then.

Long story short, I got my broadcast meteorology certificate in August 2004 and a month later my daughter was born. Three months after that, my husband got a job back home in Pittsburgh. I have never used my certificate because well, life got in the way, but I got a lot of knowledge stuck inside my brain. One little helpful tidbit is - you can't forecast snow.

Because I was only in a certificate program and I did not pursue a degree, we only skirted the snow prediction dilemma. There is too much higher math involved and even the best will tell you, it is not an exact science. There are many levels of the atmosphere to account for, many variables to consider, including the unique western PA topography, and many scenarios that are possible.

During the past week, local weather personalities worked hard to formulate the most accurate forecast to prepare us viewers. They knew some people were going to get a lot of snow, but they did not know exactly who.

 It is a shame because no one puts their face and name in front of information they do not think is reasonably accurate. But at the same time, snow is snow and well, you know how the weekend panned out - that 4 to 8 predicted in Pittsburgh ended up being maybe 1.5 inches, if that, in my backyard. But a mere 25 miles away that 4-8 came to pass, and then some, in places like Lawrence and Clarion counties.

 While we didn't get the snow forecasted, we did get a wintry mix and cold temps that forced many organizations to cancel events on Sunday. We had three things on our Sunday schedule that were eliminated. So it made for the day I needed, the stationary day of laying in bed, catching up on laundry and attempting to get the house back in order post holidays. I even played video games, which I never do. I haven't had a day when I didn't leave my house probably since the summer. Yes, it was overdue!

 Our local forecasters have been trying to explain what happened and why snowmageddon missed us, but it certainly gave local grocery stores a boost. Going into my local Walmart on Saturday night, shelves were actually bare. Spaghetti sauce, cereal, juice - gone. I didn't even bother checking out the toilet paper. I knew what kind of ghost town that would be. (I already had stocked up with the good stuff last Thursday. I told you - I got sucked in.)

 It's only January and there is still a lot of winter to be had. Let's not be sad by what didn't happen. Let's be glad that slowly the days are getting longer and spring is only two months away. And when that time comes, the only thing forecasters will have to worry about is the rain record we will beat this year.

Photo from late March 2018 snowfall.

There Are Places I Remember

Sometimes in life the moment defines what course you should take.

Sometimes a detour is called for.

I was stopped at a traffic light in McKeesport, on my way to my next destination, when I noticed the words National Tube Works on the side of the brick building behind the former Daily News. Despite the cold crisp day, the welcomed sun seemed to illuminate things that had been washed out by the grey overtone that is typically Pittsburgh in the winter.

I have driven past this building many times in my life, but never had those words jumped out at me the way they did at this moment. The significance of those words... National Tube Works is that my grandfather spent 30+ years of his life working there. I never had the opportunity to see him in action, or see actually where his department was, but I knew he faithfully rode a bus each day to get to and from his job. I knew he received a special engraved gold clock for his years of service.

As I sat at the light the thought ran through my head to take a photo with my phone. Unfortunately, the thought came too late and I had to drive on. I turned as soon as I could to double back and then I saw them...their blue color and shape unmistakable. I was drawn to them. I had to see them up close.

Another detour.

This time I was distracted by the royal blue onion domes of the Orthodox church on Shaw Avenue. I used to stare at these domes as a child while at recess. I attended St. Nicholas School just up the street. Our playground was a gravel lot a few doors down from the church. When I was a kid those domes seemed so majestic, so rich, so other worldly. I always wanted to go in that church, but to this day, never have. I would spend many an afternoon gazing at those domes and the other day against a clear blue sky backdrop they remain a beacon in that depressed community.  I took a few photos and then headed back to National Tube.

I am not sure what caused me to be so nostalgic the other day, but I did have a motive to take photos . I thought what if they tear down that National Tube Building? What if that church closes and the domes lose their allure? These cell phones make it so easy to capture moments and our storage space is often filled to capacity with more photos than we need, or will even download, but those photos of my grandfather's workplace and the Orthodox church, yeah, I want to be sure to have those.

My parents grew up in McKeesport and they remember what things were like when the town was bustling during the steel mill hay-day. Although it was sad for me to drive around and see how much things have changed from my childhood, it is almost like those days never happened with what is left, what is no longer there, and what has been replaced.

But McKeesport isn't alone. The other day someone posted an old time photo of Braddock Avenue and I did not recognize one building - Ohringers Furniture Store, Ochs Restaurant. I only became familiar with Braddock after the closing of Braddock Hospital so I don't have the intimate knowledge as many who grew up there.

It is sad how things change and the older I get the more nostalgic I seem to become. The farther you get from the "good ol' days" the more you want to remember the simpler times with no worries. Now the landscape where my children grew up is about to change. The Kmart in North Versailles is about to close forever and Kings Restaurant's will eventually disappear to make room for a Get Go.

That corridor is about to transform from what they have etched in their minds. There is a lot of talk about what might move into the Kmart building and my kids are hoping for either a Target or a Panera/Chick Fil A combo. We all can dream, right?

So as the landscape of our lives continues to change, we should not be afraid to make little detours. Let's keep filling up our phones with photos because we can and don't have to go to the Fotomat and wait 5 days to see if they took. Do you remember where there used to be a Fotomat? I do.

California Dreamers Bring New Life To Rankin Church

The final mass at Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church was held in September of 2011. The beloved Croatian Catholic church with the vaulted ceilings, large pipe organ and honey colored pews in 2014 was stripped of all religious articles and closed for good. For years it sat, falling prey to neglect. It, along with many other closed churches in the area, kept alive only through the memories of those who were married there, those who were baptized and came of age within its walls, those who, in the sanctuary, said their final goodbye to a loved one.

It is hard to believe that a place with such a wealth of memories would one day be discovered by a young man browsing Craigslist, looking for a place to live. Jordan Stasinowsky, age 24, was house hunting when he came upon this diamond in the rough. Jordan has called Pittsburgh home for the past two years. He works as a financial advisor for PNC Investments and early in 2017 he discovered the church and wanted to convert it into a place he could live. He pitched his idea to his parents Cheryl and Wally, who have been in construction for more than 20 years in California. At the time, they were in the middle of a remodel with their daughter, Amber Smith, and her husband, Daniel, teaching them the ropes of the construction business.

Cheryl flew into Pittsburgh to see why her son was so enamored with this church. "I wanted to talk him out of it," she says. "I told him yeah, it costs $34,000 but you would need to put a million dollars into it to make it into a house, and then you could never sell it."

But while she was in town, and after looking at other listings, she started asking Jordan some different questions. "What else could you do with this building?" and Cheryl says one night, over dinner, the idea of a wine lounge popped into his head and the two began a marathon conversation that, within an hour and a half, laid the groundwork for Mary's Vine. Yes, she admits the idea was crazy but there was one aspect she couldn't shake, Jordan's desire to make this a family project - incorporating all the talents of five individuals.

Cheryl admits she is a California girl, but fell hard for Pittsburgh during her initial visit to investigate the church. Wally, Amber and Daniel felt a pull to the area as well after coming in person to see what this dream was going to take. They agreed, "We'll move our whole entire life to support you in this dream." But as fate would have it, their dream would involve two churches, not one. A real estate agent introduced the family to the former St. Barnabas church, less than a three minute drive from the future wine lounge.  That church and rectory held up better than the Visitation of Blessed Virgin Mary church, in large part due to its age. Visitation was built around 1903. St. Barnabas was built more than fifty years later. The rectory allows for members of the Stasinowsky family private and shared living space not far from where Mary's Vine is taking shape, while a local congregation leases the worship space.

 Everyone wrapped up projects underway in California and by November of 2017 Cheryl was on site full time. Everyone, except Cheryl, has a full time job so she oversees the project. "What we are giving to our kids - is priceless. We have meetings once a week when we discuss what each of us is doing."  Each member of the family has a role - Wally handles the building construction, Amber takes care of the human resources end, Daniel oversees all of the IT Systems, software, website, and marketing and Jordan is the wine guy. He is a certified specialist of wine and is currently studying to be a Level 2 sommelier. Jordan and Daniel are currently developing a, first of its kind, app that will walk a person through the, sometimes overwhelming, experience of choosing a wine.

Mary's Vine will offer between 45 to 50 wines by the glass. These will be wines people are familiar with but there will also be selections to help you step out of your comfort zone and expand internationally. The family will utilize Bermar vacuum sealing technology to preserve the contents of a bottle after being opened and will allow the prices to remain reasonable. This will also enable customers to try high end wines and champagnes and not break the bank. The app, through a series of questions, will intelligently guide a person through the selections and refine their choice to five wines along with menu recommendations that will pair perfectly.

"The goal is that it will remember what you liked last time, if you liked it and it keeps track to see if someone wants to branch out.  The purpose is to always grow people in their experience and their appreciation of wine and always feel comfortable with it," Cheryl explains.

The menu will feature a beef, chicken, salad, and seafood dish each night with an extensive list of appetizers for pairing. The kitchen will be in the former social hall of the church and dumbwaiters will allow staff to retrieve the meals quickly on the main floor. Live jazz music will be featured during hours of operation with an emphasis on Wednesday’s to promote the Pittsburgh jazz scene. During the rest of the week, music will add to the atmosphere.

"Wine is appreciated, Wine is slow. Wine is savored so we want the whole experience to be that way."

The years of neglect took its toll on the church. Major repairs needed to be done including replacing the plumbing, HVAC system, roof, and the electrical system. Wally and Cheryl have cashed in their retirement to get the building where it is right now, which shows their commitment to seeing this project through. They have been working with the Enterprise Zone and local banks to acquire financing.  "Everything that we have is in this place. It has to work. We won't recover from this."

Cheryl and her family are hoping that others will want to share in making their dream come true. A Kickstarter campaign is being launched this week to help raise the additional funds needed to complete the remaining work and ensure a spring opening. There will be thank you gifts from wine glasses to t-shirts but the family is hoping many in the community will want to immortalize a loved one through personalized wine bottles that will be showcased along the wine serving counter, in a shadowbox Wally crafted with wood from the church's pews.

"All we hear are the stories of 'We were married here, I grew up there.' The generational history that this building already contains - that's what we get to give not only to our family but to the community,"

An agreement with the borough of Rankin will allow the lot along Rankin Boulevard to be utilized for valet parking that will be 100% free with no tip required. A beautifully landscaped park will be the gateway to the Tuscan experience that awaits visitors of Mary's Vine. An illuminated sign and waterfall will be seen from the Rankin Bridge as a beacon inviting people to once again gather in this former worship space where generations gathered for more than a century.

"This area is about to change over. We got in on the ground floor. We brought dignity back to this building and when we get the outside finished, it will be back to life again."

For more information on Mary's Vine visit their website marysvine.com or check out their Facebook page.

 A lot of work needed to be done within the church due to it not being used or maintained for many years.

The family tree mural is taking shape through a collaborative effort of strength and creativity. 

Amber and Daniel Smith, Jordan, Cheryl, and Wally Stasinowsky in their holiday photo from the choir loft.