OK, so it does get cold here

After the last post I guess I should follow up with a more wintry set of temps. This looks a bit more like New England. But still almost no snow this winter. My kid has yet to use his new inflatable snow sliding thing, although we managed to do a few quick sled runs in the back yard a while back, with barely enough snow to cover the grass.

January ... I don't think so.

I'll tell you where you can put your telephone pole

Just about 5:30 this evening I'm trying to get to my son's day care on Pleasant Street in Arlington, and I see that the street is completely blocked off because someone is installing a telephone pole. I just barely got to the school before it closed, and a lot of other parents were tied up in the same mess.

I just want to know who is responsible for letting whoever was doing this do it in the middle of rush hour. (I don't know which utility was involved).

Does anybody use their brain around here?

Blaaaaaah I am trying to get myself motivated now to do yet another snow clearing job. This better be the last one this year (but it probably won't be). At least our investment in an almost-new snowblower a couple of years ago is paying off.

A New England weather report Yesterday (Thanskgiving), when the stove was working overtime, it was so warm here (high of 65 degrees) that the house got uncomfortably hot even after we opened most of the windows downstairs. Today, when we all wanted to go out, was sunny but cold (around 40 degrees but the wind made it feel a lot colder), way too cold for my Florida-based mother-in-law to want to walk anywhere. Now there are a lot of great things about Boston, but the weather ... well, we do get great weather sometimes but it is impossible to know when, and it usually happens on a day I'm trapped in the cubicle. It says something about the other benefits of this region that people will pay some of the highest real estate prices in the nation to live here.

Winter thoughts Suddenly we're surrounded by white here, a late fall snow that got a little out of control. But a great playground for all the kids. We have a plastic sled that probably cost $4 and is just perfect for the rather gentle hill in our yard, which in turn is perfect for a 3-year-old. Lots of snow also gives us at least a temporary pardon from having to rake up tons of leaves, although I was rather looking forward to shredding them all up in our new shredder-chipper, a manly toy if there ever was one. And we actually had neighborhood kids taking leaves from our yard to build a bigger pile next door. Yesterday I was chatting with a woman from work who left our office when she and her husband moved to Virginia, and she said getting out of the cold weather was one of the reasons they moved. Some of the outsourcer workers we use spend a couple of months here on rotation, and coming from India it is not pleasant for those who end up here in the winter (maybe they got on the wrong side of their boss in Bangalore?). But we live here quite voluntarily, and I would really miss winter if I lived somewhere that didn't have it. And if you have to have winter, you need the full-blown New England kind. When we were in New Jersey the winter had far too many ice storms and too few gentle snowfalls. Our boy is entranced by the snow -- his second winter in New England. My wife worried recently that he would be disappointed if the snow this weekend was a dusting, not suitable for snowmen. Well, not to worry. And we all had a great snowball fight today. I need more snowball fights in my life ...

Cranky wet cold weekend Maybe I should have been more thankful for the great weather we've had recently. Because apparently the weather gods have decided to take it out us this weekend: cold and wet. Being stuck inside with a 2-year-old can make everyone cranky pretty fast. It looks like at least the rain has stopped. We gotta get out of this house soon. However said "Home Sweet Home" clearly didn't have the toddler from hell.

Another sign of getting old An amusing column in today's Boston Globe contains this sentence: "Back in the Paleozoic Era, about the time of its last full-scale renovation, the Park Plaza wasn't a bad hotel; these days, it's more exhausted than just tired, catering mostly to downscale conventions, airline crews, and people who don't know any better." Now, I can't say if Brian's right about its current condition, but a while back my wife and I started our honeymoon there. This was back in the "Paleozoic Era" after that renovation. It seems the hotel recently hosted the "Fetish Fair Fleamarket", and a visiting family reported that "As the elevator door opened, in walked a woman in a leather bustier leading, by a dog leash and collar, a man wearing nothing but a string thong." I guess that would have added some spice to a honeymoon ...

How low can you go I donated a couple of old coats to the Pine Street Inn. One of them was a NY (really NJ) Giants coat. They need men's winter wear badly for the homeless. All seriousness aside, my wife wondered which was the worse fate: To freeze to death on the street, or to walk around wearing a Giants' jacket. After this season, you have to wonder.

This blows That is, the Toro snowblower I got this week ... used but in almost new condition (the guy that sold it to me moved to a house with a 100-mile driveway that only a plow can handle). It's a little smaller than the dead/dying Ariens parked out back. Not quite as good at monster drifts, but handles tight spots better and actually fits in the shed. I've made do with a shovel through some pretty big storms. It was manly and all but it was starting to get old. Also, there is something about the sound of a four-stroke Tecumseh engine driving a two-stage blower that warms my heart.

And today's word is ... Snow, of course. Our 2-year-old learned that word in preschool Friday, apparantly, because he started saying it Friday and of course it's been his favorite word this weekend. Yesterday I brought some snow in and put it in the sink, so he could bury his Thomas trains in it. Today when we started to shovel he wanted to come out and see it, even though he has a cold. That upcoming trip to see my in-laws in Florida is looking pretty good. On the other hand, hot chocolate and my wife's chocolate-chip cookies are improving my spirits rapidly right here.

Opportunity knocks It was announced today that Charles Vest is stepping down as president of MIT. Even before this announcement, I was seriously considering president of a major Boston-area university as a career choice, considering that there seem to be a lot more vacancies there than in the software industry. Prior to today's announcement I had my eye on the BU job. Considering that Daniel Goldin is getting $1.8 million not to be president, imagine what they must pay someone to actually do the job. Am I qualified to be MIT president? Perhaps not, but let's compromise a little here. I'm making it known here and now that I will agree not to be president of MIT for a mere $1 million. MIT would not only save $800 grand right away, but they'd also get to choose someone more qualified. Seems like a win-win situation to me.

On being young My son is 2 years old. This means, Lord willing, he may live to see the completion of the reconstruction of the Route 2 bridge over the bike trail at Alewife. I know I won't.

Why is it that ... ... roads in New England sometimes don't seem to have a good sense of north, south, east and west. For example, we took a wrong turn today and ended up coming into Biddeford, Maine, from the east side. One would think that we should, therefore, have been driving west. However, we were on Route 9 East. This may have something to do with I-95 South turning into I-93 North south of Boston. Or maybe not.

The closing of the skylight Today was the semi-official closing of the skylight in our bathroom -- a clear sign of fall. I really like having it open, even when it is raining. And to close it requires a stepstool. So it usually stays open continually from spring into fall. But this morning the air was just a little too crisp. Yesterday came close to being a perfect fall day, and today may well be the same.

Big box a boo bop I am here to sign the glories of the Gateway Center in Everett. Every big-box store you can think of is there. It's a great place to shop for an upcoming child -- baby store, home stores, warehouse stores, etc, etc, etc. One time we went there and we left a whole bag of stuff in the parking lot by accident, in the process of trying to fit all the stuff we bought into the car (not a tiny car, mind you, but a Honda CRV). We spent a fair amount of money but not that much -- it just seems that kid stuff is LARGE. There's a new Krispy Kreme doughnut place on the way there -- I'd like to try it but each time I go buy the line looks horrible. Clearly, undernourished Americans must have more doughnuts. I shouldn't talk -- on the way back I went to Dunkin Donuts instead, got a six-pack and ice coffees.

Anybody seen Noah (the ark guy) ... Rain isn't new 'round here recently, but right now it is pouring. We had a nice Indian meal with some friends at a restaurant in Natick, and on the way back the skies just opened up. Maybe we beat the storm driving east on the Mass Pike, because when we got home it was just drizzling again. But now it's really opened up. The sound of the rain on the roof was amazingly loud for a few minutes. Rain on the roof is a pretty good sound, but we do not, I mean do not, need more of this. Even for gardens -- there's plenty of water, the plants need the goddam sun already! Only a fungus could really like this weather.

First harvest

One of the neighbor kids saw that we had a strawberry on our vines -- the first real one we've had (the strawberries were planted two years ago, and only had tiny berries up until now).

It's only one, but it was tasty (we split it).

So far the garden has not done much -- lots of rain, but no sun

The lettuce did well -- until the groundhog ate it

Regent benefit We went to a show last night to benefit the Regent Theatre here in Arlington. It's owner is trying to bring live performance back to the old theater. We were there mostly because of Vance Gilbert, a new favorite, but the whole show was a lot of fun. This was the first time we've seen the other headliner, Deborah Henson-Conant. She plays the harp, but I'm not sure anyone else really plays it they way she does. Dancing around the stage wearing her electric body harp, she plays jazz-rock-whatever and sings. She's good, but you really have to see it for yourself. She and Vance together are eclectic times two, and a great combination. I only wish the show had been longer. Both now live in Arlington and played for free to help the theater get going. Let's hope it does; it's a great boost for the town.

A silver lining? It's been rainy the last few days in Boston. But today's drive home on Route 2 had a bonus -- the sun was shining down through a crack in the clouds, illuminating the super-green grass along the roadside and the multicolored trees in various stages of blooming/leafing out, against the dark sky. I wished I'd had my camera, although this kind of thing is hard to capture. Especially with a digital camera, which doesn't seem to capture sublteties of light very well. But at least I saw it.

Spring? I think it really is spring. I think. I hope ...

Stop fooling with the thermostat If you are not in New England you may not know that our weather is completely befooked these days (even more than usual). Yesterday it was up to around 80, it was really nice around lunchtime today, but now is down to 40 where I am and set to be only in the 30s tomorrow. This was all forecast, but it still is driving us crazy. What season is it -- winter, summer, spring? Last year we basically skipped spring, but at least we didn't go from winter to summer and back to winter. I hope my Weather Pixie hasn't put away her winter coat or she's going to freeze her whatsies off.

Fresh air Window open, nice breeze coming in, cat looking out. Maybe Spring is not an illusion? Yesterday I walked to a place nearby where you can see the skyline of Boston -- pretty hazy, but still cool. Parents and kids playing in the park. After this winter, nice.

45 degrees and cooking OK, finally a day looking something like spring. Know what I'm going to do? Clean out my car. And I'm actually looking forward to it. I really feel like getting rid of that "car full of junk and sand and salt" feeling. And I'm going to get it washed, for the first time in, well, a long time. The mourning dove is singing outside now. At least somebody things winter isn't going to be permanent around here!

Oh, I may never return ...

Yesterday, I parked in the Alewife garage when I took the Red Line to South Station for a trip to NYC.

When I got back, I found that the fee there has increased 50 cents.

Big woo, you say. But it was apparently a problem for the person ahead of me in line to pay.

The driver pulls up and, apparently, hands the cashier $4. Then there appeared to be some discussion. Then you could see the driver rooting around in her car, and ever 5 minutes or so handing the cashier some more random coins. Either she found enough or the cashier gave up. But meanwhile the line of cars behind me backed up as far as I could see.

This reminded me of the classic "Charlie on the MTA" (this link gives a lot of little-known history about the song, check it out!), which begins:

Fire and rain The horrible "deaths":http://www.boston.com/news/packages/nightclub_fire/ in Rhode Island make it hard for me to justify writing of lighter things today. It seems so often these things happen to people who are only trying to have a good time and listen to music they like. Question: Why the hell are sprinkler systems still optional in some places of public assembly? Yes, it may cost a lot to equip old buildings. Requiring them might close down some old buildings. But we are talking 96 lives here. ... The rain today isn't helping my mood. Now in addition to lots of snow, we have lots of mud. But at least we're on a hill -- flooding is possible some places.

Holy thermometer, Batman! My Weather Pixie has taken off her big coat for the first time in weeks -- I gotta go outside now and see if it is for real.

Dig it Even though this storm set a "record":http://www.boston.com/news/daily/18/mass_snow.htm for Boston, it didn't seem all that hard to deal with -- maybe because it stopped snowing by Tuesday morning. It was a lot to shovel, but it was light and powdery. The main problem now is where to put the damn stuff. For next winter, either I'm getting the old snowthrower fixed or getting a "new one":http://www.ariens.com/products/sno/924116/ .

Slow and nasty The storm that has pounded the Middle Atlantic is just starting to creep into Boston now. It took the front edge about 18 hours to get from New York to Boston. Very light snow so far, but apparently it intensified really fast to the south as it moved. The slow-movers are the worst -- lots of time to snow. We'll see what happens here. My wife nearly got stranded in New York yesterday -- all the trains from New York to Boston come from further south, and they were all screwed up. If you live in the Northeast I hope you are where you want to be now cuz you're probably not moving much for a while -- the storm is not supposed to let up around here until sometime Tuesday.

Boston driving directions, part 3213 My wife had a brochure for a spa that notes that it is "across from Dunkin Donuts". So I decided to search Google for that exact phrase. There are 165 Web pages containing that exact phrase -- for whatever that is worth.

Tengo frio

It's cold here. No shit, it's winter in New England.

But still, this is a bit much. We didn't really get a January thaw (even in upstate New York where I grew up that's supposed to happen). Do I not like this because I'm getting older, because my memory is so bad I can't remember that winter is long and cold in these parts, whatever, I've really had enough for this year. Maybe if I took up skiing (I did do cross-country a little a while back).

For some reason the parking lot at my current office (which thank God we are leaving in a couple of weeks) features gale-force winds most of the time.

And for a real treat, try changing the license plates on your car in the RMV parking lot in the cold (at least the sun was shining).

I have absolutely nothing new or clever to say about the cold and the snow. I moved here voluntarily. I must remember how beautiful the Charles will get come springtime. I must remember to bring my stupid knit hat so my ears don't freeze. I must remember to try to get them to fly me to California again sometime soon...

I don't mind the snow...

... what I mind is shoveling it, and brushing it off my car.

I like to look at it (at least when it's new, old dirty snow pretty much sucks). I don't mind walking in it, and I don't even mind driving in it that much (although it is nice to have a schedule where I can often avoid that).

What we need is snow that falls only on the trees and lawns, not the roads, and most especially not our driveway and steps.

Peaceful

Today's snow was my favorite kind to watch - light flakes drifting down, with almost no wind. And being able to work from home and not have to drive in it - or have to shovel it until tomorrow - priceless.

Tomorrow, we'll have to deal with it. But it's fluffy so that won't be so bad. The last snow was a wet, heavy s.o.b., almost ripped out my back.

All you bloggers out there in other parts of the country, be nice to me or I will come and make it snow on you, too.

1978

The Blizzard of '78: 25 years ago today. Yeah, I was there.

I saw this one from the relative safety of Cambridge, so only by media reports did I know of the horrible fury of the storm on the coast, and needed a Globe story to be reminded that 54 people died.

But here's my own little story:

In those days a porno movie was always shown on registration day at MIT (no, I don't remember what the movie was...). I remember walking back from the movie and being astonished by how fast the snow was falling - and I grew up in upstate New York, so I was no stranger to winter.

MIT had never canceled classes before because of weather, but this didn't qualify as regular weather by anybody's standards.

I worked on The Tech, the college paper, that was supposed to come out on Tuesday. It didn't.

We worked on a four-page paper for Friday, but there was a problem: How to get all the papers back from the printer in Revere when driving was banned.

Well, there was a dire need for blood during the emergency, and MIT had always done very well in blood drives, and one was scheduled for Friday, as I recall. So the back page of our paper became a full-page ad promoting the blood drive - which hopefully helped bring out donors and got the cops to let us through.

Most of the rest of the time was pretty much being cooped up in the dorm - so many people cooped up long enough that year to have a really bad Russian flu epidemic. I had a 104 fever but the infirmary just sent me back to my room because there was no room there.

One of my suitemates had a girlfriend at Wellesley. After a few days he got impatient enough to put on some cross-country skis and head out. Somehow his trek should have inspired a winter equivalent to the Boston marathon ...

I remember how the MIT tennis bubble collapsed - and seeing pictures of the Hartford Civic Center's fall as well.

I was impressed at the way Boston and environs handled the storm - closing all the roads completely enabled many of them to be remarkably well plowed when traffic was allowed to return.

This was a lesson Chicago did not heed the next year, when the Blizzard of '79 crippled that city for weeks.

Yes, I was also there for that storm (I was at Northwestern for grad work).

I also managed to be in New Jersey for the storm that shut the Turnpike down (I think that was also a first), and of course managed to be back here for the big storm two winters ago.

I just have a knack that way....

Cold?

Do you have a warm place to sleep tonight? If you do, take a second to think about what it must be like to be living on the streets in Boston tonight. (Or feel free to pick your favorite cold place).

In the good old days before the Net, you could just think and let that thought pass, maybe saying "I must remember to donate to a homeless shelter soon."

OK, now we no longer have that excuse. Drop by the Pine Street Inn, send them some encrypted packets of monetary joy. I'm pretty sure right now they could use it. (Or pick a similarly deserving shelter nearer you - c'mon, you are smart, you can find one).

We're not talking handouts here, we're talking a chance not to freeze to death.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The temperature hovered around 0 degrees F this morning when we woke up. But the sun is out. And I went out and got the Globe from my front walk in my flannel pajamas and fuzzy robe.

When it is this cold and the air is perfectly still and the sun is out everything you see is so sharp and clear. Must take camera out with me today.

Dig it

Odd signs dept.

Seen on one side of a parking lot: "No snow storage here":

storage?. The stuff must be really valuable; we never get any around here.

Boss: Dammit, Hank, don't store the snow there, somebody might make off with it!

If it is valuable, we're in luck - we've got some on the way...

Light snow

New friends

Met a lot of nice people at the first event of the Boston-New England Tribe of Ryze. Thanks a lot to Sooz for finding the place and helping to get everyone together!

It's nice to make more connections outside my usual work world.

The mountain

Two hikers killed by an avalanche on Mt. Washington -- one of them from my town.

We humans may think we rule this planet, but we sure don't rule that mountain.

Sunset and snow

Today the sun came out just in time to set and illuminate the snow still clinging to the trees.

It is almost impossible to capture the true magnificence of this in photos. But I had to try.

Click on the thumbnails to see them bigger.

Are we having fun yet?

Is this phrase unique to the Boston area: A sign on the Alewife Brook Parkway says:

"Pleasure vehicles only"

Well, I know I'm not in a truck, but is my car a "pleasure vehicle"?

Not when I'm stuck in a giant traffic jam because they are fixing a bridge, I don't think!

Blogs and links

I was just trying to figure out some more links to add here.

And found this on how the "rich get richer" -- sites with lots of links to them already are found by more new people, hence getting even more links, not necessarily based on quality.

I am finding that the bostonite blog ring -- its in the links over to the right, I'm too lazy to cut and paste it here too -- yah cahn't get thaha from heaha -- often seems better at finding blogs I like than random poking around.

Maybe this area just attracts interesting people (pats self on back for obviously being one of the interesting people). And I think I found a blog of someone I know from another web site, but have never met.

I met a friend on Ryze who lives about four blocks from me but who I probably wouldn't have me otherwise.

So it is not always true that the Web's virtual communities break down live ones -- sometimes it can help build them.