Boston Parking Guide

There is one magic block of parking close to Beacon Hill where anyone (resident or not) can park overnight and not have to leave until 10:00 am. This is EXTREMELY rare. All the other spots I know of require you to leave by 7 or 8 a.m. (not sure if there are any 8 a.m. spots for non residents). If I drive my car during the week and park anytime after 5pm my chances of getting a spot I can leave my car at are slim. At times like this, when I will have to drive to work the next day, I sure like to get one of my magic spots; otherwise I have to go to work at 8!

There's one downfall to the block of magic spots however (not counting the two fire hydrants with 5 feet of space between them, which probably kill 2 possible spots). The first 4 or 5 spots on the block actually require you to leave by 7:30. I did not know this for a long time, and parked in these spots on many occasions before I got a ticket.

Last night I was looking for parking on this block and only the 7:30 spots were left. I hadn't parked in these spots for a long time, so I decided to risk it and see if I would get a ticket. When I got to my car this morning, and checked for a ticket.... my car wasn't there! I got towed. It's sad to start your day off with a towed car.

On the plus side, this was the first time I've ever been towed by the Boston Public Transportation Department. I found the experience of retrieving my car much more pleasant than when I've been towed by private companies. Also, Margaret drove me to pick up my car, which was SUPER helpful and earned her MANY girlfriend points!.

Words Words Words

lipogram (LIP-uh-gram) noun

   A piece of writing that avoids one or more letters of the alphabet.

Ernest Vincent Wright, wrote an entire novel, Gadsby, without using the letter E. It's over 50,000 words long and in his own words, "this story was written, not through any attempt to attain literary merit, but due to a somewhat balky nature, caused by hearing it so constantly claimed that 'it can’t be done;"

If you think that is pointless and stupid, yet strangely fascinating... you might want to check out the word a day at http://wordsmith.org this week. The theme of the week is "words about words".

The Midas Touch

I FINALLY took my car to Midas yesterday to get a rattling problem fixed. When my car was idling or the rpm's were just right, there was a terrible loud rattling sound. I wasn't very worried because this had happened a couple years ago and the problem had just been a "loose shield" that some service man fixed by "welding it down". Since I really don't drive that often these days, I avoided the hastle of taking it in and lived with the rattle for months! Now it's fixed and Midas did not even charge me for anything. How sweet is that?

I finished reading Tesla last night. That's right... I finally finished. I don't think i've taken longer to finish reading a book since i read LOTR. I definately gained an appreciation for Tesla. The biography was good overall, but it did drag and over hyped the scientist at times.

My walk home over the Longfellow was just gorgeous yesterday. The air had a perfect crisp, comfortable fall feeling. The sun, that has been hidden for days, was fading away in a beautiful golden sunset; leaving the darkening sky all colored in purples and blues. I breathed in the scene; filled my lungs with the peacefullness of the moment. I tried to file away every detail that surrounded me before the inevitable slow steady exhale.

Catching up with Fall

I went apple picking with Margaret and friends on Sat. this weekend. We drove through a heavy downpour for a couple of hours, but the rain finally let up just in time for our apple picking. The group i was with was all business when it came down to the actual picking of the apples. I thought we might walk around the orchard a bit, and enjoy a nice fall frolic. Instead, we walked down one row of trees and filled our bag in about 5 minutes! I'm not complaining... in fact its kind of refreshing, since everyone knows "apple picking" is just an excuse to go for a nice fall drive anyway.

Sunday night the same group got together to carve pumpkins. I've had this idea about being a penguin (since i'm obsessed with March of the Penguins) for Halloween. I'm not sure the costume is going to work out, however, so i compromised by carving a penguin into my pumpkin.

While we're on the topic of pumpkins... the pumpkin festival ... is on! Keene had some serious flooding, but in the true spirit of pumpkins the fest will go on! I'll be dusting off my pumpkin glasses and heading up next Saturday