blinder's Journal: Perfect Weather

sometimes new england can make you question your sanity, with regards to the weather. what does buffer-overflowed say? something about biblical-like weather conditions.

but, there are times, like today, where the weather is absolutely perfect. its warm, in the upper 70's, not a drop of humidity to be had and just a few white puffy clouds casually slipping across a deep blue perfect sky.

instead of going from my therapy session to the T, i instead decided to walk to harvard square. its about a mile and a half walk, takes about 20 minutes to do it, if you are keeping a normal walking gate. aside from it being a nice day, the route to harvard is just, well, its charming. you basically just head out on mass. ave. and go west. that takes you through central square then you walk through that interesting mixture of business and residential neighborhoods punctuated by record stores, the odd old irish bars, tea houses and whatever else is there to end up in the uber high-rent district of mount auburn st. with the high end furniture shops, design studios, law firms and the private spas and what-have-you.

before you know it, you are in havard square. how to describe harvard square to someone who has yet to see it. well. its old. its not a square. it, like the rest of cambridge, is a strange and interesting mix of high-end boutique shops and homeless people and mix in the street musicians on nearly every corner with a collection of goth kids and rich/bored house wives.

i stopped in at one of the two (three?) starbucks and got an iced decaf mocha, and headed over to the charles hotel. that's where i pick up the shuttle bus to the arsenal (the office complex where i work). i always dread this one driver, she is a middle-aged puerto rican who firmly believes that the shuttle bus is actually a ferarri, and the tight cramped roads of cambridge are actually a street race course through monte carlo. the best advice i could give you is to just stare at the floor, or like me, take out your handheld and play solitare. the less you pay attention to what is going on during the "ride" the better.

but that's okay. today she made record time, probably shaving off a few seconds from her best.

ever ridden in a real ferarri before? i have. i've also ridden in a lamborghini. interesting experience, that.

but yes, today is perfect weather. we only have a short time before fall starts and then its a break-neck pace, headlong into a new england winter. i don't mind winter here though. i really don't. i thought i'd be crazy moving up here from baltimore, which lets face it, doesn't have much of what you could call "winter." but boston is different than any place i know in the winter. winter is not a time to sequester yourself. people do things. i think a large part of that is because of the rather exceptional public transport we have (yes, we may complain about the T and grumble about using it, but in reality, it frees us from being home-bound when it snows). winter in boston is cold, snowy and windy. but it wasn't like what i remember winters to be in upstate ny, where you were locked into your house, for the most part, from december till april.

oh well. i'm just having one of those wistful mornings. i really should make myself useful.

wistful is good

[sparky4]

it sounds like a nice walk on a wonderful day to experience it and that a smart person took time out for both.

Oh yeah

[ellem]

...collection of goth kids and rich/bored house wives...

You just wrote my next porno

Perfect Weather

[Shadow Wrought]

We've had a couple of those days recently. It is great walking the dogs through the park when the weather is just right. Wistful is an excelelnt word for it.

As for Baltimore winters, I've only been to baltimore once in the winter and it was 14 most of the time, with highs around 22. On our ride to the airport I decided to go ahead and wear shorts because I knew the airport, airplane, and California were all going to be well heated and, then I could say I wore shorts in 14 degree weather;-)

As for maki

howdy!

[sulli]

I will be in boston tonight, if you & sol would care for a brief meetup!

Re:howdy!

[SolemnDragon]

Yes. And i'm better at hugging people these days.

real ferarri...

[(H)elix1]

Hah! Perhaps the shuttle bus just had the soul of one of those Italian devils?

When I was going to university I wanted to learn how to fly. Did the obvious thing for someone who had no cash - took a job as a blue juice engineer, scrubbing oil off the bottom of planes, pumping gas, and pulling out aircraft in wee hours of a Minnesota winter and getting them ready for someone else to fly. (Employee discount and the plethora instructors looking for something to do was the only way I could swing it)

Anyhow, in

Re:real ferarri...

[blinder]

heh, well remember that lambos are basically race cars, f1 style... and the engines are tuned so tightly that you have very little "play." in fact, prior to 1999 lambo engines had to rebuilt every 2000 or so miles because, well, they would tear themselves to pieces. when audi stepped in and purchased lambo, they introduced a pretty rigerous quality control system to make sure their cars could actually withstand almost being a "daily driver." actually, if i remember correctly, the new lamborghini gallardo is