#34 Boston - Are you happy now? January 27, 2005
Well, that was the question my friend Linda fired off to me on Monday morning, as apparently Miss Petra Josephine Yee in her ongoing quest for snow single-handedly caused a blizzard that dumped an insane amount of snow on the poor little state of Massachusetts. Let me tell you folks, I am loving it, but have to admit that this was the most impressive weather I have ever seen. We were forewarned, you see, that there would be some heavy snow this weekend - little did I know how this would pan out. My idea of going cross-country skiing on Saturday morning did not crystallize as there was not enough snow at that point. It started snowing more heavily in the afternoon, around 4 PM or so, just as I was taking a stroll along the Charles River Esplanade. The skies started to darken at some point, and I figured that I get my sorry little self home quickly - I did take Ella out first for a quick little trip to the store first, and so that she could have her first experience driving in snow (remember she is a California caah after all.....). There was a certain "let's prepare-for-the-nuclear-accident-that-will-happen-shortly" mentality in the store, which I did not quite understand (still don't) and opted not to participate in. What followed was amazing - I looked out the window at what I thought was a wall of fog, but it was snow, snow and snow. In addition, gale-force winds started blowing -which was an extraordinary sight, in particular along Cape Cod, where they had hurricane wind warnings. The area around Boston got up to three feet of snow - the town of Plymouth, Mass held the record with a whopping 38 inches of snow (about 1 meter), and on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we added up to another 8 inches. It was a storm for the record books, 13,000 homes lost power, and the National Weather Service said that it was one of the largest snowstorms in the past 100 years for Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts. The next snow is predicted to come next Tuesday, so I think I will be snow-happy for a while.
After the "Blizzard of 2005" (so reported by the "Extreme Team" on one of the local news channels) calmed down a bit on Sunday, Ruth and I headed into the city and let me tell you, it was unbelievably beautiful! There were no cars, people were cross country skiing the streets, snowshoeing, and the slopes of Beacon Hill had kids and adults alike zipping down the neighborhood streets and slopes on sleds, plastic saucers, tubes and toboggans (in some cases cafeteria food trays, but hey - whatever works, right?). I took lots of photos with my camera, and hope that I can even remotely capture how beautiful it was. The Boston Common and the Public Garden were beautiful, someone had graciously dug out the duckling statues (http://www.schon.com/public/ducklings-boston.php) as only Momma Duck's head was sticking out of the snow. "Make Way for Ducklings" is a Boston classic - the story of Mrs Mallard and her eight ducklings looking for a home in the big city. In 1941, Robert McCloskey wrote the famous tale which takes place in the Boston Public Garden. In honor of the story every year on Mothers' Day a parade is held where swarms of children dressed in duck outfits waddle or walk around Beacon Hill, and then get a chance to pose for a picture sitting on the mallard statues in the park. (http://www.boston-online.com/cityviews/ducklings_parade.html).
After a brief pick-me-up at Harvard Gardens which involved an undisclosed amount of Frangelico, it was time to head home to watch the AFC Championship game where our most beloved New England Patriots thrashed the Pittsburgh Steelers (sorry Jimmy!) and advanced to the SuperBowl! Yess! February 6 is SuperBowl Sunday, and plans are being made to have a very fine event at my neighbor Claire's!
Monday it was back to work (at least for me, can't say that the weather would keep me from going to work) and the final painful days of the grant application deadline. Staggering out every night as if I had been drugged, I decided to do fun stuff and totally overcompensate. I bumbled over the the main Boston Public Library at Copley Square (http://www.freefoto.com/preview.jsp?id=1211-14-2&k=The+Boston+Public+Library%2C+Boston%2C+Massachusetts) where it was free Monday night movies - this time silent movies with piano accompaniment. The story featured was "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" (http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/bk12des.htm) - written by Frank Baum, who had made a habit out of writing Oz and other fantasy stories. Watching early silent movies is always a little perplexing - everyone moves too fast as if they were doped up on amphetamines and seem to be suffering from some seizures of sort. There is no such thing as special effects, the "woozy" was apparently made from cardboard and there was some gender confusion going on as well. The piano music adds some dramatic notes, but there were few text screens in between and to be honest, I did not quite get everything that went on in this flick. Entertaining though.
Tuesday night it was back to the Museum of Science's IMAX theater for the movie "Extreme", which featured spectacular images of extreme athletes - wind surfing, rock climbing, extreme skiing and snow boarding. Spectacular and very impressive!(http://www.extreme70mmfilm.com/)
So and here we are, ready for another fun-filled weekend - Saturday morning I am heading out to Weston, where the snow shoeing event from the Boston Ski and Sports Club is finally taking place (we do have enough snow I believe). In the late afternoon, I will meet up with some friends at Frog Pond to do some ice skating and on Sunday, I am heading to Stowe, Vermont for some down hill skiing (http://www.stowe.com/). How's that for a winter weekend?
I was supposed to go out jogging tonight - don't ask - actually, yeah, do ask! The Somerville Striders, another one of the crazy running clubs around here, is featuring some event, where we would all jog in this raw weather and then afterward meet up with a famous Ethiopian marathon runner. I have not convinced myself that I will actually do it, and the thought of my gym, which features heat and TVs, is just more appealing. Don't expect much, my friends! Probably no tales of Ethiopia from this end.
With this I bid you farewell for this week. Stay warm and dry!
Love,
Petra
After the "Blizzard of 2005" (so reported by the "Extreme Team" on one of the local news channels) calmed down a bit on Sunday, Ruth and I headed into the city and let me tell you, it was unbelievably beautiful! There were no cars, people were cross country skiing the streets, snowshoeing, and the slopes of Beacon Hill had kids and adults alike zipping down the neighborhood streets and slopes on sleds, plastic saucers, tubes and toboggans (in some cases cafeteria food trays, but hey - whatever works, right?). I took lots of photos with my camera, and hope that I can even remotely capture how beautiful it was. The Boston Common and the Public Garden were beautiful, someone had graciously dug out the duckling statues (http://www.schon.com/public/ducklings-boston.php) as only Momma Duck's head was sticking out of the snow. "Make Way for Ducklings" is a Boston classic - the story of Mrs Mallard and her eight ducklings looking for a home in the big city. In 1941, Robert McCloskey wrote the famous tale which takes place in the Boston Public Garden. In honor of the story every year on Mothers' Day a parade is held where swarms of children dressed in duck outfits waddle or walk around Beacon Hill, and then get a chance to pose for a picture sitting on the mallard statues in the park. (http://www.boston-online.com/cityviews/ducklings_parade.html).
After a brief pick-me-up at Harvard Gardens which involved an undisclosed amount of Frangelico, it was time to head home to watch the AFC Championship game where our most beloved New England Patriots thrashed the Pittsburgh Steelers (sorry Jimmy!) and advanced to the SuperBowl! Yess! February 6 is SuperBowl Sunday, and plans are being made to have a very fine event at my neighbor Claire's!
Monday it was back to work (at least for me, can't say that the weather would keep me from going to work) and the final painful days of the grant application deadline. Staggering out every night as if I had been drugged, I decided to do fun stuff and totally overcompensate. I bumbled over the the main Boston Public Library at Copley Square (http://www.freefoto.com/preview.jsp?id=1211-14-2&k=The+Boston+Public+Library%2C+Boston%2C+Massachusetts) where it was free Monday night movies - this time silent movies with piano accompaniment. The story featured was "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" (http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/bk12des.htm) - written by Frank Baum, who had made a habit out of writing Oz and other fantasy stories. Watching early silent movies is always a little perplexing - everyone moves too fast as if they were doped up on amphetamines and seem to be suffering from some seizures of sort. There is no such thing as special effects, the "woozy" was apparently made from cardboard and there was some gender confusion going on as well. The piano music adds some dramatic notes, but there were few text screens in between and to be honest, I did not quite get everything that went on in this flick. Entertaining though.
Tuesday night it was back to the Museum of Science's IMAX theater for the movie "Extreme", which featured spectacular images of extreme athletes - wind surfing, rock climbing, extreme skiing and snow boarding. Spectacular and very impressive!(http://www.extreme70mmfilm.com/)
So and here we are, ready for another fun-filled weekend - Saturday morning I am heading out to Weston, where the snow shoeing event from the Boston Ski and Sports Club is finally taking place (we do have enough snow I believe). In the late afternoon, I will meet up with some friends at Frog Pond to do some ice skating and on Sunday, I am heading to Stowe, Vermont for some down hill skiing (http://www.stowe.com/). How's that for a winter weekend?
I was supposed to go out jogging tonight - don't ask - actually, yeah, do ask! The Somerville Striders, another one of the crazy running clubs around here, is featuring some event, where we would all jog in this raw weather and then afterward meet up with a famous Ethiopian marathon runner. I have not convinced myself that I will actually do it, and the thought of my gym, which features heat and TVs, is just more appealing. Don't expect much, my friends! Probably no tales of Ethiopia from this end.
With this I bid you farewell for this week. Stay warm and dry!
Love,
Petra
posted by My Boston at
3:56 PM
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