#37 Boston - Bob and Jerry - February 17, 2005
No, it is not a new ice cream flava, but rather another installment of "odd couples you meet on the bus". This one was a rather unusual and to a certain extent, very unpleasant combination, in particular as Bob (who was the main annoyance here) communicated over my head with Jerry, the victim of his palaverous assaults, and thoughts of inflicting pain and torture started forming in my mind. Good thing this happened only on the way back from Sunday River, Maine, and other good thing, we had a movie to play, which put and end to Mr Blabbermouth behind me. Now Jerry, said bus driver, was a nice guy- if we were in the 60s you would have described him as a "cool cat"- and he was not amused either by all that meddling, in particular, because Bob started really getting into it, and threw a few insults into the mix. "Hey Jerry, got White Line Fever?" (Let's have Bob try to steer a bus like that in snowy weather, shall we?)
Aside from this episode of Bob's Bus Lectures, the trip to Sunday River, Maine was simply wonderful and of stunning beauty. Winter as it should be! It snowed there the week prior, and the pine tree state presented itself as the queen of New England, with luscious forests, covered in picture perfect snow and a bright blue sky. Ski enthusiasts were out in force, and Sunday River with its eight peaks certainly had the might to handle them. Ruth and I had signed up for the Boston Ski and Sports Club's "Winterfest", which included a whole array of activities that promised to exhaust us by the late afternoon. The morning was spent to cross country ski (away from the thousands of down hill skiers and crazy snow boarders up on the mountain) - perfectly manicured tracks and almost no one around, trees forming an arch over the trails through which the blue sky and the sun occasionally peaked through. We went along some interesting trails such as the Fire Pit, Stone Wall and Turkey Run, but ended up heading down the Wanigan trail, which led us to one of New England's most famous wooden covered bridges (http://www.maine.gov/mdot-stage/covered-bridges/artists.php). Only nine of Maine's originally 120 covered wooden bridges remain. They were originally built to make traversing rivers safe during the harsh and icy winters in the Northeast.
Lunch happened at White Cap, one of the centers of Sunday River, and after some decent carbo-loading we went on to our next adventure, tubing! Basically you zip down the mountain on your stomach on these giant inflated tires, hold on to two handles, and pray to the high heavens that the speed won't take you up over the walls and into the path of some unsuspecting snow boarders. The first couple of times you really get dinged around quite a bit, and might suffer from a slight bout of nausea, but once you figure out how to steer the damn thing, there is no going back. This is as close as I will ever come to experiencing the luge and I was loving it! My hiking boots have not yet forgiven me for the abuse they suffered, as they were seriously required to slow down on the course, but it is a small sacrifice for so much fun. The rest of the day was spent in front of a cozy fire place in the lodge, and some of my bus mates spent maybe a bit too much quality time up at the "Foggy Goggle", the local bar and hangout.
This past Friday, I again volunteered with Boston Cares, this time at Faneuil Hall (http://www.faneuilhall.com/) for a performance of the Boston Classical Orchestra. Certainly an interesting event - the overture to Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro", followed by "Incidental Music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Mendelssohn, narrated by local WCRB radio host Ray Brown and topped of by a world premiere of Stephen Halloran's "Concerto for New Orleans". In this last piece the BCO joined a jazz sextet called "Made in the Shade" who brought a unique blend of New Orleans jazz, swing, ethnic and folk music to the table. A very enjoyable evening (only slightly interrupted by some fainting patrons who had to be shipped off by ambulance).
The week has been busy as usual, work is dynamic and interesting. The past few days have featured a good amount of social events, including a book club meeting at my new favorite place to go to (and it is only three blocks from my house): Boston Beer Works (http://www.beerworks.net/) on Canal Street. This definitely is a good hangout for me - great food, really great food, and some stellar brews! My choices for the evening were "You Handsome Devil", a Belgian style ale and the "Bunker Hill Blueberry Ale" which had actual blueberries in it. Yumm, Yumm and Yumm! Yesterday was MGH Running Group, and a social with one of my neighbors who just returned from Germany. Tonight I am heading to the Ritz Carlton for a little affair on "Mass High Tech Women to Watch" - hoping to be one of them one day, I will attend and do some serious networking.
It has been a very nice week here, with a couple of teasers where the weather warmed up to a very balmy 50 degrees, but as of today we are back to cold, cold and cold. The holiday weekend is upon us, and boy, do we need it! I will stay in town for some nice local hikes, lots of reading and some initial packing for my trip next Friday to Europe. Because of my upcoming travels, I will miss the opening reception for the art exhibit here at the hospital where my photograph is displayed, so all my Boston friends can come, look at it, and say whatever they want behind my back!
I have not done this in a while, so here are some final tidbits for you:
*The state bird of Maine is the chickadee! (It is also the state bird for Massachusetts.)
*Aside from Stephen King, other famous Mainers (no, it is not Mainees!) are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (the poet) and film director John Ford.
* Some more Boston stuff from my friends at redsoxdiehard.com that you should absolutely know:
*There are two State Houses, two City Halls, two courthouses, two Hancock buildings. There's also a Boston Latin School and a Boston Latin Academy.
* Route 128 is also I-95. It is also I-93.
*The Harvard Bridge goes to MIT. It's measured in 'smoots.'
*Johnson never should have hit for Willoughby.
*The subway doesn't run all night. This isn't Noo Yawk.
pet:)
Aside from this episode of Bob's Bus Lectures, the trip to Sunday River, Maine was simply wonderful and of stunning beauty. Winter as it should be! It snowed there the week prior, and the pine tree state presented itself as the queen of New England, with luscious forests, covered in picture perfect snow and a bright blue sky. Ski enthusiasts were out in force, and Sunday River with its eight peaks certainly had the might to handle them. Ruth and I had signed up for the Boston Ski and Sports Club's "Winterfest", which included a whole array of activities that promised to exhaust us by the late afternoon. The morning was spent to cross country ski (away from the thousands of down hill skiers and crazy snow boarders up on the mountain) - perfectly manicured tracks and almost no one around, trees forming an arch over the trails through which the blue sky and the sun occasionally peaked through. We went along some interesting trails such as the Fire Pit, Stone Wall and Turkey Run, but ended up heading down the Wanigan trail, which led us to one of New England's most famous wooden covered bridges (http://www.maine.gov/mdot-stage/covered-bridges/artists.php). Only nine of Maine's originally 120 covered wooden bridges remain. They were originally built to make traversing rivers safe during the harsh and icy winters in the Northeast.
Lunch happened at White Cap, one of the centers of Sunday River, and after some decent carbo-loading we went on to our next adventure, tubing! Basically you zip down the mountain on your stomach on these giant inflated tires, hold on to two handles, and pray to the high heavens that the speed won't take you up over the walls and into the path of some unsuspecting snow boarders. The first couple of times you really get dinged around quite a bit, and might suffer from a slight bout of nausea, but once you figure out how to steer the damn thing, there is no going back. This is as close as I will ever come to experiencing the luge and I was loving it! My hiking boots have not yet forgiven me for the abuse they suffered, as they were seriously required to slow down on the course, but it is a small sacrifice for so much fun. The rest of the day was spent in front of a cozy fire place in the lodge, and some of my bus mates spent maybe a bit too much quality time up at the "Foggy Goggle", the local bar and hangout.
This past Friday, I again volunteered with Boston Cares, this time at Faneuil Hall (http://www.faneuilhall.com/) for a performance of the Boston Classical Orchestra. Certainly an interesting event - the overture to Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro", followed by "Incidental Music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Mendelssohn, narrated by local WCRB radio host Ray Brown and topped of by a world premiere of Stephen Halloran's "Concerto for New Orleans". In this last piece the BCO joined a jazz sextet called "Made in the Shade" who brought a unique blend of New Orleans jazz, swing, ethnic and folk music to the table. A very enjoyable evening (only slightly interrupted by some fainting patrons who had to be shipped off by ambulance).
The week has been busy as usual, work is dynamic and interesting. The past few days have featured a good amount of social events, including a book club meeting at my new favorite place to go to (and it is only three blocks from my house): Boston Beer Works (http://www.beerworks.net/) on Canal Street. This definitely is a good hangout for me - great food, really great food, and some stellar brews! My choices for the evening were "You Handsome Devil", a Belgian style ale and the "Bunker Hill Blueberry Ale" which had actual blueberries in it. Yumm, Yumm and Yumm! Yesterday was MGH Running Group, and a social with one of my neighbors who just returned from Germany. Tonight I am heading to the Ritz Carlton for a little affair on "Mass High Tech Women to Watch" - hoping to be one of them one day, I will attend and do some serious networking.
It has been a very nice week here, with a couple of teasers where the weather warmed up to a very balmy 50 degrees, but as of today we are back to cold, cold and cold. The holiday weekend is upon us, and boy, do we need it! I will stay in town for some nice local hikes, lots of reading and some initial packing for my trip next Friday to Europe. Because of my upcoming travels, I will miss the opening reception for the art exhibit here at the hospital where my photograph is displayed, so all my Boston friends can come, look at it, and say whatever they want behind my back!
I have not done this in a while, so here are some final tidbits for you:
*The state bird of Maine is the chickadee! (It is also the state bird for Massachusetts.)
*Aside from Stephen King, other famous Mainers (no, it is not Mainees!) are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (the poet) and film director John Ford.
* Some more Boston stuff from my friends at redsoxdiehard.com that you should absolutely know:
*There are two State Houses, two City Halls, two courthouses, two Hancock buildings. There's also a Boston Latin School and a Boston Latin Academy.
* Route 128 is also I-95. It is also I-93.
*The Harvard Bridge goes to MIT. It's measured in 'smoots.'
*Johnson never should have hit for Willoughby.
*The subway doesn't run all night. This isn't Noo Yawk.
pet:)
posted by My Boston at
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