My Boston

Thursday, March 17, 2005

#41 - Boston - Bears, Pirates and Chinese Sushi Delivery - Oh My! - March 17, 2005

I don't even know where to start this time, to be honest. In some ways this week was wonderful, exciting, filled with wonderful adventures and events - the past two days however had "catastrophe" written all over them, and made my colleague Renee call me "Mrs Worst Day Ever". That would have been yesterday, and let's just get this awful stuff right out of the way, so that you can immediately send me an email, saying "oooohh, you poor thing" and I can at least bask a little in a sea of pity and sympathy.

The groundwork for this little "day of doom" was laid on Tuesday evening with the arrival of my new techno toy, the Blackberry. All excited about it, I hooked it up to the computer (as per specifications from our IT department) and "wham!" the computer crashed - really crashed. It made that sound that light bulbs make when they blow up, and I though to myself "This cannot be good". Upon restarting it, that dreaded all-blue screen came up with a mile-long error message. I decided to call it a day at this point, and head off to the book group dinner.

Wednesday morning started out somewhat innocent, but then a sequence of unfortunate events ensued. Ella, the caah, was not showing any signs of life. I had left the overhead light on since Sunday and the battery was d-e-a-d. I got someone to jump start her and was driving Ella around when on the way back home a Chinese sushi delivery truck bumped into me. I was standing at a red traffic light with other cars as well - but apparently the guy did not know where his brakes were. On the positive side, nothing happened to me, and Ella has only sustained the tiniest of nicks (one of those that when I tell you where it is you will see it......), so she is now considered a bona fide Boston city caah with her first war injury. When I returned, slightly frazzled to home base at MGH, the computer techs showed up, took one look at my computer and said "You need a new hard drive." In my quest to do my work, I was then relocated to the receptionist desk, which made the day somewhat interesting. After receiving the new hard drive and the tech actually hooked up the Blackberry, most was copasetic, except for the fact that the BB does not synchronize any of my emails..... And the saga continues....

I am happy to report that my jog with fellow running club mate Joanne yesterday evening was uneventful, and I did not get attacked by any trees or so, and today (Happy St. Patrick's Day!!)has been fairly benign aside from a couple of minor food-related incidents that have not contributed to enhancing today's outfit. A pint of green beer at Kinsale might be in order today to forget about all this.

Now to the good stuff - a weekend, chockful of events and memorable experiences. Friday night I attended a slide show at REI, where author Peter Potterfield presented his new book "Classic Hikes of the World" - phenomenal slides reminding me of all those wonderful places I still need to visit: Denali in Alaska (that is where the bears are...), Patagonia, Himalayas, Sweden's Highlands, King George Island (Antarctica)..... Mileage donations are being accepted!

On Saturday morning, I headed for Lynn Woods, about 11 miles north of Boston, and one of the largest municipal forests in the country. It was raining cats and dogs that morning, so instead of doing work on the trails we decided to do some paintwork in the ranger's house/visitor center. Once the rain turned into snow we headed out onto the trails, removed some toppled trees and went for a hike.

Now Lynn Woods, my friends, has a pretty interesting history
(http://www.flw.org/951.htm). A pirate named Thomas Veal housed there sometime in the 17th century, hiding out in a cave guarding a treasure acquired by him and fellow pirates. Legend has it that during an earthquake in 1658 he got crushed by a huge boulder and that was the end of poor Thomas. Subsequently spiritualist Hiram Marble and his son Edward kept digging tunnels near Dungeon Rock (the boulder that crushed unlucky Tom) to find the treasure, but 30 years of digging did not turn up anything. Under the guidance of Ranger Dan and armed with flash lights we did manage to go down into the Marbles' tunnels, 35 feet under ground. Very cool! Once a year Lynn Woods celebrates Dungeon Rock Day, where you can dress as a pirate and hike through the woods and hunt for a treasure or just stop by at the Hog's Breath Inn for grog and cookies. Lynn Woods is a magnificent place to hike - all 2200 acres of it.

Saturday night, I volunteered (yes, again with Boston Cares) at an event in Cambridge, where Musica Sacra (http://www.musicasacra.org/) performed a "Choral Bestiary" at the First Church Congregational at the Cambridge Common. A very nice and interesting program, flimsy and funny; all of the pieces performed related to animals somehow - among my favorites were McCord's Menagerie ("Let us ponder the condor; biggest thing on the wing, like a kit on a string; a subject not cultural, but very vultural" / "Jaculus jaculus (a gerbil) – Nothing miraculous, rat of a sort, front legs too short, hind legs too long, All rather wrong") and El Bestiari de Pere Quart ("Bacillus - Not a good speck, the Microbe").

On Sunday morning, as promised, I went on my second naturalist hike with Boot Boutwell of the AMC. Again, Boot was a trip leader extraordinaire and did not disappoint. It had snowed the day before, so the Mass Audubon Habitat in Belmont was an absolutely postcard-picture-perfect winter wonderland (http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Habitat/index.php). I was able to apply my knowledge from our last hike, but there were many new lessons in botany to absorb (the spice bush and the striped maple were among my favorites) and interesting New England stories to learn. The plant of the day was the Winged Euonymous (http://www.paflora.org/Euonymus%20alatus.pdf) or Japanese Spindle tree, which is quite unmistakable. The best Story of the Day was under the Headline of "Who ate Roger Williams?"
(http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/RIPROtree.html) - as we pondered the local apple trees, Boot related the story of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams, who was buried on his family farm, and when the Rhode Island Historical Society wanted to exhume him to give him a proper burial (him being the founder of the state and such) poor dead Roger was gone, poof! Apparently the apple tree got to him, the roots into the coffin exactly depicted his body shape.....
Also got to sample maple syrup right from the tree (tastes not like much as it needs to be boiled down first, but we had to try, right?).

Sunday night, again (I should be volunteer of the month!) I assisted with Boston Cares, this time at the Huntington Theater ushering at a play called "36 Views" - great acting, phenomenal stage work, beautiful theater and a pretty nifty topic - art dealers, fraud, Asian antiques, and a love story as well. http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/36views/36views_about_the_company.aspx.

The week (aside from the calamities, which in hindsight are not sooo bad) has been filled with seeing friends and on Tuesday night with the book group, who in connection with reading Khaled Hosseini's book "The Kite Runner" went to "The Helmand", an Afghan restaurant right across the river in Cambridge and enjoyed some pretty spectacular food!

The end of this week and weekend will be filled with St. Paddy's day activities, including a road race on Sunday (The Ras na hEireann Race) and the parade in Southie, as well as some solid couch time, and hanging out with friends, new and old.

Slan go foill,

pet:)

I have to add a little morsel that I have been saving up and it really does not fit with anything in here, but is just a fun thing to know.
There is a lake in Massachusetts - Webster Lake in Webster - its Native American name is: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagochaubunagungamaug or Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, which translates into "you fish on that side, we'll fish on this side and nobody will fish in the middle".

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