Tag: Boston

Recreated

I think it was Father’s Day in 2006. I had a nice little Kodak point and shoot camera and I wanted to use it so I drove into Boston and just walked around. I had an idea to stand at the base of the Hancock building and point the camera straight up. That didn’t quite work the way I had hoped, but when I moved just a little bit I got this:

Hancock Tower in Boston

It might still be my favorite photograph that I have ever taken that doesn’t have Jen or Harry or Bellana or my niece or any of my nephews in it. I like it.

Every time I get a new camera I think, “I’m going to try and recreate that picture” and then it never works out as well. My Nikon D90 gave me a bunch of really good pictures, but nothing close enough to the accidental original. I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.

Ever since the film obsession began a few years ago (when my sister found my father’s Pentax K1000 while cleaning out his dresser and asked if anyone wanted it and I suddenly realized that I really, really, really wanted it) I’ve been wanting to go into Boston and see if I could pull it off on film.

Today I went into Boston to see if I could pull it off. I had the K1000, the Lubitell 166, and my digital Nikon Z5. I was messing with the K1000 when I accidentally figured out what I needed to do. I didn’t move to my left, like I thought I did. I moved to my right. All three cameras tried it out. Obviously we have to wait to get the film developed to know how they did, but the digital I can already see.

Close enough?

DSC_4134

All I need now is the airplane to come back.

Rain

I just had some really good thunderstorm luck. I went grocery shopping even though the sky looked like it was going to fall. I made it into the store, through all of my shopping, and back out to the car before it rained. I loaded up the car, put the cart away, and got in the car and at the exact moment I closed the door the first rain drop hit my windshield. Perfect timing.

As I drove home, the rain was so heavy I really couldn’t see. It sucked. I made it home in one piece though and I sat in the driveway for a few minutes waiting for the rain to calm down. Magically, it stopped all together! Nice! I needed three trips from the car to the kitchen and back and it wasn’t until I was on the third trip that the rain started again. I was only in it for a couple of seconds. A small price to pay given the risks involved. I’ll take it.

Suck it, thunderstorm. Of course it’s down pouring again now, but that’s okay. I’m in for the rest of the day.

Earlier today we drove to Boston for a few minutes. Enjoy the obligatory stuck-in-traffic-getting-on-to-Storrow-Drive-looking-at-the-Zakim-bridge pics.

245/365

And in closing, two cat pics:

Hands Off

Folks are showing up in Boston today. I’m not. At least not physically. Spiritually, I am there.

Photo shows the Hands Off! event in Boston Commons. This from more than an hour ago, the crowd is still arriving.OUR Hands Off! event in Santa Barbara is today at 1 p.m. at De La Guerra Plaza. Let's show Boston they have nothing on us!

— Indivisible Santa Barbara (@indivisiblesb.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T16:56:20.859Z

They’re really rockin’ in Boston…Hands off USA.

— Alan Rosenblatt (@drdigipol.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T16:14:02.843Z

I wish I had made this sign! From Boston #handsoff march

— Claudia Calhoon (@claudiacalhoon.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T17:10:35.705Z

Hands Off BOSTON This is what Democracy looks like!

— (@ediba.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T17:06:14.605Z

HANDS OFFBoston MA.

— Kit (@disillusionedone.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T16:56:43.342Z

Are We On

Sundays are supposed to be band practice day. Are we on today or not?

As of yesterday, we are on but we don’t know when yet. Late afternoon? I hope so.

Change of subject, we’re going to Disney World again in June. In the interest of finding the silver lining, is it possible that with the nazis in washington trying to ass fuck all of our allies that enough countries will put travel warnings in place for citizens visiting the usa that we’ll have small crowds in the Disney parks? Bad for Disney, bad for america, bad for the economy…. good for our vacation? Look at me being all positive and shit.

Change of subject again, the Red Sox have now lost two in a row after winning their season opener. They play Texas again today. Opening the season with a four game series… yeah, I am ready to move on. As for the Bruins… they lost their fifth straight last night. They’ve lost eight of their last 10. Are they actively tanking? Sure feels like it. Suffice to say, it has not been a good stretch for Boston sports fans.

Yeah… I need a band practice to straighten my head out a little. Yeah.

Boston Holidays

March 17th is a big day for the city of Boston. As most people know, it’s St Patrick’s Day and Boston does love to get its Irish on for a day. For me personally, I am of Irish descent (with the red hair to show for it… for now). My father’s mother’s family came to the US from Ireland. My mother’s parents were from New Foundland (before it became part of Canada) but prior to that we believe the family was in Ireland as well. My father’s father’s family was from Nova Scotia (I think) and before that the family was from England. I guess no one is perfect.

While St Patrick’s Day is the big deal for most of us around here, people in Suffolk County also have another holiday today. Evacuation Day. George Washington placed the cannons stolen from Fort Ticonderoga onto Dorchester Heights, where they could threaten the English warships in the harbor, thus breaking the Siege of Boston. When I was a kid I was insanely jealous of the kids in Boston because they had the day off from school on March 17th and those of us in Middlesex County did not. They didn’t have to go to school on St Patrick’s Day and we did. What a rip off! There were people from the Merrimack Valley fighting with the Continental Army during the siege, why don’t we get the day off to honor them too?

It wasn’t until I was 21 or 22 years old and going to school at Northeast Broadcasting School in Boston that I got to have Evacuation Day off. Better late than never, I guess. As for today, happy St Patrick’s Day. Most of Boston drank themselves into the annual stupor over the weekend, so there isn’t a lot of actual celebration today. We used to have Corned Beef for dinner on St Patrick’s Day, but I think tonight we’re just going to have chicken. Maybe we’ll do something next weekend to celebrate. I am wearing a green shirt today though. Not because I chose to wear green today, but because a green shirt just happened to be on the top of my laundry pile. Call it the luck of the Irish.

About to Go Home

It is silly. I love to travel. I enjoy staying in hotels. I love the city of Boston. Why then did spending three nights in a hotel in Boston start to bum me out? It was nice. It was fun. It was a goofy little excursion away from the norm.

Why then, with all the things that I enjoyed about the entire situation, does the idea of being able to go home after work tonight fill me up with happiness? My wife and I will be home together. We’ll eat dinner together at home. We’ll sack out on the couch after dinner and watch TV in our living room at home. We’ll sleep in our own bed tonight. We’ll wake up at home tomorrow and be back on our regular, normal daily routine.

I love to travel. I love staying in hotels. I love being in the city of Boston. I guess I just love being at home with Jen more. When you look at it that way, it’s not even a little bit surprising.

Also, there are cats at home when there were no cats in the hotel. That’s gotta count for something too, right?