Tag: New England

Sunrise

I kicked off my Labor Day early this morning by driving out to the ocean and taking some sunrise pics. I went to Salisbury Beach on the Massachusetts side of the MA/NH state line and caught the actual sunrise. After that I drove over to Plum Island. I usually turn left when I cross the bridge onto the island and go to the lighthouse. This time I turned right and went to the Parker River Wildlife Refuge. There is a beach on the ocean there and hiking trails through the salt marshes just inland from the Atlantic. 

There were a lot of people at Salisbury watching the sun. More than I’ve ever come across on one of these little trips. It was probably because the sun came up at 6:14am or so. The last time I did a sun rise visit I think the sun came up just after 5:00. Big difference. The only people on the Plum Island beach were a middle aged couple who were clearly on a date. I tried very hard not to draw attention to myself and thus distract them from what I’m sure was a lovely morning. The trails I walked on had a bunch of people too but they were all using binoculars while I was using cameras. They were bird watching. 

I took some digital pics with my Z5, I took some 35mm with my N90, and I took some 120 with my Lubitell. I shipped the film out for developing today along with three rolls I shot in August. Will I get the scans back before we leave for California next weekend? Not likely, but I’ll chose optimism and say I hope so.

For now… digital pics.

We start with Salisbury Beach and the start of Labor Day 2026.

DSC_6272
The Atlantic Ocean just before dawn
DSC_6276
The waves were decent (the big ones were at Plum Island)
DSC_6277
Almost time
DSC_6294
Almost time
DSC_6295
Good morning, everyone!
DSC_6297
Nerd boy is about to get artsy with the pier
DSC_6300
Fun with symmetry
DSC_6302
Seagull photobomb
DSC_6304
People. Sorry
DSC_6307
Big waves on Plum Island Beach… well… big for the Atlantic at least
DSC_6309
I was trying to get the waves as they rolled over. Success!
DSC_6310
Crash
DSC_6318
This view is from an overlook in the wildlife refuge
DSC_6325
The whole trail was on a raised platform

And there we have it. My morning pics. The highlights of the digital pics at least. The full album is here on Flickr. When I get the scans back I’ll add them to the album. Hopefully I’ll have them by the end of the week so I don’t have to rely on a hotel’s wifi to upload them. Fingers crossed.

Spring, My Ass

I was running a little late this morning. I wanted to work in the office and I had a meeting on my schedule at 9:00am. I had to be certain I could get to my desk before that meeting started. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get in on time. As I was packing up my shit to leave the house I told my wife that I would plug my work address into the GPS and if it gave an estimated arrival time of after 8:50am I would work from home. Note: this conversation happened at 7:15am.

I got into the car, opened up the Waze app and pointed it at work. The ETA was 8:41am. Okay, I should be all right. That was when I saw the snow flake.

WTF? It’s April 7th… snow? By the time I got to the end of my street there was a light flurry. By the time I was about 10 miles down route 93 South it was full on snowing. By the time I got down to the route 4 exit off of route 128 South the snow was sticking and it was snowing heavily.

Up yours, mother nature. Up yours.

I parked my car at 8:56am and practically ran up to my desk on the fourth floor. I was in the meeting one minute late at 9:01am.

It is April 7, 2026 and it is still fucking winter in New England. Bite me.

Winter Never Ends

Yesterday was April 9, 2025. It was 7:30am or so and I was packing up to leave for work. I asked Siri how the weather was and she told me it was 26 degrees out. 26… in the second week of April. I looked out the window at the car and said out loud, “at least there’s no ice on the car.”

Fast forward to this morning, April 10, 2025. I don’t have to drive to work today but when I got up at a little after 6:00am I did happen to look out the window at the driveway. Sure enough, this time there was ice on the car. It was 29 degrees out though so it’s practically a heatwave.

Winter never ends around these parts. It starts around the last week of August and it hangs on for dear life until sometime in late May or early June.

Southern California is calling me. Hell, at this point maybe it’s Mexico calling me. Should I start learning Spanish? You know, just in case?

Not Again

I posted something yesterday about how there was a little bit of snow during my morning commute and how snow in April sucks the big one.

I have been in meetings all morning today. Back to back to back, one after the other. Woah, that’s a lot of meetings. At a few minutes after noon I was listening in to the third meeting in the string and something caught my eye outside of the window. I was on a video conference so I didn’t want to stare at the goings on outside so I took the briefest of glances.

It was snowing like a freakin’ blizzard. Oh, fer cryin’ out loud. What the hell, mother nature?

It didn’t last long. I took a second side-eye glance about 20 minutes later and there was still some snow falling but it was much lighter. 15 minutes after that the meeting ended and the snow had slowed down to a few random flakes.

All in all this past winter was not that bad. It was very cold, and February had a ton of snow. Outside of that, it could have been much worse. Why then are we having to deal with snow falling on both the seventh and eighth of April. It is most definitely not winter any longer. At least it isn’t sticking but still… come on. Enough is enough. I want my spring to look and feel like spring.

Winter, go home. Your mother nature is calling you. Jerk.

New National Anthem

I had a moment today. I put the Bruins game on the radio just in time to hear the national anthem. Given the circumstances of the day it made me feel sick. I thought I was going to vomit. National anthem, my ass. What nation would that be? The fascist states of america? That nation? Fuck that. I don’t live in the US anymore (there is no US anymore), I live in Massachusetts.

So what should we use for a new Massachusetts national anthem? The obvious choice is probably “Must Have Got Lost” by the J Geils Band. That feels a little too obvious. If we wanted to go with an instrumental song I would suggest “Foreplay” by Boston. Again, probably not the best choice.

Assuming the other five New England States join in my little Massachusetts Independence crusade and we create the United States of New England, I would go with this one…

“New England” by Tanya Donelly. That would be pretty much perfect.

First Time in Ages

I just did something that I don’t think I have done since before Covid came along and mussed everything up.

As previously mentioned, it’s snowing today. Not a lot. We have about an inch on the ground. We might get another inch on top of that, but by no means is today’s storm anything to be worried or upset about, other than the fact that snow is always a pain in the ass. We are New Englanders. This is nuttin’.

However, I needed to go out and do the grocery shopping. My wife has been eating super healthy lately and she was out of all of the healthy things she needed for lunch. I had to go out and restock so that she could have a good lunch. That means I had to go out to the store before the snow stopped. Not only that, I had to go out before the snow removal crews started working. In other words, I had to drive in the fresh, untreated snow.

As previously stated, that was not a big deal. There was enough snow to make the roads a little slippery, but not enough to cause any real troubles for an experienced snow-driver. It made me think though… when was the last time I went out before the plowing started? I can’t remember. It’s been a long, long time. The last time had to have been pre-Covid lockdown. There hasn’t been a time since then that I had to be somewhere bad enough that I couldn’t wait for at least the plows getting one whack in. The only thing I could think of that would have made me go out right away was if one of my parents were in the hospital. If that happened I must have blocked it out of my memory. There was the drive home from Vermont a few weeks ago… does that count? I think the side roads might not have been hit yet, but the main roads had. I don’t know.

So I guess all I did today was spiritually renew my New England Winter Driver ID card. Yeah. I can still drive in the snow. Yippee for me, babie.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, Massachusetts! Happy Thanksgiving to the rest of New England too.

Our family Thanksgiving is actually going to happen on Saturday. The kids are at their dad’s today so we’re punting to the weekend in order to have everyone together.

For today though, Jen and I are going to have a mini Thanksgiving on our own. We found the tiniest turkey in the world and it’s going into the oven shortly.

When we decided to not have anything big today I had thrown out the possibility of me and my love going to New York to see the Macy’s parade in person. Clearly we didn’t go, but we’re watching the parade on TV and… well… thank goodness we didn’t go. It’s pouring rain in New York and everyone looks drenched and frozen and miserable. Bullet Dodged.

So, my New England neighbors, enjoy your turkey and stuffing and have an extra helping for me!