Back on Track

We’ve been home for about five hours now. Here’s the summary of the drive there and back:

That’s a nice chunk of driving. 397.6 miles in seven hours and 25 minutes. Nice.

UMass Lowell beat the University of Vermont 3-0 in what was a pretty boring game. Lowell’s second goal was a thing of beauty. It was a two on one break away and the shooter roofed it over the goalie’s left shoulder. Perfect. Lowell’s third goal was a little painful for the Vermont fans. A one on two that should probably have been more like a dump and chase but Lowell’s forechecker just put it on net and poof, goal. Nice.

Before the game we met with the kids, including Harry’s girlfriend, for dinner and had a really nice time. Jen wasn’t feeling well by the end of it though so she stayed at the hotel during the game. That made us all sad. We missed her. After the game we all went back to the hotel and were able to spend some time hanging out with Jen, who was feeling a little better. That made up for missing the game.

Since coming home I’ve just been trying to recover from all of the driving. I did manage to run some errands and do a little around the house. I made lunch and I am going to make dinner too. First though, I have to do my morning exercise that I couldn’t do in the car today. I’s 4:20pm. Let’s make believe that it’s 5:20am and get it done.

Montpelier, VT

On the drive home from visiting the kids in Burlington, VT we stopped in the state capital, Montpelier. We were looking for a breakfast place. Yelp said it was open. Reality said it was closed. We were sad, but we did drive right past the capital building which was nice.

78/365

Where Are You From

After the disaster that was the election last week I saw a handful of people on various social media sites posting things that looked a little like this:

Q: Are you from the United States of America?
A: No, I’m from Massachusetts.

Thinking back to the disaster that was the presidential election in 2016, I was thinking things like that all the time. I remember commenting that watching my country elect a fascist president instantly turned me into a states rights kinda guy who put my state, Massachusetts WAY ahead of my country.

The way it felt in 2016 though… it was nothing compared to the way it feels now. I am not going to say that I am now a secessionist, but if New England, New York, and New Jersey wanted to make a go of it on their own, I’d be down with giving it a shot. You wouldn’t have to twist my arm very hard to get me on board. I would have to check out a map of election returns to see if we could maybe add Deleware and Maryland to the team. I know Virginia went for Harris, but that feels a little like a false flag to me, though that state has been voting Democrat more and more in recent years. I worry about including any state that can be described as Southern.

Maybe this little Northeastern Alliance could work something out with the West coast, assuming the good folks in California, Oregon, and Washington State would want to join us in our brave new world.

Again, I don’t feel as though I am a secessionist. After the bullshit demonstrated in the election last week though, I also no longer feel like an American. Any allegiance I feel at this point is to Massachusetts, not to the United States. If the rest of the country wants to embrace fascism let them. Leave me and my home state out of it.

No Northern Lights for Us

The Northern Lights have been visible in my little piece of Massachusetts tonight! Did we see it?

No. Don’t be silly.

We did hop in the car and drive a couple of towns to the North and parked ourselves at a park with a big open field and very little ambient light. We waited, facing North, until it got too cold and then we got back in the car and just looked North. Then after half an hour or so we just drove home.

We tried, but we didn’t see anything. No Northern Lights for us.

Oh well.