Wednesday, March 19, 2014

What to write

When I get the time I do feel the urge to write a blog. Sometimes I will get an idea about something to write on my way home from work but I will either forget it or it's too late and I have to go to bed and by then I've forgotten it anyway.

Other times, like this, I sit down and just start with something and see what happens. I begin this on Monday evening and I  may finish it tonight, or maybe not.

I had my yearly check up today. I'm happy to say everything looks good. I met my new doctor today and I was leaving I was told that he was leaving and I would have yet another doctor. Well I'm not going to worry about it as long as I don't have to see him or her too often.

OK now it's Tuesday evening about7 p.m. I just finished my supper of chicken, ziti and broccoli. Ya know it hit 32 degrees today and after all the cold weather (it was 14 degrees when I left for work this morning) we have had, it felt down right balmy. The car was warm when I went to leave work. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and my sun roof was open, at least until I got to the highway. I was on the notorious, at least around here, Rt. 9. A roadway built for another time.

Well looky there. It's Wednesday. This is not a blog it's a diary. Weather wise it was a nice day. Aw who cares.
For my friend Beth. Parking is very tough in Boston unless you're willing to pay pirate (Arghh!) prices in a garage. The North end is the original Boston, which was a blob of land connected to the mainland by an isthmus. It was almost totally surrounded by water. The area they call the Back Bay is all land fill. The Charles river was much wider back then as it flowed into the ocean. As for the streets in the North End being narrow, some of those streets date back to the 1600's. And no I would not take my car there. It's easily accessible by public transportation. As it is heavily Italian you can have a fabulous lunch in one of a myriad of wonderful restaurants, walk down and see Paul Revere's house, walk to the old North Church then walk to Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market and still beat the crush of people leaving work in the 4 to 6 p.m. rush hour at the train station. When I was a kid my uncle Joe had a store there and on a few occasions my mother, sister and I would go. It was your typical Italian store of the time. Provolone cheese and salami's hanging over the counter. The cookies and pastries. The cold cuts and Italian bread (a particular weakness of mine), sausages, fresh meats, imported pasta's, olives and olive oil and so on. Nice memories. I also want to thank my dad for taking us to Italy twice. Actually there's a blog or two there! The first time I was four and a half. We stayed for 3 months and I was sick with Scarlet fever for a stretch. Those are my most vivid memories of that particular trip though I do have a few others. We went back in 1965. That wasn't that long ago right, at least if you're talking in glacial terms. I have many memories of that trip including going to Rome, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican. Thank You Dad. I have memories of flying up from Sicily to Rome and looking down over the Mediterranean and you could see the coast of Sicily and Italy right down to the bottom of the sea. I remember swimming in the warm Mediterranean. I don't know how he could afford it being a barber, but then again he was quite good. And no mafia jokes please, we were hardly wealthy.

OK. I could go on all night but I have a 4 a.m. alarm waiting for me. As usual I am wide awake when I should be getting ready for bed. Below is a video. I may have shown a version of it before. It's nothing special. No cinematic triumph, but keeping with the Boston theme. A couple of years ago, my friend Dave and I had nothing to do so we decided to go into town to the Prudential Building and check out the "Skywalk", a place to view Boston and the surrounding area from about 500' up. When it was built it was the 3rd tallest building in the U.S. now it's just another tall building. It's not even the tallest in town. Anyway it wasn't a very sunny day but it was something to do. Now Dave was already retired at the time (2011) . He has plenty of time on his hands. He watches a lot of T.V. You can hear him talking about some show as I'm taking video through the window. You can here all kinds of background noise such as things from television monitors, people talking, kids, and Dave going on about some television show and finishing up the video, Dave, in his Boston tinged accent, says to me, "Why  don't you get yourself  a "smaht" phone ..." and that's it. I need to get a real video camera. Hopefully in time for my vacation June 1st."      
         
    


 That's it kiddies.
I'm outta here.

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful video Paul I loved the voices and you showed the the Big Dig (Zakim) Bridge that I am so fascinated with. Be sure and include Arlene on your next video,. She is very photogenic!!
    Thanks for explaining about the parking. Parking is like that on the University of Illinois campus which I lived close to before I moved here. Take care!!

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  2. OMG, I have the same problem--whenever I want to write something for my blog, I pretty much always forget it. Have you tried keeping a notebook with a pencil and writing that down whenever something comes to mind? Just a thought. That way you can go home and write about for your blog. Well, whatever it is that you do decide to write about, I always enjoy reading it. :-)



    Ps: going to Italy sounds like a lot of fun, and what good memory you have! Maybe one day I should go....



    Happy first day of Spring!

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  3. Hi Boston Boy...Was that you and Dave at the end of the little video. ?? LOL Cute. I love how much there is to see there. Wow, going to Italy , seeing all that history, amazing. They way you wrote this post is how I write to my sister. I may take two days to finish a letter. :):) Hope your weekend is wonderful and not nasty weather. Blessings, xoxo,Susie

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  4. Sometimes I have nothing worthwhile to say but say it anyway. I know what you mean. I like your movie. It was very interesting.

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  5. Thank you for posting A video Paul I guess the two voices where you and Dave. So much to see ,
    Interesting post , Happy Spring
    Regards to you and Arlene

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