I was bored

Yup I was bored. I looked at my Chinatown pictures and for the most part I was pleased with them. One thing that I noticed was how clean the sidewalks were. At least when compared to how I remember the sidewalks were when I was a kid. Now by clean I mean no litter on the sidewalks or in the gutters, not clean like you could lick it with your tongue. When I was young Boston looked old and rundown. There was a litter problem. Beginning in the 1960's the city began a rebirth that continues to this very day. I don't know how or where they find the space to put another high-rise up. There are more or less twelve projects going on at the moment. Most have  buildings with office space, retail outlets, apartments and condos are 500 to 700 feet tall. Who's going to live here? What would it cost to live in a 500 foot tower? 

Still I suppose all of this development is a good sign. It's a busy place. You've got these tall modern glass towers next to a building that could have been built in the 18th century.   
 
 Here are two pictures I didn't post before. Why? I don't know.

 

 

 

As I said I was bored so I made a slideshow with the pictures. Now apart from that all I have to report was some nasty weather after a beautiful start to the day on Tuesday. By four in the afternoon there was thunder and lightning, wind and hailstones in some places. It was over by nine o'clock.

Here's the slideshow.   



I'm outta here.

Chinatown

The first thing I noticed about Chinatown is that it looked pretty much like the North End, the Italian part of Boston. Chinatown was the location of the Boston garment district. It existed from the late 19th century until about 1990. Much of the area was landfill of former tidal flats. Many of the buildings are former factories, apartments and various businesses. Now they are all pretty much apartments, hotels, new apartment and office buildings. A mish mash of old and new.

The streets are small and windy. There are alleys and a lot of people. It's very densely populated with 28,000 people per square mile.

I wouldn't call it picturesque but like the North End, there are plenty of restaurants, Chinese, Vietnamese and so on.

Below is a picture of where we had lunch. I imagine that most of these restaurants were much more authentic in their offerings on the menu than you would find in the Americanized Chinese restaurants, but then again what do I know? I like chicken drummers and spare ribs.
My friend got a sandwich/rollup deal with pork, veggies, some kind of sauce, wrapped in a pancake. I imagine it was different than what I first thought of when I read "pancake".
I on the other hand was not very hungry. I was not going to order something that I couldn't finish. Instead I went with what you would call, a  safe bet. A breakfast sandwich which essentially was a fried egg, ham, some kind of cheese and sauce on what appeared to be toasted American bread. I know, what a weeny choice. They even cut the alleged "crust" off the bread. On the other hand it tasted fine, wasn't very big and it only cost $4.00. 

Another thing I found unusual was the plastering of the menu's everywhere. Even in the restrooms. While you were "resting" you could check out all the restaurant had to offer. That was a first for me.    



It wasn't easy to take pictures because there were so many people. There were always people coming up behind you and the sidewalks were not wide. It wasn't easy to frame the shot. There were also many little gift shops. One we went into was down a small set of stairs that led to this subterranean bauble shop. There's apparently enough customer traffic with locals and tourist's to keep these tiny stores in business. 

  
There were things I didn't expect to see.



"Aww Ma! Not deer penis soup again!"

We left here at 10am and were parked at the train station in about 15 minutes. We didn't have to wait long for the train. It was an overcast, foggy morning but the trip in was uneventful and pretty quick. 

I played with some of the pictures. The buildings in the background are dim in the fog I tried to add a bit of contrast and darken the area a bit.

 

 





  

Oh no they're everywhere! Dunkin' Donuts in Chinese!

 

 

 

 

Below is an archway given to the City of Boston from the Chinese city of Taipei (sister cities).

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 A brief video

So that was May 10, 2018. Boston is a collections of windy, small streets. As the legend goes the streets were originally cow paths. I guess that's what happens when you let cattle design your city streets. There's much construction going on. It has changed so much since the 1950's-60's. And this continues to this very day. Every tall, modern looking building was not there when I was a kid.  Still it is a wonderful, compact city chock full of so much. I don't know if I could live downtown but I sure like having it a stones throw away.

 

I'm outta here.   

 

I think I'm going to write...something...?

Ya know one thing I miss from the old days at Spaces, besides all the people, is the ability to have some music playing in the background on your blog. Oh course this could also turn out to be an annoying feature, it certainly could be for me if I didn't like what I was hearing. But you could always turn the sound down. The only reason I bring this up is that as I write this I am listening to a piece of music by a keyboardist, Chick Corea. It is a Latin/jazz flavored song entitled Spain and it really cooks. It was recorded back in 1971. Then again even if you could play music and even if you liked it, it could be annoying.

Ok, the above paragraph of basically gibberish was written to grease the skids and get my brain to come up with something to write about. So far...nothing. Arlene and I will not be going to Martha's Vineyard this Spring. I don't think Arlene is up to doing a lot of walking around yet. She is still recovering from her surgery coupled with a severe bout with the flu. She is doing well but these things get more difficult to recover from as you age.  It is possible that we will go sometime in the Fall but that depends on a number of factors. All things considered going to the Vineyard is a relatively inexpensive vacation and we. are lucky to have this little gem of a place relatively close by. It has become a part of our lives and if I could only afford to live there I would be there.

So keeping that in mind I decided to check out apartments for rent  on the island though I know the pickin's will be slim if any at all and it's just a fantasy. And there were next to no apartments for rent. and to further travel further into fantasy land I looked at the prices of homes. (Pardon me while I go into hysterical fits of laughter.) Now real estate is not cheap around here. To buy a house in this city it will cost around $600,000 to $1,500,000. On the Vineyard (that's what we islanders call it) I saw homes, small, $800,000 to $20,000,000. Of course all the super expensive properties were these beautiful seaside estates. Some of the rentals of these homes will cost $40-50,000 a month! So if you,re living there you got the cash! Imagine having a large seaside estate just to rent out!

Ok I have returned to Earth. At this point in time my friend Dave and I are planning a trip into Boston to Chinatown. I have never been there. This all started when we watched a program on the settling of Boston on PBS. Various ethnic groups settled the various neighborhoods and I mentioned that I had never been to Chinatown. Dave knows the area better than I do. I'd go with Arlene but she's not real thrilled taking public transportation any more. Driving in is a mixed bag. If you avoid the initial traffic rush in the morning, getting there is not too bad but then you have to park. Ugh! On street parking would be a miracle and all you're left with is parking garages. $$$! So we'll take the train in.

There is one day trip that I would like to take with Arlene, and having lived here my whole life I am ashamed to admit this, I have never been to Lexington and Concord. They are not that far away. Lexington, about 10 miles, Concord about 13miles. Now if I can only talk Arlene into driving.

Speaking of Lexington and Concord, Paul Revere didn't ride alone that night. There were two others. William Dawes and a Dr. something. I could look it up but I just want to put this blog and myself to bed. Revere gets the poem and the other two are largely forgotten. Revere did keep a detailed account of the Revolution that the historians have used. Revere was also more involved in the business and politics of Boston. He was also involved in "Tea Party". Then along came Longfellow and the poem.

Ok. Dats it!
I'm outta here.