Yeah you all know where Arlene and I are going on Sunday morning. Today (Thursday) we went out to pick up a few necessities for our stay on the island. My vacation officially starts today because I won't have to work until Oct. 7. I have gathered up most of my clothes though I won't pack until the last moment. You know I'm still adjusting to all this extra free time I have. For the most part I really like getting up when I feel like though that just means I'll stay in bed till about 7 at the latest but that's certainly better than 4:30 or 5:30 a.m. The weather looks to be pretty good next week. I suppose the best thing about going there is to get away from the city. I was driving home from work the other day and though I have several routes I could take home none of them were any quicker especially at 3:30 in the afternoon. I decided on the most direct route which is out the parking lot straight into Harvard Square in Cambridge, then I cut across the next city into my own. Harvard Square is always a crowded place, it's extra crowded with all the students back in the area. Now I like Harvard Square. I spent a lot of time there when I was in my 20's. I continued to go there for many more years because of all the offbeat shops and diversity of food. There were many record shops and so on.
Now I don't seem to have the patients I once had to deal with the crowds, the clustered up traffic and the traffic light that signals you can take a left and at the same time signals for the pedestrians to cross as you begin your turn. The roads are just plain screwy around here. There are many things around here to be proud of. This state and Boston have contributed much to world. I was shocked to learn that Boston has a very large economy and ranks among the worlds largest. Who knew? But we're all squished into a small area. The city of Cambridge alone has 100,000 people and the area population swells in the Fall with 250,000 students. There's the traffic. The drivers around here have earned the nickname "massholes" and I can understand it , especially if you're from out of town. Driving is like a struggle for existence. I have been working full time for the last 45 years. 43 of them with the same company and though I am now semi retired I guess I still hit a wall every once in a while. So Arlene and I are heading back to our little utopia this time for a whole week. This is the latest in the year we have gone. It should be very quiet. I like quiet.
On to another subject. I work with a young guy who's father I knew well as we had worked together for 11 years in the past. Well his father took him and his family to Italy this passed June. He had pictures and he sent me five. Three of the Coliseum, one of The Pieta in St. Peters and one I'm not sure of.
Well that about wraps things up here on the Wild Willy West Show. I'm outta here.
Sunday was a very nice day though it clouded up as the day wore on. Here locally we had a "Community Day". It was held at one of the schools. It was in walking distance so Arlene and I walked over. It was something to do on a Sunday afternoon. It was more or less akin to a traveling fair. They had all the usual tasty but really bad things for you. Ice cream, slush, burgers, hot dogs, fried dough and so on. There was also Haitian, Korean, Indian and Mexican food. It was really a place to take the kids on a waning, but still summer day.
There were pony and a horse drawn carriage rides along with a pretty lame dunk tank.
We had a small, unusual collection of cars. First was the burger car from some burger joint. Then there was , I thought, the very stupid "fish car". Something to do with there being more cars in the river than fish. From LL Bean we had the "Bootmobile". The saving grace was a copy of the Batmobile from the 60's television series. That was pretty cool to see.
More stuff for the kids.
Then there were the superheroes. Here's Captain America showing a kid where to stand by scaring the crap out of him. He had already humiliated Robin. (just a little joke)
And of course wherever you find the Batmobile, you'll find...
So that was Sunday. Monday I went to a new dental office and found a place that fully explained things to me and at a much more reasonable price. I will eventually will have oral surgery. This whole procedure will begin on the Monday after we return from Martha's Vineyard. We can't wait, for the vacation, not the surgery.
On another front my computer has been acting up every now and then. It will run well for a while then suddenly it will shut down. It's a pain but it has not dampened my excitement over next week. Hopefully the weather will hold out. It should be rather quiet down there this time of year. OK, enough.
A warning-This post could be long. Okay, I had tickets for a concert on Monday night. I've had them for about two months. The group, who I'm sure nobody remembers is called King Crimson. I first saw them in November 1969. I saw them one other time in 1974. So my friend comes over and we leave and proceed to go to the train station, about a mile from here. I haven't been there in about 3 years. One parking lot was full but a lot on the left was practically empty. The lights were out in the little booth where you would pay. It was only 6 in the evening. We parked and went into the station, bought our tickets and waited. The train arrived shortly and as we made our way onboard. I noticed we passed a "gentleman" who appeared to be quite drunk. He followed us into the car. He sat in the corner. I sat by a set of doors, opposite the doors we entered. Earl sat next to me. Across from us sat a young couple. I assume they were Muslim because the woman had her hair covered, but truthfully I really had no idea who or what they were. They were just sitting there minding their own business.
Without going into everything that was said. I'll just say, the drunk started taunting the young couple. Saying awful things, cursing. Accusing them of being terrorists.The train arrived at it's next stop. The doors opened and in walk a rather burly guy holding what appeared a bag of laundry. Now I'm not sure he thought the drunk was talking to him as he entered or someone else. A few seconds passed and the big guy told the drunk to shut up. The drunk continued. The big guy got more agitated. The language back and forth was quite colorful. The big guy then said something like, "If you don't shut your mouth, I'll come over there and shut it for you!"
The drunk paid no attention and just kept babbling. The big guy drops his bag walks passed us and gives the drunk 3 shots to the mouth. He walks back, picks up his bag telling the drunk to shut the blank up. The drunk mumbles, "He hit me...he hit me..."
The train approaches it's next stop and begins to slow down. The drunk is still groaning, babbling, cursing. The train stops, the big guy gets off and drunk hasn't shut up yet. The big guy is on the platform and yells, "Come out here and say that!" The drunk obliges and let me add this guy had a slight build. He was a bit taller than me but he had no business facing up to this substantially larger man who was mad and sober. Out he staggers cursing all the way. They briefly yell at each other, the big guy cups his left hand behind the drunk's head and delivers three more jackhammer shots to the jaw. The drunk falls like a tree. The big guy leaves the drunk gets up holding his head. "He hit me....I'm bleeding...." etc... The drunk gets escorted away. The subway door is still open and apparently so was the mike in the office where they took this drunk. He was still going on about being hit and the young couple and still cursing up a storm and we could hear it all over the speaker in the car.
I'll speed up the story. We arrived downtown in the theater district, see the show and take the train back. We walk out of the train station towards the parking lot. Earl, as many people these days, had his phone out walking and staring at the little screen. As we got closer to the lot I say, "Where's my car? I don't see my car." "Isn't that it?" "No. It's not here." I'll shorten the story again. After calling the parking lot number and waiting we find out the name of the towing company. At this point we also discovered that you were supposed to go to the little, unlit booth to get a ticket to display on the dashboard. That's why I was towed. The guy I talked to at the tow yard sounded really smarmy. "Yeah.. we got it. It's $130...cash." It turns out that the tow yard was about a mile and a half from my house.
I left a few details out of the evenings events but I did like the show very much.
The day before, Sunday I spent a pleasant afternoon and evening with Arlene. Once again, armed with a bottle of wine we sat on her 3rd floor porch and watched what we could of the sunset. There are trees and houses in the way of the horizon and yet the sky turned out to be quite colorful.
