Fashion Tragedy

In the name of crimes against fashion, what is up with this? I knew Members Only was attempting a comeback, but I if this is the best they can do, they should just give up.

If it has short sleeves, I don't think it can properly be called a jacket. And the guy looks like a refugee from a Stray Cats video or something.

Kid Wisdom

As I mentioned yesterday, on Sunday I went to my godson's fourth birthday party. I got a ride from my college roommate and his wife, and since it was a kids' party, they brought their seven-year-old daughter, who is charming, cute, and frighteningly smart.

As her father was delicately backing their SUV into a snug parallel parking space, she offered from the back seat: "You should have taken the Audi, it's smaller."

There and Back

After her first extended stay in California, the Mrs. had to return there to provide some additional assistance to her ill father. This time around she's been gone almost two weeks, which means she missed both our godson's fourth birthday party and Thanksgiving.

Normally we take the dog with us when we visit my family in Rhode Island. She (the dog) enjoys the freedom of being able to run around in my mother's large, enclosed back yard, and she gets along pretty well with her oddball beagle, who tends to behave more sociably when his doggie cousin is there. Missing a holiday dinner isn't such a terrible thing, but without the Mrs. to drive, it left me in a tricky position. Being unable to drive myself, I had to either find someone to take care of the dog for 36 hours or so (not easy when most people are away visiting their own families), get someone to drive me and the dog to RI, or not go at all.

I thought one of my siblings would step up and offer to come get us, but they, like me, are native Rhode Islanders. There is a strange phobia about driving long distances common to those indigenous to the state, and yes, such a person would consider 50 miles each way a long distance. I cannot explain the reasons for this phenomenon, but it definitely exists. It's documented in a book I have at home (and thus don't have access to at this moment) called The Rhode Island Handbook, a humorous collection of local quirks written by Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin.

At any rate, I wasn't going to get any help from them. I even played the dog card: "With her mom gone, I think it would be really good for her to be around people besides me who will give her some attention and love, and for her to have the chance to run around free in the yard." Nothing. Some half-hearted excuses were made about the cost of gas, which I offered to cover, but for whatever reason it didn't compute. I considered telling them I wasn't coming because I was annoyed at their unwillingness to help me out, but I decided that since holidays are supposed to be enjoyable occasions, creating more stress and angst wouldn't be productive.

I explained all this to the Mrs., who got in touch with a friend and colleague, who had in the past expressed a willingness to dogsit and who, it turned out, was not going out of town for the holiday. When the Mrs. offered Jenna the use of her car, sitting idle in our driveway, as an added reward for helping out, Jenna said as long as she could use the car (her own is old and not highway-worthy), she would be willing to drive me and the dog to my family's house, and come back and pick us up the next day.

So Jenna came to our rescue, for which I'm very grateful, and the dog and I had a very nice Thanksgiving. She even got a little turkey mixed in with her food. The Mrs. will be coming home in a few more days, and hopefully everything will be back to normal for Christmas.

Black Friday Blackout: The Sequel

How about another holiday gripe? Last night while watching TV, I saw a commercial for the Black Friday sale at Kohl's. I thought I heard it say their stores were opening at 4 AM, but that couldn't possibly be right. Yes, there it was on the screen. 4 AM store opening on Friday.

Sorry to break the PG barrier, but WHAT THE FUCK? This is utter insanity.

Then I saw a commercial for Big Lots saying their stores would be open on Thanksgiving. I almost threw my glass at the TV, but that only would have resulted in damage to the set. A check of the Big Lots web site revealed a sliver of sanity: stores in Maine, Rhode Island, and here in Massachusetts will not be open on Thanksgiving. We can probably thank the blue laws for this--how's that for irony? I still can't buy beer at my local Stop & Shop, but we can manage to stave off the onslaught of Black Friday madness, at least for one more year.

I wrote about this last year (and the link allows me to reiterate it for those of you who may have missed it at the time, but be warned: it contains some tongue-in-cheekage that was misinterpreted by at least one person), but it seems that much worse this year. It's been a rough year for a lot of people financially--and by "people" I do not mean "corporations"--but these maneuvers have an aura of desperation to them, don't you think? There's been a lot of coverage in the business pages about how retailers are expecting this to be a dismal season for sales due to high gas prices, the mortgage crisis, etc. These early openings and holiday openings are just one more gambit by the retailers to eke out a few extra dollars in sales.

Let's face it, this isn't going away. Retailing has simply become too powerful an engine of the economy in this country. I think we should just give in to the inevitable: before long, every store is going to be open 24 hours a day, starting on Thanksgiving morning and continuing right through Christmas Eve. Oh wait, we already have that--it's called the INTERNET, and it means there's no need for you to be at Kohl's in the middle of the night unless you really want to be, in which case you're too far gone for me to do anything to help you.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Holiday Cred

This story has been around since the beginning of the week, but as usual, I'm just catching onto it now (blame the Mrs.: she went back to California for two weeks and left me to take care of the dog by myself): Jim Sullivan over at Suldog has started a campaign called Thanksgiving Comes First to try to get people to pay a little more attention to the holiday, but more importantly, to try to nudge retailers into dialing back the Xmas frenzy until the turkey celebration is over.

Jim shares some memories of the season from when he was growing up; he's a few years older than me, but my own memories more or less align with his. Beyond mere nostalgia, the Christmas season was more special 40 or so years ago precisely because it wasn't so prolonged. Each holiday received the attention it deserved, and there were actually times during the year when stores weren't pushing any sort of holiday merchandise. Not so today: walk into any CVS the day after a holiday like Easter or Halloween, and they're already in the process of putting out the crap associated with whichever holiday comes next on the calendar, even if it isn't for another two months.

This is a noble effort, and I applaud it. I can't go as far as he does and say I'm never going to shop at Target again because, well, that's just crazy talk. Honestly, I depend on them for far too much of the stuff I need for my daily existence to stop shopping there. Macy's, yeah, I could pretty much get by without them at this point, and they suck now anyway.

What I like about Thanksgiving: the food, obviously. Spending time with my family (yes, I mean it). The fact that they are only 50 miles away so I don't have to deal with the insanity of air travel during the holiday period. The pies from Community Servings that help feed sick people in the Boston area who can't care for themselves. And we have some of our own traditions: we start the meal with Italian wedding soup, mostly because my mom likes it. She always makes sweet potatoes, even though she's the only person who likes them. And we always have a group rest period between dinner and dessert, when we go watch football in the family room (this year we'll get to watch the Cowboys beat up on the Jets) and doze off for a while.

A couple of days ago, while walking the dog, I came across a house in the neighborhood with one of those large, inflatable lawn decorations. (It is Medford, after all.) Plenty of houses around here had pumpkins and such for Halloween, and plenty of people put up Santas and what-not for Christmas. But this house had a turkey. At first I laughed, but then I thought, here's someone who is giving the holiday its due, which seems to be in keeping with the spirit of the message Jim is trying to spread. So take a moment to enjoy Thanksgiving for what it is. Don't rush Christmas, because it's already here and gone too quickly.

ADDENDUM: At least one retailer agrees with this assessment. I just found this on The Consumerist blog: "Nordstrom Opposes Christmas Creep." Nordstrom is waiting until Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to deploy Christmas decorations in their stores. I don't know if I'd call it a Christmas miracle, but it's a refreshing whiff of sanity in the holiday maelstrom.

Drip, Drip, Drip

It was raining this morning, but I had to wait for the bus for only a couple of minutes. When I got on I sat in one of the side-facing seats in the back (where I usually sit because it's easier to get out when the bus gets to Wellington) and started reading the paper.

Shortly after I'd sat down, I noticed my knee was damp. I thought, that's weird, I was standing under a tree with my umbrella, so why is my knee wet? Then I saw the drop of water fall on my knee. Then a couple more drops fell. Apparently the bus roof was leaking, and the water was collecting inside the plastic cover for the ceiling lights, and falling from there onto me and some of the other passengers. I know I shouldn't have been surprised by this, but it was early and I was caught off guard.

Riding the T is so much fun, because you just never know what sort of shit is gonna happen next. Maybe that should be their slogan?

Block the Noise

A few months ago I decided to invest in a pair of noise-canceling headphones to use on the T. It turned out to be a very good purchase, but I didn't get it right on the first try.

I had been thinking about the purchase in a non-specific way, meaning I hadn't done research on specific models. Then one day I found myself in the Sony store in Copley Place, and they had a pair for $50. This was the arbitrary price ceiling I had assigned to the item in my mind, so I went ahead and bought them, but I made sure to ask about the stores' return policy. "30 days" was the response. "Even if I'm just not satisfied with their performance?" I clarified. "30 days, any reason." Sold.

They required batteries for the noise-canceling circuitry, but if I remember correctly, they were included. Maybe I found some in the supply room at work; either way, I was able to try them out on my way home that day, which is what I wanted. I was instantly impressed with how well they worked. They really blocked a significant portion of the train's rumble, and not only could I hear the music more clearly, but I didn't have to have it as loud as I usually did.

But... after about 20 minutes, they started to hurt my head. I've been wearing earbud-style headphones since long before there were iPods, because I find them more comfortable, and because they are easier to use in the winter, when I'm typically wearing a hat. These things were big, honkin' over-the-head style headphone "cans" that fit my skull very tightly. I tried adjusting them and wearing them in slightly different positions, but nothing made a difference. I knew they had to go back, which meant I had to find something to replace them, because they worked too well for me to go back to using ordinary headphones on the T. The Sony store had earbud-style noise-canceling phones, but they were twice as much.

I hit the web, started looking for other noise-canceling earbuds. Through PriceGrabber I found a pair by Panasonic, with an $80 retail but available for $35, so I ordered them. I felt their noise-canceling circuitry wasn't quite as good as the Sonys, but that may also have been due to the added sound isolation gained from the over-the-ear design. For the money, they worked well enough.

As an added bonus, I took them with me on the trip to California. I think these headphones were originally developed to block airplane engine noise. They aren't going to block the sound of a screaming infant, but on the plane they made a marked difference, reducing much of the engine roar. I'd highly recommend them to anyone who flies frequently.

West Coast Observations

It's stating the obvious to say that California is quite different from Massachusetts. But it's driven home when you experience it firsthand.

For one thing, I noticed a distinct lack of litter on the streets of Santa Cruz. I don't know if this is because the city is especially vigilant about picking it up, or the citizens don't litter in the first place, or both, but a look around any street in any part of this area is enough to leave me embarrassed. Littering is something I have always had difficulty comprehending. Boston and its surrounding cities deserve a share of the blame (I often see trash cans full to overflowing because they don't get emptied frequently enough, then a wind comes along and strews the trash all over), but people are just as much at fault.

Over the course of several days of driving around, I also noticed that no one honked their horn at us. Not once. No one was in danger of having an aneurysm because we didn't accelerate away from a stoplight or make a left turn quickly enough. And it's not because they are slow drivers; they drive just as fast on the highways as we do here. They're just a lot more relaxed about the journey. Around here people treat driving as if getting to any destination, no matter how trivial, is a matter of life and death.

But the most amusing contrast came, of all places, at my nephew's birthday party. As I listened to the parents of the other guests talk to and about their children, I noticed that almost all of them were named things that I'd never heard used as names before. Here are some examples (I made sure to write these down during the party because I didn't want to forget any of them):

• Sienna
• Justice
• Trinity
• Zephyr
• Denali
• Rider
  

Clearly there's a lot of fruit-flavored crack being passed around up in those hills. I was relieved to hear that one girl's name was Brianna; that one's practically a townie classic. (Maybe her parents relocated from Saugus?)

But here's the thing about these names: half of them are current or former names of cars or trucks. If you're going to make the extra effort to saddle your kid with a weird name, shouldn't it signify something other than a vehicle? Unless, like the kid named Dodge on My Name Is Earl, it's in honor of where s/he was conceived.

Travel and Travail

Hi folks, I'm back from my west coast jaunt. Actually I've been back for several days, but I had a pretty rotten sinus headache for the first 36 hours or so, and then I just kind of vegged out for the weekend, hibernating from Saturday's storm, sitting in front of the TV catching up on what my TiVo had recorded while I was away, watching the Patriots come from behind and finish the job against the Colts, and so on.

Overall it was a good trip, with excellent weather and some interesting activities and diversions. The travel itself was, to our enormous relief, largely painless. Nonstop transcontinental flights are a great thing; I have always found air travel to be especially tedious, which is a little silly considering we crossed the breadth of the continent going west in a bit over six hours, and returned in exactly five (awesome night view of Chicago from over Lake Michigan), but not having to switch flights somewhere in the middle (or worse, very close to one end or the other) makes things a good bit more tolerable.

JetBlue's planes have more legroom than any other commercial aircraft I've ever been on, and being six feet tall and long of leg, this makes it possible to actually be comfortable, and even to stretch my legs without standing up. They dish out lots of cool snacks, and they get bonus points for serving Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

We got to see most of game 3 of the World Series, thanks to the onboard satellite TV. It was a bit strange and surreal to be sitting in the quiet plane, with most people tuned to the game and everyone using headphones, but with the occasional bursts of applause at Dice-K's strikeouts and Sox hits. After we landed and got our bags, we listened to the rest of it in the car. Sunday evening found us watching game 4 in a bar in downtown Santa Cruz called 99 Bottles, which provided the obvious libations, the required large television, and some pretty good pub food as well. We were sitting upstairs, and we could hear some fellow Sox fans applauding from the downstairs bar area, which was sort of like the week before, when they were beating Cleveland and we could hear cheering coming from one of our neighbors' houses.

The only glitch in the proceedings was the health of the Mrs.' father, who hasn't been doing so great lately. He lives east of Los Angeles and made the seven-hour drive up to see the rest of the family, but he was lethargic and weak most of the time, and it quickly became clear that (a) he shouldn't have come, and (b) he was incapable of driving himself home. Plan A was for me to come back home to relieve our dog caretaker while the Mrs. drove her dad back to his home, then flew back from there. But by the day of my scheduled return he'd gotten worse, and it was necessary for him to go to a hospital. So the Mrs. postponed her return flight, stayed on while her dad was stabilized in the hospital, drove him home over the weekend, got him admitted to another hospital there, and finally flew back to San Jose and caught her return flight home early this morning. The dog and I are very happy she's back.

Departures

So, tomorrow we leave for our trip to California (thankfully, not the part that's on fire), and today is the Mrs.' last day at her job. She's quitting because she's burned out, which is completely understandable after six and a half years in her field, human services.

It takes a certain sort of person to do this work, and the Mrs. is definitely that sort of person, but unfortunately the work has a tendency to chew people up, so she's pulling the plug before she loses the ability to care at all. We often joke about each other's jobs, how I couldn't stand doing hers because I don't like dealing with people, and how she would die of boredom if she had to do mine because she can't stand sitting at a desk and staring at a computer all day.

Last night she made up gift bags to give to her immediate group of coworkers. Along with a couple of other trinkets, each one contained a little bottle of vodka and two equally small bottles of mixers. It's kind of a joke, but not really, since she's said that drinking seems to be everyone's favorite pastime in her office. I certainly don't condone drinking to excess, but I understand it: my father was a police officer for twenty years, it's how he coped with the stresses of the job, and there are a lot of similarities between human services and law enforcement. Maybe it's a good thing she's leaving, after all.

She doesn't know what's next, and at the moment it doesn't really matter, hence the vacation. We'll spend some time with her family, and she can try to clear her head, maybe give some thought to what she might want to do.

My biggest dilemma regarding the trip? We're going to be staying in a home with no TV reception and no cable, so I'm probably going to miss the rest of the World Series and Sunday's Patriots game. Also, I'm pretty sure her sister still has only dial-up internet access, so I'm going to experience some web withdrawal as well. I don't even recall any bars in her little town. I guess I'm going to be forced to relax too. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to tell when we get back...

Assault with A Tasty Waffle?

I know this happened a few days ago, but I do have a job and a few other responsibilities, so I'm just getting around to it: over the weekend, Kid Rock was arrested for beating up a guy in Atlanta.

Now, let me state up front that I really don't care about Kid Rock one way or the other. To me, he's a human cartoon, and I'm certainly not interested in his music. (I try to stay away from celebrity trash culture as much as possible, though I do watch The Soup on the E! network, and that half-hour per week is just about enough).

The main reason the story caught my attention in the first place is because the assault happened at a Waffle House. First, the idea of a B-list celebrity and his entourage throwing down with a guy at a branch of the Southern roadside institution is about as perfect a scenario as it gets; seriously, you'd be hard-pressed to come up with something better. Second, I've been to a couple of Waffle Houses, and they're pretty awesome. Decidedly low-rent, but that's part of what makes them awesome.

I know people, like my father-in-law, who turn up their nose at the place, but they've been around for over 50 years, so they must be making some people happy. If you're driving in the South, it's pretty much a mandatory stop, something you really should experience for yourself at least once. I recommend the waffles.

ADDENDUM: While I was writing this piece, I was having trouble coming up with a good, catchy title, so I asked the Mrs. if she had any ideas. Unfortunately she didn't, and I didn't either--I was not happy with this one, but it had to have something. Days later, I was describing the story about the assault to one of our friends, and the Mrs. suddenly blurted out "Waffles and Whup-Ass!" I looked at her and said, "Where was that when I needed it?"

I Saw Stars

Not the ones in the sky, and not the kind you sometimes see when you whack your head on something. These Stars are a band from Montreal, and Friday night's concert at the Berklee Performance Center turned out to be one of the most enjoyable shows I've seen in many years.

I first heard of them in a New York Times review of their third album, Set Yourself on Fire, which came out in late 2004 in Canada and early '05 in the US on the independent Arts & Crafts label. The album resonated deeply with me, because the lyrics of several songs seemed like they were describing events from my own life. Their music is difficult to categorize: sometimes orchestral, sometimes intimate, sometimes aggressive, sometimes tranquil. I wondered how some of it would translate to live performance.

Beautifully, as it turned out. The house was gratifyingly full, and the band jumped right into the songs from their new album, In Our Bedroom After the War, later coming back around and playing much of Set Yourself on Fire. Sometimes, there is a real connection between performers and audience, and if you're lucky, you get to experience that and feel it as it's happening. That's what happened Friday night. Rarely have I seen a band so completely invested in every moment of its performance, and so grateful for the opportunity to share its music with its fans.

The stage was decorated with flowers, and during the course of the show, the band members threw them out into the audience. By the end, the lucky recipients were holding their flowers up as they sang along.

Now, the good part: you can listen to a live Stars performance right here, courtesy of NPR's All Songs Considered online concert series. Unfortunately it isn't of Friday night's show, but the night after, when they performed in Washington, DC. Still, it will give you an idea of what they're like, and what you missed.

Warehouse Wanderings

Last night I found myself at our local Costco, because that's what happens when you're married and it's Tuesday. But I'm not complaining; I like going there. It's usually pretty calm on weeknights, and there are almost always some unusual or interesting items for sale. I spent a few moments gazing longingly at the new high-definition TiVo, but I didn't buy it. Yet. Maybe I'll drop some hints about it for Christmas. And I found a nice pair of black Calvin Klein jeans for $22, something I was kind of looking for anyway.

But practically speaking, the main reason I go to Costco is because I like being able to buy large quantities of certain things. There's usually some savings involved, but often that isn't my primary motivation. I just don't like to run out of stuff, so as long as it can be stored without too much difficulty, I'm there.

On last night's visit I picked up a package of 24 rolls of Breath Savers. (I don't like Altoids because they're noisy and the dust gets everywhere.) Single rolls of these mints can cost as much as a dollar each, depending on where you buy them. Even if you buy a five-pack at CVS or Target, that's typically around $2, and I'll go through that package in a couple of weeks. (I'm slightly obsessed with avoiding bad breath.) This way I can keep some in my desk at work and some at home, and it will be a couple of months before I need to buy them again.

I also got two pounds of whole bean coffee for $10. It's a custom blend roasted for Costco by Starbucks, using Fair Trade beans, so that's a pretty good deal, and it will last about a month.

As I wandered around the store, I became aware that I could hear "Jingle Bell Rock." I felt suddenly queasy and thought, no way, could they possibly be piping in the Christmas music already? A minute or two later I didn't hear anything, then a few minutes later I heard a different holiday song. I believed that what I was hearing wasn't coming from the store's sound system, because I'm fairly certain they don't have one. But they did have Christmas trees and decorations on sale and on display, and that's where the music was coming from. After I'd heard it the first time, I had moved away to a different part of the store where I couldn't hear it, and I hadn't yet noticed the trees.

Even so, it gave me a scare to realize how close we are to the holiday-season onslaught and all that goes with it. It's only October 17th, but when I get back from my upcoming vacation, it will be a mere three weeks until Thanksgiving. I plan my shopping ahead as much as possible, and I do as much of it as possible online, in order to avoid the crowded, overheated, soul-crushing experience of being in stores during the holiday season. (A decade-plus of working retail will have that effect, and many others, on you.) When I do have to make a holiday visit to a store, I need time to prepare. I don't like being ambushed by Christmas music without warning.

Revolver

I haven't complained about people's behavior in at least five or ten minutes, so...

What is it about revolving doors that causes most people's brains to instantly calcify? I'll grant that they are annoying, but they aren't really that difficult to operate. Or are they? Because it seems like about 75% of the time when I'm approaching one, someone in front of me, or on the other side of the doorway, has some sort of problem negotiating the door.

I've seen people try to crowd into the same section as their friends. I've seen people walk up to an already-moving door and just stop dead in their tracks, not knowing what to do (and of course, since I'm behind them I also have to come to a sudden stop). I've seen the same thing happen with a door that isn't moving. I've seen someone step into a door that was slowing down and, when it stopped, just stand there instead of pushing--maybe they thought it was motorized or self-propelled in some way?

I guess the revolving door is the pedestrian equivalent of the rotary: even if you know what to do when you come upon one, you can't assume that other people do.

Full-Contact Commuting

As I was getting off the bus this morning to head into work, the guy exiting in front of me nearly got impaled by a kid on a bicycle. Fortunately, the bicyclist was able to skid to a stop before hitting the other guy. And it wasn't a messenger type, as you might expect given their general behavioral tendencies (you don't see many of them in the Longwood area), but a teen on a BMX bike.

The same thing happened to me twenty years ago on Commonwealth Avenue, except I was the person getting off the bus, and the bicyclist did hit me. Somehow I managed to avoid any injuries, I think because the bicyclist wasn't going very fast.

But come on, this is just stupid. You're pedaling along on your bicycle, and you see that bus up ahead of you slow down and pull to a stop, and the doors open. What do you suppose is probably going to happen next?

Screw That Noise

So now we have to suffer music in T stations. Swell.

For the moment, at least, "T-Radio" (why is it hyphenated?) is an experiment and is only being tested in North, South, and Airport Stations. I pass through North Station twice a day, on my way to and from work. In the morning I stay on the Orange Line, unless I'm running really late, but on the way home I switch from Green Line to Orange Line, so I have been subjected to this a couple of times.

Just in case there's any ambiguity, I'm less than thrilled. There's already plenty of noise in the stations, and from my brief exposure, I thought the music was far too loud. If it was played at a low enough volume, it might just blend into the background and be innocuous, but that isn't the plan.

The music is basically the same sort of middle-of-the-road junk you'd hear in the supermarket. Fine, so be it. But what the press release conveniently omits is that there is also going to be advertising. Ah, now the picture becomes a little clearer: the T is looking for additional revenue. I guess I can't blame them, but there must be other ways to do so without making the ridership any more angry than it is already.

I can appreciate the idea of wanting to use the system to promote local cultural and entertainment destinations that are T accessible, but there's already a PA system in place that finally, after years of futility, seems to be audible most of the time, so why not just use the existing system? I'd rather hear those types of announcements than the incessant platitudes of the general manager every two or three minutes, assuring us that "safety is our number one concern." (Shouldn't attempting to keep the trains running on time be the T's number one concern? Just asking.)

Amazingly, the T has provided a convenient way for riders to express their opinions on this experiment: on their web site there is a feedback form, which is also accessible via a link on the main page of the MBTA site. I encourage everyone reading this to use the form to offer your thoughts, whether for or against. If the T hears from enough people, they will know we are paying attention. And if you happen to see the students that the T is hiring to survey riders about the project, it might be good to give them a couple of minutes of your time as well.

One more thing: I have to wonder what this experiment says about the T's priorities. Is piping crappy music into stations really more important than working to reduce the crime rate on the T, or than trying to find ways to improve the system's performance? Or is it possibly meant to distract us from those issues?

Back from a Break

Wow, has it really been a week? Well, I've been sort of busy. I got stuck in some of that T madness last Friday. With the morning chaos on the Orange Line, I ended up leaving Wellington station after standing around for about 30 minutes staring at trains that were too full to get onto and weren't moving anyway; I backtracked on my usual bus route to a point where I could connect with an express bus that took me into Haymarket. Ultimately I was about an hour late for work, not that anyone's keeping tabs on me. Then in the afternoon, there were some Green Line delays as a result of the fire in Park Street, though thankfully I did not experience the Red Line problems firsthand.

We also had representatives of our Midwest-South contingent in town for a few days, which necessitated a drive to Maine for some eating and shopping. The rest of the long weekend was taken up by watching football and baseball, reading, and general hanging around.

Now things are back to the normal routine, though we are gearing up for an actual vacation at the end of the month to the environs of the Mrs.' sister, otherwise known as Santa Cruz, CA. It's quite a beautiful and pleasant place, and I imagine that I will forego blogging for a few days while there, and report on our activities after we've returned. But the trip isn't for another couple of weeks, so in the meantime I will (hopefully) get back to something resembling a normal posting schedule. Stay tuned...

Blog Design 101

I've been keeping this one to myself for a while, but I can't hold it in any longer. To all the cool kids who think white text on a black background is the best-looking and most stylish choice for their blog's template: guess what? No one can read that without going blind, cross-eyed, or both. Your blog might be something I'd actually want to read, but if you choose this color combo, I'm not even going to try.

Year of the Blog

Yes, I have indeed been blogging for a year. Time flies, huh? The actual anniversary of my introductory post was yesterday, but I was sorta busy. There were haircuts, errands, dinner with the Mrs. to celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary. Before I knew it, it was after midnight, and at that point, being tired, I decided I might just as well wait until morning.

In fact, one thing I've noticed over the past year is that there tends to be a lag time between events and my blogging about them. I think it's just my style: I like to digest and filter things, and it's not like what I'm covering hard news or anything. I'd like to think this process makes me a better writer, which was one of my original goals when I started.

I have learned a lot through this experience. I was never much of a journal keeper, so this is the most sustained writing I have ever done. It's been beneficial to me in many ways, and what has been probably the biggest surprise to me is how thoroughly satisfying it is to do this on a regular basis. I'm enjoying it far more than I would have expected.

In looking back, I think I have remained true to my original ideas of what I wanted to accomplish, and at the same time I have added dimensions to the scope of this blog that I would not originally have considered, to its benefit and mine. I hope that next year at this time, this will be even more true. Thanks for coming along on this ride.

Live in Concert

I was able to nab a pair of tickets to see Bruce Springsteen when they went on sale on Monday. I'm excited about the show, largely because I've never seen Bruce live. But I did experience some guilt and hesitation before making the purchase, because the tickets were so expensive.

A hundred bucks is a lot of money for a concert. When I went to see my first rock concert, which was Queen at the Providence Civic Center back in 1977, I think the ticket cost $8.50, which seems like a pretty solid deal in retrospect. I have long had an unofficial ceiling of what I am willing to pay for a concert ticket, somewhere in the vicinity of $50. Normally this amount is only exceeded by the biggest acts at the biggest venues, so it hasn't been much of an issue. I've passed on seeing U2 one or two times in the past decade because I didn't feel like it was worth $75, and I'd seen them two or three times back in the 80s anyway.

So when the Springsteen shows were announced with tickets priced at $65 and $95, plus Ticketbastard's outrageous fees and "service" charges, at first I balked. I can afford it, but that isn't really the point. Would it be worth it?

I know that Broadway show tickets broke the $100 barrier a while back, but I don't necessarily have a problem with that because, even though I don't care for musicals and would be very unlikely to go to the sort of big, elaborate, mainstream show that is Broadway's bread and butter, I understand how expensive they are to produce, and how many performers and crew members are required to stage those shows night after night. Even though a concert tour also requires support staff, to my mind it just isn't on the same level of magnitude.

Then I looked at it from the other side. I've been a fan of Bruce's music for thirty years. (Before I started working, I used to babysit for friends of my parents, and once I accepted a copy of Darkness on the Edge of Town as payment for an evening's babysitting.) Since I've never gone to one of his shows, I've never spent money on tickets to one of his shows, so after all this time a hundred bucks doesn't seem like such a big deal. (A bit of rationalization, I know.) And the seats are excellent, right at the front corner of the stage (the venue's web site has a cool tool that lets you see the view from your seat), but a few rows up, high enough so I won't be craning my neck the whole time. I'm sure it's going to be an excellent show, and I'm sure when it's over I'll feel like it was worth it. But I probably won't do it again, at least not for a while.