Blahston

We've been Massachusetts residents for over six months now and I have a few things to say. First I'll start with the good. Brookline is really walkable. We almost never get in the car. There are something like fifteen parks within a mile of our house. We walk to the bakery, grocery store, hardware store, two libraries, you get the idea. It's like a village stuck in Boston's armpit. Really, look at a map.

But Brookline is missing something like Edge of the Woods in New Haven or New Seasons in Portland or the Berkeley Bowl in Berkeley or Fairway (upstairs) in NYC. I'm surprised such a liberal place is happy eating so much industrial and GMO food. The food co-ops outside of town are pretty crappy. We pick our way through the available stores in town, never fully satisfied.

Mass transit here is crap. The train is quaint. And slow. And infrequent. And it doesn't go to all that many places without ridiculous transfers. Or they didn't put it near things that people go to. Or would like to attempt to go to but probably won't because driving here is even more ridiculous.

People here have been pretty unfriendly. We used to be caught off guard when people did obnoxious things but now we're caught off guard by people doing nice things because they're infrequent. I'm tired of doors slamming in my face and cars cutting it close when I'm in a crosswalk. Are you in a big rush to get to your dumb job in your dumb cubicle? Everyone here needs to calm down and realize that the world will still spin if they weren't here. This is a crowded, smelly place but there is no need to make it worse. Yeah, it frequently smells like garbage.

Lots of people say that Boston is a really smart city. I haven't seen it yet. There a couple of world-class universities, a few good ones and a whole bunch of mediocre ones. I mostly see people do dumb crap every day with few flashes of the famous Boston "intelligence." What I have found here is an inferiority complex. The city describes itself in relation to other cities in all different aspects. "We're not New York, we're not DC." That's for sure Boston's not those cities. You're second rate, so find your niche and what you're good at.

And finally, riding here is crap. The roads are really crowded with people in a rush to get to the next red light. There is not much change in elevation. There isn't much to see, although having a lot of trees and shade is nice in the summer. It takes a long time to get to any nice road and then that nice road is only two miles long and dumps you onto a busy road. The riding community seems pretty insular. I've had plenty of people say to me that we should ride together, only to never hear from them. Or they don't show up when we're supposed to meet. Or don't give me a critical detail like what time we're leaving. I'm assuming that it's not me because I've never had this problem before.

We didn't get very much snow today but Boston still closed school. By 3pm we probably had 1/4 inch of snow. Nice work Boston. It is strange that we've had so little snow. The last three storms have gone south of us. The storm tracks are nobody's fault. But the meteorologist should be fired.

I'm sure there's more that I've fumed about but I can't remember it now to write it down. Feel free to add good and bad things about this geographical region in the comments. I'd like to hear what you think.

In happier news, Niv is learning new words every day. He's figuring out crayons and Legos. He helped me make pizza today. It's amazing to watch him learn so quickly. He loves the snow, but he thinks it comes 1/2 inch at a time. Wait until he sees the real thing if it ever comes. We have the sled ready.

Rolling out the dough.

Let me help you with that.

I want this many veggies.

Let me taste this to make sure it's good.

This is better than TV.

We were so excited to eat it that we didn't get a picture of the finished pizza.

Dirty mouth-breather.