Mass Pike Traffic

This mornings commute from Framingham to Lexington was pretty bad. I left the house at 7:15 and didn't arrive until 8:52! It usually takes me about 45 minutes to make the drive.

The big problem was the traffic on the Mass Pike. I spent an hour on the Pike! I don't think taking the back roads would have been any better because the roads were more slippery from the fresh ice and snow.

I'll be working late tonight since I bet the evening commute will be just as worst. New snow is arriving on Friday, and that means the fun starts all over again.

Theodore Parker

Lexington Massachusetts is a famous town where the birthplace of American was fought. You can find lots of monuments all over town of famous houses or battles.

If you are ever at the intersection of Concord Ave and Spring Street you may see a monument near the Community Therapeutic Day School. However the location of the white fence makes it hard to read.

The monument marks the birthplace of Theodore Parker. He was born at the house in 1810. From Wipedia:

Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 ? May 10, 1860) was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church.

In 1850, Parker quoted and made popular the words of John Wycliffe in his Prologue to the first English translation of the Bible to use the phrase, "of all the people, by all the people, for all the people" which later influenced Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Fenway Park

Last night I went to the Red Sox / Tampa Bay game. What a fun night it was! Great night for Red Sox Baseball, the weather was perfect and we had great seats!

First, it was sad the Red Sox lost. Its never fun going to a Red Sox game and seeing them loose. Who would have guess that a September Red Sox / Tampa Bay game would be more important than a Red Sox / Yankee game.

Three hot dogs and a large souvenir diet coke cost $19.50.

No problem finding cheap parking right before the game. I was able to find parking at the Landmark Shopping center. It cost $25 to park at Landmark, compare to $60 at the lot across the street from Fenway.

We got the game late because of heavy traffic and an accident on the Mass Pike. Once we past Newton Corner, we zoomed to Kenmore square.

Boston Traffic

Massachusetts traffic isn't normally that bad and this summer the commute was pretty good. However, today my commute time doubled. This was because I decided to go the "back way" and avoid the MassPike since it had a lot of traffic.

Going Route 20 through Wayland and Westin was not a good alternative to get from Framingham to Route 128. The roads were backed up the entire way. I believe that other commuters were looking to avoid the MassPike. It would have been better to deal with the backup on the MassPike, than the stop and go congestion on the back roads. At least on the MassPike the traffic does move.

According to a recent study, the worst traffic areas in the United States are:

1. Los Angeles
2. San Francisco (Bay Area)
3. Washington DC
4. Boston (Metro Boston)
5. Atlanta, GA

New England Weather

What's with all the bad weather we have been having in New England, seems like every night that we had some really bad storm with lots of lighting and thunderstorms. Is this what Al Gore was talking about in An Inconvenient Truth?

Maybe I should go and see the movie.

Boston Commute

This morning I drove from Framingham to Lexington for the first time since moving. I left the house about 7am and arrived in Lexington at 7:40 with no traffic problems.

The commute down the Mass Pike was no problem and there was a slight backup on getting onto 128. I believe that the backup would be longer if I left the house a few of minutes later.

There are some good back roads from Framingham to Lexington that I'll investigate over the next few months. For now, I think its pretty safe to go the Mass Pike / 128 route. I am sure that the roads will get busy once school starts.

I heard on the radio that some business, such as Staples and Kmart will be starting their back to school sales next week. Wow! Summer seems to get shorter when we get older. Also I learned that the back to school season is the second busy shopping season, next to Christmas. Which I guess if you think about it isn't all that surprising.

Update: Avoid Lexington Street in Waltham, Massachusetts this week. There's construction going on near the Burger King and it is causing all sorts of traffic tie ups. You are best to avoid the area.

Blackjack Guide

Blackjack is one of the most popular games in any casio. Its the only game in the casino that gives the player the best odds in the long run. The key is to follow the basic blackjack strategy.

In 2000, I created a one page Blackjack cheat sheet to cover all the basic strategy at winning at blackjack. The goal of the Blackjack Guide is to have a quick one page reference on how to play the game. I wanted some way to learn the game quickly.

Download the orginal BlackJack Guide and start mastering the game today, who knows maybe your next trip to Las Vegas will be paid for in a couple of hours at the Blackjack table. There's lots of sites that you can use to practive Blackjack without loosing any money.

Real Estate Links

If you looking for houses in the Boston area, there's two good sites to look at:

  Mass Land Records - Get information about houses that you might be interested in, such as getting how much the house is mortage for.

  PropertyMaps - Good source of information on houses available and where they are located.

The American Dream

Yesterday we put an offer on our first house. The owners got notified of the offer this morning. We aren't sure if the owners will accept the offer but we are excited about the whole process.

This is a buyers market right now, we have a slight upper hand in the negotiation process.. The Boston area has a lot of houses on the market in our price range, so if we don't close this deal, we will still have some opportunity to find something.

This is our opportunity to get a little piece of the American Dream.

Snowy Evening Commute!

Another storm is now hitting New England during the evening commute. I don't think it will effect the commute as much as the December storm.

Things are a little different for me since I am not in Boston nor did I take public transportation this morning. I expect that the evening commute will be a little more challenging than normal.

I think the problem will be the "inch and hour" snow that will be falling when I drive home.

When I get home tonight, I'll post another update on the commute conditions. I am sure that I'll be happy that I still have my Subaru.