CambridgeSide Galleria

Yesterday I visited the CambridgeSide Galleria in Cambridge Massachusetts.

There were lots of people at the mall, but parking wasn't a problem as there was plenty of parking on the 'B' level. Many stores were pretty crowded but it seems most people were at the Food Court.

The Apple store was pretty crowded with lots of people buying iPods and Mini-iPods. I also saw some people with some G5 boxes.

If you plan to visit the mall, you might want to eat at 'The Cheesecake Factory' or 'California Pizza Kitchen' both validate parking tickets.

Topfields Fair

For the next 10 days, the town of Topsfield will be a busy place with the famous Topsfield Fair in town. I had the opportunity to go yesterday and can offer these tips:

• Go Early. Lots of people get to the fair after 11 pm. Plan to arrive before 10 am.
• Bring some warm clothes. The temp goes down later in the day.
• Watch the RCMP Show!

Cape Cod Weekend

This past weekend I traveled to the Cape for the the Fourth of July Weekend. Here are my notes about the traffic:

Friday Night: I got on the Mass Pike around 5:30 via Newton Corner on ramp. There was no traffic anyplace on the Pike or on 93 south. I suspected this because most people took Friday off and headed down to the Cape earlier on the day. There was a little congestion on 3, at the lane merge and a few other places. This seemed to be a typical traffic situation and not a result of holiday traffic.
Once I got to the bridge, there was a very minor backup at the rotary, about 2 cars in front of me were waiting to get on the rotary. Route 6 was a breeze all the way, even the lane drop after exit 9 wasn't backed up.
I arrived at the house shortly before 7:30.

Monday Night:I left the Cape around 4pm, the mid-cape seem to do fine as getting on from exit 12 was no problem. I ran into heavy traffic right after exit 4 on ramp. This continued all the way to the bridge. Route 3 was fairly light with moderately light traffic.

Our Ladies Help of Christians

Yesterday was a sad day in the 100 year history of Our Ladies Help of Christians church in West Concord. Fr. Fleming receive news that the church was one of the 65 parishes that will close in December. This comes as a surprise since the church is fairly active, it raised $17,028.85 to build 4 homes in Haiti.

According to the Associated Press:

Parishes on the list to be closed may appeal to O'Malley. If that fails they can appeal to the Vatican, but only on procedural grounds, not simply on their belief that their church should remain open, said the Rev. Christopher Coyne, an archdiocesan spokesman.

Record Cold in New England!

Hard to believe but it was -6.2 degrees this morning in Concord Mass. Today's cold weather has broken all records in New England. WBZ was reporting -10 at their studios in Newton. All the digital thermostats in Concord recorded record lows overnight.

I tried a trick that I saw on TV last night: I heated some water in a coffee mug for 4 minutes in the microwave and then went out side and threw the water in the air. About 80% of the water disappeared and the remaining about hit the ground. Its a pretty cool effect.

Over 330 schools in Massachusetts closed or had delay openings. Which is unheard of since this usually happens around a major snow storm. Most Superintendent of Schools didn't want their students to be waiting for the bus in the freezing temperatures. I would suspect that movie matinees will be crowded today. Expect big numbers for Disney's Teacher's Pet, which is the only G rated movie that opens today.

There is also talk of rolling black outs in New England! I was wondering what happened to former California Governor Gray Davis. The reason for the black outs is because the high amount of Natural Gas use to heat homes and business has caused some of the Natural Gas power plants to close. The power plant closures and the increase of power, due to the cold weather, has put a strain on the power grid. I don't think this will be a problem due to the large number of school closings.

Cold Day in New England

This morning it was -3 in Concord, Massachusetts and local weather forecasters say today will be the coldest day in more than 20 years! As cold as it may get today, tomorrow its expected to be even colder! I'll have to buy a book on Global Warming, and see why this is a problem.

Today's photo isn't accurate of how cold it is, since the heat from the house makes it appear warmer than it is.

New Traffic Lights
In downtown Chelmsford new traffic lights were put in this past week. This is sort of an odd type of thing to do in New England, in the middle of Winter. These lights are replacing a really bad four way intersection of Route 4 and 27. I am not sure if it will help the morning commute, but it should help make my evening commute better.

Cold days of January

This morning it was 1.6 degrees in Concord, Massachusetts. Today's high is expected to be about 10 degrees! The cold weather has hit all of New England and New York. Local weather forcasters were quick to point out that the temperature in Alaska will be warmer than in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tomorrows Patriots game against the Titans will not be another snow bowl, however at the start of the game the temperature may hit below zero. The three coldest NFL games on record were all won by the home team. Hope this is a good sign for tomorrow's game. Go Patriots!

Friday Traffic

I am predicting that the communte this morning and this afternoon will be lighter than normal. This is based on a theory that most people take the Friday before Christmas off to do holiday shopping. The Mass Pike was very quiet this morning, as was many of the back roads.

Red Sox & Alex Rodriguez
Most of the Boston media is reporting, this morning, that the deal to bring Alex Rodriguez to Boston is dead. My theory was that it wasn't ever supposed to happen. It was just a strategy that Theo Epstein was using to scare George Steinbrenner. The Red Sox had the best offense in Baseball in 2003, there is no need to add more strength to the offense. The main weakness was the pitching and they have fix that problem by bringing on Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke.

I think the Red Sox management knew that the Rodriguez deal was a long shot, but figured the publicity could help season ticket sales. We'll see what happens, but I don't think that 'Rodriguez' name has been printed on any Red Sox jersey.

Snowing in Massachusetts

Right now it is snowing in most of the New England States. Last night Concord got about 3 inches of fluffy snow.

I was driving through downtown Concord last night and took several photos of the snow coming down. It probably won't be til April when downtown will be snow free.

Many of the stores will be hurting this weekend since most people will be staying home. I'll probably use the time to finish reading 'Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West' and watch a couple of DVDs.

Snow in Massachusetts

Last night snow squall is causing big problems on the highways in Massachusetts. 495 and Route 3 were backed up for miles, in fact at 8:30 this morning Macolm Alter on WRKO suggested everyone stay off the major roads since they all had various types of accidents.

I drove over 495 and south bound was bumper to bumper. 495 north bound traffic was a little better, only a few cars were on the road, however they were going really slow since there was a lot of ice on the road. (At least 20 mph)

Route 3 wasn't any better, very heavy traffic heading south bound. The north bound roads did look in better shape than 495.

I would expect Gov. Mitt Romney will address how the state responded to the first snow/ice storm of the season in a press conference later this afternoon.

I wouldn't be surprise if Subaru and other all wheel drive dealers have lots of foot traffic this weekend. Lots of cars didn't make it to work this morning. :(