Snow Time

I'm not sure it was quite a blizzard we had this week, but Boston did get over a foot of snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning. If you can call occasionally tacking into strong headwinds while being pelted with tiny ice pellets a "stroll," then I took one in my neighborhood around lunch time yesterday. Since the most snow I'd ever seen before was about six inches, I brought my camera.

Captions follow each set of photos. Click photos to enlarge.

Upper Left: This is an alley near our place. See the third image here for what the planters at near ground level on the building to the right of the alley look like in warm weather. Upper Right: The figure in the distance is one of two people I saw who broke out their skis. The skier is in Southwest Corridor Park in front of a playground. See the previous link for what the park looks like in warm weather. Lower Left: This is a parking lot behind some brownstones. From what I understand -- and I could be wrong -- some tenants in brownstones have to help dig out of any snowfall. That possibility made our apartment complex sound much more attractive to me back when we were house-hunting. Lower Right: It's amazing how thick the snow got even on the vertical surfaces of things, like this mailbox. I was going to try to be cute and discover that the post-man hadn't checked this location yet, but a removal of six inches of snow from that part of the box revealed that he wasn't due until four.

Upper Left: Even more impressive to me than the snow itself was the blinding pace of the cleanup. A couple of guys in snow plows are having a skull session here. Upper Right: Here's a dump truck/plow loaded with gravel on Columbus Street. As I returned home on Boyleston, I saw a set of four huge snow plows speeding down the street in a staggered formation. I couldn't whip out the camera fast enough to get a decent shot of that, though. Lower Left: This is the northeastward view of Huntington Avenue from Massachusetts Avenue. The headlights in the distance are more snow removal vehicles. Lower Right: This lunatic-left bookstore is just a reminder that we're in Massachusetts. Lucy Parsons, once described as "more dangerous than a thousand rioters," was a civil rights activist who, unfortunately, was also an anarchist and communist.

Left: Here's a closeup of a poster on the window of the store. I can't remember how many times I've wished I had a camera as I walked by this place. It was, unfortunately, closed, so I have no images of loitering Marxists to post today. Right: Moving on, since this blog is a happy place on Friday, we see some birds. Yes. Birds. The sound-dampening that comes with heavy snow cover caused me to be unaware of their chirping until I was basically right on top of them. Other than sea gulls, I haven't seen birds up here in weeks: I must say, with that reminder, that I do miss them.

-- CAV