If you ever have an issue on the Charles/MGH stop on the red line, be sure to stand next to this sign. Supposedly it will take care of the problem for you. And there's also a button you push to talk to security.

Pouring rain

I always thought that water and electricity didn't mix. This gives me a new perspective to the word threshold.

Spray paint

Now here's a graffiti artist! This sign sits on top of a 1 story building at the corner of Boylston Ave. and Brookline Ave. near Fenway. A couple of days after it was tagged, the sign was removed. How can anyone get up there and do this without getting caught is a good guess. I think it happened over the weekend sometime in May.

Apology

It's been about 3 months since my last post and I'd like to apologize to my 2 faithful readers for not posting sooner. The truth is that from the start this blog was not what I meant for it to be. Sure I get flipped off often for things I didn't do, but I didn't create this to take my anger out on. My first idea was to make of it and informational tool for people visiting Boston and as comedy relief for people who live or work in Boston.
Now that I have my goals rearranged, I'll hopefully feel a little less anger before I post anything here.

Thanks for reading.

Rolling Green Monster

The Rolling Green Monster is back! The RGM is a mobile camper that sets up shop at Burlington Avenue near Fenway. The owner lives in it and goes to every Red Sox game. The best thing is after the game he can just wall home. And there's no rent to pay and he can move whenever he feels like it. This guy might be on to something...

Boston Red Sox - Opening Day

The Red Sox were supposed to have played their first game of the season at Fenway yesterday. To me that means terrible traffic jams all day long. Fortunatelly for me, the game was called of because of the rain! And early! Usually if the weather conditions are not ideal for the game to go on, people with tickets only find it out after they pay for parking, have a few beers and eat some Fenway Franks. At that point they're either too intoxicated to leave right away, so end up drinking on the streets for the rest of the night.
Anyway...
The game was postponed to today at 4:05 pm. And again luck was on my side. I was driving a different route today that didn't go anywhere near Fenway!

Even though I know the statistical probability of me not winning, I might buy a lottery ticket today.

Landsdowne Quadrangle - Cambridge

Improvised Traffic Pole Base

This is a picture of a traffic light at the exit of the BU Bridge intersecting with Beacon St. in Boston. The traffic light pole is standing on a 55 gallon drum filled with cement. Next to it are the wires and remains of where the pole originally stood before it was struck by a vehicle and ripped from the floor. What I don't understand is the reasoning for it. Seriously, the time and resources spent on this temporary arrangement couldn't have been used to permanently attached it to the floor? Constructions in that area have a history of taking much longer than they should. Last year the work on the sidewalks finally completed after more than 2 years of work. The BU Bridge has been under repair for a few months and everyone that drives over it knows how much traffic it causes. I'm giving it at least another 2 years before the work's completed.

Go humans go!

These adds have been all over Boston. The smiley Quaker with the simple motto: "Go humans go". I think they're great! They're not about status or how beautiful you would be if you had what ever it is the add wants you to buy. It's not even about how tasty the oatmeal is. It's all about the reader and making them feel good about themselves. It's like fuel for people. Go humans go! and do whatever it is that you do. I makes me want to take a chance and take a detour to avoid traffic even it forces me to drive on the wrong side of the road for a little. Go me go!!!

Uniform

As a bus driver I have to wear a uniform daily. Navy blue pants, light blue shirt and black shoes. What I'm not required to wear is a tie. For my company it's considered an optional part of the uniform and for that reason none of the drivers wear one. I however like to diverge. Last week I started wearing a tie to work with my uniform. Many people asked me why. Even some of my passengers. I gave a different reason to each one of them. My better half however knew exactly why. I consider myself more than a uniform. Not that I think I'm better than my fellow coworkers, I have high respects and am very good friends with some of them. I just don't like to be seen as one of the crowd. I think we should all wear ties. That's the only part of the uniform that my company doesn't yet regulate. If they start, I'll have to think of something else. I can't wait to go home and take my uniform off. I might keep the tie, though.

Awesome antique car

Does any one know what this is?

Update: Yes! It's a 1970 Pontiac Bonneville.
I saw it again and took some more pictures.

Happy π (pi) Day!

Happy π day! Today is March 13th, or 3/14. A day celebrated by math nerds all over the world. The value of pi π rounded to the nearest 100th is 3.14 which is why it's celebrated today. So how is it celebrated you ask? by baking a pie of course!



Here are some ideas for pie decorations.

Sailboats

It's a sign Spring is coming if the sailboats are in the Charles. All the snow has melted and it seems that this coming weekend might the first cookout using my new grill!

Free Coffee!

Dunkin' Donuts is giving out free coffee shipped to your house!

Free Parking is MINE!

This car is parked on top of what used to a snow bank and is now a block of ice. The back tires are barelly touching the ice. If it made it up there it should make it out. Otherwise the owner might have to wait for spring to come to move out. Good thing is that this spot is free! There are no parking meters or restrictions. Those are pretty hard to find nowadays, specially in the Fenway area.

Yawkey Center @ DFCI

The Dana Farber Cancer Institute is opening a new treatment center in 2011. At the moment the construction of the steel structure is on its way. Last week the names of some of the patients at the DFCI were written on the steel beams.

The names can be seen from the windows of the DFCI. Some of the names that didn't make it to the building were handwritten and taped to the bridge that connects the DFCI and the Smith building.

Boston Billiards Club - closed

The Boston Billiards Club on Brookline avenue at Fenway closed its doors sometime in December. This week I noticed that a big Jillians Lanes & Lounge sign was covering the window. There were random people trying to look through the windows to find out why it closed. There's a sign asking people to book their holiday party there and other than the two improvised pieces of paper taped to the front door with the word "closed" on them, one would never know it's on longer in operation. Although I've never been to Jillians or Boston Billiards, I think that now that people can both play pool and bowl, it improved!

Hospital Cafeteria Pizza

Hospital cafeteria food is pretty good and often at a great value. This slice of cheese pizza only cost me $1.81 with taxes! If you're strapped for cash in the city and need to eat for a bargain try doing this. You can just walk into a hospital and ask for the cafeteria. I know that hospital food doesn't sound too appetizing, but even the doctors have to eat and the cafe keeps high standards on their food. Since most of the patrons are doctors, nurses, volunteers and patients, the cafe makes just enough money to cover expenses and the customer wins!

Obama's stimulus package

So President Obama decided to put a $500k cap on the salaries of the executives of companies awarded bail outs. Obviously they didn't like that. The big companies are saying that it's a big responsability to manage such a huge company. I bet it is. I have a hard time managing my own financial life, nevermind an entire multi-billion dollar company. The fact is that some employees of that same huge company are getting the pink slip because they can no longer afford to keep them. If a $500k bonus is not enough, how about giving them some stock options? I think a large amount of stock options even. Billions. This way the actual worth of their stock option bonus would be proportioned to their job performance. If the company does good the stocks are worth a lot, otherwise the CEOs can still hold on to the half million dollars that President Obama work so hard to come up with.

Internet Bus

Check out this cool bus. It's the Google The Internet Bus Project to promote the Internet(?!). Sometimes I wish I could turn a School Bus into an mobile home and move into it.

Snow Day

So today was a snow day. Every radio station had their own forecast and predicted anywhere between 4 and 12 inches of snow. Naturally everyone in Boston freaked out and decided to stay home. Schools were cancelled everywhere. For me this is awesome. Not only I don't get a lot of passengers, but there's no traffic. Sure the roads were slippery, but that just adds to the fun! I also had to climb a few sidewalks because the snow that was around from previous storms was still piled up on street corners making it hard to take turns in some of the narrower streets. I think it's funny to see some people trying to leapfrog over the snow banks to cross the street before realizing that they won't be able to get to the sidewalk on the other side because it's also filled with snow. I swear some people jump in front of my bus on purpose to see if I'm going to stop or not. Look to the other side of the street before you cross people! I always look to see if I can make it across the intersection before I start moving on a green light.

PIXNIT

I found this about 2 years ago and a few months back I learned about PINXIT. A guerrilla urban artist that uses graffiti and stencils as art media to brighten up the city of Boston. After I read an article about her (?) on the Weekly Dig, I thought this might be her work.

Chained Bicycle

In the picture it's hard to tell, but this is an exercise bicycle the was "apparently" left on the street for someone to take. It got my attention because I'm looking for one. I use the word apparently in quotation because after a brief inspection I noticed there was a chain on it and it was locked around the metal pole! I can't think of a logical explanation for this... I wish I had a better picture but it was early and the Sun wasn't out yet.

Sullivan Square T Station

Is this painting of someone who got shot waiting for the bus? Why do the people sitting down look so Ok with this?!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day.

We had about a foot and a half of snow since yesterday and since my bus doesn't run today and it's warm enough outside, I took the kids out to play.

Hello World!

So after giving it some thought I decided to start a blog. I see a lot of interesting things in the streets of Boston, MA and go through a lot frustration dealing with the traffic that gets maddening at times, specialy when the Red Sox are in town. I figured it would be easier for me to deal with the city if I got to write about it along the way. Now I'm kind of looking forward to the rest of my 12 hour shift... I have my cameraphone ready for the next time I get flipped off for reasons other than my own.