Yesterday in Boston was a great day for Ruby...a shitty one for me...54 degrees,  constant light to moderate rain with wind gusts up to 35 mph!  Ruby was in her element, loving every minute of it.  Me?...not so much.  I knew that we would eventually find the inevibilities of Spring in the Northern part of the country.  In it's own way it's been really nice...I've always liked the rain, the clean smell in the air as the dust and dirt begin to settle....the rythmic sound, the feel of rain on your face...getting the windshield wipers adjusted to the right speed and now the smell of wet dog!
I just don't like the wind!
Weather wise today has been very similar to days past when I lived in the colder climates.
We set off yesterday to search for a very small snipet of my childhood.  My family lived in Newton Center, Mass. when I was 9 or 10.  We were in Boston while my dad worked toward his Masters Degree from MIT.  He was the first person from Chysler to recieve the Sloan Fellowship...a huge honor...a huge accomplishment!
Obviously it's been a few years since we moved but I believe that this is the house we lived in for a year (not a 100%, but..it's actually a stab in the dark)!
I was very fortunate to have the family and friends around me to make this a wonderful year!
But the best thing to happen to me this year was the birth of my brother Curt!

A beautiul Spring flower-lilacs
Another thing that made this such a great year was that there was a nice size lake 2 blocks from our house...as I said..it was a good year for a 9 year old boy.
I won a speedskating race on that lake and got my name into the weekly local rag.
"California Boy Wins Skating Event"
Nobody knew that I could get these short little legs moving that fast!

I'm getting my picture taken here by a lovely British couple.  Ruby's pouting and checking out the Mayflower.
You see the pattern...no cooperation from the dog!

This is the actual Plymouth Rock!  My mom took this year and we spent it with her taking us from site to site to see the history of our country that is so prevelent in this city...Concord, Lexington, North Church, Paul Revers ride and it goes on!  I really believe that it was this year in Boston that fostered my love of history...THANK YOU MOM!  One day we went to Plymouth to see the Rock...I actually think that it was on Thanksgiving...after seeing the Rock I remember being really disappointed (it was so small)!  A rock with a date on it...big deal.
This time it was different, it was very meaningful.. on an emotional level...I don't know if was this was because this was the final of the many very early settlements that I've dragged the squirrel killer to, or if it means something entirely different.
I'll have to get back to you on that one... 

The impossibly HAPPY dog by the Rock!

I was freezing my ass off by this point, parking was hell and it was raining as hard as it had all day and importantly I had to ahhh, relieve myself.  We didn't spend a lot time in Salem.  This was the closest we got to a witch....so we ran with it and ran for the Jeep!
Just a brief comment about East Coast drivers, but Boston drivers in particular...most are fucking jerks!
These idiots pull in and out of traffic for no apparent logical reason, cut you off when changing lanes, diving across 3 lanes of traffic in about 20 yard to exit...I've never seen anything like it.  Boston drivers have a bad driving reputation that in my opinion is well founded.
When I started driving like them I got the finger and a "go back to the left coast..jackoff"..again not the actual word.

I originally thought this was a statue of a witch (which witch I didn't care), it was a witch.  I was disappointed however when we got close and it turned out to be some Pilgrim guy.
On the way back to the car I got a little warmer as I watched two women taking rather risque pictures using the 1700 gravestones as props...it didn't help my current ongoing state of "hornyness". 

Hmmmmmm...could it be a sign?