This week is school vacation week in Massachusetts. My step kids go to school in New Hampshire so you'd think it wouldn't affect me at all. You would be wrong. (of course, why else would I have brought it up?) School vacation in Massachusetts means one thing for me: Light traffic. I get the impression that roughly 40% of the working, commuting folks in Mass work for schools. How else could it be that there is almost no traffic at all on the highways during vacations? I don't care, it's beautiful.
On Monday I drove Jen to work and she needed to be in early. We took route 93 South to 128 South and didn't even hit the breaks once. We got to her office in half an hour. On a regular work day that same trip would take twice that. Monday, as you've probably read on this site already, was Patriots day and many residents had the day off. That's not a good indicator for traffic. Tuesday, we left together again only a little bit earlier and the trip took about 30 minutes again. That is a good indicator. No traffic at all. Today we didn't drive in together (she has to get the kids this evening) and I left at 7:15. I took the highway again, route 93S to 128S to 90W and the drive took less than an hour. On the average day it would have taken 20-30 minutes more. I did hit some heavy traffic on 128 (between route 2A and the Winter Street exit) but it was manageable and much lighter than a non-vacation commuting day.
I did see one very unusual thing today. I was on 93S and the traffic just after the route 495 junction slowed to a crawl. Slow enough, in fact, that I could snap a couple of pics.
Check out the plume of smoke in the distance. Safe to say that would end up being the cause of the little traffic tie up.
As the traffic inched closer we could see that the source of the smoke was a car on fire in the Northbound breakdown lane.
The closer we got the slower we drove, and the worse the fire appeared. The entire engine was completely engulfed in flames. It was a pretty scary sight.
Not long after passing the fire, less than a mile... maybe less than half a mile, I saw two police cars heading North with lights blazing. Not far behind them was a fire engine. They were on their way to the fire. When I passed there were no emergency personnel there at all. It had started so recently that I sort of beat the rescue folks to it. I couldn't see any sign of what might have caused it. There was a tractor trailer truck pulled over in front of it. Maybe the car hit the truck and after pulling over burst into flames? Maybe the truck driver flicked a cigarette out his window and it hit the car and maybe the car had a gas leak somewhere? Maybe the truck driver was a Jedi and the car driver was a Sith Lord and the truck driver used his light saber to cut the fuel line and ignite what spilled out? Who knows.
Read this article from CNN and learn about something that makes Robbie sad.
Production on the next James Bond movie has been put on hold indefinitely! That is terrible! Not as terrible as "Octopussy" or "A View to a Kill" but still terrible. "Casino Royale" was so good it was crazy. "Quantum of Solace" was all right, but better than the last couple of pre-Craig flicks. I am a huge Bond fan and I am hoping MGM gets their act together quickly. I want another Bond movie.
I'm not sure how I feel about this next subject. Recently the tech site Engadget posted pictures of what they said was an actual next generation iPhone. The pictures looked good, but there was no real reason to suspect that they were genuine. Then a couple of days later, tech site Gizmodo published this story. I might have the time line a little jumbled, but I guess Engadget said the iPhone was found in a bar. Gizmodo also said it was found in a bar, but they somehow acquired it from the person who found it. They tried to use it but it was remotely whiped by Apple (assuming it is what the article said it was) and they couldn't set it up again because the software to do so does not exist publicly yet. So they plugged it into iTunes and took a look at the connect screen and deduced that the resolution was much better than the iPhone 3GS. They also explored a couple of buttons and a new front facing camera, and the new casing, and then broke it apart and checked out the components.
The word is that gizmodo's parent company paid a heafty price to get their hands on the phone. There may also have been a bidding war between tech blogs for the chance to buy some one else's property. Was it stolen? Who knows. There are stories coming out saying that the Apple employee who lost it really did just lose it. I don't know... the whole story kinda smells bad to me. Apple has since had a lawyer make a formal request for the phone's return. That proves one of two things, either it's the real deal next generation iPhone, or Apple set the whole thing up as a hoax because they have a weird sense of humor about their renown internal security. I chose to believe the thing is just real.
Still... it's just a test model. There is no reason to believe the final product will look exactly like the iPhone that caused the fuss. What it does do is take a lot of the fun out of the lead up to the unveiling. Really, a big part of what makes being an Apple geek fun is the speculation. The rumors leading up to the iPad were crazy. Almost every day some one published a story speculating on what the final product would look like. It was fun. Not this time though. This time we know what the new phone looks like and we know what it's made up of. There might still be software surprises, but on the hardware end it's already old news. When Steve Jobs gets up on the stage with his new iPhone 4G in hand we'll already know most of what he's going to say. That kinda sucks.
Of course, after reading the story I immediately tried to find out when I would be able to get a hardware upgrade. I think January. iPhone... iWant.
Last night the Red Sox won in a walk off. Darnell McDonald, just called up from Pawtucket was the hero. A Cinderella Fenway debut if ever there was one. I am happy about the win, but I am also embarrassed. The Rangers stole nine bases on us last night. NINE (9) BASES! We didn't throw them out a single time. They were nine for nine! That's the worst showing for a Red Sox team since 1913. (at least that's what I read on ESPN's recap this morning.) It's shameful. Nine stolen bases. Even Vlad Guerrero stole on us last night and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any knees in those legs of his.
In sad minor league hockey news, the Lowell Devils lost last night. Worcester leads the series three games to one. Game five is tonight at the Tsongas in Lowell. If the Devils lose they are out. Good luck to my Devils.
In much more exciting news, tonight is game four between the Bruins and the Sabers. I am really excited for this game. More excited than I've been all season. A B's win tonight puts us up three wins to one. We'd have three chances to beat the Sabers once. While we all remember a few years ago when Montreal came back to beat us after they trailed 3-1 I would prefer to think of this as a new season and not dwell on that painful memory. Of course a loss ties the series at two and gives Buffalo back the home ice advantage. The Bruins have to win tonight. They have to.
Go Bruins!
Go Devils!
Go Bruins!
No comments:
Post a Comment