ursamajor: people on the beach watching the ocean (Default)
What belongs on a Boston bucket list? Like, despite having lived here for nearly two decades, I have still never walked the Freedom Trail, even though living in Boston is what’s turned me into a walker, and a biker. But I’ve walked out to Castle Island, around Jamaica Pond, through the Middlesex Fells and the Blue Hills, down Comm Ave and up the Greenway, Mass Ave nearly end to end, through the Harvard campus more times than I can count (though I can still get lost at MIT), from downtown to Fenway Park on multiple game nights where I didn't feel like cramming myself into the sardine can known as the Green Line. I’ve navigated Somerville by specific Bathtub Marys, and greater Boston by specific Dunks. I've biked on Storrow Drive and out to Bedford on the Minuteman and pretty much most places in between; kayaked along the Charles, and swum in Walden Pond and the Mystic Lakes and the Res; ice skated on Frog Pond and under the lights of Kendall Square. And, well, fallen on my ass multiple times because black ice and long New England winters. Heh.

a love letter to Boston because I'm a creature of nostalgia )

I've made my home in triple-decker Victorians, Federalist brick and brownstone, the top floor of a Queen Anne where H and I learned to dub birds "those CHIRP CHIRP MOTHERFUCKERS" because they would wake us up at 3 am in the summer, a duplex close enough to the Minuteman I could constantly watch our neighbors stream by on bikes, even on the couch of the Cambridgeport Commune for a couple of months. And now, after two decades in Boston, two dozen years in New England, and too many cubic yards of snow shoveled, our time here is drawing to a close; in August, we are moving to the Bay Area.

Boston, Sunset, June 7, 2019

We'll still be (long) walking distance to the train; I'll still bike to local farmers' markets. I'll add more swimming to the mix; H will add more hills to his half-marathon training, but still be able to run on a bike path near our new place. I already have a spreadsheet entitled "Bay Area Farmers Markets and Independent Bookstores," and we have a plan to identify the best pizza places nearby so we can find our go-to as quickly as possible. We will miss all you locals dearly, but we will be back. Just not in, say, January. ;)

Bay Area friends, I'm sure I'll have questions for you about the practicalities of this new life we're trying out. For now, I'm looking forward to seeing more of you all starting in August!

And yep, we're driving across. 90 most of the way, then detouring a bit to avoid the worst heat of Nevada in summer the best we can. (Neither of us are Burning Man candidates, I'm afraid. :) ) Highlights we hope to hit: Cedar Point, the Dane County Farmers' Market, Yellowstone; other things TBD, hopefully many of them kitschy, delicious, and/or beautiful. Any recs from those of you who've done this before? We'll have most of two weeks to do this.
ursamajor: people on the beach watching the ocean (Default)
The #sunset tonight made half a dozen people on my bus whip out their phones.
ursamajor: people on the beach watching the ocean (Default)
The sunset was amazing tonight, but even more awe-inspiring was the moment the snow stopped after falling all day, and the sun emerged from behind the clouds. The trees were glowing pink and peach, the light refracting through the branches laden with crystals of snow.
ursamajor: people on the beach watching the ocean (Default)
post-tags: instagram, crosspost Tonight is #Manhattanhenge; I'm observing #Kayakhenge. #sunset #summer
ursamajor: people on the beach watching the ocean (Default)
post-tags: instagram, crosspost Sunset silhouette. #seattle
ursamajor: candlelight (lights)
so i looked up and out the window and there were these gorgeous cotton-candy clouds floating along outside, stained pink by the setting sun.

and outside, there were people, cherishing the warmth of a summer evening, but more so than usual. it's in the air - no one wants to say anything, make any direct references that might taint the spirit of tonight. celebrate togetherness. remember innocence. silently hope that everything remains peaceful, but shake the worry out of your head before it can affect things, for now.

but never, ever take things for granted.

that's why they're out now, strolling with their babies, picnicking on the grass, sitting at cafe tables for hours. relaxing. being neighborly. telling the stories that the clouds are writing. all this, activities typical to a summer evening - but with a keen subtextual urgency to it.

tomorrow is for mourning, remembrance, and peacefully honoring the people who died a year ago, and the way of life that died with them. tonight - tonight.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
--john mc crae, in flanders fields

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ursamajor: people on the beach watching the ocean (Default)
she of the remarkable biochemical capabilities!

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