pegkelley's blog

Here we are on the precipice of a historic election, and I cannot find local people to talk to about it.  Argghhh.

Here we are on the precipice of a historic election, and I cannot find local people to talk to about it.  Argghhh.

Saw Markey on CSpan arguing for supporting the bailout bill today.  Also saw on MAPLight.org, which traces who contributes money to which politicians and then links them to votes on related issues, that Markey accepted over $400,000 in the past five years from banks and other financial institutions.   Coincidence?   

Saw five (count'em, 5) police cruisers between Greenough (where it intersects N. Beacon) and the river around rush hour this evening.  About 7 police officers too...Chasing someone through the bushes?  Someone fall in the river?  Hope it wasn't a tragedy.  

Recently I had minor surgery for which I received pain medication. I did not use 99% of the pills. Does anyone know if there is a pharmaceutical re-distribution center or something like that in our area? It just seems a total waste to throw them away. I'm sure there are people without a health benefit for prescriptions who could benefit from unused meds.

And speaking of throwing them away, I learned it is not recommended to throw drugs down the toilet because of the effect on the environment.

What do we do with these drugs?

(republished from original posting on 1/4/08 during Lisa's hiatus)

Maybe I'm getting old...or my eyes are. I keep running into Watertown parking meters where the glass covering the "time left" indicator is so cloudy that I cannot tell if there is time left. Or I peer into the other side's glass (the street side) to see what time the meter requirement ends and again, cannot read the words.

I have to say this has been true of about 7 out of 10 of the meters I have used in the past year.

The town should complain to the manufacturer. And we all should fight those parking tickets since we cannot tell what time they say! (I have no idea how the ticket-writers can tell!)

A month without computers...without the internet? What was that like? Was there withdrawal? What did you miss? Was there something you made sure NOT to miss?

I have not gone that long in 17 years or so...gee. How did you do it?

Peg

Maybe I'm getting old...or my eyes are. I keep running into Watertown parking meters where the glass covering the "time left" indicator is so cloudy that I cannot tell if there is time left. Or I peer into the other side's glass (the street side) to see what time the meter requirement ends and again, cannot read the words.

I have to say this has been true of about 7 out of 10 of the meters I have used in the past year.

The town should complain to the manufacturer. And we all should fight those parking tickets since we cannot tell what time they say! (I have no idea how the ticket-writers can tell!)

I understand the difficulties people are having with snowplows blocking driveways and such. To balance the scales a bit, I have to share this observation.

On my interminable journey home from a meeting at the Hotel Sonesta on Memorial Drive in Cambridge to Watertown during Thursday's afternoon/evening snowstorm, I had plenty of time to notice the snow removal techniques (or lack thereof) in Cambridge and on state roads. The private condos and the colleges had front-end loaders and plows out in force. On the other hand, Cambridge streets were plowed by the private cars trying to make their way somewhere. Now, I understand all the problems that created the perfect storm of traffic nightmare on Thursday and know how hard it was for the City and State to do their snow removal work.

Yet when I got to Mount Auburn Street in Watertown - FOUR hours after leaving the hotel, I saw seven (!) snowplows in five blocks. The roads were reasonably clear and I didn't worry about sliding into parked cars the way I had throughout Cambridge and all along Memorial Drive, because the roads were good and there were no parked cars on the street.

It was the best welcome home I could have got at that point in time. Thanks to the DPW for that gift!

I thought Ms. Devaney had her trial today. Looked on the Tab but couldn't find anything about it. Anyone know what happened?