An 1830′s Independence Day Celebration

Are you looking for something different to do on the 4th of July?  Are you bummed that your city or town had to cancel its fireworks display due to budget cuts?  Not thrilled over the idea of going to the Esplanade and dealing with the crowds and the long lines at the porta-potties?

Why not consider spending the day and the evening at Old Sturbridge Village?  Spend the day at the Village and see how people celebrated Independence Day back in the 1830′s, back in the days when there was no electricity, never mind stuff such as fluorescent light bulbs.  Then return in the evening for a special holiday event that ends with a not-so-1830′s fireworks display.

The evening festivities begin at 6PM and run until 10PM, a separate admission fee is required.

Fireworks tickets are on sale below to Members only; public sale begins June 1.

An evening capped off by 21st-century fireworks follows a day typical of Independence Day celebrations of the 19th century. Gates re-open at 6pm with music, magic, and more on the Common.

• Hear a reading of the Declaration of Independence
• Enjoy music by groups including the Heritage String Band and Quintebrass
• Marvel at Lucky Bob the comedic juggler
• Be amazed by Robert Olson as old-time magician Richard Potter
• Take part in community contests of yesteryear
• Relax on a boat ride on the Quinebaug River (separate fee)
• Bring a picnic or plan on supper at one of our food service outlets (alcoholic beverages may not be brought in, but beer and wine will be available for sale).

Fireworks follow at dusk over the Countryside.

$10 for OSV Members; general admission is $12 per person (on sale 6/1)
Children under 3 are free
Free parking.

You can order tickets online here.

A Car-Free Vacation in Maine

Used to be, if you lived here in the Boston area, the only way you could take a retreat up to Maine is if you drove.  If you don’t own a car, you’d have to rent one, which can get very expensive.  Insurance, taxes, mileage, etc…for what all of that would cost, you’d might as well drive all the way to Texas and have your teeth checked by a Plano Dentist or something. I mean, Mike and I rented a car years ago, to drive to York Beach for five days, and were shocked that, upon returning it, we were billed over $400!  Car rental companies have been known to tak on all sorts of bogus fees, none of which they tell you about at the time of the rental.

The company in question here is Budget Rent-A-Car, and I’ve heard of similar complaints about them.  Read a few here.  There was absolutely NO reason for such a high charge, we returned it to the same place we rented it from, we didn’t damage it, we filled the gas tank and all.

I guess their idea of “Budget” is that of Donald Trump or Bill Gates.  Certainly not mine, and not yours, either.

Even if you do have your own car, sometimes it’s still nicer not to have to drive.  N worrying abut backups at the Hampton tolls,  no worrying about psycho drivers on the roads, and best of all, no worrying about where to park that car when you get to where you are going.

Now there is Amtrak’s DownEaster, which goes from Boston’s North Station to the train/bus terminal in Portland, Maine.  If you want a beach vacation, there are stops in Wells and Old Orchard Beach.  There’s also a stop in Saco, but I’n not sure as to what else is there other than the Funtown Splashtown water park.  I guess they must have beaches there, but I have no idea what they are like.  I think, as these beach towns go, Old Orchard has more going for it, they have a lot of amusement parks with rides and games and all.  And they are all near the Amtrak train station.  There are also plenty of hotels and motels that are an easy walk from the station.

But if you’d prefer a charming but vibrant city by the sea, Portland is the place to go.  And it’s one of the easiest places in which to get around without a car.  Parking in the area garages can be pricey, but you can hop on a Metro bus from just about anywhere for only $1.25.

If you ride the DownEaster, you can hop a ride into downtown on the #5 bus for free, by showing the driver your Amtrak ticket stub.  Cabs are also plentiful and pretty cheap, if that is your preference.  Cab drivers in Portland are generally very polite, and do not try to rip you off by taking you on the *scenic* tour of Portland.  I especially recommend ASAP Taxi (207-791-2727). Write their number down, because if you take part in any Portland nightlife, you may need a cab to get back to your hotel.

For days when you plan to use the bus a lot, day passes are available for $5.00.  Or just get a ten-ride ticket for $11.00.  All fare information can be found HERE.

A word of advice…print out ALL of the bus schedules before you leave.  I’ve had a hard time finding schedules on the buses, even at the Elm Street station.  All schedules are available on the Metro website in .pdf form, you’ll need that Adobe Reader whosit to view and print.  You’ll save yourself a lot of aggravation later on!

So, now that you know the basics of getting around Portland, what is there to DO there?

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Massachusetts Residents – Please take action to protect your vote NOW!

If you voted in favor of Question 3, which was to close both of the existing greyhound tracks in MA by next year, please read this, forward it, and CALL!

Take Action Now to Save Question 3!

Dear Friends:

This message is to clarify that you should call your STATE Senator to help protect Question 3, not your U.S. Senator.

We have just learned that a Senate budget amendment will be brought no later than tomorrow morning to allow dog racing to continue in Massachusetts for two more years. This is an attempt to repeal Question 3. Act now to protect your vote!

Please call your STATE Senator now and ask him or her to vote NO on Senate Budget Amendment 155. (Click here to find your STATE Senator’s contact information.) This dangerous piece of legislation will prolong the effective date of Question 3 until 2012. Dogs will continue to suffer and die at Wonderland and Raynham Parks if this amendment is allowed to pass.

Please call NOW! This is the most important thing you can do to protect Massachusetts greyhounds!

Question 3 was approved by voters by an overwhelming margin of 56 to 44 percent statewide and passed in 12 of 14 counties. Help protect the will of the voters.

If you have any questions, please call our office at 617-666-3526 and speak to Luann.

Thanks for caring about the greyhounds.

For the greyhounds,

Christine Dorchak and Carey Theil
GREY2K USA

Thanks!

Why Massachusetts needs to do away with the bottle bill

You know, the bottle/can deposit thing.  Here they charge people 5 cents per beverage bottle or can, and we can get it back by taking the containers to a redemption center.  Most of the ones around here are little rooms at the supermarket, with machines in which you insert the containers.  When you’re done, it spits out a receipt, which you take to the register in the store, and you get your money.  If you have an assortment of glass, plastic, and cans, that means you have to go to three different machines.

What makes this even more of a royal PITA is the fact that there are many, many skeevy, smally people at the redemption centers, who push and shove to get to the machines, as if someone had opened up Fort Knox or something.  To make it worse, most of these people are immigrants who steal carts from Shaw’s or Stop & Shop, and walk all over town on garbage day, going through people’s garbage to look for any deposit cans or bottles that were thrown away.  These people are probably illiterate in their own languages, yet they seem to know what day is garbage day in every neighborhood in this town.

These people often leave a horrible mess after picking through the garbage.  Fortunately, they stopped going through our trash years ago, probably partly because we didn’t throw out any any deposit containers, and partly because they are very likely to open a bag and find nothing in it but used cat litter.

Also, when I’d catch them, I’d give them hell and chase them away.  For a time, I had considered filling a spray bottle with leftover juice from jars of jalapeno peppers, and spraying the offenders with it.  Kind of like what I do with the cats when they are being bad, but they only get sprayed with water.  But then I realized that these people who seem to be completely ignorant of laws and common decency, suddenly become aware, and will sue me if I were to do this.  Also, it’s illegal to carry pepper spray in Massachusetts, unless you pay some outrageous fee for a permit, and then allow a cop to spray some in your face so that you can see for yourself what the poor widdle cwiminal has to suffer with.  So I’m sure that *homemade* pepper spray is a no-no, as well.

Seriously, if you want to be a criminal, move to Massachusetts.  Criminals here have more rights than their victims do, or so it seems.

Anyhoo…some of these people can become downright violent at the redemption center, if you are using a machine and not moving fast enough for their liking.  Once I got viciously elbowed on one of my boobs by some big guy who acted like he was gonna DIE if he didn’t get his money RIGHT NOW!  What, are they afraid the store will run out of money or something?  In any case, we hate to go to any of these places, and have been putting it off for a while.  So we have a stack of boxes with empty beer bottles in them, that’s been sitting there and piling up for a while.

Last night, the cats decided it would be fun to rampage my kitchen, where said beer bottles are located.  They managed to knock over the top box, breaking several bottles in the process, the broken glass went all over the place!  So I had a big honkin’ mess to clean up.  The physical labor involved has to be one of the best fat burners ever, but not something I want to repeat.

Living in an apartment as we do, storage for the bottles is limited.  We don’t HAVE a cat-proof place to put them at the moment.  At least we can just put the cans and plastic deposit containers in a big bag, and they can’t get broken.

So this is why Massachusetts needs to do away with the bottle bill.  If there were no deposits, I could just put all of this stuff out in the recycling bin every week, and that would be the end of it.

I COULD forego the deposit money and put them in the recycling anyway, but then that would attract the skeevy people back here, the ones I made every effort to get rid of in the first place.  I’m sure that picking out of the recycle bins would not be enough for them, they’d start ripping through the garbage again, too, and leaving a big mess for us to clean up.  So I won’t do anything to encourage them!

More and more, I think we should move to New Hampshire instead of Maine.  No bottle deposits in NH.  Put ‘em all in the recycle bin, end of story.

It had to be done

‘T’ Bans Trolley Operators From Carrying Phones

Although, from the article, it looks like this applies to ALL operators, even bus drivers.  I sure as hell hope so!

As you likely know, there was a horrible crash on the Green Line of the MBTA Firday night.  Dozens of people were hurt, including the operator.  Said operator admitted that he was texting at the time of the crash.  Now, it is highly likely that he will lose his job.  As well he should.

I really hope this applies to bus drivers, too.  Many times, I’ve felt like I was taking my life into my hands by riding an MBTA bus.  Not only have I seen drivers yapping on cell phones, I’ve also seen them eating, talking to their friends on the bus, and one guy was actually reading the paper while driving.

How come I never got any response when I complained to the T about those drivers?  Does it really take a serious accident to flip the KVM switch and wake T officials up?

Yes, this does suck for the operators who use cell phones responsibly.  These are the ones who are capable of carrying a phone in their pocets, setting it to vibrate, and letting calls go to voicemail, checking messages only at break times.  But in the name of public safety, the T really has to have this ban.