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 The
weather forecast is grim as I start to write this column; high winds and
16 to 24 inches of snow might descend on my neighborhood Saturday evening
and Sunday morning. In preparation I’ll spend Saturday morning putting
gas in my snow thrower, and pulling the snow from our last storm off portions
of our house roof. Then Sunday morning I’ll spend several hours trying
to relocate all the new snow that has fallen overnight, most of which will
probably blow back on me if we get the forecast 20-30 mph winds. I’ll end
up no doubt cold and my back will be complaining. Can someone explain to
me why I should find winter wonderful?
The storm was even worse than initially projected, as I found out when I opened the garage door on Sunday morning. The high winds had drifted the snow into truly amazing depths around our house – over 6 feet of snow buried our grill. Guess we’ll not be cooking outdoors for awhile. My garden tractor snow thrower struggled to blast out of our garage and down the driveway. An hour and a half later I’d cleared a path to the street, momentarily pleased with my progress, but knowing I’d have to do the job all over again later in the day. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have played a playoff football game in Foxboro in the midst of one of the worst winter storms to have hit Boston. As I drove home from work the previous Friday evening I couldn’t help but notice how gray all the cars on the highway looked. The rare relatively clean car stood out like the proverbial sore thumb. The salt spread on the roads ends up on our cars as a disgusting patina. The cold weather we’ve been experiencing and the nearly daily snow fall makes keeping a clean car an impossible task. The other problem with driving in the winter is the constant pelting your car takes from the stones and gravel kicked up off the highway. I know when I finally do clean my car; I’ll find lots of new stone nicks in the paint. Hopefully my windshield will survive the daily assault. I’m not a regular user of the Big Dig related highway improvements in Boston, so I can’t speak with much authority on the overall benefits of the project. What I do notice however when I venture into Boston is that traffic does seem to be moving noticeably quicker. I happened to use the new eastbound tunnel on Storrow Drive a couple of times recently, which saved lots of time getting onto the Zakim Bridge. No more waiting in a long line of traffic on Storrow Drive waiting for the stop light at Leveritt Circle to change. Several weeks ago I returned back to Boston arriving at Logan late in the evening, and wasn’t paying much attention as I drove out of the airport. I suddenly found myself in the Ted Williams Tunnel instead of Route 1 North. No problem, I just zipped through the new tunnel took a couple of turns and exits at speed and found myself headed north through Boston back up on the Zakim Bridge. That might actually be a quicker way home for me, than driving up old Route 1 through a number of stop lights. Now that more lanes through the southbound I-93 tunnel in Boston are open I suspect any travel I make through Boston to the south will also progress at a more satisfying pace. I’ll get my chance to experience rush hour Boston traffic in six weeks or so, when I’ll have meetings in Boston on four consecutive days. Then I’ll be commuting between the new convention center and the Sheraton Hotel at Prudential Center. Should be a little more challenging than my daily drive from Boxford to Gloucester. Is it my imagination or in fact have the Detroit auto manufacturers started to build more interesting vehicles on a regular basis. GM unveiled the next generation Corvette at the Detroit and Los Angeles auto shows a few weeks ago. The specs for the new car are pretty impressive, with awesome performance numbers, big time horsepower, and pretty affordable in comparison to Porsche’s offerings. Autoweek noted that you could purchase 9 new Corvettes for the price of one new Porsche Carrera GT. Ford has the new GT (I wouldn’t mind owning one of them) and the new Mustang (which is getting pretty good reviews from the automobile magazines). Daimler Chrysler can’t make enough of their 300 C coupes, another pretty interesting car with good performance numbers and affordable to boot. Ford is also building a more potent F350 Super Duty truck capable of towing 19,000 lbs, a vehicle I may have to consider as an upgrade to our current Ford F350 tow vehicle. While I’m currently depressed about winter, there are a few positive things on the horizon. This week the annual Barrett Jackson Auction in Scottsdale will be broadcast on the Speed Channel. I camp out in front of the TV for hours fascinated with the prices paid for ‘60’s muscle cars in particular. In early February I can watch the 24 Hours of Daytona, prior to hopefully watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl. The region will then have a special event featuring columnist and author Brock Yates. Finally the NASCAR season opens with the classic Daytona 500. I heard positive comments from several readers of this publication about our new improved front cover design. The new look is more contemporary and certainly freshens the look of our magazine. The new improved design of the index page makes finding things in the Nor’Easter a bit easier. The new design and lots of interesting contributors and articles makes this a worthwhile addition to your monthly reading material. Which brings me to my closing comment, and that is to remind you that we must receive your 2005 newsletter subscription by February 15th or you will not receive future issues. You can find a subscription form elsewhere in this publication or on our web site, just click on the current edition link. |
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