New England

May 26, 2004

Our Ladies Help of Christians

Yesterday was a sad day in the 100 year history of Our Ladies Help of Christians church in West Concord. Fr. Fleming receive news that the church was one of the 65 parishes that will close in December. This comes as a surprise since the church is fairly active, it raised $17,028.85 to build 4 homes in Haiti.

According to the Associated Press:

Parishes on the list to be closed may appeal to O'Malley. If that fails they can appeal to the Vatican, but only on procedural grounds, not simply on their belief that their church should remain open, said the Rev. Christopher Coyne, an archdiocesan spokesman.

You can learn more about Our Ladies Help of Christians by visiting their website.

January 16, 2004

Record Cold in New England!

Hard to believe but it was -6.2 degrees this morning in Concord Mass. Today's cold weather has broken all records in New England. WBZ was reporting -10 at their studios in Newton. All the digital thermostats in Concord recorded record lows overnight.

I tried a trick that I saw on TV last night: I heated some water in a coffee mug for 4 minutes in the microwave and then went out side and threw the water in the air. About 80% of the water disappeared and the remaining about hit the ground. Its a pretty cool effect.

Over 330 schools in Massachusetts closed or had delay openings. Which is unheard of since this usually happens around a major snow storm. Most Superintendent of Schools didn't want their students to be waiting for the bus in the freezing temperatures. I would suspect that movie matinees will be crowded today. Expect big numbers for Disney's Teacher's Pet, which is the only G rated movie that opens today.

There is also talk of rolling black outs in New England! I was wondering what happened to former California Governor Gray Davis. The reason for the black outs is because the high amount of Natural Gas use to heat homes and business has caused some of the Natural Gas power plants to close. The power plant closures and the increase of power, due to the cold weather, has put a strain on the power grid. I don't think this will be a problem due to the large number of school closings.

January 14, 2004

Cold Day in New England

This morning it was -3 in Concord, Massachusetts and local weather forecasters say today will be the coldest day in more than 20 years! As cold as it may get today, tomorrow its expected to be even colder! I'll have to buy a book on Global Warming, and see why this is a problem.

Today's photo isn't accurate of how cold it is, since the heat from the house makes it appear warmer than it is.

New Traffic Lights
In downtown Chelmsford new traffic lights were put in this past week. This is sort of an odd type of thing to do in New England, in the middle of Winter. These lights are replacing a really bad four way intersection of Route 4 and 27. I am not sure if it will help the morning commute, but it should help make my evening commute better.

January 09, 2004

Cold days of January

This morning it was 1.6 degrees in Concord, Massachusetts. Today's high is expected to be about 10 degrees! The cold weather has hit all of New England and New York. Local weather forcasters were quick to point out that the temperature in Alaska will be warmer than in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tomorrows Patriots game against the Titans will not be another snow bowl, however at the start of the game the temperature may hit below zero. The three coldest NFL games on record were all won by the home team. Hope this is a good sign for tomorrow's game. Go Patriots!

December 19, 2003

Friday Traffic

I am predicting that the communte this morning and this afternoon will be lighter than normal. This is based on a theory that most people take the Friday before Christmas off to do holiday shopping. The Mass Pike was very quiet this morning, as was many of the back roads.

Red Sox & Alex Rodriguez
Most of the Boston media is reporting, this morning, that the deal to bring Alex Rodriguez to Boston is dead. My theory was that it wasn't ever supposed to happen. It was just a strategy that Theo Epstein was using to scare George Steinbrenner. The Red Sox had the best offense in Baseball in 2003, there is no need to add more strength to the offense. The main weakness was the pitching and they have fix that problem by bringing on Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke.

I think the Red Sox management knew that the Rodriguez deal was a long shot, but figured the publicity could help season ticket sales. We'll see what happens, but I don't think that 'Rodriguez' name has been printed on any Red Sox jersey.