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home before dark (or not)
Dec. 8th, 2024 05:21 pmThis past week was the maximum night driving one - 4/5 weeknights involved being out at night for the dance show. My part was on Friday evening. It went well enough. There was a lot of hanging around, with chatting and lounging. On two evenings I was glad to have a flashlight on the phone (to see the pay kiosk at the Arlington Center parking lot). Grateful for streetlights and my car lights, less enthused about some of the other varieties of headlights that were shining directly into my eyes.
Today I was scheduled to participate in a special ringing thing at Smith College in Northampton. I left Alewife garage yesterday at a little after two and made it to Flo's (in a different part of western MA) before dark, to visit and spend the night. Two ringing friends went with me for most of the way, and it was a pleasant trip. Having others with me meant that I could get a good picture posed with the large fake apple at the rest stop in Johnny Appleseed land (near Leominster). I have stopped there before but couldn't have done justice to it with a selfie.
The friends were very amused at the specificity of "visit north central Massachusetts" and spent a while coming up with other potential directional tourism names.
The visit with Flo & B was good. I got up this morning to find the car covered with snow. I borrowed a pair of Flo's boots and brushed everything off. The ringing didn't go exactly as expected due to a mechanical problem, but some ringing happened and then most of us went to the house of local ringers for lunch. We each stopped to get take-out. I had a banh-mi esque sandwich from a coffee shop that called itself pseudo Korean. The gochuchang mentioned in the ingredient list was not really discernable, but the kimchi mayonnaise (which they called aoli) was good enough. We had all just tested negative (some of us two days in a row), so I ate indoors with the others.
Carpools were re-arranged. I ended up driving home by myself. I didn't sleep enough last night so I was tired and stopped at rest stops on the Mass Pike, but still made it home safely before dark again.
There will be two more driving home in the dark janggu Sundays (15th and 22nd). I plan to leave the all-day Christmas eve festivities at the niece's house early. I have no idea about NYE - the Red line will be running on a rush hour schedule but the last bus is 9 PM. If there is ringing that night, I'll figure it out.
Today I was scheduled to participate in a special ringing thing at Smith College in Northampton. I left Alewife garage yesterday at a little after two and made it to Flo's (in a different part of western MA) before dark, to visit and spend the night. Two ringing friends went with me for most of the way, and it was a pleasant trip. Having others with me meant that I could get a good picture posed with the large fake apple at the rest stop in Johnny Appleseed land (near Leominster). I have stopped there before but couldn't have done justice to it with a selfie.
The friends were very amused at the specificity of "visit north central Massachusetts" and spent a while coming up with other potential directional tourism names.
The visit with Flo & B was good. I got up this morning to find the car covered with snow. I borrowed a pair of Flo's boots and brushed everything off. The ringing didn't go exactly as expected due to a mechanical problem, but some ringing happened and then most of us went to the house of local ringers for lunch. We each stopped to get take-out. I had a banh-mi esque sandwich from a coffee shop that called itself pseudo Korean. The gochuchang mentioned in the ingredient list was not really discernable, but the kimchi mayonnaise (which they called aoli) was good enough. We had all just tested negative (some of us two days in a row), so I ate indoors with the others.
Carpools were re-arranged. I ended up driving home by myself. I didn't sleep enough last night so I was tired and stopped at rest stops on the Mass Pike, but still made it home safely before dark again.
There will be two more driving home in the dark janggu Sundays (15th and 22nd). I plan to leave the all-day Christmas eve festivities at the niece's house early. I have no idea about NYE - the Red line will be running on a rush hour schedule but the last bus is 9 PM. If there is ringing that night, I'll figure it out.
