Tag: Boston is our home

So much going on this past week. Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Perhaps, now that things are finally starting to calm down somewhat (and I am getting some sleep), I can get back to posting regularly on here.  It has been an eventful week.

First, a hearty congratulations to my nephew Will, who earned his Eagle Scout rank this week.  He worked hard for it, and deserves a lot of credit for being a pretty disciplined young man.  He was also fortunate to get a lot of support from friends and family, especially his mom (my sister Liz) and his dad (my brother-in-law Dan).   He’ll be off for college next year.  Eeek, I am old.

Continue reading “So much going on this past week. Oh, and Happy Halloween!”

Autumn in New England

It has been kind of strange that we had such a dry, warm September, and there have been some warm days in October too.  But I think you can’t deny that fall has finally arrived in Greater Boston.

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Goodbye to an honorary Bostonian

Kelly and I were dumbstruck when we heard that Robin Williams died.

And we are not alone.  Our fellow Bostonians have spontaneously created a memorial to him in the Public Garden, on and around the bench where he sat during one of the most pivotal scenes in the movie Good Will Hunting.  

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The World Cup, Dinner and Wardrobe Choices

So here’s a story about something that happened to us a while ago when the U.S. played Portugal in the World Cup.

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Send some love to Keytar Bear

If you live in the Boston area, odds are at some point you have seen Keytar Bear performing in or near an MBTA station.  He’s one of those quirky things about Boston that I love so much.

But he will not be performing for a while, to the loss of all commuters.

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Boston Strong all over again

Yesterday there was another tragedy in our fair city.  A fire broke out in the Back Bay, one of the more tightly packed areas of the city, both architecturally and in terms of traffic.  It quickly went to 9 alarms, sent 18 people to the hospital, destroyed the 4 story building where it started, and killed 2 firefighters.

9 city blocks were closed through this morning as 40+ mph winds whipped the fire into a frenzy.  Backdraft type conditions made the fire merciless and the brave men and women kept fighting even when they knew that one of their comrades lay dead at the bottom of the building.  Even when the fire leapt through the roof and reached for the sky, when floors collapsed and sprayed the surrounding houses with showers of embers, and when the smoke was so thick we could see it from Cambridge, they fought on for hours.

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We have come a long way indeed

Wow.

The new cover of Sports Illustrated talks about this amazing World Series win and features Big Papi and the three Boston police officers from some of the most iconic photos on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing.  Those same three officers had been on a previous cover shortly after the bombing.

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Fall is here… so long, summer…

And don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

Seriously, I have been wanting summer to go away for some time now, and not just because fall is my favorite season.  Largely because I am tired of being hot all the time.  Sure, we have some window AC units at home, but it is still not as cool in the house as I would like.  And my major place of employment is an 18th century building with no AC.

But I always try to find silver linings.

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Boston Strong

It’s been a little over a week since downtown blew up and everything went to hell, but since then Boston Strong has become the catchphrase for how we’ve all held up.  The whole tough New Englander attitude, some would say “crusty”, is well known.  We’re tough people and down through generations we’ve been through a lot.

I have no idea who it was who coined the phrase.  I hope it wasn’t some marketing VP somewhere who’s made a mint from it.  It has helped, and it has spawned Watertown Strong and Collier Strong, on their own indications of what we’ve been through separately and together and how we’ll persevere.

Check out some of the images, below the cut, that have come up in the last week plus that I’ve liked the best or that I think are the funniest representation of Boston Strong.

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We will bounce back

Now that I have had some time to sort of process the events of the past week, I think I have managed to sort it all out inside my head.  And so yesterday when a friend and parishioner asked me how I was doing and what I made of all this, I told him what I thought.

I said “This is Boston.  We’ll bounce back.  We always do.”

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