65 years ago today...

November 28, 1942 was the day of the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston.


I've never seen this sidewalk plaque located on Piedmont, but I'm going to make a point of hunting it down next time I'm in the general area...


A good book regarding this tragedy is "Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and it's Aftermath," by John C. Esposito. Uh, It might be the ONLY book about Cocoanut Grove, but it's quite good none-the-less.

The bastard in the basement.

I love owning my house but, there is one aspect of home-owning that I hate. I hate dealing with my heating system. I have a boiler in my basement that is at least 75 years old. It's the bane of my existence during cold weather.

I'm constantly running down to the basement to check on it, swearing under my breath as I approach the monster. I'm constantly touching radiators to make sure they are warm. I question the reading on my thermostat. The father in "The Christmas Story's" battle with his boiler is no longer funny to me. Now I relate and sympathize. AHHH!

Also, the bastard in my basement is covered in a thick layer of asbestos, so removing it in order to replace it will be an expensive hassle.

Luckily, my friend is dating a swell guy who deals with this crap for a living, so he fixes and tunes up everything for me for free. Otherwise, I'd already be out several hundred dollars this year. (Actually not free, I pay him in dinners.)

I'm going to switch to natural gas in the next few years, and I hope the damn boiler lasts until then.

Damn it.

Sack o' fun

I wish they still made this product. It's so weird...

I can actually hear you now.

Went to a show this weekend, which is nothing of note because I go to a lot of shows. But this was different... I could hear the vocals! It was amazing!

Normally at shows, the drums get mic-ed and end up too high in the mix, thus drowning out everything else that's on stage. It's maddening.

Jim Heath wrote an article called "How Sound Men are Ruining Rock 'n Roll", about the drum problem at shows, it's quite good and explains the drum problem better than I can...
http://www.reverendhortonheat.com/rev_updates/07_01_19.php

The sound guys at Toad's Place this weekend did a really great job. It was one of the best shows I've ever been to, in terms of sound quality. I feel like I should send them a muffin basket or something... it was that impressive.

(Oddly, this show I went to this weekend with the fantastic sound quality, was Jim's band, The Reverend Horton Heat.)

It's a White Oleander

On Saturday, I took my sister to get a tattoo from "my" tattoo artist...

Oil oil everywhere, and not a drop to spare.

I filled up my heating oil tank for the first time this year. Heating oil is so expensive that I nearly vomited when I opened the bill.
Last year I made it through the entire Winter on a little over one tank, and I'm hoping to do that again this year.

Heating oil burns about one gallon an hour, which adds up to about $3.17 an hour right now. The small space heater that heats up my living room quite nicely runs at about 13 cents an hour. Soooo, I'll be keeping my boiler temperature quite low and running the space heater a bit more. What can I say? I'm cheap!

So if you plan on stopping by for a visit, bring a sweater! And a hat! A scarf would probably be a good idea as well!

cherry!

I normally don't post too much bag lunch related stuff on this blog, but this is worth mentioning...

Bag Lunch has donated some limited edition balms to help a great gal out with her medical bills. Visit the link below to buy one...

http://cherrybrat.livejournal.com/231554.html

Go buy one! Medical bills are expensive!

What are you supposed to be?

Yesterday was Halloween. Here is a list of all the "Trick or Treaters" that came to my door...

three princesses

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Not sure which one. It was the one who wears the orange eye mask. Michalangelo I think.

ninja

kid in a full chicken suit

little kid in just regular clothes with one of those tiny fake handlebar moustaches glued to his face. It should be noted that his 3 college age brothers and his Father came to the door with candy bags as well. They weren't dressed up, but they out-numbered me so I gave them candy too. Jerks.

Three kids in regular street clothes. Looked like they would pummel me so they got candy, even though they weren't dressed up. Again, jerks.

dalmation

Some sort of fairy

little boy dressed as a lady

kid with regular clothes on, but wearing a skull mask

Some kid's mother dressed as a giant fat naked lady. Disturbing.

vampire

the killer from the "Scream" movies

two snotty high school girls that were "too cold to dress up." I gave them candy, but I hope they get cavities.

a kid in regular clothes, holding a fake head

sugar plum fairy

flapper

some sort of broken whore doll. I would never call a little kid a whore. This girl was a senior in high school, and was dressed like a whorish doll. Gross.

zorro

a medieval something

wizard of some sort

the tiniest superman I've ever seen

darth vader

This is only my second year in Suburbia, so I feel compelled to give out good candy. I don't want to be the new neighbor who is known for giving out like, "maryJanes" or Canadian mints. So I handed out big handfuls of gummy things and blow-pops.

Also, I feel like Halloween is sort of similar to when the mob shows up to your deli and makes you pay for 'protection." I feel like if I give these little jerks candy, they won't steal shit off my lawn or whatever, and won't look the other way if my house is burning down. Maybe. I don't know.