On beautiful days like today when the temperature is about 74 degrees and sunny I like to head on down to Ye Ol’ Boston Commons with a book, sit on my favorite hill and soak up some rays to make up for the vitamin D deficiency I gained over the winter.  That is until this happens:

Yes, directly above where I normally lie there were three 105mm Howitzer guns ready to protect the Boston Commons from the advancing Redcoat forces.  What I came to learn was that there were no Redcoat forces but rather a parade and ceremony being held in the Commons for “The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.“  Even after reading the Wikipedia entry I still have no idea what it is.  Of course it is only in Boston where you can go to the park on a random weekday and witness something like this.  It was actually pretty cool despite the fact that I was in the direct line of fire when the Howitzers went off.  I found myself suddenly having flashbacks of Bruce Lee’s son Brandon Lee dying on set when a live round was overlooked and loaded into a weapon and thus killed him.  Luckily this was not the case with the artillery today and I live to tell the tale and Newberry Street is not in shambles.  I also realized that it’s not the noise of the cannon but the concussion that makes you mess your shorts.  Check the video:

If you watch it through to about 0:51 you’ll see the rightmost gun create a pretty cool smoke ring.  I haven’t seen a ring like that since ‘92 when I was hanging with my buddy Doug and his magic pipe “Gandolf” at a Phish show. (Doug was notorious for taking a hit off of “Gandolf” and uttering, “You shall not pass!” before taking a second hit)  Also, that never happened.  I just needed a pot smoking anecdote to relate to the smoke ring, of which I have none.

After a short while and some pomp and circumstance, the meeting of the military minded ended and I was allowed to reclaim Flagstaff Hill without having to storm the peak and take the lives of six army dudes armed only with blank 105mm shells.  As it turns out the parade on the Commons was a nice turn of events and now I have an anecdote if I ever run into anyone with a Howitzer at a party.

The 105mm guns atop Flag Staff Hill guard my sunbathing spot; Army man escapes my wrath.

After getting caught up on my friends Nate and Ingrid’s blogs [BumperSmash and iGetzIt] and seeing that the only thing that keeps my friend J.L. [LittleLostRobot] from blogging is moving to the hurricane ridden haven known as Houston (and he still twitters at that), I’m feeling that it’s time for me to post a new blog.

I’ve been saddened by the end of summer feeling that has been going on the last few weeks here in Boston.  The sun is setting noticeably sooner and the temperatures are starting to drop as well (as noticed by my roommate turning the AC up to “Frosty” from the “What’s cooler than being cool? ICE COLD!” setting.  She’s from the Midwest she claims, and likes it cold.

I must thank my lovely friend Laura for calling me up yesterday and inviting me on an impromptu trip to the beach.  It was a summer closer if you will, a last shot at warm weather, sun and surf.  One thing I must say is that I never expected there to be so many good beaches in New England.  Of the four I have visited this summer, I have four that I would call good beaches.  For some reason I expected them to be all cold and rocky like they are in the Northwest.  But alas, this is not the case.

Unfortunately the end of summer brings with it a list of things that I wasn’t able to do.   The list is very similar every year but I will still make the list in hope of not duplicating the same mistake next year.  Overall this is a list of places I keep wanting to go to:

1) Go Camping – I like camping a lot.  It’s something I equate with every summer, but this year- do to my lack of knowledge, odd work schedule and lack of friends in the area – camping has escaped me. Next year this will take high priority.

2) Go to Hawaii -  Now that my buddy Angelo lives in Hawaii, I feel I must take it upon myself to visit him and test the usability of his sofa as a bed.  This is very reasonably doable anytime of the year, so I hope I can scratch this off the list soon.  The main caveats: the 12 hour flight and the price tag that goes along with it.

3) Go to Italy (or anywhere else in Europe) – This falls under my “yearly vacation” topic.  I like to go to new foreign places but  as it turns out I never have the money or vacation time to do what I’d like.

4) Visit friends in Colorado and Utah – Okay, this one is better off for places I want to go this winter.  Tyler, Doug and Ingrid.  Get your couches ready for me.

Since people don’t like blog posts that are too long I should keep it at that.  My next post will be about “leafpeeping” and the fact that leafpeeping is an actual verb in N.E. as well as a noun (leafpeeper- one who engages in the viewing of fall foilage).  By late October I’m sure I will be one of them.

It seems that I go through very brief periods of bloggerdom (new word, check the Urban Dictionary. What’s that? Oh that’s right it’s so cool and new it’s not in there because I just invented it.) in which I post a couple of times and then I go back to living a semi-normal life just surfing the net instead of inventing it (Like what I do with words.)

So anyways, I’m finally kind of settled down in the Boston area. I live in a town called “Watertown,” named so because, well I guess it is next to the Charles River and that is water. It’s not so much a town but more like a suburb of Boston with a nice residential area, Armenians, and water. But it’s nice and quiet and only 5 minutes from my work which is why I like it.

Anyhow, I will do my best to post some new pics of me in Boston and me doing things in Boston. But for now I’ll just give you this pic of Boston that I did not take. Thanks internets.

For 7 and a half years he reigned king of sound in the Pacific Northwest.

His shows were epic; some of the highest rated in the area* and many claimed him without equal.
(*based on ratings on 2nd Sunday of the month in months with a blue moon)

He was the undisputed heavyweight champion of Audio who after a period of no feasible competition decided to pursue “other interests” in the Bay Area.

On February 13th he comes out of retirement as he’s called up to pitch for the World Champion Boston Red Sox on the New England Sports Network (NESN).

NESN might have had sound before, but now – they have Audio.

See ya in Boston.