The granite tabletop is now in Methuen...
Dec. 4th, 2005 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pseydtonneBoston is onion layer upon layer of suburbs. With each passing decade the layers of suburbia accrete. What had once been impossibly outer space gets a second Panera and a fourteenth strip mall. However, Boston's suburbs grow a lot more slowly those of most American cities because there is such a strong center to the place. To be fair, the end of rent control in the late Nineties in Boston and Cambridge probably had a huge effect. In turn, there is still a strong sense by the native residents that anything beyond the inner ring road of the metropolis, route 128, is "way out there".
Some of this is tied to the deeply parochial nature of each town being its own civic island in Massachusetts. There are technically counties in the Comm of Mass but they only exist when you get a court date. When there are deep potholes on the main drag in your town, you'd better hope the property and excise taxes are enough to raise the funds.
I bring this up because my technically former landlady looked at me like I was nuts last week when I told her I had found a storage locker in Methuen. Methuen is on the New Hampshire border about 25 minutes up I-93 when it's not rush hour. It's no big shakes but it's cheap ($135/mo for 100 sq ft including insurance versus about $180 in town), open 15 hours every day and very secure. She has a hard time perceiving a world beyond the towns that border her. This is very common here.
Everything I have left to move could be moved using my car. This is good. I emptied nearly all of the closets, all the glassware, all the clothing and any non-collapsible furniture. I am proud of myself and that a whole bunch of people could help me today such as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tkitch, Jon of Twucky and Kibo.
Kibo dealt with keeping me sane: he brought a copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special, a CBS made-for-TV movie from 1978. This is traumatizing if you've never seen it. I know it's the cult thing floating around these days and I can see why. The version he has is on DVD and made from what must be a 3/4" video copy because the resolution is clear, the dropouts are minimal and the commercials from the Baltimore affiliate are still in there.
The commercials help the most. Suddenly there's the old "Comtrex. That's all. Nothing else." rivalled by the trippy Contac ad where the finger open the capsule and hundreds of colored beads of drug pour out slowly and hypnotically. There is a commercial for panty hose with a "cotton crotch" to let the air through. I looked at that and thought, "c'mon! That's... ummm... hand-in slot waiting to be cut! Right?"
Can you imagine buying a station wagon for $4142? I mean, wow! Can you imagine a full-length commercial from a union telling you IN SONG how important it is to look for the union label? You look at these non-actor people singing about this in polyester outfits I wouldn't sautee a Mormon in and think, "if I get to own cotton clothing that doesn't look like an assault from the God of Muu-Muu, then it was worth ruining ILGWU." Maybe I felt like that because the ad came right after a GM ad promoting the people that make the cars and how into the quality they are. I just screamed back at the television, "you're plopping paste on the body instead of welding it! No wonder these cars were shit."
Then Bea Arthur sang a song as the proprietor of the Cantina closing the joint for the night and I refocused my trauma. Carrie Fisher was... blitzed, dag nabbit. Mark Hamill was so young! Jefferson Starship was getting so middle aged. Strangely, Harvey Corman was in top form: he had his physical humor down tight.
So yeah, about three more car loads and I should... maybe... I hope... be done. I still haven't told the Russian Night at the Middle East Downstairs story but that will have to wait.
-sleepy le beef, Dante
Some of this is tied to the deeply parochial nature of each town being its own civic island in Massachusetts. There are technically counties in the Comm of Mass but they only exist when you get a court date. When there are deep potholes on the main drag in your town, you'd better hope the property and excise taxes are enough to raise the funds.
I bring this up because my technically former landlady looked at me like I was nuts last week when I told her I had found a storage locker in Methuen. Methuen is on the New Hampshire border about 25 minutes up I-93 when it's not rush hour. It's no big shakes but it's cheap ($135/mo for 100 sq ft including insurance versus about $180 in town), open 15 hours every day and very secure. She has a hard time perceiving a world beyond the towns that border her. This is very common here.
Everything I have left to move could be moved using my car. This is good. I emptied nearly all of the closets, all the glassware, all the clothing and any non-collapsible furniture. I am proud of myself and that a whole bunch of people could help me today such as
tkitch, Jon of Twucky and Kibo.Kibo dealt with keeping me sane: he brought a copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special, a CBS made-for-TV movie from 1978. This is traumatizing if you've never seen it. I know it's the cult thing floating around these days and I can see why. The version he has is on DVD and made from what must be a 3/4" video copy because the resolution is clear, the dropouts are minimal and the commercials from the Baltimore affiliate are still in there.
The commercials help the most. Suddenly there's the old "Comtrex. That's all. Nothing else." rivalled by the trippy Contac ad where the finger open the capsule and hundreds of colored beads of drug pour out slowly and hypnotically. There is a commercial for panty hose with a "cotton crotch" to let the air through. I looked at that and thought, "c'mon! That's... ummm... hand-in slot waiting to be cut! Right?"
Can you imagine buying a station wagon for $4142? I mean, wow! Can you imagine a full-length commercial from a union telling you IN SONG how important it is to look for the union label? You look at these non-actor people singing about this in polyester outfits I wouldn't sautee a Mormon in and think, "if I get to own cotton clothing that doesn't look like an assault from the God of Muu-Muu, then it was worth ruining ILGWU." Maybe I felt like that because the ad came right after a GM ad promoting the people that make the cars and how into the quality they are. I just screamed back at the television, "you're plopping paste on the body instead of welding it! No wonder these cars were shit."
Then Bea Arthur sang a song as the proprietor of the Cantina closing the joint for the night and I refocused my trauma. Carrie Fisher was... blitzed, dag nabbit. Mark Hamill was so young! Jefferson Starship was getting so middle aged. Strangely, Harvey Corman was in top form: he had his physical humor down tight.
So yeah, about three more car loads and I should... maybe... I hope... be done. I still haven't told the Russian Night at the Middle East Downstairs story but that will have to wait.
-sleepy le beef, Dante
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-04 04:22 pm (UTC)I live in an onion!!!!!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-04 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-04 04:37 pm (UTC)The cyberporn bit was also fascinating.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-05 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-11 11:12 pm (UTC)heh. he hee heeee! nice.