Feb. 17, 2011
Perhaps I spoke too soon about that neighborliness in tough times thing.
The day after I posted the photo of the snowman on the bench in the Cambridge Common, someone knocked the bow-tied guy down.
Ice is making it hard to walk, and, now, there’s a layer of dirt on huge mounds of -snow to the point where it’s difficult to see where you’re going.
My friend E and I almost got killed driving on Route 2 when a car scooted out from behind a drift that must have blocked that driver’s view.
Six weeks into this, I’m rarely taking out my car: not only is it it risky to drive, but where on earth will I find a place to park when I get back?
In my neighborhood, many people still have not dug out their cars; I have, several times, but even so, to avoid driving around all night, I’ve been skipping meetings–or using public transportation when I can.
One of my neighbors decided to brave it–but when she went out to her car, she found it parked in so tightly that even the American Automobile Association couldn’t tow her out. She left an angry note, keyed the offending car, then called the police, who said they couldn’t do anything because both her car and the offender’s were illegally parked.
A student at Harvard Law who grew up in LA asked how anyone can live here for a lifetime. “It’s so depressing!” he said. I told him that some years, we don’t get any snow at all–and that, even this year, it could be worse: . he could be at Cornell Law, in Ithaca, NY or SUNY Albany, or, worse yet, Buffalo. My (I see now) obnoxious advice to him? Learn to love skiing and–chill out. Spring will come.”
Feb. 21, 2011
That was then. This is now. Over the weekend, someone bashed in the driver’s side of my parked car…I’m guessing $700 damage. And–it’s snowing again!
I say…so much for neighborliness. Like winter, evidently, it only lasts so long!
Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a marketing communications and public relations firm in Cambridge, MA.
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