An Investment in Retaining my Sanity

I've been in Ithaca since October 14th, 2004. I passed papers on my house on Septemeber 27th, 2004. I first visited Ithaca over Ithaca Festival weekend 2004 (June 5th, 2004). Before moving to Ithaca, the Southern Tier, the Finger Lakes Region, New York State, I lived in Boston, Massachusetts and I was a big fan of the city and the hometown baseball team. I am still a fan of a lot of things about Massachusetts (the education system; the politics - statewide, Bostonwide and local races; my friends who have decided to stay in Boston; the Red Sox; free marriage laws; the local farms; and oh did I mention Taxachusetts taxes may be less than NY?).

As I wrote in January of 2005:

It is almost as if I was still in Boston. I think my feeling is often that of an immigrant here. I always wondered when my Russian friends friends would gravitate to Russian grocery stores and Russian newspapers and Russian music, instead of quickly embracing all that is the United States. Now I understand the disconnect. You gravitate naturally to what you know and what you like. Sometimes new business open up for a specific group of new immigrants. Perhaps Ithaca needs a Boston store with authentic Boston items (no baked beans allowed!).

So to retain my sanity in the hot summer and plan for just one scheduled visit to Boston between now and September, here are a few links to keep me aligned with Boston:

Mayor Menino (of Boston) is now podcasting! Check out the first podcast here (from June 12th): http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycast/media_files/citycast_ep1.mp3
( This edition is focused on Aim for Peace, Boston's gun buy back program, and a new anti-violence song by four talented local hip hop artists. )

MLB.com's gameday audio package: I wasn't going to buy into this, but it is just $14.95 for the whole season and you can listen to the local radio broadcast of every baseball game of the season. I bought in on Sunday night and have listened to all three of this week's broadcasts. It is wonderful beyond words to have the laptop in the kitchen here in Ithaca and have Joe and Jerry from WEEI calling the game while I prepare dinner. This is really a small investment to retain some sanity throughout this long baseball season. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/subscriptions/gameday_audio.jsp

Boston.com is covering the race for governor here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/governor/
My buddy is working for one of the candidates. I actually worked with / for one of the candidates in 2004, well at least he signed the checks. That was a different time, but it is fun to see the race, I wish sometimes I was still involved.

Finally, sometimes when you are here in Ithaca and the weather is just right and you are in just the right mood, drive you car around and tune into AM 1030. It is the local Boston AM news station (so you get traffic on the 3's, sports at 15 and 45 past the hour, and news throughout the day). The traffic reports won't help you when you are five hours away, but I guess you have to take what you can get from a broadcast tower that sits on top of New Hampshire's Mount Washington.

Comments

[Dave]

Turns out there is a Boston Themed Bar in L.A. called "Sonny McLean's" - http://www.sonnymcleans.com/index.htm

And another one in NYC called Boston 212 - http://www.boston212.com/

[James]

On a clear summer night I too can listen to WBZ, great in the winter for the Bruins games! I bought the MLB radio package at the begining of the season and love it too! NHL.com gives free radio brodcasts of every NHL game too. I found a FM radio transmitter on ebay for $25. It makes any FM radio a wireless speaker for you computer. When I have it up and running any radio within the house in backyard area tuned to 106.9 (an open channel here) will let me listn to the Sox! Cool little device. go SOX!!! 6 in a row!