I went hiking at Blue Hills Reservation, today, for almost two hours. It's still a bit cold for hiking, but there were a lot of people out.
While there, I saw this pileated woodpecker hammering away persistently at a tree. I've only seen this kind of bird a few times; they seem to be pretty shy.
I went for a little hike at Cutler Park Reservation today. I started from the south entrance and hiked north to the Charles River.
I'm still trying to decide whether I'll be hiking here, much. For one, the trail is reasonably lengthy, but very flat. I might become bored with it after a few rounds, since I prefer hilly terrain. Secondly, it doesn't feel safe. The trail passes through a tunnel that goes under the raised bed of commuter rail track. The inside of the tunnel is completely covered in layers of graffiti and the trail is littered with garbage, too. It creeped me out walking through that area.
Some people had left their backpacks at the foot of the observation tower at Blue Hills Reservation. It was a surprise to see snowboards in the packs. It did snow yesterday, but only an inch or so. I wonder if they found anywhere to use them.
I took a nice hike over at Blue Hills Reservation today. The weather was a bit raw, but not too cold once you got moving.
This view was taken from the observation tower along the Skyline Trail. You can see the Boston skyline very faintly in the distance from here.
I bought The Fifth Vial to read on a plane ride. It is a medical conspiracy/suspense novel. It suffers from a few problems.
First, it could use a lot of trimming; I often lost interest when the author sidetracked into lengthy scenarios that did little to advance the plot or meaningfully develop characters. A suspense novel should carry you along, and this one did not do the trick for me. Second, the premise is so implausible, the conspiracy so broad, that it is just too unbelievable. This is another reason that the novel kept failing to engage me; I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief. Finally, I found most of the characters to be composed of cardboard. The bad guys were like cartoons who would snarl and sneer. The only character that interested me was Natalie Reyes, who was fleshed out in a rather reasonable fashion for the starring role in a suspense novel (by this I mean to say that suspense novels are not exactly well known for interesting characterizations).
Admittedly, I have a lot of stuff going on in my life now, so I’m probably a hard case when it comes to being distractible. If you like the suspense novels of Dan Brown, you might like this. But it’s nowhere near the quality of The Da Vinci Code. It’s more along the lines of Digital Fortress, which suffers from similar problems.
I should mention that it is well worth reading the "Author's Note" which starts on p 501. Please, if you haven't already, consider signing up as an organ donor.
While in Florida, I got to dip my toes in the ocean off of Fort Lauderdale. It was a lovely break from the cold northern winter!
This is a look down a little alley way off Las Olas. The kids seemed to be enjoying their day!
After hanging out at the Jazz Festival in Fort Lauderdale, I took a walk over to the Art Festival on Las Olas. These are some interesting mobile animal sculptures that were set up at one of the intersections along Las Olas.
I covered both the east and west coasts of Florida on my vacation... this is a view of a colorful umbrella at the Jazz Festival in Fort Lauderdale last weekend.
I've been down to Florida for a little fun and sun. It was heavenly! I even went swimming along this here beach.
For February, I read Locked in the Cabinet, Robert Reich’s memoirs of his tenure as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor. Well worth reading! This book gives us a unique, insider’s view of how and why it is so difficult to accomplish anything in government.
