Blizzard 2015 Part 3

El and I survived the storm. We didn't loose power, and the snow was light so shoveling wasn't that bad. Here's vidoe of the snow winding down.



And some video of El and I driving around the next day.



And some photos from the day after the storm.

Driving around the day after the storm.

A photo posted by Jeremy Halsdorff (@bluesmanjay) on Jan 28, 2015 at 9:52am PST

Blizzard 2015 Part 2

A couple hours have passed. Still snowing. Piling up. Not as bad as I thought it would be, but still a lot of snow.




And here's El walking around in the snow.

Eskimo El!

A photo posted by Jeremy Halsdorff (@bluesmanjay) on Jan 27, 2015 at 8:37am PST

A photo posted by Jeremy Halsdorff (@bluesmanjay) on Jan 27, 2015 at 8:44am PST

A photo posted by Jeremy Halsdorff (@bluesmanjay) on Jan 27, 2015 at 8:45am PST

A photo posted by Jeremy Halsdorff (@bluesmanjay) on Jan 27, 2015 at 8:45am PST

Blizzard 2015 Part 1

Both El and I thought it would be good to post periodically to our websites through out the storm. Here's some videos and photos that I've taken so far.

Blizzard 2015.

A photo posted by Jeremy Halsdorff (@bluesmanjay) on Jan 27, 2015 at 5:38am PST

Spider Gates and Eliot Hill Burial Ground

El and I like to hike. While I was searching out and planning our excursion to the Quabbin Reservoir to see the "lost towns" I came across something interesting. In Leicester there is a cemetery in the middle of the forest. It actually lays in the watershed that provides water to Worcester. Everyone calls the cemetery Spider Gates, due to the awesome iron gates at the cemetery.

As I started to investigate Spider Gates I found out that just about everyone knows of this cemetery. Everyone knows about it because it has a reputation for being haunted, and other kinds of strange phenomenon. Apparently Spider Gates is the 8th gate to hell, someone hanged themselves from one of the trees, a particular grave will talk to you, and there are all kinds of strange noises that can be heard in the cemetery at night.

Well, none of these things seems to be correct, except for maybe the strange noises as there are cows not too far from here. In fact Spider Gates is a cemetery that is still active. It is a Quaker cemetery, and it's official name is "Worcester Friends Cemetery". The last burial that El and I could find at the cemetery took place in 2010, while the earliest took place in the 1750's. This particular cemetery seems very peaceful, and I for one can understand why someone would want to be interned there.

Check out some photos from Worcester Friends Cemetery:




Worcester Friends Cemetery got me curious as to what other interesting cemeteries are around. As I dug a little I found a small abandoned cemetery call Eliot Hill Burial Ground. Just like Spider Gates this cemetery is in the middle of the forest. To reach it, you literally have to walk through some one's back yard.

Eliot Hill Burial Ground is also located in Leicester. From what I could find this cemetery was old. It had about a half dozen or so Revolutionary War Veterans buried there. From what I could find online the cemetery was abandoned, or no longer used, sometime in the mid 1800's. However, when El and I visited, we saw two graves just to the right of the entrance that had burial dates in the 1950's.

Overall this cemetery is in disrepair. Many of the headstones are leaning, or have fallen. It was interesting to see this cemetery, as it obviously has a lot of history. It is too bad that no one took good care of it. Currently the town of Leicester is responsible for this cemetery.

Take a look at a few photos from Eliot Hill Burial Ground:

Bobby V!

After one year with the Red Sox Bobby Valentine is gone. The day after the last game of the season, he was fired.  Bobby V was going to fix everything. Last year was the "Chicken and Beer" debacle. Terry Francona had lost the club house. Enter Valentine. He was brash, and spoke his mind. He wasn't going to let the players get away with anything. No beer, no chicken, not on his watch.

What ended up happening is, Bobby V never had control. The front office didn't let him bring in his own coaching staff. Nothing worked right. He had problems with coaches, players, and ownership. At one point players even went over his head to ownership to complain about him.

Bobby V never had control. He was never given the opportunity to take control. Bobby Valentine was a scapegoat from day one. The Sox never thought he was their guy. They never wanted him here in Boston.

So one day after the season ends, Bobby Valentine gets fired. The saddest part is, no one in Red Sox Nation is shocked. We've all known that he would not be back next season. Hell, Valentine knew it. It's just sad that the Sox would set him up to fail so bad, and waste a whole season in the process.

The Occupy Movement

There are several cities that currently have protesters occupying them. Among those cities is Boston. I have a few different feelings about Occupy Boston.

First, I think that the general idea of the Occupy movement is sound. We, the taxpayers of the United States, game huge sums of money to the Banks and Wall Street. Part of the deal was that if we helped bail them out, the banks would return the favor and help bail us out by renegotiating the bad loans people had gotten themselves into. That's not happening.

Second, every citizen has the right of Freedom of Speech, and the right to Peacefully Assemble. The Occupiers are exercising those rights.

Now I have some problems with the Occupy movement. For example, I would guess a good 95% of the people down at the protests don't have a clue what they are protesting. These are the people who end up on the news or in the paper. Never are the people who have a clue interviewed.

The other big issue I have is, that while they have the right to Peacefully Assemble, that does not give them the right to camp out in the park. If they want to be there and protest that's one thing. I don't think they should be camping out. Camping is a past time, not a protest.

The cities across the country with Occupiers in them are currently trying to figure out what to do with them. I don't really know what to do, but I can say that the cities need to be careful and not infringe on the rights of guaranteed by the Constitution.

NFL

After a long off season of doubt, the NFL is back. Football is one of the greatest games to watch. Football comes during a time of year when life is a little slower, sprinkled with moments of shear chaos. Fall and winter. I know I tend to hang around the house more. The chaos comes with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all packed so close together. Here's hoping that the Patriots go all the way!

France Bans Islamic Veils

After almost 2 years of debate, the French government has passed a law that bans anyone from wearing a face covering veil in public. This law at it's heart really only applies to Muslim women, who wear a face covering veil, called a niqab.

The governments position is, France is a secular state and therefore the veils are at the opposition to that belief. As a secular state France feels that the veils are oppressive to Muslim women. The government feels that Muslim women are forced to wear the veils.

The fact is many Muslim women are forced to wear the face covering veils. Many more are not forced to, and wear them out of religious beliefs. There are millions of Muslim women who wear the veil out of reverence for their beliefs. It's not too disimilar from the millions of Christians who will abstain from meat during the lent season, as it is important to them.

As a secular nation, maybe France should also make sure everyone has a nice big juicy hamburger on Friday's during lent, while not wearing their face covering veils!