Arrrrgh! My eyes!

I’ve got a couple of items in my head that I’m wanting to write about, but I can hardly keep my eyes open long enough to write. Not because I’m terribly tired, but because my allergies have finally kicked in over the last few days and my eyes are an itching burning bloodshot mess.

I guess I could do more to minimize the symptoms, but I refuse to hermetically seal myself in the house when the weather is as nice as it’s been this weekend. The Allegra and Nasonex and Optivar eye drops help, but I still feel like I want to take my eyes out and put them in the fridge for six weeks.

To make matters worse, I’m umpiring a Little League game tomorrow night and I’ll really be feeling it after 2 1/2 hours in a pollen haze. Hopefully it will rain…

Tags: Allergies Allegra Nasonex Optivar

Gas Price Map

Ever wondered what the price of gas is in another part of the country, or how it compares with the price of gas at home?

GasBuddy.com has a neat interactive US map showing the average price of gas in each county. (link via the super-right wing Human Events Online)

Tags: Gas prices

Your mileage may vary

In yesterday’s Washington Post, columnist Dana Milbank had a wry look at the hypocrisy of many congressmen and women who spent the day decrying high gas prices as their big SUVs idled nearby:

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it’s time for another round of congressional finger-pointing.

“Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!” charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. “They are too cozy with the oil industry.”

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) — even though her Senate office was only a block away.

…..

At about the same time, House Republicans were meeting in the Capitol for their weekly caucus (Topic A: gas). The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans (14 mpg).

…..

After lunchtime votes, senators emerged from the Capitol for the drive across the street to their offices.

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg). Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15). Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14). Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17). Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).

Next came Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Menendez had complained that Bush “remains opposed to higher fuel-efficiency standards.”

Also waiting: three Suburbans, a Nissan Armada V8, two Cadillacs and a Lexus. The greenest senator was Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who was picked up by his hybrid Toyota Prius (60 mpg), at quadruple the fuel efficiency of his Indiana counterpart Evan Bayh (D), who was met by a Dodge Durango V8 (14).

Millbank was able to clear his head of the fumes created by all of those gas guzzlers to see the point that most of Washington seems to be missing:

America may be addicted to oil, as President Bush puts it. But America is in the denial phase of this addiction — as evidenced by the behavior of its lawmakers. They have proposed all kinds of solutions to high gas prices: taxes on oil companies, domestic oil drilling and releasing petroleum reserves. But they ignore the obvious: that Americans drive too much in too-big cars.

In the interest of full disclosure, our small SUV and compact car are rated at 27 and 34 MPG highway respectively.

Tags: Republican DemocratCongress Senate Gas prices

Sentinel: Monty’s to relocate, not close

Today’s Sentinel and Enterprise had a short update on the Monty’s Garden story. While the restaurant is slated to be razed for a Walgreens, the current owners say they plan to relocate the business:

LEOMINSTER — The owners of Monty’s Garden restaurant say that if a agreement involving the sale of their building goes through, they will relocate.

“It still is not a definite deal,” said Leslie Frechette, referring to proposed plans from a Peabody-based development company to demolish the building at 35 Central St. and replace it with a Walgreens drug store.

How can we ensure that Monty’s relocates to another site in Leominster and that another chain restaurant doesn’t come in and put more pressure on local eateries? The town should work with New England Development to ensure that Monty’s can move to one of the two proposed restaurant sites on their plan for development on rte. 117.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Walgreens New England Development

Close to Home (Friends and Neighbors in the News II)

On Sunday, a young woman and her unborn child were killed by a drunk driver in Lancaster. The story has been all over the news here, and in Tuesday’s newspapers we started to learn a little more about the victims. As tragic as it is, it hit especially close to home because of the eerie similarities between Michelle and I and the family that was tragically broken in the crash.

According to the Sentinel and Enterprise, Katelin DiSessa was schedule to give birth to her baby boy in late May, had been to her shower on April 1, and had recently finished the baby’s room. She was killed when the drunk driver struck the SUV she and the baby’s father were riding in around 6:00 pm Sunday on Sterling Street (rte. 62), as they headed back to their home in Leominster. They had been visiting his parents in Clinton.

Michelle and I are expecting the last week of May. We celebrated our baby shower on April 2, and have recently finished furnishing Jackson’s room. On any given Sunday evening, we could be found driving our SUV up Sterling Street to our home in Leominster after a visit to Rota Spring Farms for ice cream or to my parents in Clinton.

The other thing that caught my eye in the article was the name of the officer on the scene, a friend I knew from my days teaching at AUC:

[James] Rousseau, after the crash, kept asking if his bride-to-be would be all right, according to Lancaster Police Officer Juan D. Ramos.

“All he said was, ‘Is she going to be OK?’” Ramos wrote in his police report, which graphically described the scene where DiSessa was trapped inside the SUV.

Steven Fugure, an off-duty Sterling police officer, witnessed the wreck and told Ramos he was driving behind the couple’s SUV when Zoller began driving straight at them, according to Ramos’ report.

Rousseau, who was heading west, swerved to the left to avoid Zoller’s white 2003 Ford van, but the van struck the passenger’s side of the SUV, Fugere told Ramos, according to Ramos’ report.

Zoller smelled like alcohol, slurred his words and had bloodshot eyes when he spoke to Ramos after the crash, according to Ramos’ report.

Police arrested Zoller after he failed field sobriety tests, according to Ramos.

I can’t imagine the grief that father and fiance must be feeling, but reading the account I was also struck with how difficult these sorts of tragedies must be on the police, fire, EMTs, etc. that have to respond. In addition to Juan, I know that a friend of my sister-in-law also was on the scene as an EMT, and I probably know some of the other emergency personnel that were called to the scene. The Lancaster Times and Clinton Courier had a story today on how they try to deal with the experience.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Lancaster Clinton Drunk Driving Accident Atlantic Union

T&G: Mayor says loss of Monty’s could “be a boon” to Leominster

The fallout from yesterday’s announcement that local landmark Monty’s Garden was going to be razed in favor of a Walgreen’s continues, with another article in today’s Telegram and Gazette. Mayor Dean Mazzarella almost sounds like he regrets the impending change, but hey, Walgreens will be a good neighbor, so everything will work out:

Mayor sees pluses, minuses
Drugstore at Monty’s site will fill a need
By Matthew Bruun TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

LEOMINSTER–The loss of landmark Monty’s Garden could still be a boon to the downtown corridor, Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella said yesterday.

Walgreens is developing plans to build a new store at 35 Central St., where Monty’s has stood for more than 70 years. The popular Italian restaurant has been a family business since its founding in 1933.

Walgreens spokeswoman Carol Hively said yesterday plans for the store were very preliminary, but he confirmed the company’s interest in building in Leominster.

“It breaks my heart to think of losing Monty’s, but I’m not the one who has to make that decision,” Mr. Mazzarella said yesterday, referring to the Caligaris family’s apparent decision to sell the business.

“I’ve known the family forever. I know what those people have put in for hours,” Mr. Mazzarella said. “They’ve been around it their whole life.”

…..

The mayor said the bright side to Walgreens’ entering downtown would be filling a commercial void. There hasn’t been a drugstore downtown in years, he said.

“The trick is, can you get a Walgreens to go downtown and look like it belongs here?” Mr. Mazzarella said. He said he surveyed several other Walgreens locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and it appears the company is willing to work with communities on defining a look that fits.

The mayor implies that the family has just tired of working long hours and is ready to sell. Could it be that the family has seen their business suffer with the influx of national chain restaurants over the last five years? Maybe they saw the opening of an Olive Garden off of rte. 2 this fall as the final blow to their business.

And the spin about the city not having a downtown drugstore may be technically accurate (depending on your definition of downtown), but it’s pretty disingenuous since a new CVS opened a couple of years ago only two or three blocks south of the site. Not that I have any fondness for CVS, but does Leominster need another chain drugstore three blocks away?

Update 11:40 pm: The Sentinel and Enterprise also had an article on Monty’s today. Looks like one of our city councilors gets it:

At large City Councilor John Dombrowski said “it’s a shame” that Monty’s might be leaving.

“It’s a unique restaurant,” he said.

The sale might represent an overall problem that all locally-owned restaurants, not just Monty’s, are facing, Dombrowski said.

“This may be a sign of them having trouble competing with chains,” he said. “So sell out, that’s what happens. They sell the real estate, and now they’ll be able to sell their liquor license, and there’s no shortage of suitors for that.”

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Walgreens CVS

Clearly not from around here

Paul at Powerline shared some impressions on Mitt Romney:

Tonight I had the privilege of attending a dinner with Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and two or three dozen journalist types. Romney’s statements were off the record but I can report the following three impressions: (1) in many ways, Romney would be an exceedingly attractive presidential candidate, (2) Romney is an instinctive problem solver and an instinctive conservative; most of the time the two sets of instincts won’t collide, but the problem solver instinct is the stronger of the two, and (3) Mitt Romney is a man of real substance.

Obviously, Paul isn’t from around here. Man of real substance? What a hoot!

Tags: Massachusetts Mitt Romney Republican 2008 Election

Monty’s Garden to be razed…the sterilization of Leominster continues

This is particularly sad news, from the Telegram & Gazette:

Landmark restaurant to be razed
Walgreens to replace Monty’s
By Matthew Bruun TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

LEOMINSTER– A downtown landmark appears headed for the wrecking ball as Monty’s Garden makes way for a Walgreens pharmacy.

The restaurant at 35 Central St. opened in 1933, and holds the city’s first liquor license, according to a history on the restaurant’s Web site.

Monty’s co-owners said last night they could not comment on the state of the transaction, a time line for the restaurant to be torn down or whether the owners have plans to reopen it elsewhere.

The City Council last night took its first look at a request from lawyer Steven B. DiPace, on behalf of the Richmond Co., seeking the sale or exclusive use of 12 parking spaces on city-owned land between Central and Adams streets, as well as access to and from surrounding land connecting the parking lot to public ways.

The access is sought “to be utilized exclusively by and for the benefit of the proposed new Walgreens which is to be constructed on the site currently occupied by Monty’s Restaurant, which will be demolished as part of the area development plan,” the petition says.

Monty’s has been one of my favorite restaurants since I was a kid, and is the favorite local restaurant of Michelle and her family as well. I have many fond memories of the place (including the waitress who attributed a tough piece of veal to “a sick pig”), and it’s a shame to see it go.

Not that it’s a huge surprise. Mayor Mazzarella and the planning board have been hell bent on turning Leominster into Anytown, USA by fast-tracking approval of big-box retail stores and chain restaurants in places originally set aside for industry. For years, the mayor has been saying that the arrival of Longhorn and Applebee’s and Chili’s and Friday’s and The Olive Garden and the restaurants not yet announced in the rte. 117 development wouldn’t have a negative effect on local restaurants.

Yet, the most historic of them all is the first to fall. But at least the mayor gets the little part of Sam Walton’s empire he’s been coveting. It’s not the Wal-mart supercenter he tried to foist on the people of the South End, but it’s a start.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Walgreens Walmart

Don’t take your ones to town.

There aren’t words to express the genius of this clip:

Another hundred or so classic Sesame Street clips are linked at foldedspace.org (via TV Squad).

Tags: Johnny Cash Sesame Street Big Bird You Tube

Friends and Neighbors in the News

From last Thursday’s Sentinel and Enterprise:

Pair of motorcycle wrecks sends one rider to hospital
By Aaron Wasserman

Two motorcycle accidents within a span of 90 minutes created traffic delays on local roads Wednesday afternoon and sent one Lunenburg resident to the hospital.

…..

Another motorcyclist escaped a separate accident without much harm after a South Lancaster woman driving a black Chevrolet Blazer knocked over his vehicle while he was traveling south on Route 117.

The Blazer’s driver, Edna Roberts, 75, said at the scene that she could not see the motorcycle as she turned from an I-190 exit ramp onto Route 117.

“I looked both ways and sat for cars to come by and with the sun shining in my eyes, I couldn’t see the motorcycle,” she said.

The accident occurred at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday.

The motorcyclist, Raul Burgueno, 56, of Arlington, said he hurt his right arm and leg, but eventually drove off under his own strength.

His burgundy Honda motorcycle, adorned with a Uruguayan flag, had minor damage to its structure.

Roberts approached Burgueno and apologized to him before he continued on his trip.

“I did not see him and I just feel terrible,” she said.

I know to keep reading when the article references a “South Lancaster woman” (or man) as only Adventists claim South Lancaster as their place of residence.

Tags: South Lancaster Leominster Adventist