Picked up pieces from TriSec's mind, which I shamelessly steal from the Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessey from time to time.


Forty years. Forty years ago this weekend my life started to change. A certain musician from Minneapolis released his seminal album in conjunction with an upcoming film of the same name. I wrote my own retrospective a few years ago when he passed, but suffice to say that many of the things I do now, musically and professionally, can be traced back to Mr. Nelson. You can even see it in my music collection, there's a clear change in the type of music that I listen to, and that dividing line is the summer of 1984.



You all know my trolley career has spectacularly flamed out recently. While I do regret leaving my friends behind, I do not regret much else. My new job is quite near the cruise terminal in Boston, so as I was driving back to base, I was greeted by this vessel tied up at the pierside.



That's the Emerald Princess with her 3,114 passengers. I didn't even have PTSD!

It's a curious thing, sitting around sometimes at the new shop, waiting for something to happen. "Standby" truly means standby - I'm there just in case. some days I do get to drive, other days I have sat there all day drinking coffee and reading my book. But there is a nice little waterfront park no more than a five minute walk out the front door, and if the wind is right, it overlooks the approach to runways 4L and 4R at Logan. But I've been struck how boring planespotting has become recently. I blame economics of scale these days, Everything in the sky seems to be a twin now. I can only look at so many A320s before they all look the same. Boeing, for the most part, has admitted defeat. They're a very rare sight in the skies today, at least around here. I long for the days of yore...but I personally can't remember the last time I saw anything interesting flying around here.

And finally - how about the elephant in the room? I chose not to watch, but according to everything I've read, Biden lost the debate and the democrats are now in crisis mode. How is such a thing even possible? All the President had to do was stand there and smile, and Trump would have eventually hung himself.

Can it be possible that we might get another Trump presidency? These United States will not survive such a thing.

When the trolley job was going south over the winter, I knew it - and I had an escape plan, which I finally implemented. It may be time for similar planning on a larger scale. Perhaps it is time to re-connect to my family in Toronto, and my friends in Liverpool (NS).