random thoughts – Day 1,783 – (Sunday) – sunday shakeup

There was no dance group scheduled today, and initially, the plan was to do nothing. A luxurious day of lounging about, like a Saturday v.2 was the loose plan, until an invitation arrived for a coffee meetup at Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to shake things up.

Overhead at the MFA.

The driveway, cleared of snow on Saturday, was slick with ice this morning, but the roads were clear and dry. The traffic was semi-annoying, especially when I let a Ride Share bus into the lane ahead of me, and it stopped in the middle of the street a block later. After a few seconds, a smartly dressed older lady with a cane emerged from a building, slowly walked down the stairs and across the sidewalk, and stood near the bus waiting for the door to open. It didn’t. 

After a while that felt like forever, the driver climbed out of the bus, walked around the back and opened the door from the outside to let the lady in. By this time, cars were piled up behind us, snaking around the corner, and drivers were tooting their horns. I cursed my random act of kindness a block earlier, because I would have been ahead of the bus and wouldn’t be sitting behind it grumbling.

Hanging out at the MFA.

When finally extricated from the time-consuming traffic cluster, I parked the car in the pricey garage across the street from the museum, and speed-walked to the museum entrance. My friend was sitting on a wall waiting. We had a nice chat over coffee, then my friend needed to dash out at noon for another commitment. 

I wandered the museum alone for a bit and looked at some photography, then speed walked through a room of Egyptian stuff before throwing myself back into the traffic and heading home. I would have stayed longer, but I wasn’t prepared to take out a second mortgage on the house to liberate the car from the garage.

Driving in Boston delivered a reminder, not that I needed it. I like being in Boston, but I’m less keen on the part where I’m driving there. Future visits may include an advance study of nearby MBTA commuter stations and public transportation. In any event, it was a great shakeup to the original non-plan for the day and the usual routine.

On the way back to Lowell, Waze navigated me through Tewksbury and I pulled in to Stadium Plaza to visit Market Basket, another stop on my MB World Tour. I was flying with a gift card and without a list or even an inkling of what the pantry is lacking. But now there is more pasta, rice, and cheese in the house. I can survive for another few weeks and will not starve.