We had a wonderful weekend in Boston. We arrived mid-morning, walked from our hotel along the Freedom Trailto the North End where we had lunch. We then took the T to Fenway for a tour of the park. We had a nice walk back to the hotel for a shower and then a a return trip on the T to the ball park for the evening's game. We had a Cuban sandwich at Luis Tiant's sandwich stand and got autographs from El Tiante. (Back in 1975, he commented about the Red Sox fans, "They make me do better than I can do.")

We had good seats, in the grandstand behind home plate. Pedro pitched and the Red Sox won the game 5-1. The crowd was standing-room only. Most of the people were well-behaved, but beer was in the air. It was also interesting that the crowd was so overwhelmingly white.

On Sunday morning, we stayed in the hotel and read the papers over breakfast and coffee.

Sandra and I don't get to the city much. This was the first game at Fenway that we'd been to in more than 10 years, the first time we'd walked the Freedom Trail. It takes less than an hour to get to downtown. We have our habits. Some years ago, we visited with my uncle, Aimo, and aunt, Catherine. We wanted to take them out to dinner. "Why should we go out to eat? We have plenty of food here," they said. We made gentle fun of them at the time, but are now becoming more like them. Why should we go someplace different when the familiar places work so well? Mel Brooks observered that we mock the thing we are to become.

This week I have several chores at work to complete in anticipation of next week's vacation. I wasn't as productive last week as I'd hoped, but I should be ok. I need to talk with a couple of people this morning to confirm that I'm on the right track.