Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

[Editor's note: There were 14 suspicious items this week.]

Holden

Monday, December 14

12:20 a.m. MassHighway sending sanders for Rte. 122A
7:34 a.m. Accidental 911 while changing phone batteries
7:42 a.m. Pole hit last night at Wachusett and Bullard needs to be checked
8:30 a.m. Male party in to station for information about previous resident of address; advised it’s CORI information and can’t be given out
10:00 a.m. 911 U-Haul truck ripped off awning at business on Main St.
12:49 p.m. 911 accidental call from Mayo Dr.
1:17 p.m. Open tube in the ground on Steppingstone Dr.
3:02 p.m. Party in to drop off old ammunition to be destroyed
8:18 p.m. Suspicious man around yard on Main St. wearing dark clothing; may have been in shed of home

Tuesday, December 15

9:47 a.m. Cat stuck in tree on Heather Circle; can of food under tree failed to lure it down


4:36 p.m. Chainsaw fell out of back of truck on Rte. 31
10:18 p.m. 911 Report of motor vehicle hitting deer on South Rd.

Wednesday, December 16

8:14 a.m. Large raccoon by front door on Yorktowne Terr.
8:47 a.m. Truck stuck at railroad bridge

12:02 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle in lot on Main St.
2:40 p.m. Gun shots in wooded area behind residence on South Rd.; no contact
2:45 p.m. South Rd. reports hearing three gun shots in woods
3:05 p.m. Party trying to retrieve vehicle lent to ex-boyfriend
3:10 p.m. Two parties both calling about difficulties with each other; wife currently out of state; husband is in Holden
3:31 p.m. Another call regarding gun shots on South Rd.
3:50 p.m. Caller from Arizona regarding civil matter
5:52 p.m. Questions regarding motor vehicle accident, car hit deer, yesterday

Thursday, December 17

12:36 p.m. 911 hang-up; accidental; man cleaning phone
12:37 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Chapel St.
4:09 p.m. Suspicious party dressed in black sitting on guardrail on Main St. reported; gone on arrival
7:06 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicles on Main St.; owners asked to remove them
9:04 p.m. Suspicious incident on Wachusett St.
11:43 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Pilgrim Dr.

Friday, December 18

12:54 a.m. Rutland PD requesting traffic assistance with rollover accident on Main St.
2:20 p.m. Vehicle backed into bus at high school
2:22 p.m. Resident on Village Way locked out of home; had to break in
5:12 p.m. 911 Male party walking dog on Sycamore Dr. took ladder from property

Saturday, December 19

11:03 a.m. Check on vehicle in lot on Boyden Rd.
2:27 p.m. Repo man in town
2:57 p.m. Tree on power lines on Quinapoxet St.
5:24 p.m. Suspicious vehicle running behind Big Y
5:52 p.m. Resident who threw gloves at speeding car reports being screamed at by driver
9:57 p.m. Teens ringing doorbells and running away on Fox Hill Dr.

Sunday, December 20

12:46 a.m. 911 Suspicious burglar alarm on Cranbrook Dr.

8:46 a.m. Cars getting stuck going up hill on Shrewsbury St.
10:50 a.m. Water main problem at fire department
4:45 p.m. Motor vehicle lockout on Main St.
7:57 p.m. Low voltage complaint on Princeton St.
10:40 p.m. Power outage on Princeton St.; several calls inquiring about outage

Paxton

Tuesday, December 15

3:06 p.m. Report that vehicle passed school buses, West St.
10:05 p.m. Assist fire dept., smell of gas, location is in Worcester, Fairbanks Dr.

Wednesday, December 16

6:20 p.m. Caller reports brownouts at home, Bel Arbor Dr.
6:28 p.m. 911 hang-up call, Nanigian Rd.

Thursday, December 16

7:34 a.m. 911 hang-up, Reservoir Rd.
7:38 a.m. Report of suspicious male at bank ATM, Pleasant St.
1:55 p.m. German shepherd running in and out of traffic, Pleasant St.

Friday, December 18

3:48 p.m. Suspicious vehicle in driveway, person knocking on doors, Lincoln Cir.; OK, delivering flowers
10:07 p.m. Vehicle lockout, Meadowbrook Dr.

Saturday, December 19

10:26 a.m. Vehicle lockout, Richards Ave.
2:38 p.m. Three sleds, child’s hat and red duct tape found at Boynton Park
10:35 p.m. Male on ATV making noise on Camp St.

Princeton

Monday, December 14

8:00 p.m. Person at station requesting animal control officer on E. Princeton Rd.

Tuesday, December 15

1:43 p.m. Public service, Sterling Rd.
4:29 p.m. Request for animal control officer, Houghton Rd.
4:29 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Houghton Rd.

Wednesday, December 16

8:35 a.m. Public service, Sterling Rd.
9:12 p.m. Motor vehicle lockout, Clearings Way
10:00 p.m. Request for highway dept., Mountain Rd.

Thursday, December 17

9:56 a.m. Medical assist, Beaman Rd.
6:40 p.m. Officer assists with concert traffic at school, Sterling Rd.
7:16 p.m. Police assist with motor vehicle lockout with car running, Worcester Rd.
10:22 p.m. Blown transformer on Mountain Rd. with low-hanging wire and some power out, Thompson Rd.
10:22 p.m. Officer advises wires on Mountain Rd. are not a hazard, Mountain Rd.

Saturday, December 19

8:18 a.m. Assist fire dept., Westminster Rd.

Sunday, December 20

4:25 a.m. Request for highway dept. town wide

Rutland

Monday, December 14

12:47 p.m. Person at station to retrieve property, Main St.
3:40 p.m. Small dog loose all day, Prescott St.
6:53 p.m. Person at station requesting assistance starting vehicle, Main St.
8:46 p.m. Occupants of vehicle throwing snow/ice at on-coming cars, Main St.
9:56 p.m. Complaint about loud noise from apartment, Maple Ave.
10:25 p.m. Person wants to speak with officer, Main St.

Tuesday, December 15

7:27 a.m. Person at station to speak with officer, Main St.
7:25 p.m. Person at station to speak with officer, Main St.
8:58 p.m. Individuals into station to speak with officer, Main St.
11:04 p.m. Person hit deer, E. County Rd./Bushy Ln.

Wednesday, December 16

3:01 a.m. Report of car on road making lot of noise, Charnock Hill Rd.
11:30 a.m. Suspicious male walking down Vista Cir.
11:48 a.m. Person at station reporting missing keys in area of Pleasantdale Rd. near Paxton line
4:10 p.m. Arrest: --- operating motor vehicle with suspended license, dropping cigarette/match on public way, possession of open container of alcohol in motor vehicle

Thursday, December 17

3:19 p.m. Report of vehicle tailgating another vehicle, Main St.
7:40 p.m. Motor vehicle off side of Fisherman’s Rd.

Friday, December 18

5:11 a.m. Report of dead deer on side of Barre Paxton Rd.
9:00 a.m. Person upset that people are working in building with no heat, Main St. Board of Health notified
11:52 a.m. Vehicle lockout, Main St.
1:21 p.m. Attempt to serve warrant, Main St.
1:51 p.m. Report of car on fire, Main St. near Holden line. Found to be overheated
4:15 p.m. Caller reporting strange phone call, Main St.
5:18 p.m. Person at station with lockout cuff found at Save-Way, Main St.

Saturday, December 19

8:23 a.m. Vehicle lockout, Cheryl Ann Dr.
10:36 a.m. Small dog running in and out of traffic, Prescott St. area
11:14 a.m. Skunk stuck in deck lattice, Clearview Rd.
1:46 p.m. Complaint about loose dog, Carly Cir.
3:20 p.m. Numerous calls about stuck skunk, Clearview Rd. Animal released
5:29 p.m. Distraught person outside in pajamas and bare feet, Pommogussett Rd.
7:08 p.m. Youths throwing ice at passing motorists, Pommogussett Rd.

Sterling

Monday, December 14

5:06 a.m. Burglar alarm at Historical Society building, Pine St.; no footprints surrounding building, door blown open by breeze
12:56 p.m. Jogger reports suspicious smell from large pink donation box, Boutelle/Greenland Rds. Box contained few bags of clothing; smell may have emanted from storm drain
1:46 p.m. Husky broke loose, Clintron Rd. Found 10 min. later.
2:47 p.m. 911 hang-up/misdial, Northeast Blvd.
3:47 p.m. Traffic stop, verbal warning, Rowley Hill Rd.
3:38 p.m. Caller’s two dogs missing, Redemption Rock Trl.
6:06 p.m. Person walked through caller’s back yard with flash light, N. Row Rd.; OK, male looking for his lost beagle
6:23 p.m. Traffic stop, verbal warning, N. Row/ Heywood Rds.
7:37 p.m. Suspicious activity, garage doors open, Newell Hill Rd.; OK, workers given lock code by owner

Tuesday, December 15

1:48 p.m. Two dogs in roadway, Princeton Rd. Animal control will visit owners
4:53 p.m. “Heavenly” the horse and “Mac” the pony running down Heywood Rd.; horse caught using grain, following tracks to find pony
10:16 p.m. Cat with jaw injury found, Wiles Rd.

Wednesday, December 16

1:24 p.m. Large falcon stuck in building, Pratts Jnct. Rd. Doors opened, wouldn’t leave; ceiling too high to reach with net; net gun needed
1:28 p.m. Man at station to speak to officer regarding possible restraining order violation, said he hasn’t paid child support; told that’s not a restraining order violation

Thursday, December 17

9:20 a.m. Caller heard alarm but unsure from where, Osgood Rd.; determined not an alarm, sound from strong wind hitting PVC piping in garage

Friday, December 18

8:10 a.m. Animal in caller’s garage, believes may be rabid, Matthew Ln.
1:22 p.m. Caller wants to speak with officer about bad check, Kendall Hill Rd.
8:11 a.m. 911 misdial/hang-up, Birch Dr. Caller was trying to dial a number in India and says may have hit 911 by mistake; officer dispatched, confirmed misdial
10:19 a.m. Caller says neighbor’s big black dog is “never on leash and poops in his yard,” and is aggressive with walkers, Woodside Dr. Animal control aware of issue; owner already fined
1:45 p.m. Man in station to surrender his deceased uncle’s World War weapons, Leominster Rd.
5:35 p.m. Caller reports two large horses in her yard on Heywood Rd., heading down N. Row Road

Sunday, December 20

3:10 p.m. Traffic stop, Greenland Rd. ATV driver in road without helmet and registration, and with three-year-old in front of him.

Making Christmas safe from children

It was probably my second Christmas. I would have just gotten mobile. The lights and everything about the Christmas were too attractive. So, rather than trying to keep me in control, my parents did what was most practical. They put the Christmas tree inside of my playpen.

Editor's note: the image comes from a 35mm slide, scanned with the aforementioned scanner.
The quality of the pictures results from the state of the world at that time, as explained by Calvin's father.

via Lessons in Political Economy / The Wisdom of Calvin and Hobbes

Dept. of Christmas - link dump

Christmas is about quality, sometimes about quantity. We blog; you decide.

First of all, Is it Christmas?

Then, talk to your Jewish physicist friend about the weekend.

via xkcd

Where are you in the The Four Stages of Life? (via Miss Cellania)

Or here, perhaps?

via Taking Your Relationship With Santa To An Adventurous New Level « Lovely Listing

Should you be in the spirit of prayer:

via Sober in a Nightclub: Your thoughts and prayers this holiday season

And, ...

MY DEAR SUSIE CLEMENS:
I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me by the hand of your mother and your nurses; I have also read those which you little people have written me with your own hands--for although you did not use any characters that are in grown peoples' alphabet, you used the characters that all children in all lands on earth and in the twinkling stars use; and as all my subjects in the moon are children and use no character but that, you will easily understand that I can read your and your baby sister's jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all.

via Mark Twain - Letter from Santa Claus

If we knew what we were missing

We were Unitarians, barely, attending Christmas Eve services in Gardner some years and not others. I pretty much stopped going to church when I was 14, preferring the Sunday New York Times.
I never saw my grandparents, my father's parents, go to church. The Finnish Lutherans were a strong force in some parts of the immigrant community, but seemed to have left us untouched. We have my mother's confirmation certificate, written in Finnish, but that childhood experience seemed to have left her unharmed.
So, it's in that spirit that we celebrated Christmas when I was growing up. My father picked up his parents at their three-decker in Gardner and brought them to our house on Christmas Eve. (My grandfather parked the car in his garage and didn't drive after the first snowfall.)
We had a light dinner and opened our presents. For that reason, it was tough to get into the whole Santa Claus thing, even though my tribe hails from the place that claims to be the home of Santa Claus (via). Once, and I might have been five, I took a nap in the afternoon to see if we could pretend me into believing. It didn't really work.
Some years later, I worked with a woman from Detroit. She grew up listening to Motown music and missed the Beatles invasion altogether. That's how it was for me and Santa Claus, not knowing that I was missing something big. In my colleague's case, she got Motown music; I got baked turnip.
Some Christmases weren't flush. One year, we wrapped empty packages so that the space under the tree wouldn't look so empty.
My father occasionally got some welding work at one of the Fitchburg paper plants. One time, he brought home a 4' roll of wrapping paper, a light-blue floral print. For the next many years, all of our gifts were wrapped in that same paper.

Those weren't particularly good times or bad times. They were just our times.
As powerful as the emotions can be around Christmastime, it's good for me to realize that the long-lasting memories aren't any more or less shaped by the holidays past. The joy and pain can be searing in the moment, but the sensations don't usually last.

Dept. of Christmas

On our way to Mike & Lynn's this evening and then over the river and through the woods to Adam & Jennie's tomorrow.
That little puff of smoke that came from the microwave wasn't welcome. Methinks we'll be heading for the Wrestling Day specials.
We have, without a doubt, many, many, many more blessings than troubles, so it's with a smile that we head out on this Christmas Eve.

via Whirled of Kelly: Mry Xms

Thanks to all my readers.

More on Twitter followers

So, I get an email saying that ValBloomberg is following me on Twitter. Getting a new Twitter follower is sometimes a good thing, so I click the link to learn more about my new friend.

I learn that it's a local person, which is a good thing.

via ValerieBloomberg (ValBloomberg) on Twitter

I click the link to check the person's web site.

Aw, come on. At least fill the placeholder text on your blog home page.

via brenaris-bloomberg.com

And, on your About page,*really* don't leave the placeholder text there.

via About : brenaris-bloomberg.com


Look, if you want to be taken seriously as a social networking force, show like you care.

This is the point at which he says a bad word

Re: More on software, printers, and operating systems

In the news - drinking and driving

Lemme say this about that:
First of all, I'm not buying it. state Senator Anthony Galluccio failed a breathalyzer test on Monday, but claimed that the failure was the result of  his use of Colgate Total Whitening and Sensodyne Toothpaste. Gallucio has been under house arrest since being convicted of a hit-and-run injury accident. Part of his sentence includes not drinking and random tests for alcohol. The senator claims that his doctor said that sorbitol, an artificial sweetener used in toothpastes, mouthwashes, gum, and breath mints, can trigger false positives on breathalyzer tests.
It reminds me of Richard Pryor claiming that he didn't catch fire by freebasing. He was having his bedtime snack of milk and cookies. He said that when dunked the cookie in the milk, it blew up.

Story via Galluccio fails breathalyzer tests, could face jail - The Boston Globe

The Globe article cites an Arkansas case where a firefighter claimed that he, too, had a false positive result on a breathalyzer and blamed sorbitol.
Interesting that there are, as best as I've been able to find, no confirmed tests that indicate that casual sorbitol use can trigger a breathalyzer. Nothing at the National Institutes of Health. Nothing in the New England Journal of Medicine. Nothing in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (This article, though, suggests that sorbitol might be therapeutic for cirrhotic patients.)
Sorry, Tony. Applying Occam's Razor, that the simplest explanation is most often correct, it seems like your time at home is limited.

On a related matter, the headline writer at the Telegram seems to be making light of a serious proposal on a serious matter.

via telegram.com
Rep. Lew Evangelidis from our fair 'burb, has proposed to make roads on college campuses into public ways for the purpose of enforcement of drunk driving laws. While I don't think that the proposed legislation is a good idea (expanding police jurisdiction for traffic laws onto private property), I also don't think that the use of the word tipsy to describe potentially deadly behavior is appropriate. I've buried too many friends who've died as the result of their own drunken driving or someone else's.

More on software, printers, and operating systems

Last week, we had an old printer in the attic, a black and white laser printer that was never really a favorite and a noisy little all-in-one color printer in our office, and an old flatbed scanner in a cupboard in the cellar. The attic dweller, a delightful little Lexmark laser printer, and the venerable flatbed that's great for scanning 35mm slides, were exiled because our Vista desktop system didn't support them.
So, in an effort to simplify our lives and clean out unused stuff, I :

1. Asked Google what I think of Vista
   
   
2. Optioned the attic printer and office laser to a flea market to be named later.
3. Watched the noisy little all-in-one quietly display Ink System Failure 0xc19a0023 on its status window.
4. Brought the office laser back from the out-going queue.
5. Sent the all-in-one to that wonderful, magic place called Away.
6. Spent an hour in the rag-and-bone shop of Linux device configuration but was rewarded with a working flatbed scanner. (Installation on Vista persistently and unequivocally failed.)
   
7. Bought a new HP all-in-one. 
8. Spent an hour trying to install the HP software on our Vista desktop system, hitting an error because the HP software was trying to configure the Windows Firewall, which isn't running and couldn't start, because I have other anti-virus/firewall software, but no matter because the HP software could only think about the Windows Firewall, and, after the configuration failed, uninstalled itself and put up a useless set of troubleshooting tips.
   
   
9. Spent barely 30 seconds installing the all-in-one as a network printer on my Linux system.
   
10. Re-optioned the office laser printer to the outgoing queue.
11. Printed this picture of Cassie and Sandra on our new all-in-one while sitting at the table by the window downstairs.
    
    

Is my life simpler? You betcha.

More on cell phones

The number of cell phone-only households continues to increase, (full report here), growing by nearly 50% in three years. This is a topic that we've discussed before, in our own household and as a part of national trend.

via Study: More Cellular-only Homes as Americans Expand Mobile Media Usage | Nielsen Wire

Meanwhile, in the great state of Maine, one state senator has grabbed a shard of bad science and is calling the legislature into emergency session next month to consider a law that would require all cell phone manufacturers to put an irremovable label on their handsets that warn of possible brain cancer.
 While there's a lot of noise regarding the possibility (and even presumed probability) of cell phone radiation causing tumors, we're not seeing it in the data. For example, in the years from 1990, when cell phones first started showing up, until 2006, when the latest stats were collated, the incidence of new brain cancers dropped slightly. Remembering that the old analog bag phones were several times more powerful than the current digital handsets, we would have expected to see an increase in new cancer cases. I haven't found research to show why we haven't, but we haven't. 

Fifteen years into the Cell Phone Age, researchers say there has been no increase in brain tumor incidence in high-tech Scandinavia, casting more doubt on alleged dangers from the ubiquitous gadgets. -  Medical News: Brain Cancer Study Casts Doubt on Cell Phone Danger - in Neurology, Brain Cancer from MedPage Today

And, even so, if even the law passes in the Maine legislature, it'll surely get tossed aside by a federal judge. All cell phone safety issues are under the jurisdiction of the FCC and not a matter for the states to control.
BTW, you'll get no jokes from this corner regarding brain cancers. There are couple of people close to our family who are, well, 'nuff said.

More on snow

I wish that the weather forecasters would consistently report on the snow density for storms. The density is a more accurate measure of how much precipitation will fall or has fallen. It's a better way to determine the equivalent impact of a snow storm. A foot of heavy wet snow is going to disrupt our lives more than a foot of dry, fluffy snow.
For example, early in the cleanup of last week's storm, heavy and cement-like, as you may recall, our snowblower stopped. We learned that it has a cracked gearbox. We cleared the rest by shovel.
This week, because a replacement part hasn't been available, we'll clear this snow by shovel as well. If we knew the snow density, we could better estimate how much ibuprofen we'll need to have a side dish for this evening's dinner.
Also, with a snow density forecast, we would know if it's going to be good snow for forts, snow people, and the like. Last week's was great for that; this week, around here, not so much.
Meanwhile, even though we can't be doing much with the snow except to move it, we can admire the some of the classic works of one young Calvin.

via AmyOops: Calvin and Hobbes Snow Art

If it ain't happening here, it ain't happening

With a tip o' the hat to Tip O'Neill, all weather is local.
The four or so inches of snow that's outside is just enough bring squirrels and birds from near and far to our feeder. Remembering that there's still a lot of seed under the new cover, the squirrels are digging down easily and eating their fill.
It's not a blizzard, though. It's not even a snow storm.

Oh, sure, for the folks down the mid-Atlantic and along the south coast, it's a very big deal because a) they're getting it a lot worse than we are and/or b) they don't get a lot of snow, so a snow storm to them is a big storm to them.

via Drudge
It's not us, though.

Back in the early days of the Intertubes, a massive storm covered the eastern United States. The Storm of the Century, they called it. I had created a script that would download the latest satellite image from the NOAA ftp site and set the image as my desktop background.
The other folks in the office would gather around my workstation as the storm progressed up the coast. It would lay down more snow over a wider area than any storm on record.
After the SotC had come and gone, and, true to form, most people said, "We  got a foot of snow? Big deal. Storm of the Centry? Pfft." Or, they said something that sounded like "Pfft".
Blizzard of '78? The one that Bruce Schwoegler called the Holocaust?. Folks west of the mid-state ridge maybe got a foot of snow and chafed against the statewide closure of the roads. Again, pfft.
It's not a big storm unless it's happening to me and then you'd better listen to how big it is. 
And then, between the start and end of writing this post, another inch of snow has fallen and the wind is picking up. Maybe we've got a snow storm after all.