A lot of noise in the New England press speaking up the anniversary and it’s all c-r-a-p like this:

The third anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings Friday was marked by solemn remembrance of the dead and wounded…”When you think about what happened three years ago today, and you think about what’s come of it, there is so much hope and inspiration”

“Remember the victims!” is the cry heard from on high.  Heaven forbid someone spend five seconds remembering the perpetrators so that there might not be any more victims.

It’s certainly nothing contained to this region but it seems more ingrained since these people are, well, insane; they’ve completely swallowed the blue pill.  When I travel to Colorado I always think that I could be one of them, just need to eat a little better, exercise a little more, and learn to breathe a little less.  However when it comes to New England I could ever be one of them.  Just a few pics:

The Tewksbury police headquarters, made famous for their attempt to outright steal a big piece of private property.

A strip mall like this could be anywhere (and everywhere) in America.

Hampton Beach in New Hampshire, where pedestrians and bikers outnumber cars about 2:1.  There were even some people surfing out in the frigid North Atlantic (all men, though some brought their girlfriends along so that they could snap action pics of them with cameras that had lenses as long as my forearm).

The reworked Ford Escape UI; someone’s cousin must be in the “button” business.  At least Microsoft’s Sync is now tolerable instead of painfully awful.  (I love the “Menu” button, I mean really?  They need another menu after slathering that many buttons on the car console?)

Fort McClary in Maine, just past the ginormous Portsmouth naval yard.

Couldn’t resist stopping to get one of these in Maine.  The place wasn’t exactly out of the way, but it wasn’t in the tourist area so the bartender thought I was a native, despite the fact that even people in Northern Ohio know that I’m not a local from the way I speak.

The last picture was extra amusing as a local came in and was talking about how messy it can be to eat lobster and related a tale about buying a lobster and going down to the beach to eat it because, like everyone else up there, she keeps lobster eating utensils in her purse at all times.  Oh to live in such a magical land where one must always be prepared for the threat of the lobster apocalypse!