Thankfully, we’ll not have your congestion this weekend. Course, needle peepers are a pretty rare breed.
Ugh, I forgot about this… The Spaulding Turnpike is going to be nuts getting out of work today. I’ll have to leave a little early! 
<groan>ugh., leaf peepers, i HATE leaf peepers, friggin’ morons that can’t find the accelerator, and make a big deal over dying leaves, the color’s there year-round people, you just can’t see it due to the clorophyl in the leaf blocking the natural color of the leaf
i’ll never understand why people make such a big deal out of looking at dying leaves, it happens every year*, yes it’s pretty, now PULL OVER TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD and you can stare to your hearts content
*maybe it’s just because i live in New England, but i don’t see the big deal behind foliage season, whats the big deal, the leaves change color, it’s what they do…
Yeah, I’ve nevah really understood the fascination.
Oooooooh, death and dying all around us! How pretty!
Columbus Day is this weekend? Ugh.
Thanks for the thread though, at least I check traffic before I left the office. 128 looks crap heading North.
That’s it entirely. When I was growing up (in North Jersey, granted, but our leaves turned just as pretty), it was like, “Oh, look, fall’s here.”
Now, if I’m visiting my folks in the fall, I’m plastered to the window like a tourist. My mother laughs at me. Of course, I laugh at her when the fog rolling over the hills or the blue of the bay causes her to lean over and stare. When I first moved here, I used to be like that, almost driving off the road oggling a good view. Now I don’t even notice, because it’s part of the everyday.
Every October I wish I still lived in the Northeast.
nononononono, Dammit, we have enough leafers coming from New York - we don’t need you Boston folk clogging up the whole Valley. It took me 3 hours to get home from Westborough.
The Pioneer Valley is beautiful all year, you don’t all need to cram it in on this one weekend. Come see the snowy mountains in the winter, or the foggy valleys in the spring and fall. How about the clear, skyscraperless blue sky with a backdrop of treecovered mountains in the summer. Then there’s the ever-present C-5 brigade flying VERY low over the whole area.
I have the most beautiful commute anyone could ever ask for. I will never stop appreciating the beauty that is Massachusetts, especially this end of the state. But, the damn leafers drive me crazy.
will you get me some cider donuts from Atkins? I don’t want to brave the leafers to go there myself.
Anyway, New England leaves are beautiful. But, they’re most beautiful when they’re dry and crisp. With all the rain we’re supposed to have - I wouldn’t bother. The rain dulls the colors.
I’m from the Pioneer Valley, and would love to go out to my camp for a little visit with my family, if only the GOD DAMNED LEAF PEEPAHS WOULD GET THE HELL OFF RT.2 shakes fist northwestward :mad:
Well, now the Sox have lost, which will contribute to the general merriment in town.
And I forgot – Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus is in town, too. No respite if ou go into Boston, either.
Well, cheer up Cal. It’s only a matter of time before we’re knee-deep in snow!
Ugh, I said the “S” word.
Meant to bold your name. Must bathe in coffee now
Luckily I planned an indoor day. I’m going to one of our local apple farms (I live out near where Salem works) and buying 4 gallons of preservative-free cider. Then I am going to start fermenting a batch of cyser (that’s mead made with cider and honey). It should be awesome about this time next year.
If anyone needs a different indoor activity we saw Curse of the Wererabbit last night and it is quite a diverting piece of nonsense. Little Lagomorph laughed himself silly.
Laughing Lagomorph, Yankee fan undercover in New England, rejoicing because the Red Sox were eliminated!
And forgo Atkins doughnuts? Your pitiful pleas fall on deaf ears.
Now *those * are my Red Sox! 
Last year just plain freaked me out. Glad we’re back to baseball as usual.
Oooh, oooh, oooh! I didn’t think one could get preservative-free cider anymore. (Apologies to our UK friends, we are talking about non-alcoholic fresh pressed apple juice, and let’s not reopen *that * thread!) May I ask where? And if so, will you answer? I tried cyser once with 5 gallons of cider and 12 count’em 12 pounds of honey. I used champagne yeast. And after all that money spent, I let the airlock go dry and had to toss it. What a waste. What recipe do you use?
We know where you post…
I think I’m going to go to Carver Hill Orchard in Stow. I seem to remember they had preservative free cider for a reasonable price last year. Unfortunately they do heat pasteurize their stuff…I don’t know where I can find preservative free unpasteurized cider anymore, or if it is even legal to sell it in MA these days.
If Carver Hill doesn’t sell preservative free I’m sure one of the other orchards in Stow does.
I am using a recipe I have never tried before, from *The Compleat Meadmaker * by Ken Schramm. His Fall’s Bounty Cyser uses 4 gallons cider, 8 lbs honey, half a pound each of chopped dates and raisins, a pound of dark brown sugar, and Lalvin D-47 yeast. In order to increase the New England Thanksgiving aspect of it all I am also going to add half a pound of cranberries. If it turns out decent I plan on entering some in the Topsfield Fair Homebrew Competition next year. Sorry to hear about your cyser, it sounds like it would have turned out awesome.
If you are interested I started a thread on another batch of meadlike beverage I was working on in Cafe Society recently: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=334838
I bumped the thread my one alloted time and it still sank spectacularly.
Don’t worry about it, the way Randy Johnson pitched yesterday I suspect the Yankees are not long for this postseason either.
Update: Carver Hill only had cider with potassium sorbate. I got pasteruized preservative-free at Derby Orchards on Rte. 117 in the center of Stow.
Or the west bay either.
Fact is, Rhode Island is so small, we don’t get a whole lot of people who come here to see the tree.
There’s just the one tree, but it’s about to leave its billions of leaves on MY lawn. What up with that?
That’s what you get for living in east bay.
Eutychus , does this mean we’re in some sort of East Bay/West Bay rap style feud?
Last night, I said goodbye
Now–it seems year
I’m back in the city
Where nothing is clear
But thoughts of me --driving home
Drove me to tears
And tell me
When can I leave?
Where can I go?
When will this bad traffic end
And when can I come home again
Time in New England
Took me away
To long traffic backups
–and snarls by the bay
We started a drive home
Whose end must now wait
And tell me
When can I leave?
Where can I go?
When will this bad traffic end
And when can I come home again
I feel the change comin’
–i feel the wind blow
I feel brave and daring!
I feel my car go!
With you
I can drive out
All the way, that I have
–and now, there’s a green light
So the drive ain’t so bad
And tell me
When can I leave?
Where can I go?
When will this bad traffic end
And when can I come home again