I vacillated for an extra day, but in the end, decided to get rid of most of the beard. In some ways, I liked having a long beard, but what decided me was that my beard is kind of wispy, and looked ragged. If it were fuller, I probably would have kept the full length. Continue reading →

Happy 2016! For me, 2015 was kind of a middling year, aside from the weather at the beginning of it. Not too bad, not spectacularly great. One of my best memories of the year is the trip out to Billingsgate Island I did last July. It was part of the reason I bought the kayak, and the trip was memorable. It stayed with me for a few weeks – I did a little research into the history of the island, and saw two different maps, one from 1897 when it was goodly sized, and one from 1940, when just a sliver of land remained above water. Land is not supposed to be mortal.

The other big project of the year was the year beard. I decided to let it grow the entire year. Here’s how it ended up: wispy, but kind of impressive

The Year Beard

I still have it as of the moment.

I went in to see First Night last night, and came away under impressed. There was a lot less going on this year. The ice sculptures were more spread out — there were supposed to be a bunch on the waterfront, but I only found a few of them. Faneuil Hall Marketplace was very pretty — I’ll have to remember to visit before Christmas next year, and the early fireworks show was great. I stayed in town long enough to see the ice sculptures in Copley Square and the Pops and Percussion performance at Old South Church and headed home.

Ice Sculpture at Copley