Third Decade reports that the steel pylons put in front of his home when a school bus crashed into it a few years back did their job last night:

... There was a loud bump outside last night and I was almost too lazy to get up and look out the window. I don't have a car and there's almost a weekly sideswiping on my part of the street, so it didn't seem worth it to look down from my third floor perch.

But, there was something about this bump which compelled me to get up and look. ...

Apparently, there's a problem on Beacon Hill of people leaving their trash in front of other people's buildings.

Jay reports:

Someone took a wheel off of our truck in the driveway, replaced it with a brand new snow tire, left the Chevy hubcap sitting there, and didn't tighten the lug nuts up enough to drive safely. ...

Lyss doesn't get the fuss over Boston residents who pave over their front yards to make room for cars:

... I can understand this being an issue in historic districts. However, if you own a house and want to park a car or two in what is, essentially, your yard (insert redneck joke here), you should be able to. Doesn't parking increase the resale value of a house? ...

As if Amy's tales of the rat-infested apartment with the exploding bathroom weren't enough, along comes Chris Aucutt with more evidence that basement apartments should just be banned:

Steve writes it makes his investment in a new furnace and windows worth it:

... I thought I would have to sue Al Gore for a while there.

You remember Amy? The woman who woke up to find her bathroom ceiling on fire? She returned home from a trip to Rhode Island yesterday to find her neighbors milling about outside - seems there was another electrical fire in the building, only this one didn't set off any alarms. Oh, and the Fire Department had to jimmy the front door to get in to put it out. She details it all.

It became more than an academic question for Amy around 4:30 this morning when she woke up to to discover her bathroom ceiling was on fire - only she quickly put it out of her mind as she decided to fight back:

... I grabbed a big pot, filled it with some water, and tossed it at my ceiling.

The lightbulb exploded, the water hissed as it made contact with the fire, and the fixture dropped the floor. The ceiling fire had gone out and just a little bit of plastic was still burning on the floor. ...

It is that time of year when college kids who got pets, can not take them home, and can not leave them in the dorm rooms. Or kids who got what they thought was a great pet, only to be overwhelmed with the care and feeding of another living creature. An animal, which may not have responded the way the student expected the pet to.

I read so many postings on Craig'slist, long postings, some full of sorrow, about the loss of a pet. From people who had never been given the slightest lesson in how to care for the animal in the first place.

I decided to send letter to two posters tonight, not to talk about adopting their animals, but how to help them keep their pets. One poster had a rat, the rat had bit him. Out of fear I think. I will know further once he responds to my letter. The second poster does not believe he is able to properly care for his pet as it looks unhappy. Again, when he responds to my questions I will better understand what he means by 'happy' and if the young owner, is properly caring for his pet.