Somerville is a great city and a fantastic place to live. But it also has a surprising number of people for its size. Apparently it's the 16th densest populated city in the US, and the densest outside the NYC, LA and Miami metro areas.
Because covid, this summer I was looking for somewhere nearby to go for a hike with fewer people around. I ended up going back repeatedly to Callahan State Park, between Sudbury and Framingham (west of Boston for you non-Massachusetts folks). A bunch of winding trails through the forest, very easy hiking, great place to wander and get lost without getting too lost.
One fun surprise was that somebody or somebodies (I assume children, but maybe not?) had painted designs and messages on small rocks, and left them hidden all throughout the trails. They were delightful. Here are the ones I saw, I'm sure I didn't find them all.
I don't watch professional sports, hardly ever. I just don't. The only exception is hockey, and then really only during the playoffs, and then just in the past year or two.
I think the first time I watched televised hockey games was during the 2018 playoffs. Years ago I had lived in the DC region and then DC itself, and although I wasn't living there in 2018, it felt good to get to root for the Capitals as they won the Stanley Cup for the first time in... *checks Wikipedia* okay, for the first time ever.
All of which is to say, given everything about how the world is at the moment, it's just nice to get to see teams playing hockey again. Particularly since it seems that they are really, actually, somehow, managing to stay bubbled and avoid coronavirus infections during the playoffs.
