This Is Framingham

Ethan already did a great post about Farm Pond but I thought I’d do another one since we went there over the weekend.
On the top my list of favorite animals are turtles, and I love getting a glimpse of them in the wild.  I had some as pets that I set up in a “luxury” tank (waterfall filter system, vitamin D lights, proper PH, live fish to eat) 10 years ago but had to give them up when I moved to the west coast.  I still think about them and hope they got good homes and I love seeing turtles outside enjoying themselves.
What I also noticed at Farm Pond was the number of turtles enjoying themselves on tires people have thrown into the pond and the surrounding area. ??????? ufc  



I’m not completely sure what the effects of tires in the pond are, but my gut feeling tells me it’s probably not a good thing, in addition to it looking terrible.  I know tires on the ground that have pools of water in them harbor mosquito breeding. ???? ????  
It’s surprising that people took the time to drive these down to a section of the pond that is on the same street as the recycle drop off building, or they could have just called the Department of Public Works for curbside pick-up.  Yes, it’s $2 a tire but how many tires could someone have that they can’t afford properly disposing of these things? 
I started wondering what kind of person doesn’t think anything of rolling tires into a pond and the image of Cletus Spuckler came to mind.
I know the turtles were enjoying themselves but I called the Board of Health (as directed on the DPW website) about getting these removed. 
Anyway, it was nice to see so many turtles.  I happened to be looking the other way but Ethan said he saw one about 1. ????? ??? 5 feet long before it slipped into the water.  I’m guessing it was a snapper but was still bummed I missed seeing it so I’ll believe he just made that up : )
Farm Pond, besides the tires, is nice.  People were sunning themselves and walking their dogs in the middle part and I’m glad there is a place in this area to do enjoy.

(old photo from the winter, it’s all I had on file)

Last night I was elected town meeting member for precinct 13 (the fightin’ thirteenth!) and am now officially a small part of town government : )
I’d like to think I was elected for my little speech I gave about wanting to help make Framingham a better place, but I think the fact that no one else was vying for the vacancy helped just a tad.  Either way, the other TMMs I met were really friendly and welcoming.  Soon after the vote, the town meeting was getting ready to start so I was rushed over to a table to sign a form, was asked to raise my right hand and got sworn in.  Then I was handed a bunch of handbooks, grabbed a seat and started being a town meeting member.  It was funny how fast it all happened.

I had never been to an actual town meeting before, it was really inspiring to hear people from all parts of town voice their opinions.  One in particular from precinct 14 (I think it was 14) who got up to speak and said his precinct in downtown may have problems but there are good, hard working people that live there and we need to pull together to make it better.  I think so many times downtown just gets dismissed as “slumville” and a hopeless case but people that live there really want to make it a place people are proud of.
I know personally, when I tell people I own a house downtown I get some sympathetic looks like “I’m sorry life hasn’t worked out for you” or I can see in their eyes they picture I my house is practically condemned with a la-z-boy recliner in the front yard.  It doesn’t have to be that way though and it’s nice to hear other residents in downtown feel so strongly about that too.
Anyway, I’m excited to be able to be even small part of what goes on in town and find out how it works to make things happen in town.

New on the Framingham Historical Society’s website, is the announcement that they will be conducting a historic house tour on May 20th.

Ethan and I are fans of historical architecture (known to drive through miles of cornfields in Idaho just for a fix) so this will be a something interesting to do and nice to remember there is more to Framingham than just the shopping of route 9 and the…whatever of downtown.

Here’s their site if anyone is interested.
http://www.framinghamhistory.org/

ANIMAL COMP:  RP REPORTS A RACOON IS ON HER PORCH AND WILL NOT LEAVE. 

ANIMAL COMP: RACCOON WALKING IN THE ROAD

SUSP ACTIVITY:SAMPAN RESTURANT:  RP STATES THAT PEOPLE ARE SMOKING ABOVE THE SAMPAN AND ACTING STRANGE.

SUSP ACTIVITY: RIVERSIDE MOBIL: BLK VW 2DR HATCH,DROVE OFF WITHOUT PAYING, GAS PUMP WAS RIPPED OFF PERSON LEFT NOZZLE IN TANK BY ACCIDENT RETURNED PRIOR TO OUR ARRIVAL AND FIXED PROBLEM

SUSP ACTIVITY:RP  REPORTS UNKNOWN PERSON TOOK HER IDENTITY.

FAMILY PROB: RP STATES EX MOVED OUT AND IS COMING BACK TO “THROW HIS CLOTHES OUT”

WELL BEING CHECK: FRAMINGHAM PUBLIC LIBRARY CALLER STATES HER FRIEND MAY BE SLEEPING AT LIBRARY

Jerk of the week:
ANIMAL COMP: BLUE MERCURY, PARKED BEHIND MOLLY MALONES, POODLE INSIDE THE VEHICLE, FOR OVER 8 HOURS

Just looking at http://www.massachusettsgasprices.com/ usually the cheapest gas prices are always not too local or even some town I’ve never even heard of.  If I do see Framingham on there, it’s so far down on the list it’s not really worth noting because it’s not a bargain, but today I saw someone reported gas so cheap it’s in the top 7.  Nothing really worth celebrating but I just happened to see it and thought I’d share : )

 

I was at a friend’s house watching TV and we decided to check out the “new” cable access channel three.  Broadcasting was a shot of a Victrola playing some old music- maybe from the 1920’s or 30’s.  We thought it was just filler for in between shows but whenever we’d flip back to channel three it was still going.  We thought after 30 minutes it would stop but the timer kept ticking and went for a full hour.
We laughed because we thought it was kind of boring to broadcast for an hour but then I thought I it must not be if someone is into that music, and it’s nice someone wants to share that with the public but, is it worth watching a record spin on TV?  Is it meant just to have on while you’re doing other things around the house? But then you’d just listen to the radio, right?  I thought maybe I wouldn’t think it was so silly if it was playing a Journey record (which of course someone else would think is boring) but I don’t know.
I’m guessing this program is simply for someone to share their love of this kind of music, which is nice and I’m sure if I had a better idea I’d propose it to the station.  I did jokingly think of having my own show and imagined how bad it would be when I saw the posting of air time availability for cable access, but that got put on the back burner.  Maybe some day!

Just curious if anyone has some favorite shows because I’d be interested to know what shows are popular.

I’ve been a little slow with the posts lately, this time of year is so crazy I don’t have time to go investigate as much as I’d like and can’t get to the thing on my list as much but I was going though the police log and saw this:

LARCENY: 35 CONCORD ST, SALVATION ARMY.  FEMALE WALKING ON TRACKS WITH BLACK ROCKER JACKET STOLE 3 PILLOWCASES OF MDSE FROM ABOVE.

Just wondering if anyone knows what “MDSE” is, I have no idea.  Also, what is a “rocker jacket”? ??????? ??? ????   I’m hoping I don’t have one because I don’t want to be confused with anyone who has been seen walking down railroad tracks carrying three pillowcases of something while wearing one of these.

Also, reading through these I usually find someone who I call “jerk of the week” but haven’t decided if it’s worth posting really, but I’d like to nominate this person for this week:

LARCENY:  RP STATES THAT SHE LEFT KEYS WITH SPEED PASS ON HER VEHICLE AND HER HUSBAND  DROVE OFF AND KEYS FELL OFF. UNKNOWN PERSON FOUND KEYS AND USED SPEED PASS.