I think they used 128 for one of the rings, and then they sorta did the T's original Urban Ring closer to the center. It's a cool idea to use the highway as another ring, but ultimately not super useful I think since that makes it really tricky to do transit oriented development (people don't want to live next to a highway and the highway adds distance for walking, biking and bus connections).

It's basically a caution sign. Firefighters can enter, but use caution.

An X is more severe. Firefighters should only enter if absolutely necessary, like to save a person inside. Otherwise firefighting occurs from the outside only.

Ah yes this is the one! Thanks 😁

Yeah I've found those, but they don't squeak (another commenter explained that) and I've yet to find really good poutine gravy. There's some stuff we'd get up in Quebec that was amazing; I think a fried chicken place made it. Gotta Google it and see if I can order some or find it around here somewhere.

That totally explains it. Thanks ha.

None of the American cheese curds I've found squeak. I've tried various ones from Market Basket and other grocery stores made in NY and Wisconsin. They're all not watery enough I think, they're dry balls of cheese masquerading as cheese curds.

There's gotta be a place around here somewhere that sources true Quebec based cheese curds 🤔 I just haven't found one yet.

Poutine at McDonald's and Burger King up in Quebec, Canada blows a lot of these places out of the water. So sad, can't some fast food joint just clone it already. 😥

Do you have a spreadsheet for other Canadian delicacies?

Ketchup chips - so far I've only found a handful, sometimes at Market basket or other grocery stores. Would so love to find some Lay's Ketchup chips tho, those things are the best.

Cheese curds in general - to make homemade poutine and just eat squeaky cheese. I've only found NY and Wisconsin versions which are so not the same as some OG Canadian cheese curds.

There's gotta be some other stuff too, it's just been so long since I've been up there that I'm forgetting all the goodies they got.

68° F is a really high thermostat setting. Setting it to 65° F would probably result in a $100 drop, minimum. If you could survive 60° F overnight and 64° F during the day you'd probably get into the $700 range.

Something sounds pretty off with your system or insulation though, since a modern energy efficient setup with proper insulation and windows/doors shouldn't cost more than $500 to hear a unit of that size to that high a temp. I'd probably look into Mass Save programs to bump up your insulation, fix drafts, maybe purchase a heat pump, etc. Assuming you own the condo that is.

How large is the building you're in? A multi unit building with proper insulation is definitely possible to be that efficient. Proper insulation, plus sharing walls/floors with other units gives you more heat for free/less heat loss to the outside.

Even a modern SFH with good insulation can be pretty cheap to heat if insulation is good and the windows / doors aren't drafty. Most of us just have early 1900s units that weren't updated properly or at all in some cases. Mass Save like programs should really do more to encourage landlords to upgrade.

It's even harder to compare than gasoline prices though. Everyone might have a different supplier of gas, or even a different source of fuel. The OP's bill is for natural gas from National Grid from the looks of it, but other folks may have Eversource as their supplier. Some people might not even use natural gas and may get oil heat, and some might not even use gas at all so they'll chime in with their crazy high electric bills but that's even more insane to compare since every town gets a different rate agreement with the power company.

And then to go a step further with your pickup truck vs compact car example, some people may drive vastly differently than others! I may drive my pickup truck at exactly 55mph on the highway, while you're off going 90mph and rolling coal at every stop light in town. My gas tank will go a lot further than yours. Just like my heating bill will be cheaper than yours if I set my heat to 60° F and you set yours to 70° F.

And in addition to all of this, we all have vastly different insulation in our housing units. So even if I have the same pickup truck as you do, my engine might be really poorly maintained and so I'll blow through diesel fuel while you're running on eco mode with a fresh oil change and tires rotated last week.

I've tried to compare heating bills to others and it just brews confusion and frustration. The only comparison worth looking at is year over year changes. Make sure you're using the least energy you can to keep the house as comfortable as you can afford. If it's widely different from year to year maybe call your landlord and ask them to service your heating system, or suck it up, or try to move to a move efficient house/apartment. Really little you can do besides turning your thermostat down as far as you can bare. Easier said than done though.

Interesting, never heard of that bakery. I like that they respond calmly to negative reviews, offering to talk or make things right. I saw no mention of bike cabals influencing their Google maps page. A+ business skills. 👍

Next time I have a craving for mall food court food and I'm too lazy to bike over to Cambridgeside I'll check them out.

Yes, famously children cannot walk, bike, or use transit. There's definitely no method of getting kids around without a mini van. It's fake news that they're capable of walking alongside a parent, riding a bike in a kids seat or even on their own once capable, and obviously teenagers never ride transit.

Actually, kids under 16 can't drive either, so maybe we should petition the State to let 10 year olds drive. Honestly some of them might be better at following traffic laws than many motorists I see around here. And yes, before you say bUt CyClIsTs RuN rEd LiGhTs!! I'll point out that literally no one follows or enforces traffic laws around here.

It's like the people who baulk at $1500 spent on a ebike (example) but spend $40,000 on this. Obviously $1500 is too much, let me go and buy a 4,000 lb car that costs 25x more.

It's not even just about bikes. We have a damn transit system that covers all parts of the eastern part of the State. Plenty of people take the Commuter Rail or buses around. Does it require a wee bit of planning? Yeah. Fortunately most of us are capable of some basic time management. It's not like driving doesn't require factoring in travel time, traffic, etc either. Or the weather or costs or whatever excuse you come up with.

OH and if you do want to just use bikes, you can STILL bring them on most transit options when needed. Buses have bike racks on the front, all heavy rail trains allow bikes during off peak hours, many Commuter Rail trains have a bike car, and really just the Green Line is a hard "no bikes" area but that'll likely change in a few years once we get the new modern light rail cars with like 7 cars a train and completely level boarding with larger interiors.

Yes, it's totally unrealistic that you consider alternatives. Obviously the Commuter Rail and the 170 bus routes that the MBTA operates throughout the State are unrealistic. It's not like tens of thousands of people within Cambridge do not own a car or do not regularly have access to a car (this site suggests 15,000 households are car free, and another 29,000 only own a single car). I'm sure ebikes and walking and transit are too difficult for people to figure out too. Cars are notably easy to get - you only need to throw $30,000 into the car, spend hours buying it, getting a license, getting registration, insurance, taxes paid, etc. A bike obviously is unrealistic since it's like $3/ride on Blue Bikes or a few hundred for a cheapo beater bike. And ebikes, oh my, so expensive when you can pick on up for like $1500. That's obviously unrealistic, I should go spend $10,000 on a used car with 100k miles instead.

^(/s)

Ah yes and Boston's roads are famously free of pot holes and traffic.

Lemme just store a 4000lb car on the street for all occasions too. Total enough space for all (checks notes) 100k people of driving age to do so within a 7 sq mile City.

If only there were bikes with wider tires. Idk why they wouldn't make such a bike... Maybe even stick an electric motor on one of those, some fenders and a rear rack so you could ride it year round.

Some other gems:

• buying 1 cookie does not make you a customer
• accuses a negative reviewer of being an ex-employee or friend of an ex-employee
• apparently her staff can't handle phone calls, so you should email/text their business. oh they don't answer phone calls either apparently LOL
• someone drove an hour to pickup a cake a half hour early and the owner's response wasn't "so sorry, we should have made that right" - it was to defend their "10am saturday pickup NO EXCEPTIONS" policy. Wacky considering they love to talk about how much people drive to their store.

The arrogance they show in their responses is just... insane.

Ignorance, or insanity. If you browse their Google Map review responses, they strike me as someone not mentally well. A reasonable business owner responds to 1 star reviews with "I'm so sorry you had a bad experience, let me make it right - email me at <first.last>@<business.name>.com. Next glutten free muffin is on me too". An insane business owner responds with the following (directly copied and pasted from a 1 star review response):

> Not a customer. Slander and violation of Google terms. Clearly one of the bike cabal threatening small businesses if they speak out about public parking removal.

Personally I love this gem about how buying a cookie doesn't make you a customer at her shop either:

> NOT A CUSTOMER. FAKE BIKER REVIEW.FAKE BIKER REVIEW. The city is trying to take out public parking from the commercial centers in Cambridge. Merchants are of course, fighting this, as without parking, no customers. No customers, you fold. Cyclist who LIVE in Cambridge agree that parking MUST remain. . Bike orgs, with members outside Cambridge are pushing this. IN A VERY FASCIST, Anti-democratic fashion, bikers are trying to CHILL DISSENT by the business community by writing these kinds of fake one start reviews, for anyone who speaks out, when they aren't customers. Since i've been saying this they buy 1 cookie to say they are customers. One cookie does not make you a customer. You all have zero understanding of how businesses operate or the economy for that matter. One day you will be ashamed if you are able to prevail in decimating commercial areas.

They could move their shop to the Burlington Mall. They'd get:

• ample free parking
• 0 bike lanes
• all the walking they could want around an indoor shopping mall

They'd probably lose half their customers who don't own a car and another chunk who do but won't drive to Burlington to listen to bike cabal rants, but hey, they could live out their dream of walking a bunch.

It's a good thing there's a whole system for getting around the metro without needing a car. A system which could be more reliable if business owners embraced bus and bike lanes rather than fight against them.

And bus lanes. The bitching and moaning about parking in North Cambridge got those bus lanes turned into rush hour lanes and off hours they're parking and loading zones. The 77 bus could allow this business owner to live north of Cambridge, easily commute to her shop and walk around and catch the bus when they need to get somewhere faster than walking.

Read her Google Map review responses. She's insane. No reasonable business owner publicly responds to reviews with "you're not a customer in my database, you must be a member of the bike cabal!!".