pyesetz | Mass. Trip '11 - days 1 and 2a (Reply)

Day 1: Drive to New York

Drug store: September 27th, 11:12 AM. Pick up prescription meds before the trip. This was supposed to have been done last week, but a mix-up with the ℞ scrip required multiple faxes between pharmacist and physician to resolve. Price was $438 for a 90-day supply. The American price would have been an obscenity.
I like this pharmacist because he remembers me from one visit to the next, although the downside is that he harangues me for not taking the pills as often as the doctor ordered. I’m not entirely sure what his financial situation is, but I think he ran the store independently for 20 years before joining the PharmaSave Corporation. Wikipedia says PharmaSave is owned by its franchisees. Socialism!

Post office: Last pick-up of mail before the trip. Two items of note:

PetroCanada/Certigard writes to announce that they are shutting down operations. You see, now that Suncor has bought PetroCanada, they’ve decided to focus the PetroCanada® brand on gasoline sales, so the Certigard™ line of automotive repair shops no longer fits the corporate vision. This letter is supposed to serve as an introduction to the owner of my newly-independent repair shop, whose name is Ghaleb Choujaa. I’ve met Gabe; he seems to be doing a good job on hiring competant mechanics, but I’m not clear on whether he is still picking up a wrench himself. I don’t know where he’s from, but Google suggests that the name ”Ghaleb” is associated with Lebanon.

Citizenship & Immigration Canada has returned our application for citizenship because some checkboxes were not ticked. On the parents’ forms we ticked No for the question, ”Have you ever been a citizen of Canada?”, but on the kids’ forms we did not answer the question, ”Have your parents ever been citizens of Canada?” The returned forms have the unanswered questions helpfully highlighted in yellow, along with a warning that if we do not fix this problem within 30 days, our application will be cancelled and the fee returned. So, back to the post office to mail the forms with the newly-ticked boxes. Didn’t get a receipt.

Stock market: Sold TNA because its uptrend seems to be over. 7% gain in two days!

US border customs, Lewiston NY. Easiest border-crossing *ever*! No snarling dogs, no mobs of blueshirt thugs. I tell the officer that we’ll be staying for a week; he looks at our US passports and says, ”you can stay as long as you like!” I guess the Terrorist Threat Level must be rather low right now.

New York Thruway: Paid tolls, no receipts. Stopped at a rest area; no receipt. Used their free wi-fi to check the stock market, but made no trades.

Herkimer, NY: Arrive at the Herkimer Motel. We drop our stuff and go across the street to the Waterfront Grille, which is an Italian restaurant. We’ve been here before. Still just as good, I think. $78.74 for a family dinner. Exited at 7:17 PM.

Day 2a: Drive to Massachusetts

Herkimer Motel: $124.90 for one night in a one-bedroom suite with wi-fi, mini-kitchen, etc. Separate queen-sized beds for each kid!

New York Thruway: More receiptless tolls. At 12:20 PM we stop at the rest area in Guilderland, near Schenectady NY. $68 for 18⅛ gallons of gasoline (that’s $3.73⁹/gallon). It’s the ”Mobil” brand, which is now identical to ”Exxon” and ”Esso” and is basically the resurrected Standard Oil Corp. that Teddy Roosevelt was famous for busting up. But, as we saw again with AT&T, merely splitting a megacorp into parts doesn’t kill it. The undead pieces spend the rest of eternity ”encouraging and suggesting” (and bribing) the authorities to allow it to “improve efficiency and synergy” by reconstructing its demonic self. Since people die and corporations don’t, eventually it wins. Slavery is freedom! I wonder whether the only way to truly get rid of a megacorp is to reslant the playing field so its business model no longer works.

Mass Pike: I’m old enough to remember when this road was called ”Pilgrim’s Turnpike”; now only the buckled-hat logo survives. More receiptless tolls.

Blandford MA: 1:34 PM. Stop at a turnpike rest area for lunch. Wifey and the kidlets go to McDonald’s, while I go to the ”Gulf Express” mini-mart for a pair of egg salad sandwiches. Lunch total: $30.11.

Hawthorn Suites, Franklin MA. Our home-away-from-home for the next five nights. Hawthorn was owned by Hyatt during 1985-2008, but now its owner is Wyndham. Maintenance is now spotty in places. There’s always *something* wrong with the pool (this time they’re ”waiting for parts”). But it’s well-located and much cheaper than most decent accommodations in Eastern Massachusetts.

Shaw’s/Osco, Franklin MA. I think this used to be a “Star Market” (which bought the Osco pharmacy chain a long time ago). Shaw’s has been on a tear, buying up all the other supermarket chains. At 5:38 PM we pay $55.26 for 13 items, only some of which will be used immediately for Rosh Hashanah.

(Tune in next time for part 2b of our saga, where we celebrate the Jewish New Year 5772—in a hotel room!)