Bristol Revisited

I grew up in Bristol years ago and go back to RI for visits every other year, or so.

I was shocked to see all the new houses on Narrows and Annawamscutt Roads several years ago, and now there are tons more on Metacomet Avenue as well. The traffic is unbelievably horrendous on that road. I hope I never hear of anyone on the zoning board complain about the traffic on Metacomet Avenue. The town has allowed these huge McMansions to be squeezed into every last lot into the Narrows area, an area that used to be a very nice small beachside community that was far removed from bright urban lights and suburban sidewalks. Who are the politicians who let all those eyesores blight that neighborhood? King Philip Avenue (posted speed limit – 15 mph) has turned into a drag strip. There used to be a couple of houses that had neon palm trees on their patios! Neon palm trees?! Huh?! I didn’t see them this year, but what in the world were those people thinking when they put them up?! Bristol is NOT Florida! There is a house on the waterfront with a seawall in front it that has fallen into such disrepair that the next good storm that comes along will knock it down, sending the house into Mt. Hope Bay and dragging neighbors down with it. I’m really surprised that the CRMC hasn’t stepped in and done something about it yet.

Bristol newbies are not Bristolians, they are Bristolites (Bristol-lites.)

I had considered moving back there, but that notion has completely disappeared now. I thought about it a couple of years ago, but naah. Nice place to visit, but…

Note~ I have been considering sending this post to the Bristol Phoenix and Providence Journal editors, but fear that there could be some retribution against my family who still live there after seeing plenty of riff-raff that has moved into the ol' neighborhood.

Anger

Wow. I just went back and read most of my posts, and I can now see a lot of anger in those posts that I may not have realized I was inputting at the time of the original post. I had a long talk today with a cousin that I had not seen in a very long time. I told her about my blog, so I decided to go back and read much of it before I sent her the link. As I said, wow.

Sierra has turned 18, graduated high school, and moved back in with her mother. My moving date was pushed up from fall of this year to June, as my landlord needed to move back into his place. I found a nice place up close to the Russian River in Sonoma County, but moving wasn't wasn't easy. I wanted to move in the fall to avoid the heinous heat that occurs in the summer months around here, but I got lucky and found a place I really like so far.

I'll be back home soon enough and look forward to tapping into those creative veins that I have mentioned in previous posts- playing and writing music and lyrics, rebuilding small wooden boats, photography, and candlemaking. I hope to find some backgammon partners. And I really want to get past all that negativity. I want to start writing about other topics besides the personal diary stuff. Maybe I just needed to get it written down in order to get past that anger.

Thanks to my cousin for the long talk today.

Ever wonder what goes on in your old hometown?

I'm in RI at the moment visiting the folks. I was perusing the Providence Journal when I spotted a story about declining passenger totals at T.F. Green Airport just outside of Providence. Next to that story was another about the legality of minors working as strippers in RI. Great. T.F. Green won't have to worry about declining numbers any longer, as I'm sure every pervert in America will now be flying here.