On and off the streets of Boston

The Democratic National Convention is going to be in Boston during the last week of July. And there's going to be security, which is not surprising given the current polarization of the political arena along with all the other post-9/11 concerns. At first, this meant that some T stations were going to be closed, and some highways closed in the evenings. Then it turns out that the highways will have to be closed earlier, because it takes a while to close a whole highway off. Which makes sense, but is hell for any kind of evening commute, since they're going to stop access to the highways at 4 P.M. Yesterday the news was that a bunch of parking garages downtown will be closed for the duration of the convention. Today, I hear that parts of Rte. 93 will be closed for the week. It's getting out of control. Even if lots of commuters take vacation and/or switch to some form of public transportation, it's still going to be a nightmare. I don't yet know how it will affect me, but I'm sure it will, with the daily revelation of restrictions.

Also on the transportation front: short-term parking (8 hours) at Logan is going from $22 to $50! This is supposedly in line with prices in Boston. Really?

Oh, and a memo to one of the drivers on 128 this morning:
Honking your horn when I am in the lane you want to be in is not effective. Learn to merge.

Butterflies?

I've seen three black and yellow butterflies (eastern tiger swallowtails, I think) flutter by in the last couple of days, more than I saw all of last year. I wonder why.