I like Philadelphia. The people are pretty friendly. A lot of things that remind me of Ithaca.

I enjoy the presence of seasons. I can feel summer turning, and I'm excited to know that fall is coming. It seems like a cheap excuse to me, but I thought that the consistency of Los Angeles' weather at times lulled me into a sort of stasis. I connect seasons changing with time passing, and with my own mortality, and there's something fulfilling about having that reminder. I liked Los Angeles a lot, but I'm very glad that I left.

The smells here are strange. There are unexplainable clouds of stench that dot the city - you can be driving or walking around, and without notice stumble into the smell of a subway bathroom that hasn't been cleaned in a year. It's more prevalent in the crap areas of town, but you'll catch it downtown, too. There are good odors too - you can smell the major cheesesteak places from a block away.

I think I'll be up in Branford before the end of the month.

The drivers here are insane. A lot of drivers here accelerate away from red lights before they turn green. Quite often someone ahead of me is halfway through the intersection before a light turns red. I've seen a lot of people simply run through red lights late at night, if it looks like no one is around. Very few people actually stop at stop signs.

"Out of my way, peasants!"

This is a Mercedes S65. It's a regular top-end Mercedes S-Class with, get this, a twin-turbocharged V12 that makes 604hp and 737 ft-lbs of torque. It costs something like $200k. Maybe $125k of that is the engine. Remember when I talked about getting a car that I could run over poor people in? This is it. I need to get one.

Stone

Stone