Dottie Hottie

If you also have had to detour your regularly scheduled weekend T ride on the Red Line via a shuttle to JFK, rather than hopping on your favored Shawmut, Ashmont stations or the like, the wait may be over.  The Dottie Hottie recognizes that improvements are necessary in our T stations, particularly for the wheelchair bound and strollerpushing among us.  The Dottie Hottie has taken to subscribing to T-Alert notifications by e-mail to stay apprised of weekend service interruptions.  Still, the Dottie Hottie gets cranky like any good denizen reliant upon public trans.  So the Dottie Hottie was encouraged when a conversation was had with an upstanding member of the MBTA Transit Police today who informed that the Ashmont Station should be complete by early fall and buses should be circling the station like covered wagons in a caravan by late summer.  Yipee-rah! Things appear to be shaping up nicely over there at the station where the overhang looks like it was manufactured by NASA and where the sun glints off the poles like there’s going to be a bright future of non-cranky public transport right here in the near future.

Today the Dottie Hottie was hot, heat index notwithstanding. The Dottie Hottie was sooo stinking hot. Hot in the head.

There was DH, driving down the street at speed limit with MID in the backseat, when a neighbor pulled right out in front of DH. The neighbor was DEFINITELY driving with cellphone held to ear in one hand. DH laid on the horn seeing as PRECIOUS CARGO ON BOARD.

Then, the unlawful driver raised the other hand off of steering wheel. The Dottie Hottie is no mathematician but 1 hand on phone + 1 hand raised in air = 0 hands on steering wheel.

Good thing the passenger in the neighbor’s backseat had a spare hand. A spare hand to give the Dottie Hottie the bird!

Oh the ignorance. The Dottie Hottie would once again like to plead with fellow Dotties. Let us elevate the code of driving conduct in the Dot to that of a civilized nation. And let this be a reminder that flipping the bird, especially to a non-offending driver, is just not hot.

A fellow Dottie hottie recently griped that people here drive like they are in the Third World. Or on the Autobahn with a truck sans muffler. Or without a shred of respect.

Drive down Dot Ave. any day of the week at rush hour and you will experience it, too. Traffic lights are merely a suggestion. Stop signs are for wusses. Dot Ave. is straight like the lines of Casey Affleck’s adidas pants, but you would think it was really serpentine with the way people hatch it up at 5 p.m. Want some plantains?

Sure there are more cars and bikers (like our very own Dottie Biker) sharing the road than when Dot was its own little mini-hub. Sure updates to traffic flow are needed and appear to be pending in places like Peabody Square and around Freeport Rd. But this doesn’t mean we need to drive like we’ve lost our dang minds and sense of decency.

If we proud Dotties strive to elevate the profile of our neighborhood, we have got to show a little ’spect for our Dottie brother. Drive safely out there, and hey, Johnny Law, we could use a little enforcement up and down Dot Ave. Thanks.