bostonzest

Tag: online

  • Boston Resident Parking Permits for Rental Cars Available Online

    Once upon a time (just a short time ago), you had to go to city hall to obtain a resident parking permit for a rental car. We learned that you can now apply and get a permit online so we tried it for our recent Provincetown trip. If you don't own a car, like us, and plan a few fall weekends away, this new service may come in handy.

    DSC_8121 - Version 22013-09-07-rental-car-boston-resident-parking-permit-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    We rented this Passat with New Jersey plates. Once we had the car, we went online to the city's page for  "Resident Parking Permits for Rental Cars," read the instructions, filled out the form, faxed a copy of our rental contract, proof of residencey (our cable bill), and the confirmation of our application to the city. They emailed a copy of our permit which we printed and put in the car's rear window. 

    Screen shot 2013-09-13 at 5.43.05 PM

    Better, But Can Be Improved

    This is much easier but still way behind the times. You should be able to carry out the entire process by email. You can grab a pdf of a cable, utility, or tax bill. The rental company probably sent you a copy of the rental via text or email. And, the city should be able to accept those forms via email. 

    What's more, they should be able to handle a simple transaction like this 24/7. We applied on a Saturday morning and had to wait until Monday to get our permit. That left us vunerable to parking tickets and ticked off neighbords over the weekend. Our solution was to leave a rear window note – explaining that the car was a rental belonging to a resident – along with a copy of our confirmation of applying for the permit.

    If the mayor's hot line can operate 24/7 so can many more city services.

    The city says, 

    "At this time, the new system is not available weekends and residents who pick up their vehicles after 3 PM will not be able to go online for a temporary permit. 

    These residents are eligible to have "Resident Parking Only" tickets cancelled by forwarding a proof of residency at their Boston address and a copy of the vehicle rental agreement to the Office of the Parking Clerk."

    Thanks to everyone who hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support. It doesn't  cost you any more but they put a few coins in our tip jar.

    What's on your Fall Shopping List? Click here for Fall Season Savings over at Amazon.

    Details:

    Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
    Photography: © 2013 BostonZest 

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • Weather Underground for Local Boston Weather Resources

    When storms are brewing and I need to decide what to wear or what to pack in my day bag, I turn to Weather Underground. They've put the local in local weather by allowing you to choose the weather station you want as your source of information.

    DSC_1208 - Version 22011-08-22Green-building-MIT-Weather-station © 2011 Penny Cherubino© 2011 Penny Cherubino (1)2011-08-22-mit-green-building-cambridge-ma-weather-station-massachusetts-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    My hyperlocal weather on the site comes from the top of MIT's Green Building. I can see it from my home. That is a full weather station on the roof including a radar dome in the photo above. Weather station ID # KMACAMBR9 will give you weather observations from this site.

    Here in Boston, there is sometimes a big difference in the weather for the Boston area and the weather for your neighborhood. The airport temperature, surrounded as it is by the ocean, and the temperature in the Back Bay or Allston can be different.

    25,000 Weather Stations

    Weather Underground has a database of 25,000 weather stations. You can choose one near you at home or away. You can keep track of the weather where family and friends live or while you make plans for an upcoming trip.

    Almanac & Historic Data

    Once you enter a location, you'll see a tab for Today's Almanac. Here's mine. This gives you perspective as the weather "personalities" hype their latest record-setting something or other.

    Wundermap®

    Once you set up Weather Underground, you can click over to their Wundermap® and set it up to see the local weather stations in your area on a radar map in real-time. Add the layers you like and that are of concern to you under the current situation.

    I use other weather sites as well, but the localization of this one makes it a favorite. As I sense that more and more of the weather reporting on local tv is over-hyped and designed to keep you coming back for more information, I trust those sources less and less and turn to sites like this to do my research and make my determination of how serious a weather situation actually is.

    What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

    Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • Weather Underground for Local Boston Weather Resources

    When storms are brewing and I need to decide what to wear or what to pack in my day bag, I turn to Weather Underground. They've put the local in local weather by allowing you to choose the weather station you want as your source of information.

    DSC_1208 - Version 22011-08-22Green-building-MIT-Weather-station © 2011 Penny Cherubino© 2011 Penny Cherubino (1)2011-08-22-mit-green-building-cambridge-ma-weather-station-massachusetts-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    My hyperlocal weather on the site comes from the top of MIT's Green Building. I can see it from my home. That is a full weather station on the roof including a radar dome in the photo above. Weather station ID # KMACAMBR9 will give you weather observations from this site.

    Here in Boston, there is sometimes a big difference in the weather for the Boston area and the weather for your neighborhood. The airport temperature, surrounded as it is by the ocean, and the temperature in the Back Bay or Allston can be different.

    25,000 Weather Stations

    Weather Underground has a database of 25,000 weather stations. You can choose one near you at home or away. You can keep track of the weather where family and friends live or while you make plans for an upcoming trip.

    Almanac & Historic Data

    Once you enter a location, you'll see a tab for Today's Almanac. Here's mine. This gives you perspective as the weather "personalities" hype their latest record-setting something or other.

    Wundermap®

    Once you set up Weather Underground, you can click over to their Wundermap® and set it up to see the local weather stations in your area on a radar map in real-time. Add the layers you like and that are of concern to you under the current situation.

    I use other weather sites as well, but the localization of this one makes it a favorite. As I sense that more and more of the weather reporting on local tv is over-hyped and designed to keep you coming back for more information, I trust those sources less and less and turn to sites like this to do my research and make my determination of how serious a weather situation actually is.

    What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

    Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • Weather Underground for Local Boston Weather Resources

    When storms are brewing and I need to decide what to wear or what to pack in my day bag, I turn to Weather Underground. They've put the local in local weather by allowing you to choose the weather station you want as your source of information.

    DSC_1208 - Version 22011-08-22Green-building-MIT-Weather-station © 2011 Penny Cherubino© 2011 Penny Cherubino (1)2011-08-22-mit-green-building-cambridge-ma-weather-station-massachusetts-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    My hyperlocal weather on the site comes from the top of MIT's Green Building. I can see it from my home. That is a full weather station on the roof including a radar dome in the photo above. Weather station ID # KMACAMBR9 will give you weather observations from this site.

    Here in Boston, there is sometimes a big difference in the weather for the Boston area and the weather for your neighborhood. The airport temperature, surrounded as it is by the ocean, and the temperature in the Back Bay or Allston can be different.

    25,000 Weather Stations

    Weather Underground has a database of 25,000 weather stations. You can choose one near you at home or away. You can keep track of the weather where family and friends live or while you make plans for an upcoming trip.

    Almanac & Historic Data

    Once you enter a location, you'll see a tab for Today's Almanac. Here's mine. This gives you perspective as the weather "personalities" hype their latest record-setting something or other.

    Wundermap®

    Once you set up Weather Underground, you can click over to their Wundermap® and set it up to see the local weather stations in your area on a radar map in real-time. Add the layers you like and that are of concern to you under the current situation.

    I use other weather sites as well, but the localization of this one makes it a favorite. As I sense that more and more of the weather reporting on local tv is over-hyped and designed to keep you coming back for more information, I trust those sources less and less and turn to sites like this to do my research and make my determination of how serious a weather situation actually is.

    What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

    Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.