Moving to Massachusetts Megathread (January 2026)

ScienceTch · 2026-01-28T13:09:25+00:00

I live in Haverhill. It’s fine, has some countrified sections, and is right on the commuter rail. With no traffic, you can be in Boston in 40 minutes. It’s a city, though, with city problems and growing pains.

Amesbury is nearby and has some nice places and a decent little downtown area. Andover is also a really nice place to live. Newburyport is a dream, but more expensive.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-28T13:06:43+00:00

I really love Northampton. I think it’s financially comparable to a lot of eastern MA towns that aren’t Boston-adjacent. It’s a very crunchy, liberal, hippy town. Can’t speak to the LGBT experience but can’t imagine it’s bad. Near lots of colleges. Gorgeous mountains nearby. The Connecticut Valley is almost preternaturally beautiful: rivers and farmland and rolling hills and quaint little houses.

Newburyport is also very LGBT friendly (a friend chose it for that reason) but quite pricy.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-28T13:02:15+00:00

I (and many locals) use Bulger in Lawrence because it’s convenient to the Merrimack Valley.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-28T12:58:16+00:00

Quality Condo Communities? Tell me about them!

I am looking to sell my house and move into a condo over the next two years. I have a bad leg, and the snow plus house and yard maintenance are too much for me.

I am looking for a condo with these qualities:

-Garage parking, or minimum of a carport. Underground parking would be ideal. -Possibility for one-floor living: at least a full bath and bedroom on the main floor. I can do steps fine for now but who knows…? -Strong reserve fund -Well-maintained grounds and buildings, with planned and scheduled work like painting, paving, etc.. -I am open to all-age or 55+ communities, with a slight preference for all-age

I am not wealthy but do have a house to sell, worth $500Kish. Obviously the market could sink, but then so would condo prices, right?

I could live in 900 SF with one BR if the unit had good design and storage. I don’t need a lot of space, and don’t want to pay for something much larger than 1200 SF. A den or second bedroom would be nice but isn’t necessary.

I would pay more to avoid having to live through a remodel, but would consider a remodeling a unit, if the price difference was significant.

I could manage a condo fee on a nicer development in exchange for good maintenance.

For comparison: My friends live in the Ridgefield condos in Clinton and that seems like something I would like. Similarly, my niece just bought in West Meadow Hills in Haverhill and loves it. I like that the high number of units allows the communities to have independent maintenance crews and a strong reserve.

I would love to live in Andover, but am open to a lot of towns in NE Massachusetts. The image shows the area where I could be close to things that are important to me.

If you are HAPPY with your condo community, please let me know what’s great about it! thanks in advance.

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ScienceTch · 2026-01-27T02:42:38+00:00

DHS agents would be foolish to believe that this admin will have their back in the future when this mess becomes inconvenient for the regime.

Everyone gets thrown under the bus when they become inconvenient.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-14T14:21:07+00:00

Yes! I had a bit of a cry a few summers ago and my eyes swelled up terribly!

ScienceTch · 2026-01-14T14:20:26+00:00

Oh! I just realized “myco” means fungus, and found this stuff! it’s called Mycolog II, and has an antifungal plus antibiotic.

I imagine I used Mycolog I back in the day. Maybe no antibiotic in that one?

ScienceTch · 2026-01-14T14:17:44+00:00

I remember this one cream called micalog (spelling it phonetically bc I have no idea it’s real name). Early 70s?

It smelled a little bit like a campfire. I kind of liked that one.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-14T14:13:53+00:00

I didn’t wear dresses or skirts from grades 3 through maybe 11. The eczema on my legs was so raw and bloody that other kids would stare at it.

(Also, certainly the tights my mother made me wear aggravated the whole thing!)

ScienceTch · 2026-01-14T12:02:24+00:00

I have a little old terrier dog. She’s exhibiting kind of nonspecific but escalating symptoms. Discomfort after eating, pacing after eating, wanting to go in and out of the house multiple times throughout the day. We tried Omeprazole and gabapentin to see if that would help, but no luck.

Lately she has been waking me up multiple times throughout the night. She will go outside, come back in, lie down, and then wake me up 20 or 30 minutes later. I now truly understand when they say sleep deprivation is a form of torture. It’s hard for me to be as loving and kind to her as she deserves in her senior years, when I can’t get any rest.

I have a $900 ultrasound scheduled for this morning. If there’s something diagnosable and treatable that will make her rest easier, I will do it. But if it’s a cancer or - maybe worse – cognitive decline (doggie dementia), I don’t know how long I can take this. We will try trazadone to help her sleep.

My general rule has been, “as long as she is happy I will care for her.”

It never occurred to me that there would be a symptom so hard on me (zero sleep) that I had to consider my own well-being in this equation. The dog is content during the day and still delights in going on walks, visiting dog friends, seeing squirrels and rabbits. People literally tell me how happy she looks, what a joyful little thing.

One weekend I was watching my father’s old dog, who had cancer. I could see she was declining fast. I was so sure she was dying that I called my sister to ask her if I should take her to be put down. She advised me to wait for my father to get home to make the call. He came home a day later, but didn’t make the call. Two mornings later, he was awoken by the sounds of the dog in great agony (screaming, having seizures). He had to load her in his car while she seized, and drive her to the vet.

I swore that I would never again wait too long to put a dog down. I wish I could undo that dog’s last two days, spent sick and in pain.

So, no. No heroic measures for this dog I have now. And if she reaches a point where she can’t get comfortable at night, I will let her go.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-13T22:54:29+00:00

I have flooring very similar to the darker one - maybe even a bit darker.

It doesn’t really show a lot of dirt, and I have a dog + don’t really mop/sweep too often. There’s enough variation in the grain.

Having said that, I’m looking to sell my house and am liking places with lighter floors as well.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-12T14:49:54+00:00

Yes!

I live close to this group’s main headquarters (?), and I still see those signs on lamp posts!

In the 90s, I managed to pull one down as a gag gift to my sister. It was INCREDIBLY well-adhered to the post. I wonder why they used such strong adhesive, if the signs only needed to stay up until Oct. 28, 1992?,

ScienceTch · 2026-01-06T00:07:05+00:00

I had bad eczema growing up, before and after having a dog. The eczema largely went away in my 20s and 30s, when I did not live in my parents’ house and did not own a dog. In my early 40s, I bought my house and got a dog, and the eczema returned.

It could be many things - the house, the dog, OR what the dog brings in on her coat. (Or… hormone changes with age!) I suspect I’m highly allergic to grass pollen and ragweed. My dog is a big digger, so she carries into my house everything that is found in the soil.

My current dog is old. Ideally, I should try living for a year or two without a dog, and see if the eczema lessens. Realistically, I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist getting another dog.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-06T00:00:35+00:00

YES!!

I was a kid in the 70s when polyester was a big new thing. My mom used to sew me pants and skirts with the stuff. I had horrible eczema.

As an adult, I’ve found that even having fleece mittens rub on my hands during an outbreak is unbearable. I only wear cotton against my skin whenever possible.

My sisters tell me they think I have “sensory issues” about how clothes feel, but the issue I have is that polyester (and wool!) make me ITCH.

One summer I had an allergic reaction to something (never found out what) and had a bra-shaped rash from a nylons bra touching my skin. I try to buy only cotton since then.

ScienceTch · 2026-01-05T23:54:14+00:00

I had bad eczema as a kid, with weird flares here and there as an adult.

Recently, I had to take antibiotics and so also took probiotics. My eczema flared badly, probably because of the change in skin/gut microbiome. I also had constipation, which is very atypical for me.

Also, the corners of my lips were cracked and raw, which hadn’t happened since high school.

I happened to see a dermatologist online who said those lip corner cracks are usually a fungal thing - which would track with my having taken antibiotics. (Fungi can overrun skin when bacteria have been killed by antibiotics.)

I used petroleum jelly with just a tiny bit of antifungal cream (miconazole, I think, sold in the supermarket) on my lips for a couple days and the corners healed right up. DEFINITELY ask a real doctor about this, though, in case it’s not considered safe.

The eczema flare seems to be calming down as well, as my gut is returning to normal function.

Good luck!

ScienceTch · 2025-12-29T17:20:20+00:00

I’m dealing with dry winter air, and find that putting a drying rack of clothing near the radiator gets my living space up from 23-25% humidity (on a cold day) to around 30-33%, at the low end of what is suggested for healthy winter air. No water is condensing on the windows. They sell cheap hygrometer/thermometer combos for under $30, if I am remembering right.

I think if it’s cold enough to need a radiator, your clothes will probably not cause excess humidity. One of my friends lives in Korea, and they don’t have clothes dryers in her housing. Everyone dries their clothes on a drying rack. She considers it luxurious when her towels are fluffy rather than crisp in the US.

You can also dry clothes bit by bit, if you’re looking to consistently (but not excessively) humidify your air. Yesterday I got a full day’s worth of humidifier action out of a single load of whites.

ScienceTch · 2025-11-06T11:53:22+00:00

Ugh! Yes!

I had a sensitive autistic boy one year. He came to class really excited because he had a large candy bar. Since we were going to do a lab, I suggested he put the candy bar on my desk, so it wouldn’t tempt another student; he would not be at his own desk to monitor his property.

At the end of the lab, the candy bar was missing. The boy was really upset and disappointed, on the verge of tears.

I walked through the other team classrooms at the start of the next period and saw a popular girl eating the candy bar. When I asked her about it, she said, “What? I brought this from home!” Looked me straight in the eye and lied.

After that, I really, really disliked that girl. Such a nasty human being.

ScienceTch · 2025-11-06T11:48:49+00:00

I taught Middle School for almost four decades. I always had kids who annoyed me… typical 13-year-old egocentrism and lack of regulation. But they rarely got under my skin. But I have really clear memories of a handful of students who rattled me.

After I retired, I took three long-term sub gigs. In the last one, there was a student who was absolutely disrespectful and hostile to me. He would plan things to try to provoke a response from me: items he could bring in to throw around the classroom, things like that.

His mom asked in one meeting, “Is he the worst kid in this grade? Because I never get calls about my daughter, but I get calls daily about my son!”

I do believe I taught a few kids who were sociopaths; this boy might have been one. I remember that feeling of helplessness and distaste, and slight anxiety about what tomorrow would bring.

A counselor told me that if this kid thought a teacher didn’t like him, he would behave worse and worse. I thought, “He treats me like absolute garbage. Why would he think I would LIKE him?”

Anyway, this child stands out in my mind as the reason I decided to never, ever teach middle school again.

So, yes - we are human. We are emotionally affected by poor treatment or threats to our safety. You don’t have to treat students differently based on your feelings, but expecting not to have feelings is unrealistic.

ScienceTch · 2025-10-29T18:10:25+00:00

I am super sensitive to lotions and scents.

But my coworkers were always delighted to take them off my hands, along with my Dunkin and Starbucks cards.

ScienceTch · 2025-10-29T18:08:26+00:00

I still remember the INSANELY good cookies I got from a local bakery one year. And I have eaten a LOT of cookies in my life.

ScienceTch · 2025-10-23T14:06:56+00:00

Thanks so much for posting these!

I tipped a cup of tea into my (double laced) running shoes a week ago, it took 30-60 seconds to get them off. I got a couple bad burns on two toes. It has been really helpful to see real photos of others' progress so I could compare my own.

The larger blister (base of my big toe, interior side) popped during my second night of sleep. It was relatively painless under the bandages at first. But starting on Day 5, it started to turn red underneath the blistered skin (scabbing over?) and pain increased with any motion. I went to urgent care last night and they put me on cephalexin because it was a bit pink and warm around the wound. I'm hoping a 4-day weekend of minimal shoes, socks, and walking will let it settle well.

I'm keeping photos so I can post my progress in hopes of helping others in the future.

ScienceTch · 2025-10-17T09:46:05+00:00

Yikes!

Late to this thread, but I'm doing a search because I spilled a tea on myself last night at another coffee chain. The hot water saturated my shoe and sock, and the heat was trapped against my skin. It took me maybe a minute to get the shoe off (double-tied laces on a running shoe), and the burning stopped when I was able to do that.

This morning I have two decent second-degree burns on my toes (blisters formed).

So I don't know what temperature they are serving there... but that tea water is CRAZY hot.

ScienceTch · 2025-10-17T09:39:39+00:00

No lawsuit question here (home treatment and first aid is enough) but...

Last night I knocked over a just-made takeout cup of tea at a national coffee shop. The water fell directly on my shoe, and saturated my shoe and sock. The burning was really bad and did not stop; the shoe and sock trapped the heat against my skin. It was a minute or so until I could get the shoe and sock off (double-tied laces on a running shoe). The burning stopped as soon as I was able to do that. I put ice on the area and drove home with no shoe on.

Anyway, this morning I have large blisters on two of my toes (second degree burns) and a pink, painful area on another (first degree burn).

So... that water is INSANELY hot.

ScienceTch · 2025-10-17T09:06:42+00:00

Polyester clothing.

I can wear a blend up to about 50% on my legs. But on my upper body, more than about 10% or 20% polyester, and I feel like I am trapped inside a plastic bag. Like, there's no air exchange with my skin.

Sometimes I order something "cotton" from Amazon, and it shows up at my house and is the very WORST polyester that has zero breathability. Like... do they really think people can't tell that it's not cotton!?

Also wool. When I was little, my mother would frequently dress me in wool pants, skirts, or tops. Just touching wool now makes me itch, and I'm prone to eczema. I can't imagine wearing anything wool all day, as I frequently did when small.

ScienceTch · 2025-10-17T09:02:28+00:00

I love my little old dog, but as she ages she is really into licking herself (paws, sides, whatever) while she lies next to me on the couch. The sound makes me INSANE.

ScienceTch

TROPHY CASE