Cambridge says a pipeline company that wants to cut down trees on a small city-owned parcel near the city reservoir on the Lincoln/Waltham line is disregarding the law, the rights of the town of Lincoln and the purity of Cambridge drinking water in its demand to use the parcel as a way to get heavy equipment to a neighboring lot for installation. Read more

KaZbek spotted this flaming car on the ramp from Rte. 2 west to Rte. 128 in Lexington around 3:30 p.m.

Heather Hegedus at WFXT reported on traffic delays in two areas this morning: There was a car fire on 128 south in Lexington and there was a couch in the road on Rte. 2 west in Arlington.

There's probably a good reason why the pedestrian bridge over Rte. 2 at the Arlington/Belmont line is packed with all the old Christmas trees that David Weininger spotted this morning.

Cambridge officials and residents this week consider a developer's plans to replace the Lanes & Games bowling alley on Rte. 2 with two "multistory elevated residential structures" to be called the Residences at Alewife Station. Read more.

State Police report on a bizarre collision in Arlington shortly before 7 p.m. that injured two. According to State Police:

It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but Dendanator assures us that, yes, an old lady was driving down Rte. 2 this morning in a car full of live sheep.

Earlier:
Turkey in a car on I-95.

A pickup by Rte. 128 was on FIYAH around 9:30 a.m., as Ryan Toohill discovered. State Police shut the road to so firefighters could fight the fire.

Jenrad, who got stuck in the resulting gridlock, took a photo, in part to show her boss why she was late for work:

MORNING UPDATE: The Muddy River dropped below flood stage overnight (graph), so it looks like Riverside service is back. But looks like the Red Line between Ashmont and Fields Corner has been knocked out by flooding. Also, the main road through Franklin Park is shut, mhowardkarp reports.

In general, of course, but more specifically at:

Halley recounts her commute home on Friday afternoon from Lexington to Arlington via 128 and 2:

... Next was Rt. 2, a big toboggan run disguised as a highway. Again, people were slaloming along at a fairly reasonable pace and then some unfortunate blockhead would stop dead in front of you for no clear reason, or some ass in a warlike fashion would fly past you in their SUV making you eat their slush. As the hill got really steep around Arlington Heights and the Park Ave exit, I saw a bunch of cars just stopping in mid-highway. The visibility was so lousy, I couldn't see what was ahead of them ... they looked like they'd all stopped dead to look at dinosaurs suddenly crossing the highway or something equally shocking. At that steep height, like a bunch of kids in line at the pool's high diving board deciding they didn't really want to jump, they looked ... scared. ...