random thoughts – Day 1,709 – (Wednesday) – new and festive

Up on the roof.

It was a day of new things. The heavy volume of traffic has returned on Lakeview, indicating the culvert project must be done or done enough for the road to no longer be closed. I learned this as I sat at the end of Beaver Street for what felt like forever waiting to take a right turn into Lakeview.

The garage is still under renovations and I ended up parking on the ramp between the fifth floor and the roof level. It was my first time parking that far up. The views of downtown from up there include rooftops and wide swaths of brick which is no surprise, because if there is one thing we have in abundance downtown it’s brick. 

At the office, there were some chocolates from Russia brought in by a colleague. The pictures on the wrappers gave clues as to the fillings – blueberry, raspberry, and other less obvious illustrations. There was a post from the Chamber of Commerce about a ribbon cutting tomorrow at a new store on Market Street called Lowell General Store. Cool, downtown needs more shops.

The store name brought confusion in our office. Several people, after hearing the “Lowell General” part, thought first of the local hospital with that name. Meanwhile, I was focused on the “General Store” part and conjuring images of an old timey general store with lots of wood, all sort of products, maybe some snacks and ice cream.

I took a walk over there in the afternoon, and learned the shop was neither of these things. It was neither a hospital shop nor a big old general store. It was very tidy with neat and attractive displays of tee shirts, dog bandannas and gourmet dog treats, beautiful wood cutting boards, spice mixes and rubs, cloth napkins, and some cool lamps with very artsy paper lampshades. I wandered the store thinking about our office Yankee Swap scheduled for a couple weeks from now, but nothing I liked had a price tag and I hate asking. Asking requires conversation. Plus, it would have required asking about every single thing in there, except the set of four red and white cloth napkins for $40. Those had a sign.

Festive.

The decorations are popping up in preparation for the parade on November 30. The wreaths on the street lights have been hung for a couple weeks. A building entry on Market Street is now sporting a wreath and the planters are more festive. Decorations in the big street level window at work are underway. Businesses decorate in time for the parade and downtown always looks great for the lighting of City Hall the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

There was a satisfying level of progress on a new small project, and a little cha cha sidestep this afternoon on what is usually a routine update that is now a redesign. All it takes is one change to an advertising regulation from FDIC and the ripple effects in marketing materials last for ages. No worries, there is already a plan in mind and underway. All good.