random thoughts – Day 1,914 – (Friday) –good friday

While walking from the garage to the office I engaged in the avoidance strategies honed over the years of working downtown. I scanned the blocks ahead and saw the cluster of dudes hanging around the park bench on the John Street sidewalk. I crossed at the first crosswalk to be on the opposite side of the street. It is easier to scan the block and cross early than to be asked for money by one or more of the guys every morning.

Artist at work.

An artist was painting a storefront window at the former District Five restaurant on Merrimack Street where Fork will soon be located. The weeks before the Lowell Folk Fest see many storefront windows painted by local artists in a variety of styles. Fork catered an event I attended last year and it was delicious. I’m looking forward to the restaurant opening.

Further down the street, the scanning took on a different purpose. One the block before the bank is the Lazy Car Café and sometimes the resident cats are in the windows. This morning, the fluffy white cat was sitting tall and surveying the street. When I paused to take pictures, white cat looked everywhere but at me. I almost didn’t see the black cat laying in the shadow in the window. Seeing kitties in a window is a nice touch to the morning.

White kitty in a window.

The day was quiet with just three of us in the office, scattered across the expanse of the fourth floor. It was also chilly because the A/C on the fourth floor is trapped in the North Pole climate zone, while the first floor suite is often an oven.

There was an early afternoon walk with fresh features. The painting underway several hours earlier seemed complete. The flower box outside Tijuana Grill was bursting with bright yellow, pink, and orange flowers. 

The park behind the Trolley Museum with the miniature trolley car where the high school students would be hanging out after school in another half-hour, was instead hosting a cluster of late-middle-aged men with ball caps and messenger bags and one dressed like a conductor. A limousine bus was backing up the one-way cobblestone street. Too bad the trolley group couldn’t have arrived by trolley, but most of those tracks are under the asphalt.

After work, the Lazy Cat Lounge windows were kitty free. The walk to the garage was pleasant and nobody asked me for money. Silvery gray clouds hung over the city like a billowy silk scarf and the traffic was at the lessened summer volume enjoyed after UML holds commencement exercises. All is well, and it was a good Friday.