I can't be in two places at once, so after only 20 minutes I walked over to City Hall for an Ordnance Committee meeting. I wanted to see what was up with the old fire station at 452 Main St. Turns out some guys need a special permit to use the first floor bays as an auto repair garage. The old fire house would make the fanciest repair garage in town. The Ordinance Committee tabled the permit request until they get more info next week.
After sitting out the whole ordinance committee meeting I wandered over to Brennen's for a burger, and some candid shots of the bar.
The 10:00 PM walk home through the so called "war zone'" was uneventful but for the guy who came out of the Clover to ask why I was photographing it.
Walking the city is even nicer in the early AM. Last week I walked 18 blocks across the city, from the intersection of Oak and Cabot, to my house in the Flatts. It was about 12:30 am, and I was walking home after a party. Part of the way I accompanied Stan and Daphne to their house at Suffolk and Pine.
Staphne, as they are collectively known, showed me some homes being restored by new owners on Pine Street, and others slatted for demolition by the city. The air was calm, cool, and crisp. Perfect walking weather. My zip-up hoodie kept me warm. With virtually no people around, the city was dead quiet. Stan is so kind, he walked with me past their house to High St in front of City Hall. Perhaps he suspected some drug addict would accost me, but I didn't encounter another person on my solitary way home.
Walking past the first level canal the water looked like wavy glass in the lights reflected off the surface. Steam pipes on Open Square Way disturbed the utter peace of the city with a faint hiss of vapor escaping from a valve. Water lapping against the sides of the second level canal made me pause to listen. The sounds of my own foot falls were too loud. In the dead quiet it was like standing at the shore of a gentile lake.
When did they say work would begin on the Lyman Street bridges?
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