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I was lucky enough to be invited on Talking Out Loud this morning with wonderful hosts Felicia Sullivan and Charlotte Crockford. The live show was aired on UMass Lowell’s radio station, WUML. I mostly discussed AmeriCorps*VISTA and the CTC VISTA Project and had a blast.

Fellow VISTA Leader Danielle was awesome to make this recording for me. We made one from the soundboard, but our recording device accidently had its internal mic on as well, so there was lots of extraneous noise; though Danielle’s was made by putting a microphone up to the computer speakers.

Danielle also made me the picture below.

I was out walking in Lowell today; as I crossed the awful intersection of Central, Prescot and Market Streets, I heard a strange ringing, like an old fashioned fire alarm. Looking around, I realized that it was coming from the Walk/Don’t Walk sign. This is the first time I’ve ever heard anything other than the chirp sounds from the pedestrian signals.

Of course, Lowell is known for innovation. Agent Orange was invented here. Coincidentally, this also occurred at near the same time as a massive die-off of old-growth trees in the Merrimack Valley. It’s amazing the things you learn talking to old people.

I commute by train to work every morning. Normally in Lowell the siderails are filled with boxcars. This morning they had left, but not without leaving evidence.

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I snapped this photo just this morning. Lowell, America’s Venice is crossed with canals that have just started to freeze over. The leaky drainpipe is keeping the ice from fully freezing, and the tree is still holding on to some of its leaves.

I don’t know anything about Massbank, but the pigeons are lined up like a Coney Island rifle booth. They’d be almost as blue as this sky.

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I work in Lowell, MA, an old mill city criss-crossed with canals.

In New England, the Fall leaves are at first beautiful on the trees, then gross as they litter the sidewalks, roads, and as I found out, waterways as well.

When I first saw this canal I thought there had been a chemical spill. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was just Autumn leaves.