a mini-high line in lynn?

This is a view from my window

I've always thought it would be neat to seed-bomb this little patch of grass that runs along the train tracks from Lynn Station to Silsbee St. It already has some wildflowers growing in the parts that get mowed. People wouldn't be able to walk around there as the tracks are still very active, but it would certainly add some much needed charm to the place.

Strangely, below all this is a series of retail spaces. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what kinds of businesses would this property suit. What would tolerate trains loudly rumbling over them every couple of hours? One space is some kind of weird commercial parking lot. There's no signage, so it's hard to tell what's really going on. If the train noise could be tolerated, there could be a really neat indoor/outdoor casual restaurant. Just as long as it's not yet another 99 cent store.

Either way, Lynn just needs more beauty and throwing some wildflower seeds up there would go a long way.

changing seasons

Every day that I take the train to work I take a photo from the platform with my mobile phone. I always wonder if the people who see me do this wonder what the heck I'm doing.

Shhhh

Winding down for the evening. About to jump in bed with a book. I crave an evening where I come home and I don't hear my neighbors. I dream of a parallel universe where I only know of my neighbors as people who live in the building and not the woman from upstairs whose bed bangs on the floor and who was waiting in the lobby for her drugs to be delivered very early one morning (I had an early flight) or the guy from downstairs who hasn't improved his bass playing skills despite the hours and hours and hours he sort of practices and makes my walls and furniture vibrate.

If I were more of a writer, perhaps this would be good source material for a novel. The thing that amazes me about all this is for all the years I've lived in apartments, this is the first time that I've had such a horrible noise problem. The exception is the last apartment I had in Brooklyn where the super of the building felt it was okay to have his band perform, complete with cowbell, all night Saturday nights. I called 311 several times. I don't know if they did anything with the information. I remember coming home one night and hearing loud music from 2 blocks away thinking I'd hate to live in the noisy building on the block, only to discover I did live in the noisy building on the block.

Of course part of the source of the noise is the poor construction practices of whoever hung the drywall and the total lack of insulation between the floors. Yes, loft living means the apartments are in a somewhat raw state, but at these prices... I wonder what the situation would have been if these had been sold as condos after all? Certainly such lame workmanship would be grounds for some sort of lawsuit.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of comparable options  for rent in Lynn. If I move, I'd have to live in another town and most likely pay more money. And the idea of doing that, I find completely offensive.

the water card

Several years ago I was messing around with my friend's set of Oblique Strategies cards. I pulled a card that said "water". The next day, the bathroom ceiling of my apartment caved in because there was a leak. Ever since then, I've been convinced that those cards are magical. Almost every apartment I've lived in has had some minor water issue or other. It's the strangest thing. No matter what floor, no matter what weather. Some issue pops up.

The apartment I had in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, had a small backyard where I had to check that the drain wasn't clogged with leaves or ther debris, or else the basement (where I lived) would flood when it rained. I was generally diligent about it - well, after the first storm where I fought valiantly to get the drain unclogged. Later I discovered that there was also an issue with the street sewer that would 'cause pretty much the entire basement to flood.

Two apartments later I lived in Crown Heights where the water in the shower sometimes would suddenly turn really, really cold or really, really hot. Neither was much fun. In Texas, the ceiling above the bathtub would leak if the person living upstairs took a bath (as opposed to a shower). Since it just went down the drain of my tub, I didn't pay much attention to it. I'm lazy that way sometimes.

And now this apartment. The building has some issues due to the cheap labor used to renovate it. There's a rather interesting waterfall in the stairwell when it rains. The walls of the hallway also get rather wet, leaving damp puddles on the carpeted floor. Last night I noticed some areas on the floor that looked like water had dried. The main reason this was noticeable is the floors are epoxied concrete and I can slide around in my socks. Well I hit a rough patch. I saw that the trail of residue ended where my carpet tiles started, but the carpet didn't feel wet when I touched it. So tonight I decided to get a closer look and sure enough, when I lifted the corner, it was wet underneath!

All I can figure it with 5 straight days of super windy rain, some of it worked its way into the exterior and under the wall onto my floor. Fortunately, there was no real damage as far as I can tell so far. I'm just glad I didn't set up my sleeping area next to the windows.

Another weekend gone by

I am clinging to these last moments of the weekend even though I am tired and should have gone to bed an hour ago. The idea that time seems like it speeds up as you get old is soooooo true! Add to that the shift to Daylight Savings Time. There just isn't enough time! I need that hour now!

I didn't do a lot this weekend. Half-hearted attempts at painting some tiny watercolor faces. I walked to Lynn beach, but turned back because my legs were way too cold in the rainy wind. Such a wimp! Didn't quite get around to doing my taxes. Since I moved back to a state with state taxes, I haven't been very motivated to get them done early. I did manage to bake a loaf of no-knead bread and spent a little time on work stuff to prep for a meeting tomorrow.

Saturday I went to Liberty Tree Mall mainly to visit the eyebrow lady. She was busy when I got there so I walked back to Old Navy. I don't know why I even bother with that place anymore. The quality is so bad now. Even the clearance rack has totally lost its appeal. What was interesting though is the old Walden Books space was replaced with a comic book store called Harrison's. They didn't have anything that couldn't be bought on Amazon or elsewhere for less money, but it was just exciting to have them there as opposed to Baby Gap, for example.

I thought about stopping off at North Shore Mall on the way home, but what's the point? It's funny, when I was totally broke I wanted to go shopping all the time. Now that I'm slightly less broke, it's the biggest chore in the world and I just can't find anything appealing. The problem is I like super duper plain clothes which for some reason are really, really expensive. i guess I'll just have to save up!