First off, there is a very informative new comment about Comcast from Kate today that I wanted to call to your attention.

Secondly, everyone should have gotten a little pumpkin to put on their door to welcome Trick or Treaters next Saturday from 6:00–8:00 (if you are so inclined).  If yours got lost, let me know and I’ll see about getting you one—or you can just draw one yourself and I’m sure people will know what it means.

Also, Mill #5 is having a Rally for Civic Engagement on Friday from 7:00 to 11:00 that sounds like a fun way to learn more about the candidates before next Tuesday’s election.

Finally, there is a Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association Meeting on Monday at 246 Market (at LTC, across the breezeway from the Visitor’s Center) from 7pm to 9pm.  The agenda includes information about the Hamilton Canal District development as well as something about a new city garage for our area.

Air Duct Services and Restoration will be cleaning all the dryer vents and roof stacks between October 26th and November 4th.  They need access to every unit to properly clean the vent pipes.  Ron will be accompanying them into any units where the owner isn’t home.

As of this evening, the management has permission slips from exactly half the units.  If you have not already done so, please return your slip to the office ASAP.  If you do not have one, you can contact Cathy directly or let me know and I’ll see about getting a blank one to post on the website for downloading.

Cleaning the vents will reduce fire risks, allow your dryer to operate more efficiently, and keep us all safer.

I’ve removed and replaced flexible dryer hoses before to clean them myself, and believe me, I’m thrilled to let a professional come in and take care of it for me instead!

I believe there’s a board meeting Monday at 7:00 in the lobby office.  Residents welcome.

Also, is anyone having problems with Comcast?  This from a resident:

Is anyone else in the building experiencing problems with Comcast?  We’ve seen problems off and on starting on Friday 25 Sept.  I know of at least one other person who has experienced a problem.  Comcast insists that the network is okay.  I suppose at some point one of us will have to either take off work or otherwise cancel a good portion of our daily activities to wait for a technician to come and verify that the problem is further upstream, because apparently Comcast doesn’t look upstream until that happens.  Thanks, Randy.

As for us, we had to reboot our internet connection about a week ago but it’s been fine since then, and no problems with anything else.

For those who haven’t seen the note on the office door, the lobby office will be open tonight (Monday) from 6:00–8:00 instead of tomorrow (Tuesday).

Nick Zambino (unit 509) lost his wallet last night and believes it was dropped somewhere around the elevator or lobby.  Does anyone have any information about a lost wallet?  I’ll be happy to pass along any info I receive or you can call him at (978) 821-0495 (I don’t normally post phone numbers but I figured it was okay to put this one up for the moment).  Thanks!

This month’s board meeting is at 7:00 tomorrow (the 21st) in the lobby office.  Residents welcome.

Has anyone had an expanded loft put in in the past few years?  One of our neighbors is looking for a contractor with experience in doing this sort of work in this building.

For anyone who’s interested, Twirling Jennies: A History of Social Dance in the City of Spindles 1820–1920 is out and available on Amazon.  UMass Lowell is planning to carry it in their bookstore. The Visitor’s Center is considering carrying it but no decision yet.  I also have several copies I’m happy to sell to neighbors at below list (list is $28.95) for $20 each.  And I promise not to put any more pitches for it in future posts except, perhaps, to remind people near Christmas that it would make a great gift!

Just a reminder, if you’re having problems with your AC, you need to contact Cathy Deloge (royal.cathy@comcast.net  or  978-521-9995) to get it fixed.  Since people were chiming in with problems after that last post, I passed it along to Cathy and she’s looking into it.

But I do sympathize with wanting input from your neighbors first–just like when I used to look out the window of my old house to see if my neighbors had power when mine went out!

Our AC is working fine (it’s 3:00 on Sunday) but there’s at least one person with AC problems today.  He’d like to know if anyone else has noticed any issues or if it’s just his unit.  Comments welcome!

August was a quiet month…no Bulletin Board posts at all!  Just a couple of things now:

Tomorrow is the last of Lowell’s First Thursdays for this year.  It’s a good time to walk around town enjoying the warm weather, checking out the galleries and restaurants, or taking a trolley ride.  http://www.cultureiscool.org/downtown-lowell-first-thursdays

If you haven’t noticed, the canal worker fountain on the corner of Shattuck has been repaired.  The fellow is once again wielding a pry bar instead of a cudgel.  Yippee!

Saturday is the next-to-last of this summer’s increasingly popular Lowell Walks.  They meet at the Visitor’s Center at 10:00 and last 90 minutes.  This week’s topic is Trains & Trolleys in Lowell.  More at http://www.richardhowe.com/  (People might also want to check out the upcoming cemetery tours listed on the same site.)

For anyone who wants to mark their calendar, the next Board Meeting is at 7:00 on Monday, the 21st.  At some point, I hope to put info about the Board, its schedule, its current members, and some of its workings on the website; I just haven’t gotten to it yet.  But maybe soon—I have a bit more free time now that my Lowell book has finally gone to press (it should be out the 15th: www.twirlingjennies.com).