I’m told that the power outage that didn’t happen last night is now scheduled to occur between 11pm Thursday night and 5am Friday morning.  (Many thanks to those who forwarded me info; I don’t seem to be on the National Grid call list for some reason.)

Just a heads up that there may be a planned power outage between 11pm Tuesday night and 5am Wednesday morning to do some underground repairs.  I didn’t receive notification myself but had the info passed along to me by a neighbor who did get a call.  I couldn’t find any further information online; the closest I came was this FAQ page.  If anyone else knows more, please post in the comments.

In the meantime, I need to check the battery backup in my alarm clock!

Here we go again.  Cars need to be out of the surface lot by tomorrow morning as per the building snow storm parking rules or they risk being towed.  There is free parking available to city residents during the snow emergency but, unfortunately, not at the Roy Garage next door.  Click here for a larger view of the Police Department announcement.

A parking ban officially starts at 5:00am tomorrow morning, so unless you’re planning to be up that early in the morning to move your car out of the surface lot tomorrow, you should probably move it tonight.  Here’s the police department statement.  The statement doesn’t give an end time for the ban but the Snow Emergency itself officially ends at 8:00pm tomorrow; the parking ban may, or may not, last somewhat longer.

Please be aware that there is a snow emergency going into effect sometime today (late today?) until Friday.  Unfortunately, I’m not good at registering details from automated phone calls received before 5:00am and I haven’t been able to find any online announcements as of yet.  In any case, I’m pretty sure they said the 8th through the 10th and we are supposed to be getting up to a foot of snow tomorrow, so please think twice before leaving your car in the surface lot tonight.

A resident is looking for recommendations for a carpenter to install built-in book shelves.  Please feel free to share any suggestions in the comments.

We had Leo Forcier at Prime Properties of N. Chelmsford do the built-in bookcases in our loft and along the upstairs hallway.  We were quite satisfied with his work on the bookcases but that was several years ago and I don’t know who he’s using for a crew these days.  Our bookcases are plywood with nice trim pieces covering the edges; very practical but not particularly showy.  There are some photos in this old post.

If anyone’s noticed the freight elevator having issues, here’s the word from the management:

The last week or so the freight elevator had several different problems. 1) the electric circuit breaker was replaced, 2) the door contacts on the first floor were replaced, 3) the microprocessor had to be re-programmed because it lost its memory – for the first time ever. Everything seems to be well again.

For those of you who have at one time had a cordless doorbell button stuck up next to your unit door, you might want to take down any leftover, unused bracket before the painters get to your floor.  They will be compelled to paint around it and leave the unsightly artifact sitting there forevermore.  I just removed ours (which had already been painted around) and e-mailed Cathy asking her to ask the painters to touch up our doorframe. I also asked if she could have them keep an eye out for this sort of little white spot in case anyone else removes a bracket post-painting.

For those of you who use Twitter, I’d also like to call your attention to some useful info offered in the comments regarding keeping abreast of parking news:   “Folks who use Twitter on their phones may find it helpful to follow @LowellParkingMA and turn on mobile notifications. They (and the police department @LowellPD ) tweeted about the ban yesterday.
The parking department account tweets less often and only about parking, so might cause less spam. They do also post when garages are closed, around the folk festival, etc.”   Thanks, Angela!

The parking ban officially ended at 8:00 this morning.  Just a heads up if you need to move your car out of one of the city garages before 10:00am when the grace period ends; after that the city will start charging you.

If your car is parked in the surface lot, it needs to be moved by this afternoon to avoid risk of towing, as per the condo association’s snow parking policy.  Here’s the city parking info as it appears on the Lowell Police Facebook page:

A Snow Emergency Parking Ban has been declared effective Saturday, January 7, 2017 at 7:00 A.M. The ban shall be effective six hours later at 1:00 PM. on Saturday, January 7, 2017.

There shall be no parking on all City Streets from 1:00 PM. until such time that the ban is lifted. Motor vehicles parking in violation of such ban (City Ordinance, § 266-103: Parking prohibited) are subject to towing under the authority of the Lowell Police Department and such towing will be at the owner’s expense (§ 266-104: Removal authorized; charges). Motor Vehicles shall also receive a parking violation ticket.