An Unwelcome Coincidence

The building today, September 16, 2012

And here we are.... Back in Western Mass after 33 years.

I'm told this apartment building is the former 'Chesterfield Hotel'. At what point it was turned into apartments I haven't discovered yet.

Now I've mentioned some coincidences between my former residence and this one. Both are former hotels and both are owned by similar organizations. The reason I had to move out of the Endicott was because they decided to do a major renovation (and upgrade) of the building and that required all the tenants to move out.

Last letter from CATCH / MB Management regarding moving out.

For the previous several years I had been entertaining the idea of moving back to Western Massachusetts. By the time my father passed away in April of 2006 I'd already stopped my security blogging on the Concord Monitor Online website and really had nothing significant tying me to New Hampshire. My mother was suffering from Alzheimer's and though I knew moving to Mass would mean a significant increase in my cost of living I'd be able to visit her much more. Unfortunately I was still waiting to hear from the management of Nash Hill Place when she passed away in March of 2010.

Fast forward two years to March 2012. I've just recently moved into this new apartment and I'm trying to settle in. I need stability and absolutely hate the disruption associated with moving. So imagine what it was like to get this letter:

Deja vu?

Seriously, what are the odds? Of course nothing was mentioned to me about this when I was shown the apartment or when signing the lease nor at any time in the month (or so) prior to receiving this letter. I don't know if it would have made any difference because Nash Hill Place still didn't have any openings (and couldn't/wouldn't even tell me where I was on their waiting list..), I hadn't found anything else and I felt I was over-staying my welcome where I was staying. This place was suddenly available, the price was right, and despite being further away than I'd hoped it is a nice quiet place (well, except for occasional sudden heart-stopping outbursts from my neighbor's autistic son next door). I have birds singing and wind rustling the leaves (& a collection of wind chimes down on the porch) and crickets and peepers to listen to instead of the sounds of city traffic in downtown Concord, New Hampshire.

No, compared to the noise* of a busy city intersection with buses & trucks, amateur drag racers, motorcycles (especially during the Loudon race week), and every four years politicians and their supporters literally banging drums out in front of my building at 8 AM with those "Honk if you support _________" signs, this place is wonderful..

I recently heard that the grant for the renovation was not granted but then just the other day I received another letter implying that the process was ongoing, and if renovations do occur it won't be until early 2014. Maybe by then I'll have finally moved all the belongings out of my storage unit in Easthampton (it's a long process when you have no help and try to do most of it using a Toyota Camry).

So there you have it, my first blog post in ages.. It feels good to start writing again. I think it might be the weather picking me up. This first real taste of cooler dry air is nice.



*Of course the narrow space between my building and the recently built office building 20 ft away worked to amplify those sounds and *especially* the emptying of the dumpster every day around 7 AM.


Edited on 9/28/2014 (I added 1 word and added a space between sentences.)

Has it been THAT long?

I know, I know.... I haven't posted for a while, but I didn't realize that it's been over two weeks!

That's one of the things pain does to me..

A while ago I broke a molar, and being one to bitch about something and at the same time put off doing anything about it as long as possible, I've been dealing with the on again - off again pain.

You see, while the pain isn't constant, and over the counter meds can take care of it 95% of the time, the procrastinator in me (and my avoidance of doctors in general) dominates. The other 5% of the time when the pain feels like I've been shot in the face, I put my hand on that side of my face and moan like a wuss.... until I take more Ibuprofen than I probably should and contemplate taking one of the prescription pain meds I was prescribed. I've only done that once. (I don't want to get used to using them, and too many people get hooked on them)

I can hear those yelling "just get off yer butt and get it fixed!" (like my brother). I know they're right, and I have made an appointment with Dr. Binder (the dentist my father went to), but the memories I have of painful visits to the dentist in my youth, and the fact that I have no insurance and live on a small disability check each month, doesn't help!

So forgive me for the lack of posts lately. The times that I've been able to concentrate and get some writing done have been taken up by my BlogsNH blog "TechAlert". And even there I went a week between posts.

As for things here at the Endicott, I got a nice visit from our property manager Kathy who updated me on some issues I'd been wondering about, and we now have a new maintenance man Ray who promptly located and installed the window screen that I've been asking for!
He's going to be a great asset and hopefully MB Management will find more maintenance people just like him to take care of CATCH's properties!

My upstairs neighbor has been a bit quieter (except for playing the music a bit too loud a few nights ago around MIDNIGHT, and the next night starting around 11 PM!). The occasional thuds and 'heavy walking' that ~~shakes~~ my apartment is still going on, though less than before.
I think that he's making an attempt to be more respectful (most of the time), but I don't think he realizes how much it really shakes things down here!

Sometimes, when I'm writing or engrossed in a TV show, the [sometimes] sudden THUD makes my (already bad) heart skip a beat!

It's really a shame that due to the fact that this is such an old building without the sound barriers that new* construction incorporates, like poured cement floors, padded carpeting, and wall insulation and/or concrete firewall barriers between apartments, his just walking across the floor can create the effect of a train going by. Thank goodness it usually a short train!

On another note, I'm really starting to make use of the new parking garage next door, especially during snow storms. I've noticed others are too, and it's really nice to not have to scrape ice and snow off the car after a storm! They really should position a Pay Station down on the ground floor though. Having to drive up to the Pay Station before being able to leave doesn't seem to make much sense. Granted it's not a huge deal, but others have noted the lack of Pay Stations and commented on that issue in the paper. That issue aside, the Concord Parking Department is doing an excellent job attending to the garage and it's patrons!

And finally, I heard recently that our resident caretaker (and keeper of the keys) Bob recently suffered a broken hip. Let's all hope he has a quick and successful (oh, and relatively pain-free) recovery!

'till next time, be safe folks.


* Within the last 50 years or so.

What Has Happened To Concord's Police Department?

This is hard for me to understand. Especially with all the negative press they've had lately. But unfortunately this morning at around 1:50 AM another representative of the Concord Police department has given them a black eye when dealing with the public. About fifteen minutes before that someone woke up everyone in the building who lives on the side facing the new Concord Commons building when someone from the city crew that was clearing snow used a snow blower to clear the alleyway between the buildings! If that wasn't bad enough, after they were done they continued with shoveling (that's what they should have done with the small amount of snow in the alley in the first place), but the person doing it kept banging his shovel on the wall of the building to knock the snow off. I finally opened my window and yelled at him that there were people trying to sleep up here, to which he yelled something belligerent! At that point I decided to call the police to make a noise complaint.

I called their non-emergency line, a woman answered the call and I proceeded to explain what the problem was. She immediately stated "there's nothing we're going to do about that"....
I started to say "but I thought there were noise laws...". The next thing I knew she had hung up on me. I just sat there, still holding the phone to my ear for close to a minute, trying to contemplate what had just happened. Just a few minutes before I was sleeping soundly, and now I was literally shaking with disbelief. I sat there for another minute or so and called the police back. I wasn't sure what I was going to say, but I couldn't, and wouldn't stand for that kind of rude behavior from people who work for the public!

When the phone was answered it was by someone who identified himself as the shift supervisor. I explained what had just happened, along with my original complaint. This time I got a courteous person who took the time to listen to my complaint, and even though he also said there was nothing they could do, he explained that it was because because the snow removal crews weren't subject to the same noise laws that everyone else is.
He apologized for the behavior of the previous person and listened patiently as I continued to go on that I was able to understand the need to clear the streets at night, but that the job could have been done by shoveling alone instead of a snowblower, and also that the person doing it should have been more thoughtful towards the residents and definitely not belligerent like he was when told he was waking people up.


In all my dealings with the Concord Police over the years 99% of them have been professional and courteous. Every one of them was polite and helpful (except for that one rookie who treated me like a criminal after my late father's car had been towed away and I was distraught). That 99% seem like genuinely nice people. I have the utmost respect for them and the dangerous job they do, and the last thing they need is another example of one of them being rude to the people who pay their salary. What this woman who answered my call did was take a bad situation and compounded it by being curt and rude.

I'll be speaking to our local and state representatives about this latest episode and we'll find out what they have to say about it.

And one last thought.... The episode I just read about in the police log regarding a man who had just been released from prison after 30 years and was homeless was troubling. Sure he had been told to leave the building and was technically "trespassing" , but instead of arresting him, the human thing to do would have been to find him shelter for the night and steer him towards a public assistance program. Instead they sent him back into the system. How cold and heartless can you get? That's not the kind of society I want to belong to, and it's not the kind of society I believe we should strive for. Shame on the officer who made the decision to arrest him instead of giving him the help he so obviously needed.

What's up with Concord and it's city workers?

It's 1 AM here at the Endicott and just now someone started up a snowblower outside!
Now I'm all for cleaning up the sidewalks after a storm, but in the five years I've lived here this is a first.
Aren't there noise ordinances in Concord anymore? What are they thinking?

The snow cleanup that normally goes on isn't bad (and has to be done at night) but this is exceptionally loud and undoubtedly woke some people up!

I have to say the crews do an excellent job clearing the snow that piles up after storms, but whoever OKed the use of a snow blower next to a residential building at 1 AM needs to be re-educated.
(It wasn't long ago that I called Jeff Hoadley the Director of Public Properties and left a message/complaint about a city worker running a leaf blower in the alley between our building and the new building at around 7 AM.)

I also have to say that overall the condition of the streets and highways (and other 'Public Properties') of Concord is embarrassing. Weeds growing up untouched, trash strewn along the sides of streets, and most recently trash left untouched around the dumpster beside the brand new parking garage and in the freshly landscaped sitting area down at the corner of Storrs Street and Pleasant Street extension.

On most days (before the snow came) if you walked by the dumpster behind the Lighting Place you'd see broken beer bottles, food and trash from the restaurant, and other trash scattered around from the stairs by the dumpster halfway out to the street. I have dozens of photos I've taken of the trash left scattered around. It remained there unless I picked it up (which I did every time I saw it) or people from the bar/restaurant cleaned it up.

I assume that much of the mess is caused when the trash truck empties the dumpster, and god forbid the driver from getting off his butt to clean up anything that falls out in the process! And not once have I seen any city workers cleaning the area or picking up trash scattered around the public seating area. In the mornings they have someone check and empty the trash bag in the trash receptacle, but in the process they walk right by and ignore any trash in the nicely landscaped area around the benches.

Once when there was part of a sandwich roll and it's contents smeared around at the bottom of the stairs (directly in the middle) next to the dumpster, I asked the server inside the restaurant [politely], then later one of the owners if they could have someone go clean it up. After both of them arguing with me saying "How do you know it came from us? It could have been from anyone, it could be from someone living in the Endicott..." she eventually said that they would take care of it. (The only reason I didn't take care of it myself and avoid the nastiness was that it was a gooey mess that required a hose or other cleaning supplies).

Does it really matter how the mess got there? Shouldn't we all take some pride in our block and keep it as clean as possible? People walking that way shouldn't have to jump over food and avoid broken beer bottles!
I certainly try to do my part, but shouldn't the city take the same pride in keeping the public areas clean and looking good? Who's responsible for that area between the Lighting Place and the new parking garage where the dumpster is? Why has it been ignored and collecting broken beer bottles, cigarette butts, and other trash?

I haven't spoken to Mr. Hoadley or others in person yet but I plan to at some point. Until then I can only guess as to the reasons the city looks so unkempt and some of it's workers seem to lack common decency and sense at times. Maybe part of it's money, maybe some of it's being able to find and keep good thoughtful workers.
I just know that when I walk down many city streets seeing the same litter sitting there day after day and see the same weeds growing higher and higher along the highways, and especially when I see the city spend millions of dollars on a new parking garage and landscaping, then see it not being cared for, I'm disheartened.