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Tonight, beginning at 6:30, the Friends of Tyler Park (FOTP) will hold their second in a series of three outdoor concerts this summer. (The music plays from 7-8 p.m.) This is one concert you won’t want to miss and it’s FREE. Tonight’s group, Take Two, is one of my favorites; these guys really put on a good show that will have you tapping your feet and singing along. So, pack up the kids, bring a blanket or beach chairs, and head to lovely Tyler Park on Westford Street in the Highlands (one block from the Pine and Westford Streets intersection). I can’t think of a better way to spend a balmy summer evening, especially when it’s a fullish moon and the sounds are just right. Free lemonade, popcorn and hotdogs are also provided by FOTP. Hope to see you there!

Yesterday I attended a fun and quick (less than two hours) training session so I could be a researcher in Lowell Seniors Count, an ambitious project to do a door-to-door census and needs assessment of all 15,000 Lowell seniors. The project will kickoff with a breakfast for volunteers at the Lowell Senior Center this Saturday, and the first surveying will begin on Tuesday, July 22, starting with seniors living in high-rise apartments. The project will continue until seniors from every neighborhood in Lowell have been contacted, and according to Lynne Brown-Zounes, senior center executive director, the data gathered “will change the way we provide services to the elderly.”  

Currently, about 95 folks have completed the training to conduct the surveys, but another 100 volunteers are still needed. If interested in helping with this important community-research project, training sessions will be held at the Senior Center on Monday, July 28, at 9 a.m. and noon; Thursday, July 31, at 6 p.m.; Saturday, August 2, at 9 a.m., and Monday, August 4, at 9 a.m. and other times. Volunteers, who will wear identification badges and matching tee shirts, choose the neighborhoods and dates that fit their schedule. Volunteers are also needed to stuff the gift bags researchers will give to seniors–four thousand done so far, 11 thousand to go! The bags include information about tax abatement, water discounts, and prescription help, as well as dozens of other useful information.

Lowell Seniors Count is a coordinated effort between UMass Lowell, the Senior Center, the City, and the Lowell Police. It is also supported by many community groups and businesses, and more than $28,000 has been donated to provide emergency relief for seniors identified through the survey process. This project is a fun and interesting way to make a difference, maybe make a new friend, learn some things, and even get some exercise. Why not get involved and become a community researcher as we make sure every senior counts in Lowell!

I just ran out of plastic grocery bags, which I use to line my kitchen trash receptacle. This was a result of using a motley collection of non-disposable grocery bags (Trader Joe’s are the best), which I am finally remembering to put in the car and bring into the store. Now what am I going to do for lining kitchen and other garbage cans? I’m not sure, but after viewing this strong statement against our dependence on plastic, I’m ready to rethink my habits.

I’ve only lived here 15 years, so I had never heard of the Center City Committee until I read Marie’s post which caused me to visit their excellent and informative website. I learned about the history of the committee, which started out in 1972 with a grant from the New England Regional Commission (now defunct) as a public/private partnership that endures to this day, now as a private non profit corporation that has been involved in many of the initiatives that have transformed the city in the last two decades. If you look at the list of members, you will notice an impressive mixture of businesses, agencies and citizen groups with the names attached of many of Lowell’s movers and shakers. Their meeting schedule is also impressive (weekly, informal gatherings as well as monthly stakeholder meetings) and indicates high energy and a sense of purpose. As Marie points out, the Center City Committee will now be blogging on the Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA) blog. This will be a great way to keep up with what this group is planning to do next, because we are all stakeholders in Lowell’s downtown!

I love to read articles where different people talk about what they are planning to read on the beach or by the lake. While I’ve been known to cart War and Peace (the new translation is tempting me) around while on vacation, ideally Summer reading should be light, easy to carry around and fun to read – a break from the thick biographies and such that are more fitting for a long winter night. I’ve already read three great books this summer which were purely self-indulgent, fun reads:
1) Desolation Island, by Patrick O’Brian. Any other O’Brian fans out there? I’ve been hooked on these books since the movie, Master and Commander came out a few years ago. They are filled with action on the high seas during the Napoleonic wars, but the character development and attention to detail is also amazing. As a huge fan of Jane Austen, these books that are exactly contemporary with her period complement her more interior, local village scenes by showing what the men were up to: the brothers at sea (as were her own), the Admirals called back on duty, the militias that moved on. I usually detest the fake feeling of many historical novels, but such is O’Brian’s meticulous scholarship that the dialogue, values and actions of the characters ring as true as if he had been an actual contemporary of Austen. (Desolation Island is the fifth in the series).
2) Speaking of Jane Austen, I enjoyed Karen Joy Fowler’s The Jane Austen Book Club, both the book and the movie were fine tributes to my favorite author. I gave her latest book, Wit’s End a try and was mildly amused and entertained by it. The setting, an old Victorian house in Santa Cruz that had been built by a survivor of the Donner Party, and the characters were all pretty well done. Her writing is good-natured, with many sly bits of humor sprinkled in, little recurring jokes that work. The plot was a little clunky and overdone, but on the whole it was worth a read.
3) I really like Australian mystery novelist Peter Temple and just finished his latest, The Broken Shore, which I’m a little hesitant to recommend. It has gotten great reviews, but the Australian slang and vulgarity may be difficult for some readers as is his elliptical writing style, which leaves a lot unsaid and much going on under the surface – rather like Hemingway; however, his characters, detailed descriptions and laconic humor reward the persistent reader. This was not my favorite of his because of the nature of the crimes and some of the grisly descriptions; however, I will definitely be on the lookout for his next novel Truth which should clear up some of the unfinished business and dangling plotlines from this one. (If you like to read everything by a new favorite author, be forewarned that all of his books are not yet available in the U.S.)

For the rest of the summer, I’m interested in two unique books about poets: Fall of Frost by Brian Hall, a somewhat controversial fictionalization of the life of Robert Frost and Posthumous Keats. I’d also like to read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (didn’t everyone read this one a few years back?) and an older book that was referenced by Fowler (her heroine was named Rima) in Wit’s End: Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson (also a movie starring Audrey Hepburn).

Yesterday’s Lowell Sun published a Republican rant against Dr. Baehr’s appointment as new Deputy Commissioner of Education. From my perspective, it’s good news that Dr. Karla Brooks Baehr, Lowell’s former superintendent, will continue to play a leadership role in our public schools. First, accountability in the schools is important, and in terms of the Board of Education, the state needs to improve its role so that it does more than simply oversee, but actually helps districts close the achievement gap. (Yes, overall Massachusetts has the best public schools in the nation, but the gap between rich and poor student achievement has seen little improvement under education reform.) Currently, the state board plays watchdog, making periodic visits to Commonwealth Priority Schools—those schools whose students have not made adequate yearly progress (AYP)—checking that they are implementing their plans to improve student achievement, and conducting walkthroughs to observe teachers and administrators. In terms of providing real-world solutions and advice to districts, the state’s role has been limited. Better state collaboration and leadership for sharing best practices would help as all districts struggle with improving student achievement amid declining resources, specifically for services to support English Language Learners, special education and economically disadvantaged students. Dr. Baehr has been implementing improvement plans as several of Lowell schools currently are or have been designated on “watch” or “priority” status. She has been in the trenches with local administrators and teachers developing programs and interventions to promote student learning, and under her guidance, Lowell schools have made significant progress, but not nearly enough. Dr. Baehr’s experience with the current limits of the state’s role in helping districts, as well as her knowledge of what real school systems need, make her an invaluable asset at the state level. And despite the concern of some charter-school proponents, such as the GOP source of the Sun’s quotes, Dr. Baehr’s commitment to high-quality education for all students supersedes any notion of charter-school partisanship.

We love “twofors”, something Dr. Baehr was famous for as, time and again, she was forced to trim the budget but always managed to salvage direct student services. This ‘twofor’ is a chance to win a gas-efficient 2008 Smart Car Fortwo (no pun intended) while supporting student learning in Lowell. Tickets to benefit ONE Lowell’s truancy prevention programs are $20 with only 2500 tickets sold. The second prize is 4 clubhouse seats to see the New England Revolution play the LA Galaxy and David Beckham. The drawing will take place at the ONE Lowell World Cup Soccer Tournament on August 3rd, at 6:00 pm, at Cawley Stadium. You do not have to be present to win, but you’ll be missing the best soccer/family event of the summer! Tickets can be purchased online or at Lowell’s newest ice cream shop, Monkey’s, 66 Merrimack Street, or Brew’d Awakening, 61 Market St. We’ll be talking more about the tournament, which looks to be even more successful and fun than last year, but in the meantime, get a raffle ticket before they’re gone!

If you’re wondering why I haven’t been posting…blame it on our vacation. Our family trip to Europe was a great adventure although somewhat stressful and definitely expensive (more on that later). Each moment of the 16 days abroad was totally consuming, whether it was driving through Ireland very fast on the left side of twisting tiny roads or figuring out when to get off the bus for Piazza Navona, I had little time or energy to write while I was there. (I barely slept. It was one of those “trips of a lifetime” that will never be forgotten and will take a lifetime to pay off!) That said, since returning to Lowell last week, I have been distracted and not transitioning as productively as I expected, but I have had my reasons:

First off, the last day in Venice I fell and sprained my ankle pretty bad. Both my son and my husband ended up with nasty colds. We literally hobbled home only to discover there had been two deaths while we were away. So, in addition to doctor’s appointments for myself (not broken but needs a brace) and my son, we had two wakes on Tuesday and a funeral yesterday. Not only that, the brand-new laptop we took with us—keeper of all the great photos from the trip—crashed a few days ago. Also, the car engine light is aglow with a special icon (something to do with emissions), and both cats need to visit the vet. My house is a dust bowl, my ankle throbs, and I’m exhausted. Thank God the heat wave ended. At least now I can imagine myself getting back to work at some point…  Consider this post my attempt at re-entry.

I read the book, Driven to Distraction, a few years ago and became convinced that I and everyone in my family had ADD. Now, I just think there’s too much going on in the world – ‘the world is too much with us’ as Wordsworth put it. There’s too much in daily life to handle without a disciplined approach, which means focusing on one thing at a time. This is hard if, like me, you’ve always prided yourself on being a multi-tasker (and I don’t even own a PDA!). You know, read a book and cook dinner while listening to language tapes and checking email, oops, burnt the broccoli.

And so it goes. Research has shown that the added mental effort of switching tasks makes you less productive even as you have the illusion of getting more done. Some of this data is almost 10 years old, which shows the way the public only hears what it wants to hear as in the plethora of left-brain, right-brain popular psychology books (Drawing from the right brain, etc) that mushroomed in the wake of a study that was shortly disproved (see link in previous post). I’ve been taking a time management course and one of the first things they demonstrate is the fallacy of multi-tasking. They ask a person to walk a straight line along a piece of masking tape on the floor. It’s morning, the guy had had coffee, no problem. Then they ask him to do it while reading a book – the results are comical. This is oversimplified, but a good way to think about what you are asking of yourself when you rely on multi-tasking to manage your life. For more information on this subject, read this highly-entertaining, very informative and thoughtful article by Walter Kirn from Atlantic Magazine. Here’s a quote that sums up the problems and dangers of multi-tasking:

certain studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us. In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy.

EEK! Who needs that? (Note: While working on this post, I forced myself not to go downstairs for more coffee, look at my calendar, read incoming email or clean off my desktop. Reading the Kirn article was part of my task, but I resisted reading other interesting Atlantic articles that I noticed on their site.)

You know when you go to conferences and they figure out ways to divide the room into smaller groups? I was at a seminar last week and the presenter put this slide of a dancer up and asked us to say whether she was turning clockwise or counter-clockwise. Supposedly, the direction you see the dancer twirling indicates if you are a “left brain” (methodical, logical) or a “right brain” (creative, imaginative) thinker. I was definitely seeing clockwise and still cannot fathom that anyone would see it another way, but a good portion of the room was in the counter-clockwise camp and quite a few people could see it both ways. I’m pretty sure this left brain/right brain theory has been disproved and that the real truth of brain function is way more complicated. This sci-blog article goes into more depth if you’re interested. Still, it was a fun and creative way to divide the room, the next step was to count off and then meet your left or right brain counterpart for discussion. We all had to laugh when the right brainers messed up the count-off.