Somerville Garden Club June Meeting

[kjc.livejournal.com]

Howdy folks. The next Somerville Garden Club (SGC) meeting is THIS Wednesday, 11 June 2008. As usual, the meeting will run from 7:00–9:00 p.m. at the Tufts Administration Building (TAB), 167 Holland St., second floor. The meetings are free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.

Most meetings begin with an introduction that includes community announcements, then a round-table discussion of seasonal gardening issues, followed by a speaker, and ending with a raffle of plants (and books and pots and such) donated by our wildly varied member gardeners and friends. (Raffle tickets are 50 cents each and go toward supporting various SGC activities.) Please join us at the upcoming meeting, where the lecture will be on Integrated Pest Management. Newbies, green thumb geniuses, and everyone in between is welcome.

We will ALSO be selling advance tickets to Urban Gardens Revealed: A Somerville Garden Tour. For only $12, you'll receive a map (which also serves as your ticket) allowing you to visit over 40 private and public gardens all over Somerville! This even will run from noon to 5pm on Saturday, 21 June 2008, rain or shine. Children under 12 can participate for free!

We will also be selling tickets ON the day in question, at the VNA Assisted Living Community, 259 Lowell Street (the VNA also has a 1/4 acre wildlife habitat that is part of the tour), and at Davis Square, opposite the T entrances, at the intersection of Elm and Holland Streets.

P.S. We're trying to get the SGC Discussion Forum going for questions and discussions about gardening that would probably bore the heck out of many readers of davis_square. I have to approve every registration and it would make my life a lot easier if you'd note that you're a resident of Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, etc. so I can separate you from the hundreds of spammers who try to sign up every day. Thanks!

steamer trunk repair

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

I trashpicked a really nice old trunk, but both of the leather handles are rotted/broken away. Anyone know a craftsperson in the area who could pop off the hardware, cut new leather straps, and reattach the lot?

Avoid the Red Line this morning!

[jspazzer.livejournal.com]

Red Line is shut down this morning.  Take the bus if you can!

Update: Trains are running as of 9:15 after a small fire at Porter.  You late risers can just pretend this never happened.

Somerville Community Clothing Drive June 25th

[2ndchancesinc.livejournal.com]

Second Chances is thrilled to announce its first public clothing drive -- on Wednesday, June 25, 2008, the Somerville Community Growing Center and Second Chances will co-sponsor a clothing drive at the Somerville Community Growing Center, 22 Vinal Avenue, Somerville from 4 to 7 p.m. So, you have less than three weeks to clean out your closets and join us!  Help people in need in Somerville and Cambridge, while supporting a small, local, volunteer-run nonprofit by donating your un-needed clothing, shoes and accessories. For details, visit the special clothing drive page on our website at: www.secondchances.org/clothingDrives/GrowingCenter2008.html. Help us spread the word by passing this journal entry or the webpage along to your friends and colleagues who might like to participate as well.

We hope to see you at the Somerville Community Growing Center on June 25, 2008. If you have clothing to donate, and cannot make it on the 25th, please visit our donation boxes (on our website -- www.secondchances.org -- under “donate” and “find a donation bin”).

Thanks for your support!

Urban Camping!

[turil.livejournal.com]

Any suggestions for places within reasonably easy biking distance from Somerville that offer really cheap or free long term tent camping? I'd love to find a place to live for a while that is close enough to the Boston area that I could afford (with no income, alas). All I really need is a spot of ground to put a tent, access to a bathroom (outhouse/port-a-potty is fine), and maybe some access to water.

Alternately, anyone want to build me, donate the materials to build, and/or loan me a "mini-camper" bike trailer, so I could just park anywhere when it was time to sleep? (Something like this with a slightly bigger tent maybe, or this extra cute one, which would be heavier, but also more enclosed and less likely to bother the neighbors/police if I was sleeping in it.)

PDS Trivia Night at Johnny D's Tonight 8pm

[progressnerd.livejournal.com]

Hey all, the Progressive Democrats of Somerville are having a Trivia Night tonight at 8pm at Johnny D's. All are welcome to come and join our team(s). Like all trivia nights at Johnny D's, there will be free pizza. Yay!

( Here's the full email notice of the event that's been circulating... )

Nstar outage

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Just got a robocall from Nstar, there's going to be some scheduled power outage in West Somerville between 12am-6am Tuesday morning. I'd appreciate it if someone who has it on the answering machine could post the exact wording; my brain wasn't quite registering it.

Addendum: I'm on HIghland between Willow and Cedar, and we lost power yesterday from 7:15-9:30pm and again this morning from 10:15-11ish am.

HEAT AND LIGHT

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

Two Messages for the Group:

Message #1. I just sent out the following Connect CTY message citywide:

This is Tom Champion from the City of Somerville with important information about the city’s response to the current high levels of heat and humidity. Unusually high temperatures are predicted to continue throughout this evening and tomorrow.

To provide relief from these extreme conditions for those needing assistance, the city has extended the hours of the Council on Aging at 167 Holland Street and the Ralph & Jenny Senior Center at 9 New Washington Street. Both of these air-conditioned facilities will remain open to city residents until 11 p.m. this evening, and will reopen tomorrow from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Water and cots will be available at both cooling centers.

The city is also asking residents to check on family and neighbors – especially those who are seniors, young children, or have physical limitations – in order to ensure their continued safety. If you or someone you know experiences a heat-related health or safety emergency, please dial 911 immediately.

For more information, please call 311 or check the City’s cable channels (15 and 16 on Comcast, 13 and 16 on RCN) or the City website for updated information. Thank you.

Message #2. To chenoameg and anybody else who has been robo-called by NSTAR:
NSTAR has informed us that only 103 households will be affected by these scheduled repairs. If you didn't get a call, you should be okay.
Here's the advisory I received:
"Please be advised that NSTAR Electric will be taking an emergency electric outage at 12 am Tuesday 6-10-08 thru 6 am Tuesday 6-10-08 to make emergency repairs as a result of the system damage experienced last evening. 103 affected Somerville customers will experience a full duration outage; 99 on Highland Ave and 4 on Willow Street."

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. BTW, the outages last night were of relatively short duration, and reasonably localized. (Some neighborhoods experienced no more than a flicker; we don't know of anybody who lost power for more than 2 hours.) This transformer work is clearly needed, but it's frustrating that NSTAR always manages to have problems just when we are most in need of power. Ah, market-based solutions.

2 empty rooms+2 awesome roomates+you=fancy times

[felixdroddlewag.livejournal.com]

Well hello.

My roommate and I have two rooms available in our fabulous Francesca Ave apartment for a year lease starting 9/1. It is on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a recently updated 2 family home.

( More info post-cut... )

Still seeking a roommate

[eustaciavye.livejournal.com]

My housemate is moving out of my apartment approximately 1.25 miles from Davis Square (next to Tufts) as of July 1. I'd like to fill the place for July 1 if possible but would also consider August 1. E-mail me: tamsin1 at comcast dot net if you are interested. Here's a copy of my craigslist ad which describes the place a bit better:

Looking for one person to share my large two bedroom apartment near Tufts University starting July 1. I am a 30 year old female professional non-smoker with one pet cat (he's very friendly). Rent is $725 a month. Utilities including internet will be about $210 per person per month (sadly that's way up from last year thanks entirely to the oil bill going up.) and I'd also be willing to split a moderate cable tv package. There is a washer and dryer in the basement (free to use, they're actually mine). The neighborhood is quiet; my street is a dead end and on street parking is easy to find. This apartment is on the first floor of a two family house with the landlord living upstairs. I am open to either a male or female housemate, queer friendly, and relatively quiet when I'm at home. The available bedroom is about 130 square feet which is large enough that the current resident has a queen sized bed, computer desk, dressers and shelving all in the room.

Other pets are a possibility, if you have one let's talk!