High Beams

Last night, I went to a Christmas party in the suburbs. The destination was off Route 40, out the Chelmsford-Tyngsborough way, down among the woodsy parcels along Dunstable Road. Now, is it just me or can it be said that every third person drives routinely with his or her headlights set…

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Swamp Locks

Two views of the Swamp Locks from Tony Sampas. The Swamp Locks are on the Pawtucket Canal along Dutton Street, midway between the intersections with Fletcher and Broadway. Together with the Guard Locks further up Broadway and the Lower Locks outside the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, the Swamp…

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Sunrise, sunset

This coming Wednesday is the shortest day of the year daylight-wise, so I was surprised last week when it seemed that the days were getting longer. Someone more science-minded than me explained that it wasn’t just my imagination. While the total amount of daylight continues to diminish until Wednesday, sunset…

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Common Cold

For the first time this month the morning air was cold enough to hurt your hands if you spent more than five minutes outside. I didn’t wear gloves when I took our pup across the street. My charge was in no rush, of course, because his twice-a-day jaunts are great adventures. We…

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Battle of the Bulge – December 16, 1944

Sixty-seven years ago today, early in the morning of December 16, 1944, a half million German soldiers achieved complete surprise by attacking the thinly held American lines along the Belgium-Luxembourg border. By the time it was over weeks later, 80,000 American soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured. In his…

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