For many years the small blue building down at the end of my street was empty. The developer who'd bought it, assembling a larger site, didn't rent it out. Two winters ago, Amtrak schedules began to appear, taped to its windows. The first ones were for trains going south, as if suggesting anyone passing that particularly cold and windy corner consider a trip to Virgina, or Georgia or Florida. Then more got added: Vermont, Montreal; New Orleans; Chicago and Seattle.

Finally, about six months ago, the developer got its act together, construction began on the site, and the building was torn down.

Now the schedules are back. But not there. On a corner two blocks up the street there's construction going on, a townhouse renovation. And stapled to the plywood fence around it, a couple of weeks ago: two schedules for trains going south. And now the others are starting to go up. They're carefully placed, at eye level, straight and true and well secured. Not about to flap in the wind, get wet, or otherwise be hard to read.

I have no idea what this is about, but I love it.