My life on the fourth floor

 Fourth floor lobby between elevators and two directions of halls.

The last door in this direction is a trash chute, for small items.

My door is the other direction, the second to last on this hallway. It's surprisingly quiet, and I've only met a few of the other tenants who live on this floor.

It was fun for Bing to post this photo as a screen saver the other day!

The view from my desk. I'm kind of struck each morning as the sun blasts its reflection into the windows, which can be blinding compared to the best efforts of my monitor. This was taken a few minutes after the one at dawn on Aug. 15, which I used as a header. I'll share it here too because when I change headers, it's lost from blog archives. Soon I close the vertical blinds with just a crack for fresh air to come in. The Storytime shot says "I've never met the devil (yet) but I imagine it's a pretty scary experience. but then again I guess that's the point."

Dawn at 7:01 Aug 15 with sun hitting the tip of the smokestack of the Powerhouse...apparently a science museum now. This is my header for this week.

Saw smokestack dawn again on Aug 17 at 7:03 am.

The 8 am train (came by around 8:25 Saturday) and I didn't bother to close the windows. I noticed when the engineer toots the whistle, it emits white smoke, but there are definitely puffs of black coming out that engine. If I start noticing anything sooty in the apartment, I'll probably change my attitude.

Pardon the screens giving the flickering images...but I'm just so thrilled still to actually wake up to see these views each day.

Yes, I'm very happy here.

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Tuesday night I woke up at 2:30 am and opened the windows...it was definitely cooler outside than in.  And for the first time I stood at the window and saw the stars. I had to block the city lights below me, and there they were. Very nice indeed.

Not my photo!

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No, I haven't made friends yet. It's coming.

I'm feeling much better health-wise too! The heat has had a break...and I hope it doesn't come back, but it is still August.

Shhh! Library wordless Wednesday

 

Afternoon showers, we finally had a bit of rain on Aug 11.

I featured the exterior of the Durango Public Library earlier in the month.

First floor has meeting rooms, and a lot of fiction...

And a great view of the Animas River

A huge children's room, as well as a separate room for story time.

and an elevator to the second floor where...

research and non-fiction are available, as well as these views...

 The bike path goes for miles along the Animas River, and here the narrow gauge railroad that goes to Silverton.

Many young people are riding electric bikes around town. The library can check out bike locks for those who visit there.

and yes, you can sit out on these balconies and enjoy reading or whatever!

Sharing with (almost) Wordless Wednesday

Some Third Avenue Homes

 

Looking north along 3rd Avenue in Durango, some lovely old homes. The one on the corner caught my attention because it went back into so many interesting features.

I like the windows, including what looks like aluminum foil treatment against the heat/light.

Even a half greenhouse, which probably isn't used this time of year!

I liked everything about this house, especially the "sanctuary" sign, which I couldn't actually read.

Lots of fun roof treatments on this home!

Not all the houses were huge.

The Christian Science church looks pretty imposing for a smallish building.

First Baptist Church. I'll capture more churches that are along this old drive soon.

At the top of 14th St. actually. What views they must have!

Sharing with Tuesday's Treasures.

More than just coping with it all

 

This is a tiny bar of soap...maybe 1-1/2 inches across!

Helen sent me some meds that she picked up for me in Black Mountain, because I'm in insurance limbo with switching to Colorado healthcare from NC. She included this tiny little soap bar...especially for us people named Rogers (no relation to Rev. Fred Rogers however.)

Incidentally it triggered my interest enough to re-watch the movie with Tom Hanks in it, about Mr. Rogers. It's not like a biography, but an interesting fictionalized account of his encounters with a troubled writer.

Most of these are vitamins, but a couple are for blood pressure and heart and breathing stuff.

My screen wallpaper from the Dripolator in Black Mountain, just gives me a hug of nostalgia to see my friends Helen and Teresa as they were placing their orders.

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and then there's this...

A ritual for dealing with the wildfires.

A pagan blessing for the day...

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This week's loaf of homebaked bread. I didn't have a recipe, which is good because this loaf is forgettable...supposed to be cheese loaf, but can't taste it at all. But I usually toast my bread and then put something else on top of it, so it will have that flavor even if the cheese disappeared. Since the size of the loaf is so unwieldy I usually cut it in half, then slice off each half for half slices at a time.