Recent questions while looking out the window

My desk is set up so I can look out the window while I work. For the most part, I keep my eyes on the monitor, but occasionally I notice the most interesting things. And people. During the past week, for example, I've pondered:

• Is that woman really wearing a rabbit fur jacket while she's out for her brisk walk?
• How far is the man over there going to carry that poodle like a baby, so its feet don't touch the awfully cold ground?
• Has anybody helped to address the issues of this young lady who seems to have more than a few apparently compulsive tendancies? (She runs several times a day, and has a series of oft-repeated patterns and routines that make me really feel for her.)
• Parking must be a real challenge this week, for the people in that unit down below. The guy who drives the beer van seems to arrive home at unfortunate times...he seems to have to find new and interesting places to park that van several times a week. Or maybe there's a totally different story I don't know anything about? Hmmm.

If I don't watch it, I'll have to shut the blinds today. Sitting by the window is supposed to give me encouraging, bright sunshine. Not keep me from working!  But people are just so interesting, don't you think?

Have you observed anything curious out your window lately?

Comments

[Sean]

From my work window, I look out across the roofs of office buildings in my part of downtown D.C. Since nothing in D.C. is over 12 stories (actually, nothing can be taller than the base of the statue atop the Capitol Dome), and I'm on the 12th floor, I see satellite dishes and microwave towers of all sizes, giant industrial-grade chiller units that cool down the office towers, and strange looking objects which I have to guess are the ends of ventilation shafts that provide for some kind of building exhaust.

If I press against the glass, I can see the reflection of the street below me in the windows of the building across the street. And if I really press the side of my face against the glass, I can see the Potomac River. Barely. But it's there.

(I don't even have fun office scenes to look at -- the building directly across the street has vacant 10th, 11th and 12th floors for some reason).

Instead of looking outside, I've decorated the bulletin board over my desk with pictures I've cut out from National Geographic magazine and my favorite high-end travel catalog (yes, I still do that, all these years after elementary school). I also have small color printouts of the 13 countries I've visited, a couple photos of friends, a picture of the child I adopted through Children International in the Dominican Republic, and a big photo of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, set right in the middle so that he's looking down over my desk.

So I guess I have an "artificial" window to look at?

[Melody]

Reading your post, I could see the rooftops and ventilation shaft thingies as if I were there with you. And I love that I'm not the only one who is at least aware of the option of pressing my face close, clooose to a window and seeing what's not visible to the ordinary eye!

Your bulletin board has inspired me to work on putting another one together. I dismantled my last one when I moved, thinking it wouldn't be quite this long before I was "settled" again. Meanwhile, we'll be discussing the idea of bulletin boards again sometime soon...you just wait.

Meanwhile I've been trying to remember if I knew you've adopted this little boy. How wonderful. While simultaneously feeling very much impressed that you've traveled to 13 countries. I'll travel to 13 countries one day...really. Someday...

Thanks for playing along!