Typical

So, I woke up this morning with not-so-grand illusions that I'd get some work done.

Not house work. Office work.

I don't often work on weekends currently. Along with flex-time (having a somewhat-fluid schedule to accomodate for the various lunchtime and night-time meetings that my current assignment calls for), a benefit of being in a position like the one I currently have is that I rarely have to take anything home over the weekend (though, admittedly, I have as projects have come and gone).

Another project has come. And it required some extra time. Which is good, because eventually I'll move into a position which will, no doubt, require some weekend time on my part, and so the occasional weekend work is good to remind me of what is coming.

Anyhoo, I digress. I woke up this morning with plans to go into the office, after the bi-monthly bloodletting at the Red Cross and some coffee with my wife and the JLowe's at City Coffee.

On my way to the Red Cross, the sky was cloudy and attempting to rain. Which was good, as I saw it, because it reinforced my feeling that if I had to be at work, at least I wouldn't be missing any nice weather.

It was even still looking iffy as I drove out to my office. When I got to work, the temperature was warm, but the clouds still bode not-so-well for outdoorsy-ness, so I was fine.

Then, after about four hours in my office, as I prepared to leave, I saw this:



What is it? It's a view at Gresham Police Department that's always captivated me, since shortly after I started working there. This spot is in my assistant's old cubicle (before her office got moved) and is what I used to stare at as I pondered fine legal points to answer her questions. For quite awhile, I've wanted to grab a picture of it. I took my camera with me today solely for that purpose.

Anyway, the more important thing to notice in this picture is the bright blue sky. Normally I'm looking through this window on weekdays, and the sky looks much the same. But I've always known weekends to be rainy, as if God was trying to teach us all a lesson about the silver linings of clouds.

This view was not right.

I grabbed my stuff, and bolted out the back door (minor exaggeration, of course) to find bright sun, blue sky, hot weather. All that I assumed I wouldn't be missing by working this weekend.

Curses!

Anyway, I wasn't done with work yet. I had to drop some items off at the main courthouse before I could call it quits, so I rolled down the windows and hit the road. A pleasant drive on a beautiful day.

At the courthouse, I saw that not-too-many people had so foolishly relied on the weatherman, and the office was fairly quiet. I dropped off my materials and headed for the elevator, when I saw this view.



Now, really, this was my second trip to the courthouse of the day. After the Red Cross, I stopped in to get some materials to assist in my project for the day. I did this despite hearing that we'd had an earthquake in the earlier hours of the day, and despite an accute awareness that if the earth had a relapse, I might get crushed. I went in the second time figuring that, as the building was still standing 5 hours after my first visit, I'd probably be alright popping in for 5 minutes.

Anyway, this is the donut hole of the courthouse. I'm not a courthouse historian, so don't put too much stock in what I'm about to say. But, our courthouse was originally built in two "L"'s. After the first L was built, work commenced in it while work commenced on the second L. When all was finished, we had a courthouse that is essentially a square donut, with a courtyard in the middle.

According to a courthouse guard I was talking to on a different Saturday morning in the courthouse, the courtyard used to be used for hanging people. Again, I'm no historian, and I don't know if this is true. But it is interesting to think about, especially if your alone in the office at night, thinking of the poor souls who met their demise a few floors down.

Now, the courtyard is filled (for the most part) with a building-within-the-building that rises about 3 floors, and which houses much-needed space for various court-related functions. But, from the 8th floor of the courthouse, that doesn't pop into your view of the inside of the donut.

By the way, if you look carefully toward the top of the picture, you can see bars on the windows. That's the courthouse jail, used to house inmates with court hearings on weekdays, and used as a place to put naughty people who the court essentially grounds for the weekend (go to jail at 8 on Saturday and leave at 5, then come back Sunday to rinse and repeat).

Don't know why I snapped the picture, other than I liked the venetian blind aspect with the brickwork behind it.

After leaving the courthouse, I decided to take a few pictures of downtown stuff. You can view those over at the Metblog.

Now I'm home, realizing (as I type) that I should be outside doing something, but being stuck at home because my wife has our car. So I'll be washing the dog and taking for a walk to dry her off, and then we'll see what the rest of the weekend has in store.

Now that I'm free, it'll probably be rain. Curses!

Catch ya later.