Information, knowledge and wisdom: Central Library.

 

(Where are the books we have lost to computers?)

Library At Last! 

Spokane’s Central library has just reopened after renovation. 

Let us tour the new revised edition, shall we?

Top floor, the 3rd. Can look out across the Spokane River and Monroe St. bridge at the dizzying view beyond.

North end of the city spreads out below on a fine 80 degree July day. Note the river is not so wide as it was even last month. 

Across the bridge and to the left, what is that tall tower there?

Could it be Sleeping Beauty’s Castle?

Naw, that’s just the courthouse!

Can’t wait to view it in winter with ❄️ snow ❄️  

That’s enough of the view from the library’s heights…

Let’s check out what’s inside, one floor down.

🤩 Kid’s Place! 😀

Cool…👍 And a fun hangout on a warm day. I loved the seascape and spongy carpet. Kids also had a slide, submarine, and this big fish 🐠 you can play around inside. 🐟 

There’s always the vertigo inducing stairway…very Escher.

Or you can just take the elevator. 

To Treasures From The Vault…

I don’t mind vaults at all. They’re full of fun, actually…in my experience.

     

Le Petite Livres and Gay Young Clerks…

                                        A Fine Wild Audubon Turkey

   

                                    And oldies but goodies from the 1870s.

                                                     ……….

I know what you are 🤔 thinking…but, where O where are the 📚 BOOKS 📖 ?

Well, actually I was thinking that myself. I also wondered, where IS everybody?

Hmmm…no one around. Maybe that has something to do with the lack of actual physical BOOKS?  Did see a few guys at computers, people using the restroom. 

Very few staff. (Indeed, why would they be needed?)

There are a few books about, but truth be told, not many. And some audiobooks. When I approached the INFO desk, 1st floor, to inquire about a card, I was happy to find that my bus pass worked fine for photo I.D. and they needed no proof of address! AND there were NO overdue fees! 

Needless to say my joy was short lived when I discovered there were also NO BOOKS.

Ah, well. I have already located and brought my custom to the Book Traders! Arrr…Raiders of the Lost Books!

           

Just down the street from the lovely Garland Theater 🎭.

Listen to the wind…

 

Every day is a new trail…

 

And a different quail…mother and young. I like it when she turns around as if to say, ‘…are you coming?’ I am such a bird nerd.

Ubiquitous Marmots Or : How many times do you have to live Groundhog Day over and over, again and again?

 (…asked the Buddha.) 

The many shades of Washington green…

Beauty is all around us. I actually knew someone who said that natural beauty left them cold. How is this even possible? They were not blind, they could inhale the sweet scent of river willow. A strange and scary thing to realize some people seem not quite human.

I am glad that I at least, am Staying Human, like Jon Batiste’s band.

Guess who I found parked by this birch grove?

On Eagle’s door it reads: Halifax NS.

“I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier

The last o’ Barrett’s Privateers”

At least Halifax is getting washed now. I had just returned from walk and was loading photos when CRACK! Thunder and ⚡️ lightning and a sockdolager came down in buckets! Thank you, Mother Earth 🌎 

It’s cozy inside the cabin…hope it rains just as much on the Fourth.

Coda: 3pm and 🌞 sun! Hope it rains tonight though…love those rain dreams.

7/4/22: ☔️ RAIN!

It’s so cozy inside my cabin. This is taken out of the bath window, looking out on the back of the village where the toolsheds and equipment and lumber storage is. I’m lucky to have no one on side or in back of me. I do get along well with the owner and manager are nice folks. So nice and quiet as well. I am told, however, that this much rain this time of year is unusual. Guess I’m just 🍀 lucky. Actually every day seems to have nice long sun breaks even rainy days. Took vid out of this window as it opens more, and wanted to capture rain sound…with a little bossa nova in background…

P.m. P.S. - Indeed it did clear up and shine on the 4th in time for any 🎆 fireworks 🎇— I know the casinos had big shows in the “works”, could hear it from here. 

Speaking of 💥fireworks and Indians…I seem to recall that this time of year friends and I would all head out to the rez for ‘works and look for stands with signs advertising “ill eagles”…M80s and the like.

 (Not naming names and this is not a recommendation😎.)

……..

Also, paying more attention to the big rigs in town. Noticed one today with Maple Leaf  flag crossing the Stars and Stripes so I checked his plate: yep, Manitoba! Alas, hadn’t camera with me.

I do have a nice view of park-like setting complete with picnic tables and horseshoe toss. My first day here I woke to a fine large turkey crossing the green.

Just behind the buildings…nice roses and cupola with Chanticleer 

I am glad now that I didn’t put things in storage here while I went back to CA to retrieve what I had left in GV…not sure what will happen with all that, but no matter. I still keep in touch with good friends in Sac and hearing about the heat and fires around the valley make me especially grateful for the cool temps and occasional rain here. Even checking on Oregon fires there and glad I don’t need those JoCo wildfire updates. Ashland burn was bad. So keep those rainy days coming…🌧

………

July 15 - ☔️ rain! Had just had a cracking good thunderstorm earlier this week, kept me up early a.m., like a thundercloud had come to sit directly on my head for a few hours…or so it seemed. Not much rain however. No mention of this wee rainstorm today in weather news, supposed to be warm though; so glad that this will cool things off a bit.

Cooler under the many shady conifers and others upon the green. So glad the roadways about the village here are gravel and not paved. Spokane is measuring urban “hot spots” - taking the temperature of  select areas in town to gauge the warmest and take steps to cool them down. Gonzaga University is partnering with NOAA in this endeavor to map urban heat islands.

While out for morning hike, I noticed herds of bicyclists pass me on the road. They all headed for tents I saw going up yesterday. In the car lot there I spied this forward thinking Nissan. If not US, who, if not now, when, indeed? The richest country on earth does not prioritize taking care of its citizens. People Before Profits.

…….

Also glad I did business in town yesterday. SO much easier and more convenient here than either CA or OR. I was able to do a phone interview with my new dr. And get 2 Rx prescribed and ready for pickup same day. Best part, the clinic is just 10 minutes by bus and meds were only $2.50 each for 90 days! The last time I got same meds at Walmart they were $40 each! This was in CA.

This is actual health “care”. Something Rs hate and that’s why we have billionaires paying no taxes.🤬 Don’t get me started on the January 6th hearings…I will say however, that I have been watching on CNN due to Jake Tapper and Jamie Gangel. Noticed Jake on Colbert and loved his droll humor…Jamie is whip-smart as well, and she is also married to one of my favorite authors, Daniel Silva. Was hooked on his stuff after reading The Order about the Catholic church’s role in aiding Nazi war criminals escape. All three, Jake, Jamie and Daniel, are Jewish. All are anti fascist. People forget nowadays what a living hell WW2 actually was. Jews cannot. Fascism today has become fashionable. Democracy is not perfect but it decidedly beats the alt-right alternative.

                                 Defeating Wetiko - The Mind Virus by Paul Levy: 

                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFk9s15IPvQ

It’s truly the perfect name for it: I was just telling a friend how I have seen people change 180 degrees from their previously human state into subhumans, lacking not only heart but mind as well. “It’s like a virus!” My exact words. A mind virus.

Corporate Sidewinders: Gordon “greed is good” Gekko: 

by their (art) works ye shall know them…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqjQxs9l5fg