Monday, December 19, 2005

Its cold outside today.

Its finally raining! This weekend we've had spitty drizzle and this morning it was frozen on the roads. There is much rejoicing! ('Cause of the moisture, not the ice.) However, even though there is but the tiniest bit of ice, and zero snow, we tend to freak out just a bit. (My northern and Midwestern readers would blush for us if they knew how badly we drive when its slippery.) And what better reason to skip your probation appointment, than bad weather? The ONLY person who has made it in to report today lives 45 miles away and was only 15 minutes late for his 8:30 a.m. appointment. And can I also mention that the ice melted by 9:00 a.m.?

So, I have a little time on my hands and I managed to download some photos off my phone. I had this big post planned about them, when I took them, but now I've forgotten most of it. A couple of weeks ago, Mindy, M2 and I decided to make an expedition upstairs. Our reason, ostensibly, was to search for the Christmas tree of old. We used to put up a tree every year in the office, but the tree and decorations got so old as to be embarrassing and we quit doing it. Its been long enough that the tree has phased from old and ugly into nostalgically kitsch-y, so we went to find the tree.


I believe I've mentioned before that my office is located on the bottom floor of an old four story hotel. Fake Cow City is home to the third hotel ever built by Conrad Hilton hisownself. This is not that building. That building is being slowly demolished by alternating encounters with weather and juvenile arsonists. Nope, this ain't the Hilton, but its just as old. This is the Ware Hotel. The upper three floors are largely abandoned. The county uses them for storage and it is a major pigeon and vermin sanctuary.



Each county office has several rooms devoted to storing old records and things like Christmas trees. As you walk down the halls the room doors are labeled in Sharpie, right on the wood: DA's office - files to 1994, Probation Dead Files 1987-1996, Auditor's office, Treasurer - budget reports 1997 - , and so on. I love to explore up there and every couple of years we make up an excuse to acquire a key so we can spend an a few of hours traipsing through bird crap, looking for treasures.






This is on the third floor. I don't know why the exit sign is here. The only exit I could find from here is if you go through the door on the right, break out the windows in the balcony of the honeymoon suite and plummet down to the sidewalk below.

How do you like my ghostly shadow? It makes me feel a bit hollow.

I think I can wrangle a key from one of the more malleable gate-keepers in the near future. I may take a few hours off from work and go exploring with a better camera...

16 comments:

annie said...

I thought you looked rather faint in that photo, perhaps you'd better lie down and take a rest?...

I like the photo of the books stacked up.

spookyrach said...

Annie - hee hee! I think I will lie down...

I love those books, too. Those are the criminal docket books. They are about 2 1/2 feet tall and 3 or 4 inches thick. They were stacked up head-high around the walls of the room. Very cool.

Princess of Everything (and then some) said...

I loved this!! You forgot to mention the dead pigeon corpses that M2 made us stop and look at. It must have been so swanky in its hey day. I would kill for one of the claw footed bathtubs that we found. Of course, one will probably come crashing in on our heads during an office visit some day.

Captainwow said...

Just like a government type organization to let a good building and the cool stuff in it go to pot.

GREAT photos.

reverendmother said...

But wait--is it a Christmas tree or a Holiday tree??

Jody Harrington said...

Reminds me of the dusty attic in the Bexar County courthouse. God only knows what was stuck in those archives--probably still has a bunch of curandista "hex" objects left over from my days in the DA's office.

Baby Gator said...

Oh Rach you are so funny. You went traipsing through bird crap that made me laugh out loud. I can't wait till we all get to eat lunch again yall are just to damned funny.

Running2Ks said...

I am utterly freaked out by those pictures.

Jules said...

Okay, I just gotta say it...I had a hard time getting past "It is cold here..."

It was *6* fricken'fracken' degrees today.

Okay, rant over.

That is all.

Lovely pictures...

spookyrach said...

Reverendmother - Its a small town out in the waterless backwater. We're still allowed a Christmas tree in a gov'mint office. Ha ha!

QG - Give up the church! Come out here and practice law! God will understand! *moves to the left to avoid lightning strike*

Revmom - Ya big show off! It was 40-something here today. Cold enough for us - ha!

Mindy - I hadn't thought about the tubs falling down on us. Or even one of those radiators. Hmm...

spookyrach said...

RTK - I know what you mean. The whole place has a freaky feel to it.

annie said...

I'd be more worried about some of them there varmints falling in on me and crawling up my britches' leg whilst I was trying to work.

see-through faith said...

but did you find hte tree???

(grin)

spookyrach said...

Yeah, we did find the tree. It graces the office in all its radiant "glory".

little david said...

So post a photo of the prodigal Christmas tree. Did you transform it into a thing of beauty?

Kinseeker said...

The books remind me of my microfilming days.

Usually we went into the dusty, dank, coal-dust-filled sub-basements of court houses to find the treasure.

Thanks for the memories...

I hope all of the genealogically related books have been photographically and/or digitally captured...

I've got a friend who's a filmer in Texas...