Today I go home. It is 9:30 am now; my shuttle to the airport will arrive somewhere between 10:30-11. My flight won't leave Denver until 5:55 - but the next shuttle time felt too close, given the potential time to get from Greeley to Denver, the additional 45 minutes time that is supposed to be allowed for luggage check-in at seven or eight airports (one of which is Denver) and the time to get through security. I saw the lines at the airport when I was waiting for the shuttle after I arrived - long!
I have a good book and will be quite content to find a place to have a soy latte and read. I figure I will have maybe two to three hours once I get through everything and that will be fine. I did find there is an earlier flight on the same airline and thought I might see - depending on security and baggage lines getting into the airport - if there was a vacancy. But the flight which leaves two and a half hours earlier arrives in Portland about a half hour later. So I will stick with my flight. I'd rather be in the airport with an iced latte and a book and a comfy chair than in an airplane for that additional time.
The picture above is, again, looking out my dorm window where we have seen much progress on the new buildings. The crew is out there working again today. The blue crane has become a familiar site; but I will not miss having it start up at 6 am outside my window six days a week.
Tomorrow morning the blue crane will be replaced by a Japanese maple tree. The 101 degrees will be replaced by near 80 (although I did see mid-week is predicted to hit 93 for one day, then to dip below 90, again). Instant coffee stirred into soy milk will be replaced by fresh-brewed drip real roasted coffee and some heated soy milk added. The smell of cows (dead and alive) will be replaced by encaustic, oil paint, trees and plants, coffee brewing, an old house....