Outdoors

Sometimes people like to tell you when they think you need a break, "Why don't you go outside, take a walk or something." Well my place is almost outdoors so I don't have to "go" outdoors, it's just outside my windows and doors.

I have a 2-bedroom apartment which overlooks the Narrows Strait to Tacoma on the other side and the Seattle/Tacoma to Portland BNSF train tracks with Mt. Rainier in the distant just a glance out the office window.

My apartment has a near 180-degree view of the southeast horizon with a 44' deck from the two Tacoma Narrows Bridges in the south and the Tacoma Utility powerline towers across the Narrows Strait on the north.

All the windows and doors to the deck look outdoors all the time. I don't close the curtains except the bedroom ones at night. This is partly because I'm mildly claustrophobic and can't stand enclosed rooms without a window I can see out and open for noise.

And that's the other thing, unless it gets cold like in the low 40 or colder, I keep some of the windows open for the breeze, and occasionally wind, through the apartment and all the sounds of the outside. I can't stand silence on an indoor space, I need the outside noise.

So when people tell me to get outside, I just say, "I already have it." I get to see the weather just flow through the day just outside the windows. I get to see the passing of the day from the early morning darkness to the night after sunset.

I get to see Mt. Rainier every day out my office window, from the dimmest form in the early morning light to the fading colors of the sunset. And on many days I get to see it shrouded in clouds, hiding from the world behind its own weather.

It's all there everyday just outside my window and just a short walk on to the deck. To sit and watch, listen and feel. In the end it keeps me sane.