A Day in the Life of a Towny - part two

 Continuing notes and photos from Friday last week.

Found a parking place at the bank (which is very near the train station) and hiked around the building, because the parking spot for handicaps were a block from the entrance to the lobby. (Point one against them). Then nobody was interested in serving me, even when I said I wanted to open a new account. (point negative two) One young woman said she was helping someone else, and had someone scheduled later, and didn't know when she'd be available, but would I like to come back next week? (Point negative three, why did I stick around?)

I said I wanted to wait. I said I was tired from walking from the parking lot and wanted to sit down. I also said this was their only chance to give me a new account. She then offered to show me where their coffee waiting area was, and I asked for the restroom as well.

By the time I walked near the coffee waiting area, I saw and heard a lot of music coming from a tent in the parking lot on that side of the building. I slowly walked out, carrying my oxygen generator, and asked the young women at the small booth what was happening. They got around to finally telling me there was free lunch and I was welcome to listen to the music. Nobody inside had offered a thing besides the thermoses of coffee.

Later I learned it was a community appreciation day, which used to be customer appreciation  day...I don't think my young clerk was aware of it at all.

Actually I had to ask the right questions, like how much were the hot dogs, before they said I was welcome to a free one. What's going on? Do I look like a homeless person? Carrying that oxygen generator just labels me handicapped, I think. The parking area is used for a Farmer's Market each Saturday morning. I want to come, and wonder where you have to park each Saturday.

Anyway, after lunch I went back and sat in the lobby, filled out some forms, and eventually the young woman asked me to come get the new account set up. Her skills were minimal, and she kept having nervous laughs when she'd say things. Geese, part of this was that she was waiting to be a mortgage broker in a few weeks, and was just filling in for this job because they were short handed, she eventually told me. 

At least she assured me my checks would be free. I asked for duplicate checks, and in other banks, have had to pay for them. We shall see... I noticed how the drier air is aging my skin...need to remember to use moisturizer more than I have in the past. I guess I do look a bit frumpish.

I had to ask her name, as her long hair hid her tiny nametag. Katheryn. Giggle, giggle, spelled with  a y like the Irish, because if it said "rine" it would say RINE, not ryn.

I had to call my son to see if he could sign a card to become a signature on the account, and he gave her the information, but can't schedule coming in to the bank to sign in person any time soon...from his home 47 miles away.

Anyway, did I quit then?

No mamm. (How do you spell that anyway?)

I next went to Walgreens. Got a prescription, and some vitamins, some Diet Dr. Pepper, and some cookies. Important things like that. Left the heavy things in the car, toted the cookies and vitamins and prescription inside, and now I'm about to snooze for a while.

I've awakened again, added the photos from throughout the day.

It's 5 pm. The temperature outside has gone down from 92 to 89, so the windows have been closed since I left this morning around 9. The vertical blinds are also closed so the bright sun doesn't blind me. I hope this is something I can get used to - sunlight is incredibly bright for me, and then when I try to see things in shady areas, I just can barely make them out. I do wear sunglasses outside all the time!

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Oh, my complaint to the management that I have only had luke-warm water (not hot) for 3 days resulted in the maintenance man having used a thermometer that said the hot water was 108.3 degrees, "within normal range." 

I have a body at 98.5 degrees. To have my hottest water only 10 degrees warmer, yes, I consider that luke-warm. I believe 120 degrees was the limit I had in NC. Here I shiver in a shower, and it's not going to get better in the winter! Incidentally the hot water and heat are provided by the management.

I can heat water on the stove for washing dishes, but oh my, the showers! I quickly wet my hair, turn off the water, soap up, then turn on the water to rinse. The rest of my body the same. At least I'm saving water!

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Dinner plans include left over brown and wild rice, some left over vegetarian faux chicken nuggets in some sauce, and whatever frozen vegetable I decide to heat up. My apartment has a big microwave included, so I have to learn how to use it...it's twice as powerful as my old one was! So far I've massacred some scrambled eggs, but heating water for coffee works great. Gratitude here!

My evening entertainment  includes shows on the monitor of the computer or the TV, all streamed. The tricky part is having the AC blasting across my feet while sitting in the living room. I have to cover my legs if they're raised in the recliner. There is only the one AC unit in the whole apartment, situated under the window in the living room, which has to be boosted by a little fan into the bedroom.

Goodness, I feel as if I've dumped complaint after complaint here. But really these are just how I'm coping with the new area and home.

So I feel quite productive today. Checked off several things that needed attending to. Got a free unexpected lunch. 

Tomorrow morning (it was Friday when I wrote this) will be the Farmer's Market at the new bank...and I remember how to get there! Need some locally grown fresh veggies! (But in reality, I didn't go)

The evening light was dimmed by wonderful clouds and a bit of rain even, but too humid and hot still to open windows. This is my header photo for this week.

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Later notes:

Monday I had my Dr. appointment at 9 am. No, he didn't have my medical records from my former primary care physician. So I'm glad I brought in my meds, as I wanted to have those prescriptions updated for our local Walgreens. Done! There are some things that will be postponed because I may not have insurance next month, thanks to the incredible inefficiency of medicaid across different states.

I will at least continue taking the meds I already know I need. This isn't the first time I've been without health insurance. I will get through this. 

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Repost of earlier talking about moving to Durango:

Friday, July 31, 2026

The old photos!

(Edited out the Sepia Saturday portion of this post...)

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I am doing better, and slowly getting this "cave in Durango" to look nice and homey. Thanks totally to my son and his wife. They came and rearranged the furniture, then unloaded boxes to shelves, and went out to pick up lunch. 

I had a short nap, and found some of my blogs won't let me reply to comments. Hope that's temporary, because I do love the conversations that occur here...making this true social media.

At least I have ac which makes the 90+ temps each day bearable keeping it around 70 inside.

I went out for about a half hour this morning to a local grocery store, then drove back a different way. I can't wait to have the energy to drive around more and find what's where. So far I saw the court house and post office. And a health food store. The last and maybe the post office will be useful.

The little Durango-Silverton train (narrow gauge but full size cars) just whistled its way by. It passes several times a day...but not at night.

There are several engines pulling the trains, this one yesterday, while today an orange one did the job.

It looked like all the cars were open air, but different set-ups. Some trains had about 10 cars, some just 4...of the few that I've stopped to watch go by from my windows.

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PS, it's Colorado Day here...the 150th birthday of the state. So all I know about it is that the Animas Museum here in Durango is open free today. I don't think I'll make it to the museum today though.