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| ambulance |
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| UPS truck |
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| Segway cop |
Sometimes I don't see all the support services that we have in this city neighborhood and it's easy to forget how useful they are. For instance, there's those cable guys from
Verizon or
Comcast hanging about on the lines in the alleys. And, every once in a while someone calls an
ambulance and it arrives! It's worth noting that ambulance service is now dispatched much more efficiently than when I first moved to Washington DC when this service was also being used by some for non-emergency visits to local hospitals and consequently, service was more erratic! Then there's those marvelous
UPS (and
Fedex) trucks which leave us so much of value on our front porches (ask them to hide stuff under the porch so it doesn't get pinched in the recent wave of thievery!). And, up until recently, it seemed like we had
police patrols using Segways rolling around and preventing drug dealing and other miscreantry. Of course there are other support services, such as
police, the US postal service (
USPS) and store delivery services like
Sears and
Peapod (both of which I've used and find very helpful), services that one sees occasionally making a foray into our streets. And of course now is the season for
UHaul and other similar vans as it again is moving time for the more transient population living here. I suppose I could mention the dry cleaners, bars,
hospitals and
a public library all within walking distance, but I haven't got around to photo'ing all of them yet and didn't want to have too many thumbnail pics jammed into this one blog. I could also mention the mostly 24/7/365 clean running water, gas and electricity but that's really basic infrastructure and might be the subject of another blog about things we take for granted. But these services here really do make our life in the city so much easier, don't you think? And, Thank God!
This has been a week to take photos of all the trees as they are so full of color after the recent cold snaps. Everywhere I look there's lovely orange, yellow and red leaved trees. I know it won't last long so I just had to snap away and record these splashes of bright color before the browns and greys of winter arrive. Now, who's the artist responsible? 
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Lately I've been using that little post office at the intersection of 4th and RI and Florida avenues NW to drop off my mail as I just can't be bothered to drive or bus down to the Post Office at Union Station and, well, I just don't trust the mail boxes on the streets. I expect they are safer now but I do remember learning that the kids would dump their soft drinks in them or light fire crackers and post them in the mail boxes. And when I send mail I really do want it to get to the destination intended. After all, it's quite a bit of trouble to do real snail mail (it's amazing that email has become the baseline, isn't it?) What I do like about this post office is that it has a parking lot so I can just drive in, drop the mail, and drive on to the library or whatever from out the other side of the lot. Very convenient. I did read some Yelp reviews where there was criticism about how it sometimes opens late or the staffer on duty takes a long lunch hour and it closes at 5pm and isn't open on the weekends. Also, some reviews about how the staffer isn't always so friendly or as helpful as the user would like. But really, does everything have to be open 24 hours, 7 days a week, every day? Can't some people just have a bad day at work and not be particularly helplful? It really feels more like a neighborhood post office with these kind of attributes, don't you think?
