A couple of months ago some new neighbors moved in across the hall from me. I haven't met them yet, which is odd because my part of the hall is closed off by two doors and there are only 4 apartments in our little area. Odds are I would've passed by them or ran into them sometime in the last 60 days.

The problem with them, though, is that they smoke. A lot. And it wasn't really too bad during the summer time when they had their windows open and fans going. But now it's cold outside at that smoke doesn't really have any place to go. And our little hallway is stupidly designed so that it is closed off by two doors, thus preventing any sort of ventilation. On the other side of one of the doorways is the rest of the hallway, and that has a window at the end that keeps the hallway nicely ventillated. We're not so lucky.

There's a simple solution to this issue, though. Prop one of the doors open and let the smoke vent. Seems simple enough. But apparently it's not. I'm fighting against an unknown foe in my building who keeps closing the door. I'll prop it open with a rug when I get home from work at 5:30. By 7 it's closed again. I'll prop it open again at 8. By 9 it's closed agin. I'll prop it open before I go to bed at 11, and it's closed by the time I leave for work in the morning.

Well this back and forth has been going on for the last couple of months. Tonight, however, I ran into a new obstacle: the rug is missing. Seems my foe has hidden the rug from me. I managed to find another one and was pulling it in place when I knocked over a jug of water used to water plants, panicked and ran away. I didn't want to make a mess, so I've temporarily put the venture on hold. Maybe whoever is shutting the door doesn't want somebody tripping on the rug, I'm not sure.

So now tomorrow I'm stopping by "Jerry's Do It Best Hardware, " and picking up a couple of packages of shims. I figure I can construct several homemade doorstops and battle this unseen foe with a new strategy. If he/she takes away the doorstop, I'll just make a new one. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, here are some pics from J & my latest trip up to Duluth to see the fall colors.