Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

The demolition crew is back. Working outdoors this time, so I heard them stomping around on the roof (but they didn't make enough noise to bother me until 8:30 and didn't get really loud until 9:00). I heard gleeful shouts and the groaning of wood pulling free of nails, and a crash, and when I looked up the view out my window had changed. The rickety wooden fire escape that scared a police officer who came to investigate one of my reports of people going into that house, when he put his hand on the railing and it nearly dropped him three floors, is gone. At least the part of it I could see from my bed is gone.

I won't miss it aesthetically, unlike the tree out front that blew over in a storm a while back, but the simple fact that the view has changed a little will take getting used to. I'm used to quickly eyeballing snowfall depths there, and watching stray cats (and occasionally dogs) visit and depart the roofs that way. And I guess I should put curtains on this window, 'cause the morning sun has a much clearer path into my bedroom for now, and eventually I'll have neighbours again ... Though if they're going to leave that house chopped up into three apartments, as it is now, then they'll need to replace the fire escape before they rent it out. I wonder whether they'll build another bulky wooken one or install a metal one.

The other change I've had to get used to since I moved here is more gradual and also basically pretty despite taking away something kind of cool -- each summer I can see a little less of the neon Domino Sugar sign across the harbour as the trees at various distances between here and downtown get taller. I can still see it in autumn and winter, when the leaves are gone.