Bash! Boom! Bam!

This turned out to be a way busier week than I expected.

Bam! Monday morning my neighbors and I were greeted with sledgehammers and powersaws. The Shire authorities didn't bother to tell us there'd be deconstruction crews knocking out 3 feet of bricks (windowsills to the ground), some waterproofing done, and then masons to rebuild the walls. All we heard about were floodgates, with my building being done Sept. 30th. So the slamming and noise went on thru Thursday, when they put adhesive up for the water barriers and monoxide alarms went off. One of the workers had told me to close my windows cuz of the brick and concrete dust (which had already left a gritty haze all over my bathroom) and now we had monoxide. The maintenance guy came and changed out my alarm, cuz it wouldn't stop once it was activated. The stink was unbelievable, I got a headache and Beest has been sleeping a lot since all the hoohah. I think it's disgusting that we had no warning when this must've been planned for weeks. We're all just getting over the shellshock of Irene, we don't need shocks like sledgehammers on your wall at 8 a.m.. Not to mention it's so charming to use the facilities when there's someone standing right beside you, outside your window. I should've introduced myself. Where were my manners?

Today they blessedly started a little later, at 9. Only a couple of hours of sledge against my living room wall. Gal Friday and I watched the hanging pictures dance on the wall. They broke for lunch at 2, and I haven't seen any of them since. Their tools and things are all over the place, there are 2 huge pallets of bricks on my front yard, and the building's about halfway done. At this rate they'll be done by Mud Season. But I hope they don't work weekends.

Meanwhile, Billy had to see an oncologist today. He has the markers for multiple myeloma. She took a quick blood test and right now nothing's horribly wrong. There are more tests in the next weeks, and it could be that he has the form of myeloma that doesn't kill for decades. That's of course what I'm banking on. When we talked about it tonight, we agreed we aren't going to get the quick deaths; they're gonna keep us around to torture us for another ten or twenty years. The gods play with us, so why should we expect that to change?

He also sent me a surprise, a giant NYPD soup mug, which Fedex smashed to smithereens. I'm dealing with Fedex. The phone guy was great, but the claims dept. sent me a pdf I can't get into and I don't have a printer. 3 emails now, no response. The rat bastards.

With all that and some more, life is good and I'm happy. The weather's been beautiful, days so good you could eat em with a spoon. Billy and I didn't use half the food I'd laid in for his visit and I have a full freezer and have been able to share with people who need it. I have to bake things to keep up with the produce friends have dropped off. And the stone fruits this Summer were incredible. Strider is happy with a good fella and her adoring furfaces. She's almost done painting her house, a sharp but sweet and somehow homey blueberry color. Told you she's good with colors. Beest is fine, her Winter coat is coming in thick and she's itchy but otherwise all's well. She's asleep on the sofa right now, after inhaling a supper of 9 Lives chicken and salmon. First time I've seen her eat fish! She turns up her nose at real fish! She'll eat trash out of the bag, but not white tuna. Cats. Beest cats.

Before we know it the holidays will be here again. I really like buying presents. Yes, shopping has started. Matter of fact, I'm about a third of the way there already. We used to make fun of Mom for shopping in September, and here I am. Don't know who besides Stevil and myself will be around for this year's festivities, but I'm looking forward to them. And I've already scored some stomping hot presents. :)

It's all happening, and it's all good. I hope the same with you. I'll be back Sunday. xo