It is a glorious day.

It is a glorious day. It is perfectly warm and sunny, and the construction has momentarily halted across the street, returning me to the welcome sounds of the city on Saturday. Oh. They just started again.

I am sitting on my balcony with the final act of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkeries" cascading dramatically through the kitchen window, battling with the incessant metallic buzzing from the construction site. There. I just gave Brunhilda a volume boost. Take that, you saturday-workers, you!

The sun is steadily creeping towards me as I sit at my newly acquired faux marble-topped balcony table. Now I can sit out here on a warm weekend morning, drinking earl gray tea and reading the Annals of Emergency Medicine in total comfort. Yesterday I rigged up a long extension cord from the kitchen to supply the white christmas lights that I wove between the railings of the balcony. Not only will I get light at night, but I can now plug in a laptop out here, with full internet access (courtesy of our friends upstairs).

The Admiral is sleeping in the sun, the pink-blossomed tree just below the balcony is swaying in the breeze, the construction has halted again, and Brunhilda is lamenting her fate. I's time to get dressed and go out in the world!

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