recladding: the good, the bad, the early.

it's no secret to those who know me well that i am quite the sleeper. napper, not so much, but 8 hours at night is almost always a minimum requirement for me. God has been extremely kind to this little "need' in my life by giving me a job that starts at 9am and is 8 minutes (walk down the hall, elevator ride, and car hunting in the apartment parking lot included) from my apartment. so, to get everything out in the open, i'll inform the three of you who will read this that many a morning i am awake for less than an hour before arriving at work, oftentimes getting out of bed between 8-8:15.

try to keep your hatred to a minimum so you can keep reading.

a few months ago, our apartment complex informed us that they would be "recladding" the building, which for those of you who are like me (i.e. intentionally avoiding any jargon which refers to topics such as building, architecture, or construction of any kind), means the building is being re-bricked and floors 4-10 will be receiving new windows. we live on the 4th floor, a.k.a. the start space on the proverbial monopoly board of project "let's make the swiss tower residents a little crazier as if seminary wasn't already contributing enough to that end" (at least that's what i would have named it had my opinion been solicited). so, falling dutifully in line with julie andrews' lyrical instructions, they've started "at the very beginning (a.k.a. floor four), it's a very good (debatable) place to start." 

now that's all well and good when we're speaking in the proverbial, the big picture, lyrical, the end result even. i'm thrilled that we'll have new windows as the insulation on the old ones was rather sub par. but as the great rapper of my high school days so poetically phrased it, it's time to "snap back to reality" and think about what this means for the here and now.

what does all of this really mean? well, i'll tell you.

it means jackhammers outside my bedroom window at seven o'clock in the morning.
it means jackhammers outside my bedroom window at seven o'clock in the morning.
it mean jackhammers outside my bedroom window at seven o'clock in the morning.
it means jackhammers outside my bedroom window at seven o'clock in the morning.

(by the way, the number of words you can effectively emphasize in a sentence is directly related, in most cases, to the validity and atrocity of your statement. the above statement is hereby declared valid and atrocious.)

this morning it was so loud and causing so much movement that the christmas decorations fell off the shelf in our closet. my sparkly mailbox ornament was broken. maybe i should open my bedroom window and see if the men with the jackhammers would like to try to fix it.

again, let me say that i am thrilled about the new windows. i am thankful that they started on our side of the building rather than the courtyard, leaving the pool accessible for the summer.

all i'm trying to say is, those thoughts are not the ones running through my head at seven o'clock in the morning.

and that is the end of my story.