The landlord of our apartment recently decided that it was time to restore the outside of our building. He was correct in assuming this, so I fully support his efforts in providing the services this required. However you see, these “services” begin at standard early morning work times, which I do not support. 

I have had the wretched early morning jobs before, which I could handle if I were to do something I greatly enjoy, – going to the set of my latest film at 4:00 a.m. or heading off barefaced to a photo shoot at 5:30 – but having to arrive at Starbucks at 4:30 a.m. to ensure that other non-morning people have their cup of coffee before they snap is, in my opinion, simply painful. It's not that I am not a morning person, it's just that I am not an early morning person.

On the other side of it, I try to never sleep past 10:30 in the morning.  That would mean lunch would be nearing by the time I was ready and that interrupts the enjoyment of my morning cup of coffee. Plus, coffee is most enjoyable and necessary (or necessary and therefore more enjoyable…hmm) before 8:oo a.m., any time after that it becomes the cherry-on-top, instead of the thing the cherry tops.

So, the other morning the crew arrived early and promptly at 7:00 a.m. began drilling metal poles and wood and other materials that when combined properly looks like the equivalent to “scaffolding” we know in the US. The things that occurred in the following 3 days were roughly as follows: building and window washing using fire hoses, roof tap dancing competitions, vocal exercises, any number of things that use 20 or more compressors at a time and some heavy duty scraping using a dull chisel and hammer - whatever you think the worst noise is, this sound would come second to that. There were moments when I literally stopped what I was doing to wait for a foot to come through the ceiling.

Our windows have been covered in darkness so it’s difficult to tell the time of day without looking at a clock or stepping outside. This makes for nice when drinking a cup of instant coffee in my room pretending that I’ve risen before the sun;
but that lasts only so long until the inevitable feeling of being trapped sets in.

This whole process is only supposed to take a week and I am quite looking forward to the end result, but for the time being the only pleasant thing about the whole experience thus far is the wet dog smell that makes me think of my dogs. How happy they must be swimming in the pool of their new Arizona home and rising with the sun only to lounge around in the morning, just as it should be. I miss them.