during

Entering Week Three with the rebar laid and the concrete pouring scheduled for Wednesday, because it'll probably be raining tomorrow and Tuesday. 

For the first week, I could open my door, but the crew eventually nailed up a piece of plywood and some plastic sheeting, just ahead of the latest storm. 

The removal of the entryway and the stairs revealed two cracks in the foundation. I haven't gotten A's change order yet but I am guessing it'll be an additional ten thousand. Oof. But once these things get rolling you have to keep up, somehow. 

I've been home alone for most of the weekend. A novel feeling. I had dinner at N+T's last night -- stopped at the Bowl on the way there to buy bulk bin and other items. And she sent me home with half a loaf of just-baked bread. It was a nice evening, even given the T factor.

After the zoom with siblings I was planning to stop by the library open house but I found myself unwilling to get my shoes on. It's just sprinkling at the moment, but I'm feeling lazy and cold averse.

Reading Mihail Sebastian's journal has gotten me back into listening to my old CDs. Bach, in particular. At the start, it is 1936 and he's writing about his daily struggles and pleasures -- artistic, romantic, professional -- and of course I know that he'll be chronicling the devolution of his Romanian community into fascism and antisemitism and war. And because I read the introduction, I know he will die just as the war is ending. 

before

I believe the entryway will be torn down on Monday. Finally. It's been three years since I started this process. It has gotten a lot more expensive since 2020; I guess it has also gotten more extensive, but inflation is really kicking my butt.

The demolition and construction phase is supposed to take two months. I assume it will take l longer than expected. It has been two-and-a-half months since I thought it would get started. At least three start dates and come and gone. Tomorrow I will clear out whatever I've left in the entryway since the last time I thought we were getting started. 

I feel some anxiety about the new entryway looking too big and bulky. I keep reminding myself that I've been living with the current entryway in all its ugliness for more than a decade, and I can get used to whatever replaces it. 

And what about my retirement dream? Will I have to wait until I'm 70? I don't want to work that long. I started getting my UCP pension, which is a nice little monthly bonus but not enough to live on for someone like me who is accustomed to paying for wine and other nice things.