Up on the roof.

For the most part,  living in a “Dachgeschoss” is a pretty good thing.  I mean,  when we moved out of an apartment in the winter of 1992,  and into our house (hello? The one over in Canada?),  I never really thought I’d want to live in an apartment ever again. 

Ever.

Not only that,  but I figured we’d never move again.

Ever.

I just figured a couple guys (or hey,  maybe gals?)  dressed in nice suits would eventually take me out on a gurney.   Quite likely in a bag with a big long zipper up the middle.

 

This is the house.  And no,  that wasn’t taken last week or anything.  That was in the winter of maybe 08?  I guess we had our share of snow that winter. Sometimes we don’t have that much.  I know, I know,  it’s Canada,  we must live in Igloos.  Ya,  ours is out back.  I don’t have any recent pictures.

(rolling my eyes here)

 

Of course,  there’s a bit of a difference between moving all your sh*t in a used Bell van,  day after day,  to having a moving company come in,  carefully pack up each and every little thing in bubble wrap, and ship it half ways around the globe.  Or across Europe.

This example is pretty close except,  too new,  and I didn’t go with the roof rack program.  Suffice to say,  I’ve owned a couple used Bell vans over the years.   Great work truck, by the way.  I think the ad for that one even said it had air conditioning.  Wow!  Sure beats what I had.  I had a radio and windows that you cranked open. 

Oh,  but it did have “one finger” power steering!  That was nice.

 

Anyway,  so much for that “never gonna move again!” scenario.  The major difference that I want to emphasize is that,  we don’t actually “do”  the moving these days?   Most times the results are OK,  but I’ve also learned that,  if you want to keep something,  keep it at home.   Movers typically don’t do well when it comes to keeping things “nice”.   But that’s a whole other story.  A few little things have gotten slightly abused but hey,  at least it wasn’t Travelling Companion and I doing the grunt work.  Thank goodness!

I really didn’t mean to get off on a “moving” theme or anything.  Sorry.

Where was I?

Right.

 

So,  even though we’re in an “apartment”  in pretty much the middle of a busy city,  we’re up high enough that a lot of the noise can be filtered out.  Mostly.

Sometimes there’s some honking,  or maybe some loud music,  or the Hare Krishnas.

You can set your watch by the passing of the Hare Krishnas,  since they do tend to go by, out on Mariahilfer Strasse, right around 4:00 p.m.

“Oh,  there go the Hare Krishnas,  better put on the potatoes!”    See?   That’s why I don’t wear a watch. Why would I bother?

 

Every so often though,  there’s some little thing about living on a roof top that makes a person say, “Oh,  you’ve got to be kidding!”.

 

See,  every October First,  it’s “Test the air raid sirens”  day.  I probably griped about this last year.  Pretty sure the year before that (2009)  we were still in Nürnberg,  and we didn’t get into town here until well into the afternoon.  Must have missed it.   Had no clue what I’d be hearing every October First.

Now,  maybe it’s not too bloody loud down at street level,  but up here,  I couldn’t even tell where the sound was coming from,  it was so loud!  

This only occurs once a year,  but I’ve seen where some municipalities do a test every week!  I don’t think that would go over all that well with the Austrians.  They’d be out on the streets protesting.  By only having it once a year,  a person tends to forget all about this little ritual,  until it happens again the following year.   And you run around closing all the doors and windows.

Now that I think of it,  it’s because the weather is so darned nice.   That’s it.  We’ve been having some fabulous weather,  whereas last year at this time it was kinda raining and generally typical fall weather. 

This picture of the boys pouring concrete down the street yesterday afternoon shows just how little cloud cover we have.  Clear as a bell. 

Other than that brief little annoyance,  it’s a pretty slow day here in Wienerland.   Travelling Companion is doing her best to rest up after a crazy week,  and I’m just doing more of…whatever the hell it is I do.

 

I’ll just be waiting here for the Hare Krishnas to go by,  so I’ll know it’s time to start supper.

 

 

Keep your fingers out of your nose.

 

 

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