Pigeons

When I walk down Finchley Road on my way to and from work, I pass some buildings where flocks of pigeons are often flying above the rooftops. They must live in the nooks and crannies of the structures, one of which is an old telephone exchange that looks like it may be largely unoccupied. I took this video last week, trying to capture their looping, circular flight patterns. Be warned: I got dizzy recording the video, and you might get dizzy watching it!

Yesterday morning Mrs. Russia e-mailed me to say the gigantic scaffold on our patio would be taken down that day. Dave and I both thought, "Yeah, right," but darned if it wasn't gone when we got home in the evening. That's a relief. Mrs. Russia initially told us this entire project -- replacing their window and repairing their roof -- would take three days. Instead it took a month!

(I wonder if they really told her three weeks and she misunderstood? I don't see how anyone could look at the scale of that job and think it was going to be done in three days.)

Dave had to go to the hospital last night for a spinal tap. Why he did this is a long story -- basically he's had a hand tremor and his doctors are trying to figure out what's causing it. I joined him there when I got off work. He did it privately, through our insurance company, so he had a private room in a swanky hospital in Marylebone. I waited while the procedure was completed, but when they wheeled him back into the room he said he had to lie on his back for four hours and I should just go home and take care of the dog. So I did. Dave showed up about 10 p.m. and he had a headache and some dizziness, but otherwise felt OK. He's still asleep as I type.

While Dave rested in his hospital bed, I came home and read an excellent graphic novel called "The Arab of the Future," by Riad Sattouf, about a boy growing up in Libya and Syria in the 1980s. We only have the first volume in our library but I'm tempted to order the sequels too.