Porch Renovation

There are currently two men hammering, pulling and all-together dismantling the large back porch of my bachelor suite. The landlady has come through with her promise to replace the entire balcony, which hovers six feet over steep jagged bedrock and sags when walked across. Around 10 am the deck looked rather carefree and daring sans railings, inviting me to enjoy its Kingdom view of Victoria and the distant Highlands with a giddy sense of uninsured peril. Now the deck looks like an ancient temple trap, all crooked, rusted nails and gaps that would swallow you whole with one wrong step. A combination of distress and embarrassment over my lack of privacy compels me to pull the blinds in my bedroom, lock the door and keep the stereo low. I crouch beneath the exposed kitchen windows on my way to the fridge so the father-and-son demolition duo don’t detect me. The new porch may not be ready for weeks.