in the middle of the night

walked francis to school in the rain this morning.
francis played soccer in the rain yesterday.
and we watched him play baseball in the rain the day before that.
inotherwords...and in not so many words: we've had some rain.

on saturday night, creeping into sunday morning, at 3:30am, we awoke to noise, light, and sound in our bedroom. we gradually became aware of flashing lights, the back-up beep-beeping of large vehicles, and the very clear sound of voices right outside our window. greg peeked outside and said: "they're moving the house across the street."
the nice old house next to it had recently been demolished to make way for more condos. condos that are devouring our block, our town. we knew the corner house would go next. soon, it will be a whole block of condos, right across our street. (sigh) we heard that this house was being moved, and the tractor-trailer has been parked there all week, with a crew taking down the chimney, securing the windows, porch. we wondered how it would happen, and that one day, we would come home and the house would be gone. well, apparently, it happens in the middle of the night.

we pulled on pants, and coats, and slippers and headed outside. there were people EVERYwhere! there were: emergency crew, seattle city light crew taking down the electic wires--(which were just laying on the ground, by the way, very scary, we didn't know if they were live or not), a huge spotlight on the house, a television crew, and numerous constructions workers...PLUS about the entire neighborhood of people who could not sleep in all the noise, they were out in true seattlite fashion: they had their dogs with them, and they had their coffee. THEIR COFFEE, PEOPLE! AT 3:30 IN THE MORNING! COFFEE! IN TO-GO CUPS! from where?? i have no idea what coffee place is open at 3:30 in the morning; we couldn't believe it. one woman ran up next to me, with her dog, and breathlessly gasped: "isn't this the most amazing thing you've seen in your life?" i just squinted at her with my one eye that was barely open, and the other eye i couldn't get to open at all. i'd have to say: definitely not THE most amazing thing. i'd say more fascinating than managing to dislodge the house from it's foundation and secure it onto the truck, is the spectacle of human nature: dozens and dozens of people, out of bed, watching. i guess part of it stems from "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", i mean, it's not like i could go back to bed and fall asleep. yes, i admit, we were out there too.

BUT. we were NOT part of the masses that FOLLOWED the house down the street, in the night parade that ensued.(??)

we promptly went back to bed. unfortunately, it was now 4:45am, and just as our heads hit the pillow, and the rumblings of the house/crews/people/trucks receded in the distance, and all was just about quiet...the birds woke up and began their pre-dawn chirping, so loud we could barely get back to sleep...