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Tuesday, January 09, 2007 The Christmas season had its wind-up here this past weekend with the arrival of los Reyes Magos, the Three Kings (once called Little Christmas stateside), and the final blast of gift-giving, family dinners, streets clogged with people out making holiday fun. Friday: the second Christmas Eve, essentially, the city abustle during the day with people out getting ready for the evening, running in and out of shops picking up food and last-minute gift buys, not to mention beginning the January sales frenzy. This barrio being a party area, happy carousers were around all night long (some setting off the occasional yuletide explosion, cherry bombs, ashcans and their muscular cousins being part of the Christmas experience around here), quieting down as dawn approached. When I stumbled out for caffeine and something to eat around ten, I found the neighborhood quiet, everything closed except the newsstand in the plaza and a neighborhood coffee joint a couple of blocks from here, where at least half the clientele looked as if they were recovering from a long, hard night of combat. Sunday wrapped it up, the streets once more alive with people, bars/taverns/restaurants packed, the festivities again stretching well into the wee hours. The last explosion happened somewhere around 5:30 or 6 a.m., set off by a group of drunken, shouting knuckleheads in the street below, after which everything settled down. But when I emerged Monday morning, I didn't find the workday version of the neighborhood in progress -- I found streets nicely alive with people, animated groups moving along sidewalks, window-shopping, eateries and coffee joints busy with people in day-off clothes, not work outfits. An extra 24-hour span of holiday time, like Boxing Day, maybe. The crew working on the outside of this building did not take the day off, however. Sometime during the morning, they arrived outside my bedroom window and with them came the pounding, grinding racket of hammers and ceramic saws as they began laying down tiles along outside windowsills. They worked at holiday speed, taking the entire workday to move along the length of three windows, making for joyful hours inside -- a ten-hour stretch of lowered windowshades and earplugs. But it passed. And at the end of a day, I looked out and saw nice-looking, brick-colored, glazed tiles where sad expanses of crumbled concrete had been. Far as I can tell, they haven't done anything else to this stretch of building front -- they're executing one task at a time. Given the size of the structure, it could be months before they'll finish restoring the facade. Ah, well -- it'll be pretty when they're done. España, te quiero. rws 5:50 AM [+]
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