Stygian darkness

Dear feverish person who wants me to work for her: I live a fifteen minute bike ride from work. It's really not necessary to call me at 6:30 for a 9:30 shift. Still, it beats your personal best of 5 am for the same. We learn, little by little.

I can see why London would halt the construction of infinite sub-basements in private houses. The advantage of history and astronomical real estate prices: you can't just knock down four houses to put in a swimming pool and tennis court, and yes, Heather Reisman, I *am* looking at you. Still, I wish the builders of monster houses here would go that route rather than pressing their faux-palladian monstrosities or cubist horrors (thank you, petronia) to the lot line with no grass artful ground cover and no trees.

Mind, half of downtown TO sits on underground creeks, so you dare not even lower the existing basement; OTOH, half of London seems to sit on underground rivers where you'd assume the same to be true.

Reindeer and shamans

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

That's Auden, The Fall of the Roman Empire. Just realized how much it echoes earlier lines of his:

Far from his illness
The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests

City-child me rather likes the idea of an altogether elsewhere- somewhere that's the essence of uncity- as a mental location, if not somewhere I'd ever want to be.
( Cut for Wednesday meme )