(no subject)

On Friday we went to Skyways to buy some bread. Chris was dropping his clothes at a dry cleaners a few shops down and I headed to Skyways with the boys. As we approached the store, I noticed that the beggar who always sits on the front step was standing elsewhere. Ok, I thought to myself, he probably just wants to stretch his leg. Suddenly, a police officer in a hard hat came up to me and started speaking to me. Hmmm, I wonder what he's trying to tell me....it seemed to me that he was saying that Skyways had moved down the street to a new location? No, perhaps he was saying that it was closed right now? I just couldn't figure out what he was saying, but it was clear that he didn't want me to go into the store, so I headed back towards the dry cleaners and Chris. After the boys and I had walked about 10 steps further, we heard a tremendous crash. The building next to Skyways was knocked down! And we had walked right into the construction zone without noticing. No exaggeration, we were seconds away from from being in the way from when the building fell down.

Sometimes it is a real wake up call to realize how handicapping it can be not to speak Chinese. I had no clue the officer was telling me "We are about to knock down a building. Bricks will go flying everywhere, including right where you are standing." When the building fell down, it struck Skyways and knocked out the electricity.

It was quite an event. There was a large crowd gathered and cheering as the building collapsed. How did I miss that crowd, you may wonder? I was concentrating on getting the boys across what is usually a busy street. Lol, looking back now, I was happy to see that there was no traffic for once and we could cross easily :) Silly me.