Up on a Rooftop

I spent the morning the other day up on the roof.  I don't go there often...New Years Eve to see the fireworks in the park and 4th of July.  But the other morning it was a clear mornings, sunny, windy and cool.  So I took the ol' beach chair and headed up.  Technically, we're not supposed to be up there, but someone in the building keeps a grill up there and a little table, someone else has run a power cord up for a radio or whatever (maybe a blender for margaritas!).

The photo above looks south, toward Staten Island/Coney Island.  You'll see at the top of the picture, Mr. Pigeon.  I didn't even see him when I took the shot!  He's such a show off!  Mr. Pigeon sleeps on the windowsill of the guest room, halfway tucked under the air conditioner.  It's most precarious, but he seems to make it work.  He arrives about 6:30pm, during the evening news.  We check in on each other's day as he grooms and gets ready to settle for the nite.  Last week he brought a friend, who is now roosting on the windowsill of an apartment in the house next door, one flight down.  As an FYI - the buildings are about 10' apart.

Last Sunday, I arrived at church and who was flying around inside by Mr. Pigeon!  He hung out until mass started, then flew back out the window.  He returned just as Father was finishing announcements at the close of mass.  Perched high up on one of the columns, overlooking the alter.  Show off!

If you walk to the front of the building, facing north, you can see midtown.  You can't see if too clearly in the picture below, but I get a beautiful view of the Empire State Building (just to the left of that tall building draped in black - that's the very old Williamsburgh Bank Building in lower Brooklyn that is being converted into condos and shops.  It's the area where they are using eminent domain to toss folks out of their apartments in order to build the new basketball arena for the Nets.

So...up on my rooftop I finished off "Strivers Row" by Kevin Baker and journaled.  I really recommend Strivers Row and would gladly share it with any of you.  I think it's good to have read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man or even The White Man's Burden by Winththrop D. Jordan before reading this.  Having an understanding of the issues of "yellow" blacks, "high" blacks, etc. really helps drive this historical novel home.

Essentially, it is the fictional life of Malcolm X when he was a young man, before finding religion.  But it's also a wonderful account of life in Harlem during the early 1940's, the issues facing black soldiers preparing to serve in WW II, and the religious community in Harlem at the time, dominated by Adam Clayton Powell Jr., minister of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

On to the next book - a re-read of Wind in the Willows, a childhood classic!