Gratitude Monday: Living in a fishbowl

The building where I’m living has been in the process of renovation for the past ten months. Something to do with asbestos abatement, which of course is a good thing. (There’s apparently been some discussion back and forth amongst residents about just how extensive the asbestos danger is; legal representation may have been consulted.)

The process involves stripping away the wallpaper on the corridors of each floor (approximately a quarter of a mile from one end of the building to the other), replacing the popcorn-sprayed ceilings, and then repainting. They started with the top floor and have been slowly working their way down to where I am. 

When I saw the wall underpinning I confess that it seemed something hovering between urban decay and an underwater world. Don't know if it's just what the walls look like after the wallpaper's been steamed off, or some kind of primer for the next stage.

Here are some pictures of the walls in the transitional stage, to give you an idea:

And here’s what the penthouse floor (yes, that’s what they call it) looks like post-renovation:

But when my floor got stripped down, I discovered that someone has both an artistic and a whimsical bent, because I got off the elevator one day and found these fishies floating in the rather aquatic environment:

That was great, but a few weeks later, I went down to the storage level using a staircase in the opposite direction from the way I go to work, and I discovered that the fish fantasist must live at my end of the building, because starting just outside my door, there was a whole series of aquatic life presenting itself at various points along the walls.

So today I’m grateful for the pleasure that this unexpected discovery, quite literally at my doorstep, has given me.