Two guys in ski jackets stopped to look at the computer monitor that someone had left on the sidewalk in front of my house. Leaves blew around in a big whirlpool on the street behind them.

One of the guys tipped the monitor forward, rocked it back, then they walked on and left it. A Tim Hortons coffee cup rolled back and forth in its little arc in the middle of the street.

I stood frozen to the upstairs window with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. The streetlights were coming on in the middle of the afternoon.