like a fiddler on a stockholm roof

Stockholm has its own romantic characters on the rooftops...the guys shoveling snow. I remember the first time I saw men in what seemed like absailing harnesses shoveling snow off the steep roofs facing Birger Jarls gata. It made me smile.

Snow dumped on us starting on Christmas Day and when it finally stopped the city was under a cover of nearly a foot of snow.

After new years the crews came out. Up on the roof were the guys clinging to security ropes. On the ground is a guy in a reflective safety vest breathing into a walkie-talkie. His job is to coordinate the shoveling and the pedestrians passing by.

They always give way to pedestrians.

I can't decide if it's foolish to not find a more practical solution to the threat of snow slides and falling deadly icicles. Or if the romantic vision of a city covered in white with roof-skipping men is worth preserving.