Oh, what a way to begin. For those not on social media, you might be unaware that
we’ve had water in our basement thanks to an incredible amount of rain. So far
(with a brief assist Thursday morning by Kin Jee) I’ve packed and lifted more
than two hundred and fifty boxes of books, paper and comic books since Hallowe’en
morning. It has taken up pretty much the entire past week-plus, forced to clear
out our basement for the sake of ripping up the carpet. Water, water
everywhere. Given Christine already has asthma and a mould-sensitivity (and a
great deal of mould-awareness, given her day-job), and Rose now has asthma (we
suspected, but it wasn’t confirmed until a doctor’s appointment on the morning
of the 31st), we really had to get the whole of it out.
The
past week: multiple industrial fans and an industrial-sized dehumidifier
running 24/7 FULL BLAST to remove as much moisture as possible.
Our
entire library of fiction and comic books, and the above/ground press archive.
So far, we’ve barely touched the Chaudiere warehouse storage, but that might
change (our entire catalogue had but arrived from the warehouse a week prior).
Our big goal was to tear out that carpet, which meant removing boxes of books,
a sectional, twelve bookcases and four utility shelves, a bed, a dresser and a
whole mound of children’s toys, clothes and books, most of which has fallen
into an off-site storage facility. We’ve had an incredible amount of assistance
from Christine’s parents, including weekend childcare, and to her cousins Carla
and Paul for same, allowing us the entire weekend to get movers through to take
items into storage, so that Christine and I could rip up the entire carpet and
underpadding. We’ve been fortunate, also, that Aoife’s preschool was open to
her going in for a few extra mornings, so I could deal with various matters
around our basement (she is otherwise scheduled for two mornings a week).
But
for that, I would have completed and posted a new poetry review for this slot.
This past Tuesday, a weather tweet claimed we’d just achieved the highest
volume of rain in Ottawa over a seven-day period since 1899. God sakes.
And
yet, knowing this is but temporary. We shall fix the basement, get everything
back, put everything in its place, and even work to improve some of the
arrangements and storage and floorings. The worst, one hopes, is over. Can we
have our basement back, please? Can I get back to writing? I’ve also some new
chapbooks that require folding, stapling and mailing…
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