The Joantown Flood

(click on the title link if you don't get the pun).

Well, I was meaning to post all about my Christmas (which was low-key), finishing grading, last-minute shopping, and all that, but something got in the way. I was going to send out my late Christmas cards December 26th, but then I managed to flood both my bedroom AND my downstairs office the day after Christmas (it's a good idea to check if one has left on any running water, I found). The water flowed into my bedroom and then directly downstairs through my light fixture in my office. I'd been meaning to clutter-bust my office and rearrange things, and clean the carpet, so I suppose the universe heeded my call.

We had to move everything out of the office--mind you, I try to keep this room neat, so there wasn't junk lying around, but I do have an extensive doll collection, books, all my Tarot cards, family photos--a huge amount of memorabilia, some not replaceable.

Miraculously, not one really important thing was permanently harmed, including the light fixture--three or four books got soaked, but are slowly drying in front of a fan. I only had to toss out some old papers and envelopes, and that's it. Mr. Strega rented an extractor and pulled what he guesstimated as about 20 gallons of water out of the carpets, upstairs and down. Now I have my array of giant fans running upstairs and down, and it is taking care of the residual damp very nicely. I've read about people coming home to find their houses flooded from a broken washer or something like that, with hundreds of gallons of water throughout. I figure I was lucky.

Mr. Strega remarked that he has done all kinds of household stuff for which there could have been serious consequences, dozens of times in his life (though there never have been), and he was incredibly kind throughout the flood. He took me out for pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) that night, and said he felt a lot better for my sake when I began to laugh about it all.

Hmmm...when I decided that mindfulness was a goal of mine, I suppose this wasn't what I was thinking! Still, it's a good reminder to be aware. The truth is, everyone has the potential to make a mistake like this, and mine could have been a lot more costly.

So, if you haven't got a Christmas card from me yet, well...they're on their way!