Junk

Today something wonderful happened: four volunteers from the brand new organization Boulder Mudslingers came to our house and helped us clean out the flooded basement. I was so impressed by them, I just can't say enough good things. I heard about them yesterday from the Martin Acres Neighborhood Association (MANA) listserve, which I also heard about yesterday and quickly joined. Right away I saw several posts about groups that could help. I liked the Mudslingers' name so sent them a quick email this morning. Within minutes I got a phone call. "We're helping out the elderly and disabled first," the nice young man explained, and I said of course I understood. "We're not elderly," I told him, "we're just in our 50s." "Oh," he said, sounding more interested. "I'll call you right back." Five minutes later he called again, to tell me that a team would be out to help us that afternoon. About an hour later they showed up, ready to work.

Here's what the basement looked like before they showed up:

 

And here's what it looked like when they finished, an hour or so later:

Obviously it's still a mess, mud all over the floor. But it's all concrete -- no carpet, no drywall -- so the cleanup process will be easier than it is for most people. One of the volunteers suggested we just hose it down and then pump out the water; rinse and repeat until it's clean. It's an interesting idea, but Rocket Boy thinks he needs to go in there with a shovel first, get out the worst of the muck. Anyway, we're making progress.

Of course, everything that was in the basement is now in our backyard.

I spent some time out there later in the afternoon, throwing things away. Rocket Boy did too. It's horribly depressing. So many books. So far, I don't think I've thrown any of my OWN books away, just RB's (and books that belonged to his parents). This is the benefit of being so nuts about my books -- I have to have them all close to me, right by the bed if possible, not packed away in boxes in the basement. I'm kind of hoping some of my old linguistics books were in the basement, because then I could get rid of them, but I haven't seen them yet.

I did find six different books about Quantum Mechanics. They all went in a black garbage bag.

I was pleased to see that a file box full of papers related to my dissertation got soaked. That's definitely something I'll enjoy throwing away. Then maybe I can finally lose those lingering feelings of guilt about not turning the diss into a book.

I spotted a Christmas box, but didn't go too close to it. I don't want to know what's in it. Rocket Boy did find a big Christmas box in the GARAGE, with little or no water damage, so I'm pinning my hopes on that.

When I see something I recognize as mine, I look the other way. I just can't take too much of this.

They've set up a dumpster in the Martin Park parking lot for people to throw their flood garbage. It was placed on Sunday, I believe, and immediately filled up. Western Disposal empties it periodically throughout the day, but they can't keep up, so people just dump their wet, gunky JUNK in the parking lot next to the full dumpster. Yesterday, the kids and I watched with interest as Western TRIED to pick up the dumpster, and failed because it was too heavy.

So the driver got in the dumpster and threw a lot of stuff out to make it lighter, and finally he was able to drive away with his load.

Today the situation seemed much worse.

Rocket Boy made one trip over there to dump a truckload of stuff. We'll probably be making multiple trips every day that they have it set up.

Our insurance adjustor stopped by today to tell us that not one single bit of damage is covered by our policy -- not the flood damage (we knew that), not the damage to the roof from 17 inches of rain (it was our fault for not having replaced some caulking), not nothing. Some folks from the city of Boulder stopped by too and they were nicer. One of them told our next-door neighbor that the city might consider buying the flooded properties on this street and turning the area into a park. Can't think about that one too much right now, too overwhelming.

But it was a warm sunny day, no rain at all, and that was helpful. And tomorrow the twins go back to school. One day at a time and all that. We're hanging in there.