It has been cold, cold, cold here and as I said in my last post my hubby has gotten sick from being out in it fixing broken pipes and thawing out pump houses. He has been bitching and complaining about how people can't figure out how water freezes at 32 degrees and when it is -12 degrees it really really is going to freeze. Stupid people!!.
Well........despite keeping a nasty (and about to be banned in California) incandescent bulb on for heat inside our insulated and air tight (more about that in a minute) pump house, we sprung a leak. No. Not just a leak ......a flood. On Sunday, we went into the pump house for a few supplies and a necessary bottle of wine and everything was just fine. Yesterday (Monday) the hubby goes to feed the quail who have been nagging vociferously for their hand out and tries to open the door. We have two doors on the building. One that opens outward and another that opens inward. Hmmmmm? What's the deal? Why won't the inward door open? Because there is a foot of water flooding the building, due to the airtight condition!!!! That's why.
Opening the door, by forcing back the floating bags of now totally soaked bird seed, the water comes flooding out. Why is the pump still on? Um.... we forgot? Ok. We're stupid just like all of the people he has been complaining about.
So, Mr. Dumbplumber gives his wife a call at work to spread the bad news. Oh SHIT!!!!. I had a couple of boxes of books on the floor that I was planning to bring inside. They are history. Really sad, because some of them were hard back books from college that I liked that are now out of print and a couple of collect able Rex Stouts. Sigh. I guess, I'll start perusing EBay and ELibris to see if I can find replacements.
Also on the bottom shelves were several boxes of craft books/clippings, some old clothing patterns and boxes of fabric that I had collected over the years for quilting and was saving until I got my craft room up and running. CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! To put it mildly.
So, I drag in as many of the clippings and books that aren't completely soaked and strew them all over the floor in front of the heater. Put the totally soaked fabric in plastic bags and lug them into the laundry room. Well, I guess I would have had to wash the fabric anyway to make more quilt projects....how's that for trying to look on the bright side? Spin dry and tumble dry 8 loads of fabric. Wooooo fun.
Actually, it was fun. I sat on the floor with a glass of scotch and sorted the fabrics into color coordinated piles as they came out of the dryer. "Ooooh. Look there is the fabric that I made a dress out of for my Daughter when she was in 3rd grade and a piece of a really cool tropical fabric that I had made into a sun dress for myself when I went to college" (30 yrs ago). Memories like the corners of my mind.....
"What! Don't look at me that way, this fabric is valuable and irreplaceable and who left the water on in the pump house anyway!?! Would you pour me another scotch please?"
I found a couple of unfinished quilt projects that I had forgotten about.
And I started a project I've been wanting to do for quite some time. I'm scanning the clippings and idea files to disk and getting rid of the paper. Some of these things I've had since the 70's.
What!! Don't look at me like that.
As I go through these, I think.....What were we thinking, that this was a cool outfit to wear? Much less to spend hours upon hours crocheting?
Another thing that is now interesting to me about these old clipping is the advertisements. Cigarette and booze ads are all over Family Circle, Sunset Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens. Some products have survived the times and others have not. Some clothing and decorating styles have survived and thankfully, some have not. I'll scan some advertisements and post them later.
So, while this has been a disaster and I mourn for my lost books and craft supplies, there is a silver lining. I got my fabric cleaned!
