Containment vs Contentment

I am living in a strange, alternate reality in my home. If I knew how to get photos from my smart phone onto the computer, I could show you, but you’ll have to use some imagination …

I live in an apartment house…people under people next to people. The front entrance above makes it look fancy but it isn’t. Just the entrance is. I’ve lived in apt houses all my life … this one for 18 years. In all that time, never has anything like this occurred.

There was a flood in Apt 11D. I’m in apt 8C. The flood was catastrophic. In the hallway outside my apartment 3 floors down, the wallpaper is peeling. The wall is wet to the touch.

And while the wall between my apartment and 8D didn’t feel wet, the little gizmo the water-tester lady held in her hand beeped and lit up red. She slid it along the wall, and eventually it turned green. But the distance from the front door into the apt that was affect is a good 5 feet or so.

So … they have to get the water out of the walls. I can’t imagine what apartment 11D looks like at this time, but I can sort of describe what mine does:

You’re visiting me, and you ring the doorbell. Inside my apartment, I unzip the zipper on the side of the plastic “containment house” (that’s what I call it because it kind of reminds me of a kid’s makeshift hideout in the woods) and step inside it. I walk across the 4 ft of floor to my front door and open it. The guest follows me across the “house” and we step single-file over the bottom of the zipper. I must lean onto a wall on the other side of the plastic house — I have balance issues, and I lean down and zip it up again.

Here’s a photo of a containment unit for a single leak from the ceiling. Now use your imagination and picture this 4 times as large, a hideous thick white plastic, floor to ceiling, about 4 feet square…

Add a hideous plastic tube running from the bottom of the unit across my floor and into my bathtub. It’s clear, so I can see the dirty water flowing along …

Now that you have all that pictured, add the noise! I can’t describe that for you except to say it’s loud and unpleasant. The good news is that when I go into my bedroom or my little den and close the door, the sound is much, much more bearable.

Oh, and now add a water bug on its back in the middle of my kitchen, brought there by heaven knows what part of this process … and you have the full picture of how invaded I’m feeling!

I’ll spare you any photo of the bug!

They say 48 – 72 hours, but I’m prepared for it to go the full 72 hrs, if not more … there is just a lot of water!!!!!

As much as the pandemic made me feel claustrophobic, this has made it worse. I would like to go shopping — I’m low on basics — but the thought of trying to get my cart, even flattened, through that zipper opening is too daunting!

My mother was not the kind who had words of advice or sayings to help you through life. But she did have one well-known one she would use, and I will repeat it now …

THIS TOO SHALL PASS THIS TOO SHALL PASS THIS TOO SHALL PASS THIS TOO SHALL PASS !!!