One more day off, then its back to the Rat Race.

Today we spent most of the day in Canby at the 'Sploded House, writing down items on a list that we will claim to the insurance co. THese are things that were damaged in the explosion and/or by the subsequent fire, collapse, or water to put out the fire. Because there was a LOT of stuff in the garage, because we had been storing it there and in the bonus room above the garage, a lot of things were damaged. We were storing a LOT of things in thehouse in those two rooms because we were remodeling.

Take your average yellow legal pad, add one item per line. Fill the entire page... I have 34 pages of items. We must document what it is, where we got it, how much it was warth when new how much it would cost to replace it, and the model numbers etc if available. THen you ust PHOTOGRAPH everything. This is for 34 pages of stuff. Then that gets rewritten two places: Official clam forms, and also my own excel spreadsheet. You cannot IMAGINE how fun this is, especially with a three year old and the world's most obnoxious dog.

For example I found two sharpie marker pens, melted together. I found my peach bathrobe that was sort of silky nylon you know? it was a blob of goo because it MELTED in the dryer, along with a bunch of other items: a hat, a book, a tupperware, a crystal vase, a picture frame, a pair of shoes, guitar stuff, serving platters, tile we intended to install in the bathroom floor like three days after the explosion - melted wastebaskets toys of Spencer's... melted Jeep Glow in the dark Basketball... You sit there with your "life" around you and its all a big giant ball of melted goo. But then I look around and Spencer is amusing himself on some old toy of his that he found, and Bill is yelling at the dog for the 41st time to get out of the neighbor's water feature fountain thing, while also going thru a giant box of melted cds, and I am just you know bored, tired, hot, etc but honestly? Life did go on. Life goes on with a lot of stuff missing. No one got hurt Its a HUGE hassle and inconvenience and some days I am despondent and others I am murderously angry and other times depressed but there is NO WAY OUT You have to just slog thru all of that crap in teeny pieces and write it ALLLLLLLL down, and spend every extra minute doing it. THe hardest part is that all of the neighbor's houses that were affected have all been put back together again. They had a crazy but still okay summer and all are ready to go back to school etc Our house is still sitting there, boarded up, weeds everywhere, crap in the front yard, after FIVE MONTHS.

Nothing really to do but keep going, keep working at it, knowing the only way out of McFake McFrance, is Work on the pile and make the list, and try your best to CHOOSE to be happy, and work with your lawyer. Besides, the Dahlia Festival is still on, and soon will be the pumpkin festival. Also, Spencer DID get his cast off on Friday and his leg is healed so THAT is good. I wonder what they give out for Halloween here in the Faux Chateau land? My guess it would be Brie en Croute, caviar on toast points, and cold salmon in aspic.