THE SOUL is shaped by words, images, & experiences.

THIS BLOG is about those things that have left their impression on me. I'd love for you to comment on what affects you.
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Friday, January 4, 2008

Fighting the Fungus Among Us

After stuffing four garbage bags with soggy sketches, sticky photographs, and moldy memorabilia (not to mention nursing a stab wound inflicted by a sneaky crow quill pen) I'm ready to sit and do something creative. Isn't God wonderful to have created man with imagination? Producing something that gives us pleasure or enjoying the creative work of another lifts us from our drudgery and makes us feel like . . . Well, like human beings, not animals. Or mushrooms.

Because of a leaking water pipe, which we just discovered, our computer room closets have become dripping wet fungus factories. This morning to my horror, I found about half of the stuff I'd saved over the years ruined in their rotted cardboard boxes.

From the 1967 film, The Graduate:
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you - just one word.
Ben: Yes sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Ben: Yes I am.
Mr. McGuire: 'Plastics.'
Ben: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
Ben: Yes I will.
Mr. McGuire: Shh! Enough said.
'Nuf said. It'll be plastic bins for everything from now on. Plastic was a really great invention. So were the digital camera and CD. No more piles of snapshots to store. Or negatives. (Hung on to those as if the future grandkids would trip over each other rushing to reproduce pix from them.) Another blessing reaped from imagination--invention. Got any inventions you're particularly thankful for at the moment? I'm pretty happy Peter found refills for my moisture-absorbing ball.





6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Lydia
I am so sorry you lost those things from the water damage. I can relate to that. I hold my breath every time we have a lot of rain that the basement doesn't get water in it. I thank the Lord when I look down and it is dry. Armand can attest to the fact that it is a monumental clean up job.Yea plastic containers are great. Goodbye cardboard. Love you, Mom

Anonymous said...

Mom,

Our water problem is minuscule compared to your flooding basement, or the damaged homes of people who endure major floods. I pray for you all every time I hear about heavy rains there.

I just view this incident as a chance to discard stuff that needed weeding out anyway. The less junk I have around the better. ;)

BTW, aside from wiping everything down w/chlorine, how can I get rid of this overwhelming stench of mildew?

dot said...

Sorry about your damage, Lydia.
"Plastics" is the magic word. I have everything in and on plastic bins in my garage. Still have a mildewy area rug to contend with.
I don't know of anything that removes mildew better than bleach.
Recently I've been very grateful for the invention of the MP3 player. I picked one up at a sale this past Black Friday and the quality of sound still amazes me. What I'm particularly grateful for is that now I can easily tune out the conversations that seep through the paper thin walls at work and maintain my concentration.

Anonymous said...

Hi again Lydia Going back to your water problem I forgot to tell you about my refrigerator. Lots of water in the freezer and refrig and all my frozen foods thawed. So much for the free refrig. The problem was that the fan was bent (how that happened I'll never know except it cost $106to straighten it out. Well thank the Lord it's working. How things are taken for granted until we realize how much we need them. And now your puzzle, Iam so proud of this old brain that I knew it right away. Armand was surprised I got it as soon as I looked at it.Hamlet was one of the books I had to read for my English class and I hated it and "To be or not to be etc. was one of the lines I had to memorise. And your sunrise was beautiful. I think you know how I feel about a sunrise.It'a awesome watching God at work. Amen Love you Mom

Anonymous said...

Mom,

So sorry about your fridge, and the money you had to spend to fix it. When it rains it pours--first your oven, then your dryer, now this. But God is good. Always reminding us not to get too comfortable here.
Heaven is our unbreakable home.

I never doubted for a minute that you would decipher the puzzle! Your mind is very sharp like Nonna's.

And about the sunset . . . I thought of you when I shot & wrote about it. Your enthusiasm for sunsets is contagious. :)

Love you too!

Lori said...

I'm so sorry you lost all those memories! Your Plastics quote was hilarious though, and I'm considering it a stern warning to get my kid's stuff in order!