This started out as a simple rant post, but it actually made its way to a point somewhere in the writing, that whatever shit happens, it always has the silver lining of being fodder for writers.
I have not had much of a chance to write on here or edit my novel lately, what with getting back from visiting my family and going back to work and such. But the big reasons why are also why, so far, 2015 bites the big one. (I’ve already started thinking up a story about a curse over a family that starts out with these horrible things happening that seem random but way too much to be a coincidence).
1) My grandma died just after the new year.
2) My apartment in KY flooded, leaving me to commute about 3.5 hours a day to and from work.
Now, I know that’s only 2 things, but it was 2 things in about a 10 day period that are just both huge and painful. The big issue with my grandma dying is she wasn’t very old, 76, and she was an active little lady. Recently she’d been having problems moving as much as she used to because she’d had heart surgery, but she was from a line of long lived woman (her mom died only a few years ago at the age of 92) and we were all just assuming she would be around for another 15 years at least. She had a heart attack and died in her sleep. None of us saw it coming.
I’m still not dealing with the death of my grandmother on any kind of emotional level, I’m sure when that bomb bursts, it’s going to be ugly. My grandma was a strong woman. She was why the word matriarch was invented. She headed Mom’s side of the family, planned the events, gathered us together, always there to help her children and then her grandchildren with their kids, houses, pets. When I moved to Nashville, she gave me a huge box of kitchen stuff. Basics like pans, but also things you’d never think of until you’re cooking one day and don’t have it, like a potato peeler or a strainer. She’d been doing the same for her great grand kids, bringing them toys and clothes (usually to the chagrin of their parents who think their kids have enough stuff). You have never seen a woman so involved in her great grand kids lives.
This horrible dark part of me keeps saying if she’d only taken as much care of herself as she had of us, she’d still be here.
So I ended up extending my vacation back home to attend my grandma’s funeral. I went back to work on Monday (I usually drive up on Monday mornings, go directly to work, and don’t get to my apartment till after work). My landlord called me and said he got calls saying the place was flooding. He was sending someone to check it out and thought I’d want to as well. So I was panicking till my lunch break and ran over there.
The good news is it really wasn’t a lot of water, the carpet got it but it wasn’t deep, climbing the walls, or soaking my furniture. I lost some stuff that was on the floor, but I barely kept anything there since I went back and forth from home once or twice a week.
The bad news is, they’re guessing the flooding was due to burst pipes from the cold snap, and it started maybe on Sunday at the earliest because that’s when it warmed up and the water would’ve started moving in the pipes again. Meaning if I had been back when I was supposed to be, I could have caught it before it burst, or used water which would make it burst then, and have stopped it before the water got everywhere and been able to dry out the parts it did get to.
They have to pull out the carpets, dry the floors underneath, fix the pipes, and this will take who knows how long. I got my stuff out pronto, as in my boyfriend came with a truck and met me after work and we had it packed up in an hour and a half, so they could get to the floors before more damage was done.
I’m not sure when the place will be habitable, not sure whether the landlord will hold me to my lease and tell me to move back in and pay rent or be in breach, not sure if that would really be so bad because this driving back and forth is getting old (on my car and on my legs because there’s something about that seat that makes my legs and ass cramp), even though I really don’t like paying for an apartment when I have a house with a man and a cat waiting for me at home, and, the big one, not sure if the landlord’s going to expect me to help pay for the fix.
Now, I know I’m a lawyer, but landlord-tenant is not my forte, especially in Kentucky where I am not licensed and all I know is they have some really behind the times laws in this area that puts a lot of onus on the tenant. Also, I feel really bad for my landlord because this was his house and he sounded as upset as I was yesterday and didn’t know what to do in this situation either. So I’m hoping there won’t be any legal disputes and we can just work it out between us because that will just cost us both money and upset both of us more.
Soooooo, I’m a bit of a wreck right now and there’s a lot I don’t know. But I can tell you one thing, this shit is going in the book. Because I’m a writer, and that’s how we deal.
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