The dust (or, really, water) from the burst pipe in my building (on Sunday) seemed to have settled when I woke up yesterday. With fans and dehumidifiers, I was feeling pretty lucky by Tuesday - there didn’t seem to be much negativity to show for the freak accident. But that’s when the real fun began: insurance adjusters, property managers and mold mitigation experts showed up at my place at noon that day and quickly declared that I had until 0800 on Thursday (February 9) to vacate my condo for up to 30 days of renovation and repair! It turned out that everyone in the building got the same news because so much water had entered the walls and other voids. As a result of the disruption, my neighbors and I had to spend the next 30 hours trying to get our stuff moved out of the damaged area so work could begin - not fun. In more than 35 years of moving and renting, I’ve never had to do so much packing and carrying in such a short time. Along the way, I got to see just how valuable/important (or not) all my stuff was and realized that I could definitely downsize... Through it all, I was assisted (as always) by the wonderful residents of the Upper Valley, especially my neighbors and landlord. Although I made some progress last night in getting ready to move, I still got up this morning at 0400 and resumed moving all of my personal belongings to the back of the condo. In an attempt to maintain a bit of normalcy, I started teleworking at 0600 and ate a light breakfast at 0800 (had to try to use up a lot of food or it would spoil). I ended up having work meetings almost all day. I was able to eat lunch at my condo (1200) and kept working for my company. At 1500, went to The Fort (Lebanon) to meet up for coffee with Jerry C. We visited until 1600 and then I went back to my condo to telework some more. At 1700, I stopped my work day and then continued moving all of my stuff out of the living areas. My landlord came by at around 1730 and helped me move some furniture. After he departed, I kept going until around 1915. I ended up eating a light dinner (more perishable items). At around this same time, my insurance company (USAA) came through with better assistance than I’d ever dreamed of in response to my most significant property insurance event ever; they made a reservation for me at a local hotel for the extended period I expect to be displaced. In that moment, I went from wondering where I was going to go to having significant peace of mind only hours after making my claim. This development gave me an incentive to hurry up and vacate the condo (so I could start the next morning in an "office mode." I packed up my car and drove across the Connecticut River to the Holiday Inn Express in White River Junction (checked in just after 1930). This was apparently the only hotel with a kitchen that would allow a long-term stay on the dates I needed. The lady at the front desk told me I got the last room - whew! With some difficulty (the only cart I could find was too small), I got my car unpacked into my room and then set up for three weeks in the room. I had more difficulties with fitting frozen items into small fridge but used some coolers I'd brought in an effort to save the rest. I got to bed at around 2200. I’m now resettled and feeling blessed to have such good support systems in place to take away the stresses and worries of life...
