Water Damage

I am writing this entry this morning from Jake’s house where I spent the night because there was water dripping through the ceiling of my apartment last night.

I live on the ground floor. There are two apartments above me. Late afternoon yesterday, the person in the top apartment had a fire on her stove. I don’t know the details but what I know DID happen was that the fire alarm for all three floors came on and the sprinklers did their job. So, eventually, the water dripped down into my apartment. When I left there were fire fighters in my apartment putting tarps over things because even though the water had been turned off, the dripping continued. It was mostly in the kitchen but there was one steady drip in the living room.

In a weird kind of way, this was an interesting experience. You know how one of the classic writing prompts is "If you had to leave your home in an emergency like a fire, what would you take?" Well, I took two pairs of clean underpants, two t shirts, my Kindle and cell phone and the two chargers for these gadgets, my purse and my sister’s turquoise jewellery which is in a separate box from other jewellery. You will notice I did not bring with me a laptop, or my toothbrush the absence of which I am really noting this morning! Before I left, I gave the apartment manager my cell number and Jake’s number and we had voice mail messages last night saying that he has got people in to dry the carpets.

The people who lived in the top apartment assured us they had renter’s insurance. I am not sure if this will cover any damage I may have. When I left, I noticed that water had dripped down onto a book case which had most of my how-to art books in it. Talking to Jake last night, I realized that the only thing I would strongly resent being damaged would be my IMac computer and that I am fortunate that I do have enough money in the bank to replace it. Anything else that might be damaged is just stuff. It is stuff I like and certainly I would have to consider replacing something like my bed, but it is not extremely important "stuff" like my dead sister’s turquoise jewellery.

I am going to make myself some breakfast and then drive back to my apartment to see how much damage there is and when/if I can move back home. The good thing about this is that I am getting my cat fix with his two "knuckleheads" In fact, Nimbus is sitting on the arm of the chair right now and I bet I could coax him onto my lap if there wasn’t a laptop there!