One of the upstairs tenants in my apartment building had the bright idea of hanging a sweatshirt on one of the sprinkler heads in their unit. As a result there was a massive flood the likes of which this complex has never seen. Two or three apartments were destroyed along with all their contents. Several more (including mine) were discovered to have severe interior wall damage which will require a partial gutting. Luckily none of our own personal property was destroyed.
So the management is putting up the most severely affected tenants in a hotel as repairs get underway, with the rest of us "triaged" according to extent of damage. Meanwhile, the constant sound of jackhammers (or what sounds just like jackhammers) makes reading, research and writing next to impossible during the daylight hours. At night there is the sound of industrial fans and dehumidifying and other equipment, which travels through to the apartments, like mine, which are still technically habitable. Even with air conditioning it feels like a sauna in here!
It could be so much worse, of course, and I really can't complain. The building management is paying full rehousing costs for those affected, as well as abating our rent. The hotel they've booked for the evacuees is one of the more decent ones in town. The people who suffered the complete and devastating losses all had renters' insurance, thank goodness. One of them had just moved in a week ago.
We still haven't gotten a firm date on when we have to leave our own apartment, but their best guess is in the next 10 days to two weeks. We also don't know how long it will be before we can move back in. A week and maybe two is their best estimate.
Since I do all of my blogging from my desktop computer, which I definitely will not be lugging with me, writing on the blog will be put on hold for what could be close to a month. At most I'll try to post small items now and again while I await my "marching orders."
I'll still be able to moderate and post comments from my phone during my exile, though, so if anybody would like to hold down the fort while I'm gone, please do so! Your excellent commentary is always welcome, both in the best of times and the worst of times.
Ciao for now.
4 comments:
How horrible! Heartfelt condolences hardly console, but if I may say, this comes with bitter irony upon today's DemocracyNow update on the criminal water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which reverberates shockingly with that state's touted motto: https://www.michigan.org/ -- "Pure Michigan"
FYI:
As Death Toll Rises in Flint, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on Her Fight to Expose Lead Poisoning in City
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/26/as_death_toll_rises_in_flint
A new report by PBS “Frontline” has found the death toll from the water crisis in Flint may be higher than Michigan officials have acknowledged. The state has admitted 12 people died following an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River in an attempt to save money. But according to PBS “Frontline,” the city also saw a spike in pneumonia deaths during the water crisis. Some of these deaths may have actually been caused by Legionnaires’ disease. Between April 2014 and October 2015, 119 people died of pneumonia in Flint—a jump of 46 percent from that same time period a year earlier. More than a dozen state and city officials are facing criminal charges in part for failing to alert the public to the risk of Legionnaires’ disease during the Flint water crisis. On Wednesday, Nick Lyon, the former head of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, was in court for a hearing to determine whether he will stand trial on manslaughter charges. We speak to Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Flint pediatrician who helped expose the dangerous levels of lead in Flint, Michigan’s drinking water after she tested blood lead levels in children. Her new book is titled “What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IMHO: “Flint Still Doesn’t Have Clean Water”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz7waHMKLbU
Jim Braude shares his thoughts on the final line of Michelle Wolf’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner monologue and the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Why Flint Still Doesn’t Have Clean Water After 4 Years — Direct From With Dena Takruri - AJ+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iCdkjW4YQ8
AJ+'s Dena Takruri returns to Flint for the 4-year anniversary of the water crisis. Officials here say the water is safe, but residents still don't trust them. And since the state of Michigan stopped providing free bottled water, people here are forced to pay some of the highest bills in the country for water they don't even use. When will this crisis be over?
How Nestle Makes Billions Bottling Free Water — Direct From With Dena Takruri - AJ+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPIEaM0on70
Nestle, the world’s largest food and beverage company, bottles Michigan’s water for next to nothing and sells it at great profit. And the state has just approved its request to pump even more, despite the failed promise of jobs and 80,000 public comments against Nestle. Meanwhile, just two hours away, Flint still doesn't have clean water. AJ+'s Dena Takruri meets those who have a stake in this fight, including local environmentalists, a tribal citizen, ordinary residents and a Nestle spokeswoman.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." ~ Benito Mussolini
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karen, so sorry to hear about this. I recommend you do not leave your desktop unattended for a month. Lug it with you. A. We need your posts and B. things could happen to it. Am I paranoid? Yes.
Loreley, you're not alone in all of that.
Note:
“Anyone not paranoid in this world must be crazy. . . .
Speaking of paranoia, it's true that I do not know exactly who my enemies are. But that of course is exactly why I'm paranoid.” ~ Edward Abbey
Not wanting to dominate the rap here, but let me add this that I just came across with my comment.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/moment-of-decision/565289/
That link came from this:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/frank-rich-trumps-plot-against-america.html
Now the REAL trouble, in truth, James Fallows and Frank Rich, is that neither the ruling Republicans, nor the Democrats in their party control, or any governmental agency, including the courts, represent the people, never mind the good of the Earth.
They ALL serve the plutocrats of the global oligarchy, the multi-national corporate interests who have bought and own them.
The same pertains to Putin.
They don’t care about what purports to be “the country” except as jingoism effectively herds the populace, and makes militarism so very profitable.
And militarism, so deviously called “defense,” is actually defending and assuring the unfettered access to resources for extraction and exploitation, and the control of markets to maximize private profits.
This is simply business as usual, just an unabashedly crude version of that.
What’s intolerably offensive to the powers-that-be is how Trump & Putin's brazenly crass behavior exposes the game.
Russian meddling is a proverbial red herring.
Yes, they did, but the USA does that all the time, internally and globally.
Assuring fair elections is clearly crucial, but that requires radically reforming our system.
Semi sotto la neve
Seeds under the snow
While Karen is a refugee displaced by her condo's reconstructionists, I have a space-time filler for Sardonicky that may serve as a fresh critique of government(s) by the few over the many. I believe it fits in with earlier comments by Erik and Loreley and many others who follow Sardonicky.
A friend from Europe sent me a few documents (the attachment) written by a radical thinker I had not, until last week, ever heard of. Alas, he was an Italian priest, Don Milani––sorry––but as you will see a very different kind of religionists. He said the elites are not only thieves of our labor and money, they are "butchers" who waste soldiers' (and more and more civilians') lives in wars whose only benefit can be for the few. Some countries have more butchers than others, butchers working fulltime around the clock––but that's another story.
Milani's letter, laced with humor, was addressed to the court that was trying him for lack of patriotism towards his "Fatherland." The charges against him had been instigated by a group of fellow priests who served their country as military chaplains. IMHO, his letter is on a par with Gen. Smedley Butler's "War Is a Racket" and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
https://www.semisottolaneve.org/ssn/a/26987.html
Post a Comment