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Nothing to do now but clean up...
Jan. 16th, 2011 09:26 pmMy sister and brother managed to get back into their house on Friday, and discovered that the water had come about three foot up the second storey of their house, and pretty much all their stuff was ruined. Their house will not be habitable for months, so they will have to find somewhere else to live (and not many other people will be doing that in Brisbane at the moment!) You can see some pictures here, but if you've seen the news of people turfing all their slimy stuff onto the pavement that's basically what they've been doing all weekend. It rolls so easily off the tongue - losing everything - but it didn't really hit me what it would really mean until my sister told me she'd lost all her books.
I tossed and turned a lot Friday night thinking about this, and about what would happen if we faced a similar situation (and was consequently a zombie much of yesterday). I don't think of myself as a materialistic person so it was hard to think why losing all your stuff would trouble me so greatly. And then I realised that precisely because I am not particularly attached to stuff in general the things I do have are mostly things with sentimental value, or things I have made myself, or books. What money has bought, money can buy again, but my handsewn silk 1540's Florentine gown is pretty much irreplaceable.
But the books, oh my god, the books. Given I use libraries so much I am not sure why I am so attached to books, but I am. And the thought of all those pages just soaking up the mud, it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
So. If you had an hour to leave, and could take only what you could carry, what would you take?
Meanwhile, life continues on much as usual around here. Ashwyn is widdling all over the place at the moment. He has developed a habit of taking his pants off and weeing on his bedroom floor when we send him to his room forbeing naughty. And also weeing on the patio outside and then mopping it up with a teatowel.
Liam has become highly perturbed by the Target ads which seem to imply you can buy a new baby from Target. He doesn't want us to buy a new baby. He thinks we don't have the space.. 'We don't have enough chairs', he keeps saying.
Erin is hanging out to go back to school. I think Andy is hanging out for that too.
I tossed and turned a lot Friday night thinking about this, and about what would happen if we faced a similar situation (and was consequently a zombie much of yesterday). I don't think of myself as a materialistic person so it was hard to think why losing all your stuff would trouble me so greatly. And then I realised that precisely because I am not particularly attached to stuff in general the things I do have are mostly things with sentimental value, or things I have made myself, or books. What money has bought, money can buy again, but my handsewn silk 1540's Florentine gown is pretty much irreplaceable.
But the books, oh my god, the books. Given I use libraries so much I am not sure why I am so attached to books, but I am. And the thought of all those pages just soaking up the mud, it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
So. If you had an hour to leave, and could take only what you could carry, what would you take?
Meanwhile, life continues on much as usual around here. Ashwyn is widdling all over the place at the moment. He has developed a habit of taking his pants off and weeing on his bedroom floor when we send him to his room forbeing naughty. And also weeing on the patio outside and then mopping it up with a teatowel.
Liam has become highly perturbed by the Target ads which seem to imply you can buy a new baby from Target. He doesn't want us to buy a new baby. He thinks we don't have the space.. 'We don't have enough chairs', he keeps saying.
Erin is hanging out to go back to school. I think Andy is hanging out for that too.
