November 19, 2005
I Went Back
Yesterday, as I was on my way back to the apartment from work, I got a text message on my cell phone to call a number I'd never seen before. Before I blew off the request, I checked my voice mail and discovered that the call was from our Fema inspector. And there I was thinking we didn't even have one. He wanted to meet me at the house this weekend so he could "check it out". We set up a time to meet this morning and I dragged my mom with me.
It still amazes me that it had been two and a half MONTHS since I'd been to my own house. We drove up, got out of the car and went and looked in the windows in the front of the house that had been broken in. Although I'd seen the pictures Archi-Sapper took, they didn't do it justice. The front door still bore the spray painted symbols that the rescuers used to denote which houses they'd searched. The front door was unlocked, which was lucky since the locks were rusted.
I took pictures in the house, but even if I posted them I don't think they would convey what it looks like and feels like. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like a house that was inhabited in the 1800's and has been completely dormant ever since. All of the contents (furniture, books, clothing, knick-knacks) were strewn about, and everything was covered and shellacked together with a dark gray patina. The furniture (mostly wooden) was warped and gray, with the finish eaten off. All of the books in our bookshelves were on the floor, opened, and pasted together with the primordial ooze. The kitchen cabinets were all open and the mixers and cake pans in them were covered with a thick gray dust, much like you'd expect to see in one of those museum exhibits about how people used to live when they chruned their own butter. The water line was above my head. We tried to turn on the water, but the neighborhood has no water service. It has no electricity, and the best estimates are that it won't for another eight months.
We met the inspector and he tapped my information into the screen of his Toughbook laptop. He walked through the house to ask all of his standard questions, and all he could say was, "Jesus. This is awful." He looked at my drivers license and insurance papers (to verify ownership), and said I'd hear from Fema within 7-10 days. In the vein of government agencies nationwide, the letter will just tell me that one of their inspectors had visited my house. You know, in case I forgot.
With Thanksgiving coming up, a lot of travelling in my future and many, many more months of apartment living to look forward to, I can honestly say it is a treat to have a place to live where I don't have to don rubber gloves and a dust mask just to walk in the door.
Posted by Kitty at November 19, 2005 08:37 PM
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