05-AUG-B-14

RE-ENTRY TO DERWOOD DISASTER:

ALL ELECTRIC POWER OUT FOR MY ONE MONTH ABSENCE;

ALL FOUR REFRIGERATOR/FREEZERS ROTTING IN THE HOTTEST SUMMER PERIOD, WHILE AUDI A-4 IS ALSO DEAD—

I AM SUPPOSED TO BE PREPARED FOR INTENSIVE ELDP CLASSES IN ASHBURN WHILE AWAIITNG ADT RESPONSE AND PEPCO RESTORATION OF POWER BEFORE MASSIVE CLEANUP OF THE DERWOOD I HAD LEFT CLEAN AND PRISTINE WITH ITS NEW FURNITURE AND GROOMING

August 19, 2005

Well, it looks like I will no longer be able to offer you salmon from Alaska, rockfish from the Chesapeake, venisons from the Eastern Shore deer or Rocky Mountain Elk, or a wild turkey or geese from the Maryland woods. Make that also Chukar partridge and pheasant, nor mallard ducks, nor even the ham, chicken and hamburger from more domestic sources. All of these are a rotting sticky pool of putrid juices which have leaked out of the brand new Viking appliance in the new kitchen and stained the Mexican tile floor, whereas from the two refrigerator/freezers and one freezer downstairs, they have trickled across the floor to the basement drain. It will be a long time in cleanup, but not soon, since I am on my way to ELDP classes all day and night for the next two days.

I have waited for four precious hours of my re-entry for Pepco to come out to re-establish electrical power for whatever unknown reason it had been lost sometime in July after my departure over a month ago, but they did not come despite telling me they would and the phone number form which they called does not answer. Of the nine calls on my phone—which was left on a charger, of course, no longer functional----seven were form ADT stating that the back-up battery system had failed n my alarm system and that I should get in touch with them. They had even called Diane Downing and I do not have any word as to whether they also had called Iowa to say that their indicators were that the power was out, but they did not leave word as to why they were calling for the security system I had had in place for just exactly such an emergency as this one, which seems to have happened to the worst outcome despite the “preventive measures” installed.

I had met Diane Downing as I arrived with Sherry Wasef after our prolonged trips back through Frankfurt. I had adequate power in my new laptop to have typed all the way back, but that the “Word is not responding” message popped up on the screen as I had spellchecked the chapters I had tried to complete—this means that the whole system freezes, and I know I will lose at least the time and effort spent in proofing and spellchecking if not the entire document, so the new Toshiba laptop upgraded for this utility will have to go back to the shop to learn why it has frustrated this specific purpose for which it was purchased for this design feature. I DID try to use the Lufthansa “Sky Net” and you may have received a small note form in flight—essentially and “ad” for Lufthansa, but I could not use the email system to transmit the chapters of the text of the Eritrean experience which should now be coming to you about the same time as the on-line photos form Photo Works, for which the film was dropped in the mail by Amy Fiedler on her earlier return for her first full day of freshman orientation today. She had dropped the first twelve rolls of print film in for processing, and Sherry is carrying the last two rolls, including the black and white as we dropped her at GWU on return from the IAD pickup.

I started off my return trip rather efficiently, since I knew I would need to get my hair cut before the long processes of re-entry would allow that, and went to Carl’s barber shop on my way in. He is going to go back to have his ankle fusion re-done with further evaluation this coming week. It was after getting the re-stocking of the groceries milk and orange juice for the return to Derwood that the discovery was made that after I pressed the remote alarm disarming button no responding chirp was heard form inside the door as I unlocked it. No lights came on when I threw the switch, and as the door was pushed open, a fetid overwhelming stench came back to greet my return. It is opening a “whited sepulcher” inside which is full of dead creatures’ bones.

I picked up the phone by waling around the dead house with a flashlight. Almost all calls were messages from ADT which had sensed the outage of the primary electric source, and then later the failure of the backup service sine the batteries had lost charge. I called them on the little energy still held in the phone, and also called Pepco and left an automated call regarding the total power outage. When the technician called, he asked if they had simply discontinued my power service? I had said that would seem unlikely, since the PEPCO bills are on an autopayment, but there had been some confusion as the banks had been sold and renamed in the interval. He said he would be out within the hour, so I went back to the property and waited drowsily for three hours before retiring for the very brief night I must now start from for a new day in the ELDP as my colleagues gather from just as far away as I. The professor Marquardt who will give one of the sessions had said he was returning from a restful two weeks in Switzerland, but had returned to have three floors of his house ruined by an overflowing toilet, and he would be moving in after the renovation that this required. Well, now I may know something about such a drill.

AND, NOW, THE AUDI—

JUST AS DEAD AS THE HOUSE

I packed the Audi with the files and books for the course work. I could not get the back door to unlock, so I pushed the button again to unlock the security system—nothing. So, it is no t just the house which is dead. I had to push the Audi out into the drive—where my usual re-entry problem is limited to picking up the branches and deadfalls from the trees that drop when I am gone—and there hooked the Audi to Diane’s Mustang with the jumper cables. I started it, and drove to her house with the idea that this would charge up whatever was inadequate to start the vehicle and left the windows cracked because of the record heat in the DC/Derwood area that had hastened the decay of all things left in the house. Of course, it rained hard at night so the Audi is now water-soaked inside, as well as dead again without the ability to start. So, I am awaiting a jump start to drive it to the service station where I will leave it for whatever work it needs to be rejuvenated before I borrow Diane’s car after dropping her off at work to take it to the ELDP in Ashburn. And, I thought that the re-entry shock as far as automotive alarms was going to be the Three dollar price of gasoline I had had passed on my way into Montgomery County!

So, as for now, I do not know how this will turn out as I am trying to get a resuscitation of both house and vehicle upon my re-entry while tied up twelve hours of each of the next two days. However, it no longer matters for the contents of all my refrigerators and freezers, none of which is salvageable, and all of which will need to be re-frozen just to make the ugly cleanup job for disposal less unbearable. Then, I will need to power down again to scrub out the brand new and very stained appliances to get the residual ruin out of them—all of which will take a few days of the re-entry process I had not panned for cleanup and restocking of the food larders. I noted the carefully manicured lawns and trimmed back woodlands had encroached in my absence—which was expected. What was not expected is that even a couple of heads fell form the walls in the intensive heat. And the dust and inspect carcasses that have piled up makes the clean and pristine of Derwood in its prime as I left, with all the new furniture as yet untouched all set up for my return. I have not yet overnighted in the new master bedroom suite, and will have to await that honor until well after the intensive rescue process to get Derwood returned to the beautiful and magnificent place it was upon my departure. Someone should have enjoyed it in my absence—as well as at least become aware of, if not interfered with, the process of its “change and decay” in the fast forward record summer heat.

So, “Re-entry” is eventful –once again—but I am also aware that others who do not run such risk of “home front disasters” are likely to suffer them more form a lack of a home than any other reason of failed backup security systems. So, this too shall pass—as had my collections of all my venison and wonderful wild consumables.

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