05-AUG-C-2
THE RE-ENTRY TO THE CONCLUDING ELDP
COURSE
IN ASHBURN
AS I RETURN FROM A MONTH ABROAD
IN AZERBAIJAN/ERITREA,
WITH A DERWOOD DOMESTIC DISASTER
ENCOUNTERED FOR LATER CLEANUP
August 20--26, 2005
I am home at Derwood, the home sweet home spot I had completed in such a pristine perfection at departure, all manicured and mowed, all dusted and cleaned, and all re-furnished and refurbished, even fully stocked for my return with the freezers loaded with lots of good things for the foreseeable future. My new master bedroom suite had not even been sullied by human entry except for its set up. It was resplendent in the summer season in which I had left it. It also was subject to multiple storms power outages and the hottest summer temperatures on record.
That is why when I turned the key and heard no warning “chirp” from the ADT security system, I knew I had something wrong. But one sniff after filling the light switch and seeing no light convinced me of what awful truth must linger beneath the floors—in kitchen and basement, the four freezer meltdown had liquefied in the month of my absence to permeate everything. I could not stay, of course, both for the odor and the lack of light and electrical power, with fresh groceries to stock in the refrigerator not appealing to be put into a warm new Viking appliance next to the decaying and exploding products already there. I had to go to the intensive ELDP program and could not linger over what had to be done here, so I did just that, now returning and devoting almost the entire week to getting the crews in to cleanup the mess.
They call it a “body case,” as when they discover someone deceased many weeks before in an overheated apartment falling over on a heating register or into a bathtub. The odor and liquefied decay that spreads so quickly after the reparative processes of life are gone leaves to real “corruption” everywhere it permeates. I had separated the fine muscle groups of whitetail deer, Alaskan salmon and Chesapeake Rockfish, and wild turkeys not to mention the pheasants, chukar partridge, ducks geese and other game from their reparative functions by having them all processed in freezer wrap. That had all leaked through the bottom and through the door seals and onto and through the floors, including the brand new high end Viking appliances in the kitchen as well as a real cascade through the basement staircase into the drain soaking everything along the way. Because the doors had been closed and the house rather well sealed, no great abundance of flies had found their way to it, at least until the doors were opened, and now I am tracking down the invaders to eradicate them. We started out slowly, beginning with the kitchen, opening the freezer door and double bagging everything within. Only today have all the refrigerators and their contents been removed from the basement and air purifiers and foggers been installed in the basement as we escalated from casual amateur cleanup to serious professional teams in biologic hazard suits carrying out disposal. This has been a full time job that started out as a nuisance for the previously pristine Derwood, and now is in a major salvage and renovation phase as the last of the debris is cleaned up and disposed. At first I thought that I might just toss out some of the things, and go about my business. As it expanded, it was apparent that despite the very high deductible on my hazards at risk for State Farm, the cost of everything will overwhelm the claim limits and I will need to replace the appliances and the contents. They had recommended a professional cleanup crew which I had at first declined thinking I would be able to do some of this myself with some help [. I am now totally into the professional cleanup and am glad I did.
Diane Downing, who had come over twice a week and walked around the house when I was gone, noting no downed branches or anything externally obviously wrong, felt badly about the stench that hit her nostrils as she had dropped me at the darkened house on the night of the 17th of August. I had immediately called Pepco, and they said they would send out a crew and to wait at the house. I waited until midnight, fighting my jet lag, fatigue and the awful sense of impending events starting up early in the morning for my ELDP program, so I left at midnight. I just learned for calling Pepco that they had been here at 12:11 AM on Friday morning and had replaced a blown “Pole Fuse” to restore the power. What they means the clerk on the phone did not know so I will have to learn more by a letter I must send them to authorize the dates and times the power went out. But when the power was restored, the Viking freezer upstairs froze the mess for disposal, but the three units downstairs did not re-freeze. When the doors were opened even briefly, a powerful ammoniacal smell gagged the worst of carrion feeders, and I sealed the whole units back up. I have later found that the whole electrical line to the freezers and lengths of wiring hooked thereto had been blown out, but the circuit breaker is intact, so there must be a wiring problem in addition. Diane had been eager to help so I had made a payment for her efforts in bagging up the frozen Viking mess, and washing out the Viking, which the later professional crew has come to do again suggesting that it really should be moved out of the alcove to get at the congealed protein puddles on the floor.
I had gone to church on Sunday morning, and then had gone to Ritz Photo to print 300 digital images, in addition to the 14 rolls of color prints, one roll of B & W, three rolls of Photo Works and a few video clips. These are all coming back now and I am organizing them for the students’ “show and tell,” along with the usual photo albums with the stories completed. I had sat in a “cold air shower” at Ritz Photo in their extreme Montgomery mall A/C and had felt illness coming on, combined with the little bronchitis I had brought back from Africa now compounded by breathing in the fumes of the still redolent Derwood environs, now getting “Air Scrubbed” with a powerful unit pouring out a deodorizer, disinfecting fogger and “potpourri scent” through the house. I have changed the filters after blowing the A/C fans through as well. After three days of full time activity in restoration of the house, I will now try to turn to the past due ELDP work, and get caught up at GW, and then do a quick turn at shopping for a dehumidifier for mold from the dampness that spills had injected into the basement, and a pair of appliances, first, an upright side by side freezer/refrigerator, then an upright freezer to go next to it in the basement alcove just vacated by the trucking away of the heavily loaded, leaking and reeking units disposed of. So, I should have Derwood back to the condition I had had it before leaving (after I get to the postponed yard work on the re-grown jungle out there) I will then have to set about in earnest as a big game meat hunter to restock the protein mass I had so gingerly rationed out from my frozen stores before their total loss! I must also get back to running and soon, since I have a competitive ATM (the thirtieth running of a special edition of the Annapolis Ten Miler) this weekend, and I have a call in for Joe who may be returning from Sao Paulo where he was a representative blind runner for USABA (US Association of Blind Athletes) while I was in Africa.
I have not yet had time to go through all my bills and juggle the payments with the balances form the trips just concluded, I am happy I had already committed to the trip to San Antonio and Colorado which fits narrowly into the gap between my ELDP sessions this fall which adds p to what Joke Bishop had surveyed and summarized to say “We have a whole boatload of heavy work this fall!” Included in that fall will be my 100th marathon and my other preparations for future trips and reporting on those just past and about to be undertaken. So, everything is looking normal for a return to the “back to school” season, summer temperatures outside notwithstanding, and I have had quite an aromatic re-entry to my Domestic tranquility of Derwood bliss!