We demo’d the bedroom yesterday. Karl, Rose, two friends and I worked for about eight hours. We removed molding, took the bottom halves of three windows out, and set up a super-powerful fan at the front door. It’s the kind of fan whose wheels must be locked or it will push itself out of the room and across the yard. With the windows open upstairs, it created a very effective wind tunnel that blew plaster dust out of the room as we worked.
Then, masks and goggles on, we hammered and pried off wall plaster, taking care to leave the lath.
The ceiling was the hard part. We discovered a wire mesh inside the cement that was scrupulously nailed to a grid of furring strips. So first a layer of plaster had to be hammered off, then the cement, then the wire mesh with cement pushed all through it and hundreds of nails. Little cement balls rained down like marbles. The mesh extended down the walls about six inches, too, nailed to everything in sight. We used every hammer, pry bar and cat’s claw we had, plus some invented tools.
All the old insulation had to come down, so we poked it out with broom handles until the room was a foot deep in it.
Happily, one and a half walls stayed because they only have torn wallpaper but were intact.
We shoveled up debris and dropped it out the window into the tractor bucket, raised as high as it could go. Now there is a large pile of debris by the driveway that we will slowly take to the dumpster at work.
I went upstairs last night to put some Reiki into the room, and heard scurryings in the attic. Released mouse #6 today.
That is the goodish news. The sadder news is that Rose and K. have begun their difficult conversations. He’s consistently blaming everything rather than considering that there might be something they can do to make it better. You can’t play victim and work something out at the same time. When he’s gotten past the initial reaction, he’ll have to decide which of those things he’s willing to sacrifice.
It’s very anxiety provoking all around. I feel simply awful, knowing they’re going through such pain and turmoil next door. At the same time I am glad I’m in my safe space. Her troubles have never hit so close to home. I wonder how we’ll even get through the workday tomorrow.
In other news, Dar had to go to the emergency room today because his knee swelled up. He’s had some trouble lately with bursitis in his elbows, and though this looked the same, they said it was cellulitis and put him on IV antibiotics. He has to stay overnight, which is the longest he’s sat still in about 25 years. He brought his script for Nicholas Nickelby, thankfully, as he has about eight characters to learn. Still, he’s bored and unaccustomed to being motionless. I told him to enjoy his enforced rest. We made a lot of mouse jokes around his incarceration. He’s never had anything wrong with him until this joint stuff lately. Lucky, really; still lucky.
#6 mouse was a feisty one. I got a little movie of when I let him go in the woods and sent it to Dar. I hate that they’re in the house and I know they’ll keep coming in because there are plenty of entry holes outside. I know where some of them are, but probably not all. Until I can deal with that, I just have to keep getting them once they’re in here. I don’t mind relocating them. I just mind if they keep me up at night. Lately they’ve been quieter.
There were plenty of mouse holes in the insulation we took out of the bedroom. Based on that, I now have traps in the big, upper attic. Those floorboards are pretty far apart over the bedroom, in places. No wonder they get everywhere.
I watched some of Treasure Island tonight. Kind of badly acted and lots of painted backdrops, but it has a certain charm that draws me in anyway. And the point is to make me forget my troubles for a while. To this end I also started J@sper Ff0rde’s newest book, Sh@des 0f Grey, which is a hoot. I’ve loved every one of his novels.
And the dreams, lately! Not very interpret-able, but varied, emotional, charged, important in the moment. Something is certainly going on underneath.
That’s all I have, except that I made a 2nd batch of marinara sauce tonight. So many tomatoes, now. I wonder what will become of the garden as the relationship falls apart next door. I have so many conflicting thoughts and feelings about it, I can’t stand it. I can hardly stand to be in my own head about it. It is almost impossible to imagine what they would do about their property, in this difficult financial time. It’s too painful to think about.
Healer, Musician, Bookmaker, Poet 
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