Sylvia's Journal

The mold people are coming to our house to assess what it will take the recalcitrant growth out of our cellar. With the recent flooding in Beverly and Danvers they are busy these days but ready to take on another customer. Our flooding is a little older and the mold is everywhere, making Axel wheeze and breathe with difficulty.

The prescription is a bit of a bitter pill: anything that is cardboard or paper has to go – go as in: into a dumpster. This includes the Dutch and American games that have been sitting in dampness (“oh no”, said Sita), coats that are too far gone, old Gourmet magazines and cookbooks that we stupidly had stored in the basement.

Once the insurance adjuster has come we won’t have much time to make the hard decisions. But a Buddhist would say that this is all good luck as it is about time that we rid ourselves of all our earthly clutter. There is some appeal in this I must admit. I look forward to the dumpster.

I had a little bit more work today but my timesheet is still mostly filled with vacation hours – a little troubling as I think I must near the bottom of the vacation time barrel.

In the evening we drove to Cambridge to have dinner with Pia but instead we found Omid knocking on the door of a dark house. Pia had been called away to an emergency situation and so we settled in at the bar of the Elephant Walk, a lovely Cambodia-French fusion restaurant near her house until our table was ready. Pia joined us before the food arrived and we had our evening together after all.

As we drive home the thermometer indicated a slow drop in temperature. Freezing was predicted for most of Massachusetts and so I had picked the last red tomatoes and the purple and green peppers. We moved all the outside vacationing indoor plants near the house and covered them with plastic. Winter has made its first appearance. It will go away for awhile but not for long.

I took my gloves out of their summer hiding place and used the cashmere scarf that Sadiq’s wool ladies had knitted for me as a goodbye present.