Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Chicken Little

7:00 am, alarm rings. I stagger from the bed, turn off the alarm and unplug the cell phone from the charger. It feels much too early. Five more minutes of sleep couldn't hurt...

After just tucking myself under the blankets (it's been unseasonably cold here, and very rainy), I hear a soft tapping sound. Ploft. Tick. Like hail. And as I attempt to look out the window-

CRACK!

SMASH!

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A white cloud has enveloped the room. Breathing dust, I look around to find that there is a square meter of ceiling on the floor. And a gigantic hole where it used to be.

This is what my room looked like at 7:02 am:





It's cleaned up now; I called my landlords in about as close to hysterics as Jenna gets, seeing as how a good 150 pounds of ceiling almost fell on my head. They came over and took away the rubbish, swept, mopped, called the "pedreiro" and we're set to have someone here to repair the ceiling tomorrow. I have excellent landlords...they really went above and beyond the call of duty.

There's a damp spot on the ceiling now; our guess is that the pigeons made a nest in one of the drainage pipes above my house, or in the apartment next door. And the pipe got blocked, overflowed, and caused enough humidity to build up that part of the ceiling separated...thankfully, it looks like the rest of the ceiling is solid.

I missed my spinning class and my hair is covered in chalky dust. Now that it's mostly cleaned up, and I'm half-lucid, I'm going to take a shower, then sleep some more. I think I deserve it! Because I'm going to spend the weekend cleaning everything: my makeup cases and office supplies are covered in a fine layer of dust; it's all over my bedsheets, blankets, pillows; my filing system broke and I'll have to dust each file, perhaps each paper, separately. Not to mention the laundry that now needs to be done. I'm NOT doing it by hand. I'll just have to drag it around to the neighbors that have washing machines...

But at least I wasn't underneath it when it fell. Praise the Lord...and damn those dang pigeons!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We are so glad you are ok. Life sure is exciting isn't it? It sounds like you and Ellen had a great time. Aren't you glad it didn't happen while she was there?If she slept on the sofa, it looked pretty bad. I've painting the last two days at the storefront. I'll be so glad when it is done.I was in Ohio to see my sister, Loretta last week. She had pancreatitice(80% of people die) and lived throught it. She was home 3 days and had to go back to the hospital with infection in the pancreas, On tuesday they operated and removed her pancreas and gall blader. She is doing much better now.While I was there I attended a little church near their home. It was a black church, which I just love. It is really a very live church. Lots of families with little kid, teens and older folks. If I lived there I'd joinit in a heart beat.Excellent preaching. I first went there this past summer, when I was in town for our sisters weekend. I hope your ceiling is fixed by now, Love Grammy