Back from Paris

I've been back since the wee hours of Monday night/Tuesday morning, but I've not accomplished much since. Had to get my inner clock back on track, and I'm still getting up at 5 am each morning. Not what I want to do when it's dark, raining, and cold outside.

My house is really a guest cottage, and it's not well insulated at all. When it rains hard, as it had the whole week I was gone, the kitchen floor floods. I came back at two in the morning, after two flights, three time zones, and a two-hour drive from LAX, to find about a half inch of water covering the floor of my elfin kitchen. This has been an on-going problem for the last two winters, but my 80-year-old landlady doesn't want to invest in actually fixing the problem. What she ended up doing last year, was to put down more flooring instead of the carpet that runs next to the kitchen. See, that was getting flooded too, and she would have to spend money to get the carpet cleaners to come and wash it and dry it out.

I know there's mold going on. I have Asthma and lots of sinus allergies, and this can't be helping. The bricks on the fireplace are growing things (even though she painted over them).

This is a big deal, but otherwise, I love living here. My landlady adores me, and hasn't raised my rent. I've told her that I'm concerned, and she said the guys that put in the flooring last spring said there wasn't any mold.

Bull. They aren't the testers. I know the test costs about $300 bucks, and I also am sure they'd find something. If official testers are called in, and they find mold, she will legally have to fix the problem.

And I'm not sure that it can be fixed. Because my place is on a slope. The side that the water comes in from is below ground level. I think when the earth gets saturated, it gets into my house from underneath.

I don't want to move, and I don't want my rent to go up. The problem won't go away, but it has to stop raining sometime, doesn't it? And besides, if it gets fixed, it means that folks will have to come into my house, and see all my mess.

Oi. I wish it would just go away.