Truly. Deeply. Madly

The insurance adjustor isn't even HERE and he's already trying to weasel out of covering!

*Looks around for Mr. Incredible, or Edna Mole, at least!*

Thanks for everyone's words of support last night. Today's going to be a bit of a trudge to get through, so I'll try to get to replies as I can, but I wanted to at least let you all know that you helped cheer us both up more than a little bit.

Some people have asked to help with replacing the books: I have a complete spreadsheet of what I had; I just have to go through and determine what can be saved. This is going to take me awhile, since I'll have to compare and assess and cry a bit, and gnash my teeth, and compare some more before I'll be able to complete the job, and know for sure where I stand. The more immediate concern is going to be coming up with the un-budgeted expense of meeting our deductible. That's a solid 1500 out of our reach at present, and we're brainstorming like mad to come up with some answers, seeing as how we can't just hang back and wait for our tax return to show up before we get started.

We have a couple starters, and some others which would require more direct involvement from those willing to donate time, artwork, recipes, or other things of that sort which could be chapbooked and sold through CafePress or suchlike. Also, I still have artwork to sell, and could use help drumming up bidders for that sort of thing, and I am also thinking of selling off selected, hoarded lengths of fabric to help make up the shortfall. Things like 12 yard chunks of oyster coloured damask, painted Thai silk, a bolt of Chinese silk in emerald green, half a roll of scarlet bridal satin *whimper!*, half a bolt of black cloakweight velvet, 5 yards of cranberry bengaline, 8 yards of green wool... things like that. Then there's costume pieces I can sell as well.

We're hoping to nickel and dime the problem to death, and the more people who can help chuck in those nickels and dimes, the better off we'll be.
Artists in particular; if you might be willing to donate an illustration for a chapbook of my poetry, PLEASE contact me! Also, if you know any artists who could pitch into that, let them know where to find me as well.

Ok. I have to go back down and talk to the contractor now.
Cheers, all!

Congratulations, Mr. President.
I wish I could have seen your address and inaguration, but my television and cable box were unplugged and draining on towels. Thanks to my flist, however, I have read your speech, and please accept this reverence to you for a graceful, stirring, and patriotic address. You could have lied, insulted us with false hopes, buck-passing, and sabre rattling, and you could have blown sunshine up the collective arses of the people who voted you into office, and honestly at this stage in the game, they still would have loved you for it.

But you didn't. You chose to tell us, as you've been telling us all along, that what we have to do is not going to be easy, fun, or exciting in the good way, but that, above all else, that we CAN do it. That it's going to take all of us, and that nobody is going to get everything they want, but that if we do this right, everybody will get SOMETHING they want, and most of what they need as well.

Thank you, Mr. President, for respecting your people. Thank you for respecting the people of the world, but most of all, for being respectable TO the world. Continue to show this sort of quality when things do get as difficult as the observant and jaded of us forsee, and you'll keep it. History already owns a piece of you, whether you rock this office, or just coast on through and hand the problems off to your successor. You're already the dawn of a new era, whether you like it or not, but I personally think you know this, and you're ready to take on the job of carrying the unspecified hopes of a nation eager for idealism in addition to representing us to the world, and leading us in the need to do our parts, to tighten our belts, and push together toward the common goal of our nation as a whole, instead of just our nation's top 1% wealthiest.

I realize you are no miracle worker. You need us to make this work. You have never said otherwise, and I personally respect that; Americans have relied on their government to 'handle it all offscreen' for far too long. We have preferred to watch the Monday Night Football, the Simpsons, and the fake government of West Wing over the actual workings of our own government for so long that we have trained an entire crop of politicians to believe that we are not quite as intelligent as cattle, being driven through the slaughterhouse chute. We have trained our government to believe that we don't want to see what they do, let alone hear them try to account for their decisions. It is refreshing to finally have a politician willing to stand forth and remind us that we get what we pay for, and that if we want better, we must not pay for it, but WORK for it, and build it ourselves.

Accountability, sir. Bring it to this nation's highest halls, and let THAT coin trickle down into the population at large, and History will know you for more than the first of your ethniciy to lead this country, but as the leader who re-forged America from the shards of the cold war, into the elegant, prosperous, and powerful nation we all want to call our own.

With respect and cautious optimism,
Catt Kingsgrave

P.S. Make your mama proud. From what I've heard, if you do that, the rest will fall into place.

These are the pictures that botia sent to me on Sunday night.

( Warning for severe book and furniture carnage. Sensitive viewers are strongly cautioned... )

Meanwhile, GOOD NEWS!
Allstate has decided that they will be covering the damage after all. Not the plumbing repairs, but the damage caused by the leakage, at least. The adjustor hasn't been out to see the place yet, and has given a preliminary estimate that we're pretty sure the GC will talk him up from -- he doesn't know yet that our floors are parquet, and we're betting he's gonna cry when he learns it, -- and we're going to be getting more beyond that for replacement of the personal items and furniture -- the bookcases, electronics, rugs, credenza, and of course, what books we can find. So there's red tape yet, the deductible to cover, and we're stuck for any way to move forward until we talk the insurance out of an advance so we can have all this stuff moved OUT of the room to let the contractors work, but.

But.

It will happen.