Illustrations of the week and fire update

Feb 01, 2025

Happy Saturday friends!

Some fun illustrations from the week:

How is it February already? Tomorrow marks one month since the fire. Wasn’t that yesterday? And also a year ago? Things are finally starting to move at the house. The reconstruction guy came out this week and went over his estimate with us. Gulp. I mean, it’s fine, we have insurance, but good God the amount of money it costs to fix things is mind boggling. He started with telling us about the windows in ManChild’s room and how no one makes these windows anymore. It’s not like our house is 100 years old, it was built in the mid 1980s but somehow no one makes them anymore so they had to find a custom manufacturer. The windows in our house are wood, very tall, floor to almost the ceiling and they crank out. ManChild’s room has 5. Just those will be $10,000. I can’t even. How is that even possible?

Then we walked through the house for an hour and he told us everything (500+ line items that he will submit to the insurance company) that would be done and this of course, is after all the contents are cleaned and placed into the pods in the yard. Whew. It’s so much work. It’s hard to imagine. And it left me with this feeling of overwhelm and depression which is weird because I'm not doing that work! I think I’ve spent this month in a lot of gratitude: no one was hurt, the fire (in the grand scheme of things) wasn’t that bad, we have had great places to stay, I was able to start my Women’s Group again this week. So many positives but that walk through somehow put me into a funk. I think, maybe, that I just wasn’t allowing myself to feel too much of the fear and horror of what happened. At least not feeling it consciously. I’ve had a lot of nightmares this last month and so many doomsday intrusive thoughts. 

So, neurofeedback to the rescue! I had been holding off doing neurofeedback until they cleaned my recliner that I use for it, just because it’s easier in that set up but I finally caved and just pulled everything out and had a session on my bed.

It's been a month and my neurofeedback recliner was supposed to have been here by week two...Here’s my advice if you have a fire/flood/etc and are a super sensitive person and every smell in the world will set your body off into a cascade of yucky symptoms: write an email and explain your sensitivities and what being exposed does to you and then sit down with your contents mitigation company before they ever start touching your stuff. Just telling them is not enough. Have it in writing and have a meeting.

Do not believe them when they say, “We understand. We will be super careful.”

Do not believe them when they say, "Yes, we know the difference between unscented and fragrance free." They do not.

Do not believe them when they say, “Ohhhh, you mean you are super sensitive! Ok, we will use your brand of laundry detergent.”

I cannot roll my eyes hard enough πŸ™„πŸ™„πŸ™„

I get that it’s hard to believe that people like me can even survive on this planet but here I am, the canary in the coal mine. In case you’re too young to know what a canary in the coal mine means, click here.

Remember how they were supposed to take the clothes and whatever else we would need in the next months (including the neurofeedback recliner) out of our house and clean and return them for us? They brought everything into the rental house packed in boxes and pressed clothing wrapped in dry cleaning plastic, including my recliner which was completely encased in plastic wrap. Art supplies and computers were all unboxed and didn’t smell like anything, yay! I was feeling super hopeful. Then I started unwrapping the clothes and an intense wave of a Febreeze-like scent overpowered me. Even B-Rad, who can’t smell anything, was like, “OMG! What in the world!?” My head immediately turned into a block of concrete, no breathing through my nose.

I found out this stuff was called Odor Ban and, according to the company, had a very faint smell and would dissipate quickly.

Haaaaaaa!!!

I took several boxes of things like underwear and bras and jeans and put them in the garage and started washing them myself. Luckily the smell came out.

I wish I had done that with everything. Hindsight and all that.

They came back the next day and hauled the rest away along with a photo they took of the laundry detergent I use and a promise that it would be fixed.

The next week it all came back and Brad was here at our rental to receive it. Remember how he can’t smell anything? But he had been able to smell the Odor Ban so he sniffed, couldn’t smell anything and accepted the poison back into our home LOL. Argh.

I came home later and found all of our clothes had been dry cleaned, not washed in my detergent. I can’t have anything dry cleaned. Obviously. Brad wasn’t here at that point so ManChild and I hauled the recliner out to the front porch, classy. All the clothes into the garage. We both had headaches and couldn’t breathe out of our noses.

I put one load into the wash in hopes I could wash out the smell like I had before.

I wrote a long email and asked them to halt all cleaning of the rest of the stuff they still had. We talked on Monday and I was told that they use the best of the best and it’s as green as it gets. Awesome! Love hearing that. However, it wasn't working for me. The guy said the old dry cleaning fluid called “Perc” was super toxic and petroleum based. The new stuff is called “hydrocarbon” and isn’t petroleum based. He told me to look it up. So (unfortunately for him) I did, while we were talking.

Me, incredulously and silently reading info about hydrocarbon dry cleaning fluid: Didn’t you say it wasn’t petroleum based?

Him: Right.

Me: Am I spelling hydrocarbon right?

Him: Yes, make sure you add that it’s dry cleaning fluid.

Me: Yes. So, it says here that it is petroleum based…

Him: Well, yeah, technically, but it is so much safer than perc!

Here’s what I found:

“Most cleaners claim they are ‘eco-friendly’ however, if you look closer, they are using a dry cleaning solution called hydrocarbon. Yes, it is far better than the cancer-causing perchloroethylene. However, hydrocarbon is still a petrochemical with little research on the ongoing effects on the environment and our health. Be cautious of cleaners that say they are ‘organic’, and/or ‘environmentally friendly’ dry cleaners, as hydrocarbon is a by-product of oil, which is actually ‘organic’ and naturally occurring.”

Uuuuuuggggghhhhh.

So I told him that wasn’t ok for me and he promised to (actually) wash our clothes in my detergent this time, dry, fold and return.

Unfortunately, the load I put in the wash (after the second dose of poison) never did unsmell itself and in fact the original Febreeze-like smell returned somehow, some sort of bizarre chemical reaction. So, now we are faced with the very real possibility that whatever clothes that have been through their Odor Ban and then hydrocarbon dry cleaning process will have to be claimed and we will have to buy new. If I were my mom or my brother, I’d be jumping for joy.

That gene seemed to skip me. Sadly, I’m not a clothes horse and shopping for clothes is a chore that must be done, not a fun event.

The things I’m most sad about are a few quilts of my moms, not heirloom quilts or anything, but they were hers, an heirloom quilt from my grandma, my wedding dress, an heirloom fur coat that was my great aunt’s. Maybe I could have them mounted in shadow boxes? They would be fully sealed that way! I’d love to hang them up somewhere!

•••

Something I read that really helped me this week, check it out here! In this blog, she talks about how when things go wrong, our brains try to make it mean something. She came up with three possibilities of meanings after a string of horrible things happened to her. Number three was: "You're in the process of shedding a skin that doesn't fit you anymore, and becoming someone new. Major transformation requires large-scale inner and outer destruction. Sorry about all your shit, that's a bummer. But it's a necessary part of the plan."

That made me laugh out loud and made me feel better about life in general.

Another blog I read was talking about creativity, trying new things, resurrecting old creative endeavors (read it here) and she said: "I feel good about it until I wake up and wonder why I am starting another new thing. I am all journey."

Oh my God. I am all journey.

I am all journey.

I am alllllllll journey.

I have never read a truer statement about myself.

ODDS AND ENDS:

Because we all need to see the cuteness that is my brother's tiny puppy Penelope! Apparently she's brilliant and has taken to clicker training like a duck to water :-) She now weights 4 pounds!

I got this shirt for Brad for Christmas. We both love it so much:

She adores him. Who doesn't really?:

THE MEMES:

MOT stands for Ministry of Transport, they do safety inspections in the UK:

Obviously the far right or bottom one, you?

Feeling stuck or overwhelmed? You don’t have to navigate it alone. Together we can find what’s next for you. Click below to learn more or to schedule a free 20 min chat click here: Let's talk!

 

Let me give you a big ol' hug!

Join a group of like minded folks who get weekly letters that feel like a great big hug, ranch videos, and free goodies from me.

Close

50% Complete

FREE GIFT

Sign up to receive a digital version of my Angel Horse Crown Chakra! I'll let you know when new artwork and workshops become available!