Mildew Manor and me
So, this has basically been my position every day for the past, say, TEN YEARS, ever since I moved into Mildew Manor. Within a week, I noticed black mildew in my bedroom, where a concrete structural column comes up quite near the bed. The building manager told me to keep the bedroom warm and it would eventually go away, which it did after I coated the entire column in bleach, only later finding out that causes the mold to release spores or weaponize or some godforsaken thing.
About four years ago, I started to notice greyish stripes in my living room walls, coming down from the ceiling. I didn’t know then it was black mold on the uprights, but I do now. For some reason, I assumed the stripes were my fault, maybe from burning something on the stove, or the candles, or maybe incense, and the “extra gravity” of the uprights attracted the microscopic particles. Yeah, I was drinking a bit at the time.
By the time I found the mushrooms growing in my carpet and the hole eaten in the wall behind the tv, however, the jig was up and I knew it was not my fault. It’s ZEUS’s fault, damn him. Eventually the co-op fixed the eavestroughing, so the water no longer cascaded down the wall outside, right where the tv is. And eventually the carpet became so wet it would no longer support any fungus this side of blue-green algae. And eventually the mildew decided it was being too geostationary, and started spreading across the walls everywhere, giving the place sort of a greyed chicken pox look. It’s very Derelicte!
Not to mention the incessant soundtrack. We’ve had two years of construction at the co-op, and it has finally reached my apartment (they’ve been trying to work out their courage, I guess) and so every day I have been waking up to a symphony of sledgehammers and jackhammers and smash, crash, boom, to the point where the entire bed shakes, not to mention the two I call the Fuckery Twins with their vocabulary. Seriously, nobody should start with that vocabulary until I’ve had my coffee. Bring back the nice supervisor who did bird calls and sang to himself; he was nice. I bet he was cute, too.
Anyway, for the curious, here is the soundtrack to which I awaken each day at 8, which is awkward since I work each night till 4.
Anyway, 300 words to say that in ONE MORE WEEK I will never have to deal with this place again (other than sending in my tax assessments for the last three years so they don’t sue me, welcome to co-op living). And I’m telling you, I cannot wait.
Since the power’s off, because I DO NOT WANT TO BE ELECTROCUTED BY MY BASEBOARD HEATERS, I sleep with three empty whiskey bottles full of hot water (yay for central hot water) and one actual hot water bottle, and it works very well under my eiderdown, Hudson’s Bay Blanket, and down-filled full length parka. For lights, I use a railway lantern from Army & Navy which would work well if it weren’t made in China and thus leaks as soon as you set it on a hard surface. And that, when it works, works well.
And that, my friends, is how I’m going to be packing up my apartment over the next five days, God help me.
raincoaster 
Something tells me your health is going to take a turn for the better as soon as you get out of there and up to Bucolia. The mold is bad enough, but the noise…A few years ago the street I live on had the old quaint cobblestones replaced by new quaint cobblestones. I had jackhammers digging up the old ones for months; then as the new ones were laid, the machine that precision cut and polished them was right 4 meters under my balcony. Imagine a dentist’s drill at 150 decibels. My cat went insane and hasn’t recovered yet.. Thank god I had weed.
You should have put it in a room vaporizer and shared with the cat.
Yeah, Max has been bugging me for years to get out of the place, as has everyone else. ONE! MORE! WEEK well actually less than that SHIIIIIIIIIIII…
That is dangerous! Good grief! I would be getting some compensation for your health! Holy crap!
Wish I had have known, Tea tree oil stops it dead in its tracks. It might not get all of it off, but it won’t spread after you use it. Days later you could bleach it and then use BIN paint on it.
Ah well, this is what I get for complaining only years after the fact. And no, tea tree oil can’t be sprayed inside my walls, and it won’t stick on the outside of the walls, so it couldn’t have eliminated this. The whole place is going to have to be hollowed out down to the steel and concrete and rebuilt. Apparently they’re doubling the housing charges to pay for it, and I’m getting out just in time!
That’s…. nuts!
Holy cow, why did you wait this long? Black mold is like seriously toxic stuff. It’s even worse than smoking. And the noise! Oh lordy!!
I’m surprised you still managed to stay creative with all that ruckus.
I am fuelled by rage.
How is the packing going?
When is the truck coming?
Hello? Hello? I’m a nervous wreck worrying about how you are doing.
I’m relatively wrecked myself. The big move with the truck was a few days ago, Monday, but there was stuff left. It’s going to break my heart to leave all these Vanity Fairs in perfect condition behind, but it’s what I have to do. New post coming.
Yeah, i’m a day late getting out of the place, but it’s not my fault. Don’t expect the Co-op to be sympathetic, tho.
Thanks for responding as I was becoming freaky.
For some reason your comments didn’t show in the notifications. Also, spotty internet what with all the rambling around.
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