Sleepless in Burlington

I’m back to being somewhat obsessive unless you ask Ben and he’ll tell you I’m being very obsessive. Remember way back when we were dealing with the leak in the roof? Well, that’s been corrected but I swear I still smell mold and it’s driving me insane. Yesterday I spent the morning painting the bathroom both to cover some of the repair work and to make it look better than the painter we hired made it look (hey, it was fine if you like to see a sliver of primer around all the woodwork and fixtures and oh, an extra touch of paint on the lights for good measure). It looks terrific after all my work but I swear it now smells like fresh latex paint. And mold.

Last night I woke up at 2:30 in the morning all stuffed up and wheezing so it felt hard to breathe. I kept coughing and obsessing about the mold that was taking over the house until I decided that the best thing to do was to sell the house and start over with a brand spanking new house with one long continuous non-leaking roof. The coughing was keeping Ben awake so I went to try to sleep in the other room and of course I couldn’t fall asleep so to make sure I could continue obsessing, I made sure to research mold, mold allergies, and asthma on the internet. You know, instead of blogging because it makes me feel oh so much better.

I tried to sleep once again but couldn’t so I decided to give it up at 4am and went downstairs to exercise. Oh, yes, I could breathe again at that point, why do you ask?

So the real question-- is it mold? We’ve had most of the windows closed for the first time in ages since it’s been getting chilly here at night. Is it that it’s ragweed season? Is it all in my head? Is it that yesterday we went to the Addison County Field Days and hung out with animals, hay, and all sorts of other allergens? I don’t know but I do know that I still smell mold so I called the builder again. To his credit he’s very calm and is coming on Wednesday to look around to see if he sees anything unusual.

I’m hoping for hay fever in this particular case. The idea of tearing things up yet again is likely to give me hives.

I spent this morning cleaning the bedroom top to bottom and washing all the bedding; I really do know how to enjoy a lovely Sunday morning. Then I went to pick blueberries once again but only got six pounds instead of the twelve I’d managed to pick last weekend but that’s enough. How many blueberry pies can we eat anyway? When I got back from picking my in-laws were here with last week’s empty pie pan very upset because I didn’t have another pie ready. Ok, not really but it makes a better story that way.

Yesterday Sam had his second experience riding a pony; a little gray mare named Misty. Ride Misty for me, will you kid? He had a huge smile on his face time until the very end when the horse shivered or quivered a bit, something that scared Sam. He told me that he was worried but that he was holding on to the “round thing” so he was ok. Oh, I made Ben walk around with him since I was in the midst of an allergy attack. Maybe that is pertinent to my mold obsessing above.

At any rate, I feel somewhat better about my obsessing because I've done something, not matter how minor, to address it. I wonder if I'd have slept had I called the builder at 2:30 am when I was sleeplessly obsessing? Somehow I expect his reaction would have been less polite.