I took last week off, something I decided last month that needed to happen because I was due for a refresh and needed to hit the "reset" button.
While it would have been nice to travel somewhere, maybe to the North Carolina mountains or beaches, mine was more of a "staycation," where the plan was to get caught up on some rest and relaxation while also taking some time to at long last check a few things off of my ever-expanding to-do list of house projects I felt I could handle myself.
I didn't get everything done that I had set out to do, partly because I was more tired than I thought I was, and also because Charlie Kirk's assassination and the aftermath of it, along with the video of Iryna Zarutska's murder being released that same week, weighed heavily on my mind.
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But toward the end of the week, I rebounded a bit and started lining through some of those to-do-list items I had set out to complete. It felt really, really good, like "York Peppermint Pattie - get the sensation" kinda good.
1987 Retro Commercial:
— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) February 22, 2023
— York Peppermint Pattie, Get the York Sensation! pic.twitter.com/o8aeOK7421
Sunday, of course, was the last day of the staycation. The plan was to tackle reorganizing underneath the master bathroom sink, getting the cabinet cleaned and tidied up while putting items in the cute acrylic drawer bins I bought many months ago, which had been collecting dust in my room.
So I took out the old storage baskets and set them to the side. Then I proceeded to remove the non-stick shelf liner I had put on the base of the cabinet many years ago for a decorative touch.
But there was a problem.
About ten years ago, we had some work done under that sink to repair a leaky p-trap and a clogged drain. As I recall, there was a slight water demarcation area at the time, which I wiped up after the work was done and which I let air dry with the cabinet doors open for about 24 hours.
That same area now not only has expanded demarcation lines, but it's also darker in color. There were other dark spots nearby it as well, along with some dark substance on one of the pipes closest to the wall.
There was no dampness or moisture that I could feel or see on the cabinet walls, there was no smell, I couldn't hear any water drips coming from anywhere, nor were there any patchy dark spots on the cabinet walls.
It's not a large area at all, but it was concerning enough to me that I started doing some Googling and YouTubing on mold, as well as researching companies that could come out and assess the situation.
So I put in a call to a highly recommended mold remediation specialist on Monday, who I thought would be able to come himself to take a look at things, do the necessary testing, and come up with a game plan for how to take care of the issue (assuming it's not an existing leak).
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Instead, I was informed I would need to have a third-party mold testing company run tests and air quality checks to determine if there was a mold issue and how extensive it may be, not just in the bathroom but all over the house. I'm waiting to hear back from the two with whom I left messages.
So to sum up: I took the week off to recharge and catch up on some things, and basically was in "tanned, rested, and ready to go" mode ahead of my return to work, only to have this happen.
Talk about a mood deflator.
That said, it's important to keep things in perspective, something we were all reminded of over the last few weeks. I'm thankful to be in a position to hopefully get this resolved and soon, and thankful that mom is here right alongside me to support me as I navigate uncharted waters, much in the same way she was when the crawlspace project got underway in the spring of 2024, when I felt like a fish out of water.
You never know what the future holds, but the biggest thing to remember when challenges like this hit you is that God is good, His blessings are plentiful, and He will never put more on your plate than He knows you can handle.
