Leaky leaky
Today, Dad has been crawling around in our ceiling. The header tank that feeds into the hot water cylinder sloshed over (through the ceiling, down the wall, and onto Leah who was sitting in the doorway) on Tuesday, and we have a long water stain in the ceiling of the dining room, near the sliding door.
The pink bats had soaked up a lot of the water, and were heavy with wet. Dad dragged them out in buckets and they're on the lawn now, filthy brownish pink bats and filthy brownish water. There was still an inch of water in the ceiling even after that, and he mopped it up. If you poke the ceiling you get little beads of water.
Uuuurgh. But on the doing something in the world front (although it feels a little futile at the moment) I've sorted out fees for Vic Uni, and have tried to log onto Blackboard so I can have a look at my notes. Courses are supposed to start tomorrow, but I have no idea what to do, how to do it. Someone was supposed to call me after orientation was cancelled because of the earthquake, but no one has, and I might have to call her tomorrow. It's Sunday so no office hours. Course notes are apparently already up and I wanted to look at them, for something to do.
There's a working bee at Cashmere High tomorrow at nine so I'm going to go to that. Probably a lot of shovelling. But that's my old high school. It is going to be weird.
Izzy linked to this album on faceboko showing before and after pictures of Chch. I hadn't recognised a lot of the rubble before that. It's really hard to place buildings when most of the bits you usually see are on the street.
At least I managed to get a whole lot most sleep last night, crawled onto the mattress again after I'd posted and fall asleep to Stardust, and then (don't judge us!) Grease II, though I slept through most of that. It was a Michelle Pffifer night apparently. Woke up about 11. Had cheese toasties and coffee at the parentals place.
Soon we're getting a ride to the supermarket to see what we can get. I want flour so I can make bread. And chips, but people have been stocking up on comfort food. Also, we need coffee.
Water is back on so we can flush sometimes but no showers. Having wet naked times at Woots later.
Sirens are still going past every now and then. Helicopters are still flying overhead. You can almost convince yourself life is normal for a few minutes at a time. Then, more pictures come through. The death toll goes up. News of people being shitty to each other are as widespread as stories of people being awesome.
Oh - Shari sent me these photos of the National Library building.
I can understand why someone said it would be red stickered. The photo before this one is the fire door, which is now impassable because the blocks have shifted and cracked. Those two photos are at opposite ends of the building, and the one with the woman in front of it is on the Manchester St side. You can almost see through the big crack to where my desk is.
I'm supposed to go to a Children's/YA Librarian Conference in Blenhiem next week and I really hope I can still go. The NatLib cars might be crushed in the basement though, or even if they aren't, it's still within the cordon.
I have all these little plans in my head and I don't know how to implement them. Like, would it be cool if the libraries could hold Storytimes in safe fields around the city. It would give kids something to do. People a bit of a chance to reconnect. I was on the book council organisation committee for book month (March!) but...
The main think at the moment is food and water and shelter for people who need it. But a lot of people are getting bored and depressed, and schools aren't going to be back for a while. It would be nice to do something outreachy, something to supply a little more than the essentials. Hard to organise, though, when you don't know where to begin. I'll speak to my boss when she next calls.
Supermarket time!
The pink bats had soaked up a lot of the water, and were heavy with wet. Dad dragged them out in buckets and they're on the lawn now, filthy brownish pink bats and filthy brownish water. There was still an inch of water in the ceiling even after that, and he mopped it up. If you poke the ceiling you get little beads of water.
Uuuurgh. But on the doing something in the world front (although it feels a little futile at the moment) I've sorted out fees for Vic Uni, and have tried to log onto Blackboard so I can have a look at my notes. Courses are supposed to start tomorrow, but I have no idea what to do, how to do it. Someone was supposed to call me after orientation was cancelled because of the earthquake, but no one has, and I might have to call her tomorrow. It's Sunday so no office hours. Course notes are apparently already up and I wanted to look at them, for something to do.
There's a working bee at Cashmere High tomorrow at nine so I'm going to go to that. Probably a lot of shovelling. But that's my old high school. It is going to be weird.
Izzy linked to this album on faceboko showing before and after pictures of Chch. I hadn't recognised a lot of the rubble before that. It's really hard to place buildings when most of the bits you usually see are on the street.
At least I managed to get a whole lot most sleep last night, crawled onto the mattress again after I'd posted and fall asleep to Stardust, and then (don't judge us!) Grease II, though I slept through most of that. It was a Michelle Pffifer night apparently. Woke up about 11. Had cheese toasties and coffee at the parentals place.
Soon we're getting a ride to the supermarket to see what we can get. I want flour so I can make bread. And chips, but people have been stocking up on comfort food. Also, we need coffee.
Water is back on so we can flush sometimes but no showers. Having wet naked times at Woots later.
Sirens are still going past every now and then. Helicopters are still flying overhead. You can almost convince yourself life is normal for a few minutes at a time. Then, more pictures come through. The death toll goes up. News of people being shitty to each other are as widespread as stories of people being awesome.
Oh - Shari sent me these photos of the National Library building.
I can understand why someone said it would be red stickered. The photo before this one is the fire door, which is now impassable because the blocks have shifted and cracked. Those two photos are at opposite ends of the building, and the one with the woman in front of it is on the Manchester St side. You can almost see through the big crack to where my desk is.
I'm supposed to go to a Children's/YA Librarian Conference in Blenhiem next week and I really hope I can still go. The NatLib cars might be crushed in the basement though, or even if they aren't, it's still within the cordon.
I have all these little plans in my head and I don't know how to implement them. Like, would it be cool if the libraries could hold Storytimes in safe fields around the city. It would give kids something to do. People a bit of a chance to reconnect. I was on the book council organisation committee for book month (March!) but...
The main think at the moment is food and water and shelter for people who need it. But a lot of people are getting bored and depressed, and schools aren't going to be back for a while. It would be nice to do something outreachy, something to supply a little more than the essentials. Hard to organise, though, when you don't know where to begin. I'll speak to my boss when she next calls.
Supermarket time!