The Black Hole

We avoided a near catastrophe yesterday and while we were in the middle of remedying the situation I had flash backs to another time and place when the outcome was a whole lot different.

Seeing as we were ahead of schedule with our packing, AC and I took a few days off and enjoyed reading, writing, visiting family, and other normal things like that for the past week. What a nice change it has been, but we must get back to work soon, so I sat down with my lists yesterday and made a plan of what to do when, next week. We can put off our return to work until Monday, but then we have to put our noses to the grindstone again. Two more weeks, just two short weeks and we will be on our way to the other side of the province. Yikes!

We puttered around the house for most of the morning yesterday and then went out for lunch. We thought we might go for a bike ride after lunch, but the air was hot and humid and it felt like a storm was brewing so we retreated into our cool air conditioned house to relax and watch a movie. Absolute decadence I know.

After the movie AC went out to return it to the library and I went upstairs to gather the washing to do later in the evening. I walked into the bathroom and as I took the towels down off the bars I caught sight of the door to the crawl space/attic behind them. Oh no, we haven't checked the dreaded crawl space attic. It is a hot, dusty, dark, and cramped space and I had put it right out of my mind. As I stood there staring at the small door, I vaguely remembered putting some old Christmas decorations in there years ago, but I am sure we got rid of them. Didn't we?

I opened the door and removed the protective panel behind it. A dusty blast of heat reached out and slapped me in the face. Thwap! Once I regained my composer I took a deep breath, aimed the flashlight into the dark hole and peered in. My heart sank. It was full of boxes. How could this be? When had I put all this stuff up here? I slowly moved the flashlight from one dark mound to the other and saw TV boxes, stereo boxes, VCR boxes, and Computer boxes. I then remembered that we had stored these EMPTY boxes up here just in case something had to go back to the store. They were only supposed to be kept up here for a month or two, but over the years, we just kept adding more and would forget about them. Oh dear.

There is no floor in the crawl space, only insulation between the studs, and you can't stand up in this space. Right by the door is a piece of plywood 4'X4' that we can crawl onto to access the deeper parts of the attic, but to reach the furthest corners you have to balance on hands and knees on the studs. Not an easy job at all. It is hot, dark and dusty in that most awful place.

I gingerly crawled through the door and balanced on hands and knees on the plywood. Oh, I didn't like it in there at all. I was sure spiders were perched just above my head ready to dance in my hair, and who knows what else was lurking in the dark corners ready to attack me. I tried not to look beyond the beam of the flashlight, and reached to grab the first box. Oh good, it was empty. Very dusty, but empty. I was right, these were just empty boxes. WRONG! The first few were empty, and I moved them towards the door, but then I came to one that was heavy. Oh no, what the heck was in it? I couldn't move it, so I had to retreat into the bathroom and wait for AC to return from the library to help me. I moved the three empty boxes I retrieved to the side door and AC found them on his way in. He had a rather puzzled look on his face when he saw them, and then me covered in dust and bits and pieces of insulation.

"The Attic" I said and saw his face register the shock I felt too. "We forgot about the attic and it is full of stuff." Groan!

We trudged gloomily up the stairs to face the Black Hole together. If we worked as a team it would be easier. I offered to go back into the cramped space but I knew I couldn’t move that one heavy box, so AC crawled in while I stood just outside the door to hold the flashlight for him and move the lighter boxes out as he passed them to me. Three boxes were full of books and old teaching notes, two boxes were full of old Christmas decorations, and one had an old lamp in it, but the rest were empty. Thank goodness. The heavy boxes rested on the studs close to the door, but the lighter empty boxes had travelled far and wide indeed. The hardest part of the whole procedure was trying to reach these empty boxes. As each one was put through the small opening over the years, it would push the others further and further back into the corners of the Black Hole. They were empty and therefore light enough to push without even noticing it. Retrieving them from their far flung corners was a whole other story. Whilst balancing on hands and knees. AC had to crawl along the studs, keep his balance, grab the big unruly box and move it behind him and then crawl backwards in the dark keeping hands and knees balanced on the narrow pieces of wood. I don't know about him, but I was a nervous wreck. You see, years ago we had an encounter with an attic in a previous house, and it makes us laugh now, but oh the trauma then.

As AC was crawling around in the attic yesterday, with only two weeks to go until moving day, my mind kept going back to what happened before and I was having fits. Don't go there I kept telling myself, but go there I did and it wasn't pretty!

We managed to retrieve all the boxes and empty the attic without a major catastrophe yesterday and I was thanking my lucky stars that …

This post is getting rather long, so I will end it here and fill you in on our first attic adventure in The Black Hole Part II. Stay tuned.