The problem with friends

No white horses here. No knights in shining armor. Just well-meaning friends with not enough time on their hands and poor communication skills.

While having a new bathroom is great, it would be even greater if the ventilation system in said bathroom had been vented to the outside rather than spewing nearly a year's worth of humidity up into the unfinished attic. Second best would have been being told that the vent was not vented, and steps would have been taken to ensure that it was vented.

Instead, the scenario now is that nearly all of my personal possessions -- and yes, they are mine. I'm not going to apologize for hoarding, for owning things that are precious to me, or even to go down the path that borders on the materialistic. These things are mine; I've collected them for a reason, sometimes paying more than I should and I shouldn't have to apologize for that. The end result: weaving loom reeds that are now ruined by the damp. Yarns, fabric, clothes and knick-knacks indelibly littered by must.

All of this because mold and mildew has gained a foothold in my heretofore dry attic. Mold that now has to be scraped off the walls, and infected items thrown away.

Worse: the sicknesses this winter that kept me from working. Two separate cases, and in my case, no work equals no pay. Never mind the out of pocket expenses associated with antibiotics, doctor visits and inhalers. And major surgery which was delayed because of the illness.

Finally, the costs that will be associated with mold mitigation. On top of ruined goods that will have to be discarded and perhaps never replaced.

This is perhaps the final straw in the degradation process. Not caring about the personal possessions -- the total sum of my life packed away still in small boxes, now ruined. The loss of income, the further ruination of something I thought was being improved. And the potential loss of friendship. Not nice. At all.