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2007-02-16 - 1:11 p.m. Wednesday about 3 AM while I was sleeping the boiler blew out and sent steam up the pipes and blew out the radiators on the second floor. Gretta was running back and forth howling and I walked into my living room to a nightmare. And I mean literally - I've had reoccuring dreams for over twenty years now that I'm back in my mom's house and water is running down the walls and destroying everything. And there it was - it was raining in my living room, water pouring down the walls over my artwork - the force of the water was so strong that a heavy two-foot woodcut I've had hanging over my fireplace since I've been there was straight across the room on my sofa! I went into the hallway and it was raining there also, a couple of inches of water on the floor, and my neighbor was standing down the hall baffled...his place was flooded also. We grabbed a flashlight and went downstairs and waded through the water and turned off the building's water and the emergency boiler switches. Next day I spent with the welding crew as they fixed three holes in the boiler and went back and forth on the phone to the slumlord, who's in Florida with his wife at some hospital where she's getting a kidney transplant. When the crew finally got the boiler running at the end of the day, I went straight to sleep. I had been up since 3 AM totally stressed, throwing up in between trips to the basement and trying to replace what had fallen from the walls. Thank god my favorite watercolor was alright. It held memories: painting it sitting quietly alongside my dad long ago while he was fishing at Lake Sebago. I woke up yesterday morning and again there was no heat. I came home last night and walked up from the garage and there was this acrid burning stink on the block, and I thought, someone's apartment was on fire. Then I stepped into the hallway and realized it was my building! Bud was coming down to meet me and said the welders were there trying to find out why the boiler wasn't running, and they turned it on and left about 3 o'clock. Then at 5:15 Peggy heard sirens and a ruckus and the entire building filled up with black smoke - she bundled up the children and got out of there. Smoke was billowing out from the back basement door and windows, and the front door, so people on the block had called the Fire Dept. The Fire Dept. broke down the cellar door and turned off the boiler. Charlie was called and Castle Oil, the people who usually service the boiler, came down and said a rod had burst and it was because these fools never called Castle to inspect and maintain the boiler regularly. The Castle foreman said he would take care of us and make the boiler safe and get it up and running. By that time it was too late to get the parts needed, so last night we did have hot water, but no heat. It was brutal. The temperature kept going down in the living room until by this morning it was about 40, and in the bedroom and kitchen likely heading towards freezing, since the living room is the warmest place. I put the oven on and wore gloves and an extra hoodie sweatshirt to bed. Bud did help me find a portable oil radiator in good condition up at the Toroks abandoned place and I put that on in the bedroom to be able to go to sleep. Last night I saw Charlie was calling my cell so I ignored it and later listened to the message: "Listen Gina, do me a favor and go upstairs and break into my uncle's empty apartment and bring a flashlight and check all the radiators, OK? It's for my peace of mind and sort of for your good too that the flooding doesn't happen again". Riiiight. I laughed, ignored that, turned the tv back on. I think all the slumlord is worried about is that the building is in sale negotiations, and all this water damage and boiler blowups will not look good to close any sales deal, no way. I do have electricity. And this morning I got to wash with hot water a bit (in the bucket in the sink - it was too freezing in there and no way I was taking off any clothes to get into the tub - I was shaking with all my clothes ON.) Bud took off the morning from teaching today to stay and wait for Castle. It's nice and warm here at work.