Monday, January 05, 2009

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's back to ...

... work I go. I knew ahead of time that today, my first day back from my school winter break, I had plenty of work to do. Sometime during the first weekend of the winter break a pipe broke and flooded part of our school library. I went in twice during the break to help assess the damage.

Originally, word had come down that water had come right down on my desk, but luckily that wasn't the case. On my way to work, at O'Dark Thirty, I stopped at a Starbucks to get my favorite flavored coffee, Caramel Macchiato. I don't stop there often, but a coworker had given me a $5 gift card. So armed with this dreamy coffee creation, I was ready to forge ahead to get my work done.

I tell you what, a lot of water came down thru many parts of the ceiling. Lots of ceiling tile was all over the place. I'm not done with my inventory of the damaged books, but so far it's 370 books. I have one more table of books that have been pulled, due to damage, that I must inventory.

Here's the damage...



and here...

and here...


The above photo shows new books that were on display and water never even touched them. They got damaged by all the moisture in the air. We tried to stack heavier books on top of the warped ones to see if we couldn't straighten them out. This is only 1/4 of the new books warped, ugh!!! We aren't even sure if we can even claim these books.

We also have damage under parts of the rug and I have a lot of shelves to clean. They have bits of ceiling tile and water residue on them. I will be very busy these next few days. Water had fallen on our tables, but luckily they are fine. That's great considering they were standing in 2 inches of water for a day or two.

On top of this, we came back to very bad news. One of our students had died over the winter break. He was very popular and well liked in our school. The students come back Wednesday and many of them will take this news understandably hard. Our school counselors are ready and the district crisis team is on standby. It's horrible when a child dies. I knew this boy some. He would come into the library every now and then. He was very nice. I didn't know it, but he had a health problem and things were starting to look grim for him in December before the break.

Sorry this isn't one of my more upbeat posts. Life isn't always roses, is it?

Here's hoping things are going better in your part of the world,

Biker Betty

6 comments:

Mr. Motorcycle said...

Sorry to hear about your bummer over break. However, I am glad to hear this happened at school, not your home.

Baron's Life said...

I'm an avid book collector and probably own in excess of 10,000 books...so needless to say I was a little disturbed when I read about the damaged books you faced upon your return to work...not a pretty sight, at best.
But then, I became really upset when I heard about the young boy who passed away over the holidays. No parent should ever have to live through this agony. May he rest in peace in his eternal home. My condolences.

Biker Betty said...

Mr. Motorcycle, you and me both!!!

Hi Baron's Life,
Wow, you have a lot of books! You beat me by about 9,800. Looks like we will get full replacement for all the books and many were about 20 years old and in need of replacement. The water came down in our history section, poems, and Shakespeare. Our poor Shakespeare section was in tatters before the flood and about half didn't make it. So there's a golden liner in this mishap.

I do not look forward to tomorrow when the kids come to school and discover one of their classmates has passed away over the break. With the tears flowing, I just know I will lose it myself. I got chocked up in the staff meeting when they told us. You're so right, no parent should life thru such a tragedy.

Baron's Life said...

I hear ya sista and I know in the church of my heart that you and all the kids will have a difficult day and time tomorrow. However, we must all remember that God's will prevail in calling him home as we're only here temporarily....as tourists.... to enjoy our daily rides to and fro.....so to speak. But seriously...and all kidding apart, cause this is no kidding matter...I feel sad about this and sincerely hope the community will pull through.
God Bless you all and keep you safe. Keep well.

Biker Betty said...

Baron, Thanks for the encouragement.

Pamela said...

The books are replacable... but the boy, oh so sad.