Full speed ahead

When I get an idea – I run with it with Usain Bolt speeds. If I don’t act fast enough the interest for the idea dies and I move on to the next popping thing. My current project (well I actually have several) is the old house that my family once occupied when I was in high school. The house needed needs a lot of work done in order for it to be livable (to my standards). I wanted new carpet, paint and a closet installed in one of the bedrooms. Overall about $5,000 worth of work once I got everything that I wanted. Luckily, my mother is splitting the bill with me and so the work begins.

This weekend I planned to work on moving the rest of my belongings in and getting the house in tip top shape. Despite the fact that a musty smell occupied the room downstairs where most of my stuff was stored (I placed all my stuff down there after I got laid off and moved out my apartment), I felt good. I later found out the stuff was mold and that it was all over my things. Not everything but a lot of things. I had commented to my mother about cleaning it up and getting rid of the mold. She said it was at the top of her list.

Since then, I have been taking measures to make sure that all my things are clean. I’ve only unpacked the kitchen and I made sure that all the dishes were washed before finding their final resting home. It didn’t hit me until I started to unpack my bedding that my situation could be worst then I thought. My pillows were covered in some kind of brown stains. I asked my dad about it and he said it’s probably mold. I quickly washed them hoping to fix the problem but I have no idea if it made a difference. They’ll be going in the trash later today. I spent all last night and this morning looking at pictures of mold trying to understand my situation. The problem has existed for more than a year and for all I know the house might be on its last leg. And I keep wondering, “Have I wasted my money?”

My frustrations at my mom, dad and myself are uncontainable. I halfway considered leaving work due to lack of concentration. But I truck on. I feel that God is giving me a big tablespoon of medicine set to cure my inner Speedy Gonzalez. I hear him screaming to me “SIT DOWN”. So, Lord, I’m sitting.  My focus now is to figure out the extent of the nasty mold problem and to focus on my classes – the modules for next week are already up. There is no use in me rushing through this process. When you rush, you are bound to make mistakes and wasting money is not one of my things. I hope the problem is not beyond (expensive) repair.  But the lesson for patience has been learned and for now on, I will learn to cool my heels before I get too burnt.