There’s less than twenty-fours until we leave for Pennsylvania and I’m not packed.  At all.  I just threw a load of clothes into the wash that will solely be for us to bring with.  That’s as far as I’ve gotten.

Which is very odd for me.  Usually, I’m so organized.  I have my stuff piled up at the front door and my lists made and everything in it spot ready to go.  You should’ve seen when we left for Hawaii.  I had everything I needed, including a travel pack of Kleenex for the plane.  Because you never know when you need Kleenex.  (I really never use Kleenex, so that was an oddity for me).  Right now, all I’ve got is a list.

Technically, we’re not leaving until after work.  And since we’re driving through the night, we’re not in a major hurry to get there as we don’t have anything to do Saturday morning.  So I’m apparently using that lack of urgency to procrastinate to the very last minute.  Which probably means I’m going to forget something.

Let’s just hope it’s not the dog.  Or something equally important.

But I’ve got my list.  And that’s a step in the right direction.

I think it’s partly because the trip was planned so last minute and because we’ve been dealing with the floor debacle all week.  On Monday, the claims agent came over and assesed the damage.  On Tuesday, the contractors came by and dropped off three industrial fans and a huge dehumidifier and also take their estimate.  Those were here until today.  We spent the last two nights feeling like we lived on an airfield because it was so loud in here.  But it sure did dry the place out.  I woke up feeling like my eyelids were dried shut.

Yesterday, I got the estimate: $7000 worth of repairs.  The drying process cost $1500 alone.  The rest will cover replacement flooring for the living room, dining room and hallway (the chunk of the cost, about $3000), replacement of the baseboards and repainting of the repaired areas.

Now I just have to call the insurance agent and figure out when we’re going to get the check.  Then I have to talk to the contractor to schedule the work and find out if we need to go pick out the new flooring (we better be able too!).  Then we need to move all the furniture out of the rooms and get them in here to fix everything.  I will be so happy when the place is back to normal.  The concrete slab sure is cold on my feet in the morning.

Hopefully, we will be able to get all that cleared away next week, after we return.  Then we’ll have two more rounds of visitors in and then it will be autumn.  If anybody asks where the summer went, I know exactly what I’ll tell them.  At least I’ll have spent it with family and good friends.

Regardless, all of this has been a very tiring and stressful process and I really just want things to return to normal.  Is it too much to ask to be able to come home, change into my sweatpants, plop on the couch and play XBox until my eyes get heavy?

I’ve got the Blackberry all set up for mobile posting, so I’ll probably be doing a small trip blog.  It’ll be late at night and early in the morning so, aside from sleeping, I’ll have nothing else better to do.

In light of this, at least I’ll get to go to Wawa.  (Don’t shake your head at me - it’s heaven in wrapped up in a convenience store!)

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