Mildew, mildew everywhere

After three days of unsuccessful attempts to get a cleaning service out to deal with our soaked basement carpet, it's time to resort to desperate measures. So this morning before work it's going to be just me, a utility knife, and a strong back as I move furniture and hack up what used to be an old but still in excellent condition carpet into manageable pieces so that the mildew smell doesn't extend any more to the main floor of the house than it is already and turn into toxic mold.

Note to cleaning services: If you're not going to be able to come out in a reasonable period of time, at least have the decency to say so. One of them "put me on the list" and they're "working their way up" to my area but "can't say when" they'll get here, another "put me into the system and you'll get a call within 24-48 hours", a third and fourth don't even pick up the phone but instead have voice mail take the calls -- and then don't respond, and the fifth guy said he could come out on Friday but said I should just remove the carpet and get it out of the house.

And as the mildew smell gets stronger, I've come to the conclusion that this is the only thing to do. I have a local flooring guy coming out tomorrow who would remove it, but how many more days will it be till he gets here? And how much mold might develop in the meantime? So this morning my blogging time will be taken up hacking up this poor, defenseless wall-to-wall carpeting that has done nothing to me but cushion my feet during step aerobics for ten years and is guilty of nothing other than being a 1970's rust color and having the misfortune to have a foam pad underneath it during a storm that brought 9" of rain in 24 hours. And while doing it I shall cry at the injustice and futility of it all.

But meanwhile, if you don't have Times Select, go read Bob Herbert's column about Cho Seung-Hui today over at Welcome to Pottersville. As Republicans continue to insist that gay marriage somehow threatens them and solidify their control over women's bodies with the new conservative Supreme Court, Herbert's discussion of Cho's hostility towards women and psychosexual issues and how such issues are common threads in this sort of mass murderer is food for thought.