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neurotwitch

Sunday, April 30, 2017

case studies

Case Histories (Jackson Brodie, #1)Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not your usual detective novel—it’s more of a series of character studies, I think, several stories that somehow all get connected. After I read the case histories (there are three in the beginning, and one more further in), and I was getting into the story, I was a little confused at first. But I like the “hero,” Jackson Brodie, and I especially like the way Atkinson draws you into each character when she limns their inner dialogues, the real thoughts that show who the person really is. It reminds me a lot of Stephen King’s writing, where he managed to make the characters seem like real people, people you actually know.

In this book, the stories of the survivors are more important than the whodunnit and really, much more interesting. And funny, and in some cases, sad.

I liked it so much I downloaded the second Jackson Brodie novel from the library.

posted by lee on 04/30/17 at 01:54 AM

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Friday, April 07, 2017

if the videos aren’t enough, here are more photos

Besides the videos, Scott also took a bunch of photographs of the disaster (you can click the arrows to see it full screen):

Meant to ask Scott about the ceiling over the living room—did that survive? And how did the bedroom next to the stairs do?

posted by lee on 04/07/17 at 08:58 PM

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Sunday, April 02, 2017

horror movies

Scott went up to Oscoda to assess the damage. This is what he found: (if you can’t watch these because they won’t load, please let me know and I’ll figure out another way to embed them—this is just a q&d fix).









From what he saw, it looks like this is a much older problem than we originally thought. It appears that the broken pipe kept gushing until the power to the pump was turned off (the house has its own well water supply). Someone, fortunately, turned off the breakers when the problems was originally discovered (by whom, initially, I do not know ... there are some information gaps that need to be filled in) so the water was turned off.

Scott says it’s like the inside is just dripping with moisture. The crawlspace is a swamp. The carpet needs to be ripped out ASAP. Most of the drywall is kaput. The paneling in the family room looks like it’s liquid still. The furnace and probably the hot water heater are gone, and probably the dishwasher, though the fridge is still okay (good thing—brand new, barely used). The stove was there when my parents moved in back in 1993, so that should probably be replaced anyway (or just removed).

As he said, he doesn’t know why the ceilings on the second floor fell—there are no pipes in those ceilings. So it must’ve been mighty wet in there for quite a while. With the weather warming up, cleanup needs to happen fast.

One thing I do know: when the repairs are done, they will be done right. No cut-through joists to accommodate the plumbing—a lazy con-artist did that when the house was built in 1979. Unbelievable.

posted by lee on 04/02/17 at 08:23 PM

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