Happy New Year?

Yes, I know, I'm 12 days late... And even though the new year is supposed to be a time for new beginnings, I feel like it has started off very badly. And I don't like to get too personal on here (the topic is the house, after all), but there are some things going on that are affecting my restoration progress, so here goes...

On December 31, a woman I work with committed suicide. Even though we weren't really friends, when you work in an environment like a jail, you become somewhat close to just about everyone. You have to, in order to keep your sanity. You depend on each other the way peopl in "normal" jobs don't. The people you work with, whether you like them or not, are people you trust to keep you safe. Granted, you still havew to look out for yourself, but there's a band that builds between people, whether you are actually friends with them or not.

It really shook most of us up. We're all trained (extensively) in suicide prevention, which includes recognizing the signs. Nobody saw anything. When she was happy, you knew it, and the same for when she was upset. Everyone is asking why, and nobody has any real answers.

We also celebrated family Christmas in Detroit with my family (wow, something good!), which was this past weekend. And then I got the flu. Ugh.

On the up-side, during my sick-induced boredom, I found out why our water softener isn't working. There's a hardened layer of salt built up near the bottom, called a salt bridge, which is keeping the salt from entering the water. The manual says to break it up with a broom handle, but I haven't had any luck so far. I poured some hot water on it last night, so maybe it will have dissolved it by now...

Otherwise, though we're not really progressing (I did strip some of the woodwork), the house is still standing! I'm still waiting for something bad to happen, since nothing has gone wrong since we got the house... :)