My Basement- Part One

There have been intermittent storms over the last several days with more predicted for today- and for the next few days following. When it isn't raining, the humidity makes you wish it was- the mistaken belief being that it would offer some kind of relief.

On the plus side, everything is nice and green. On the minus side, this includes things that shouldn't be green- like my basement and the side of my home.

My hundred year old mansion rests, more out of habit than out of comfort, on an old red brick foundation which had been patched here and there, with various combinations of cinder blocks and concrete. This patching was done long ago by a previous owner and for the most part, has been out of sight- which is to say, covered by stacks of junk. Some of this junk was recently moved, albeit temporarily, exposing the bright grey glare of the concrete that intrudes on the sea of reddish-brown brick like out of place land masses.

I had forgotten about most of these patches. A couple of them have sat partially exposed throughout the years, visible through the various jungle fauna of boxes that surround them. But these patches have become invisible over time due to the same problem of over-familiarity that we all face eventually.

These newly exposed continents are jarring- not solely because of the brightly intrusive glare in an otherwise subdued setting. But jarring because they signify some major lapse on the part of the red brick- it no longer doing the job it was expected to perform.

I should mention that what I am calling patches are really more than that. These are concrete or cinder block structural replacements, added to the subterranean landscape for reasons found necessary long before I ever came around. These reasons remain a mystery to me, but this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me uncomfortable. While most of the walls remain largely red brick, it forces me to sit in judgment of the untouched areas and question which among them will be letting me down next.

I find it best not to dwell on these kinds of things.