Dear [Kandi],
Yep, the winter retreat is the first weekend of December, which, unfortunately is a whole week before you get home. The retreat is from December 2nd through December 5th this year.
The cleanup from the flood is going slowly. Our furnace, water heater, washer, and dryer need replacing. My DJ equipment was also touched by the water, but I may have only lost one CD player and possibly two of the lights. The amps, speakers, and mixers appear to be fine. The computers were safe, as they were on the 2nd floor. *phew* I’m glad I have six copies of the music in multiple locations just to guard against loss due to fires and floods.
Most of the water that got into the basement, came up through the floor. There are these old 6X6 posts, which have rotted at the bottoms over the years since 1947, when this house was built. About 4 years ago, the house appeared to be sinking in the middle due of this rot. So I installed steel four cellar jacks to get things back up to where they should be.
However, we never removed those old posts, figuring they’d not do any harm if left there. When they built the house, the posts were positioned, and then the concrete was then poured around them. But with the rotting, the seals between the posts and the floor degraded over the years, and this is where the water found its way in. In fact, the night of the flood, I was working on the west wall, patching little holes where water was trickling in, when I started hearing this gurgling sound behind me. When I turned around, there, on the side of one post, was this bubbling column of water about two inches tall, quickly spreading outward. It appeared then that keeping the basement dry would be a losing battle.
Ironically, five minutes after that, the firemen came to the door and said we had to leave. Well, needless to say, once the water had receded, my first priority was to get those old posts out of there and fill in and seal the holes left behind. That has been done for four of the five posts. The other one is going to be a bit more difficult to remove, as it supports the steps into the cellar. But I hope to have it gone next week. We’re going to replace it with a new post but this post will set on top of the concrete floor and not be down in the floor. Fun fun fun.
We have a shed out back, and the ramp up into it floated away. A search about a mile down the road from us did not locate it, so I’m in the process of building a new one.
The last one wasn’t fastened at all, and Mom paid over $100 for it. A guy whose mother lives next door built it for her. But this time, it will be fastened, anchored, chained, and whatever else I can think of to make sure it stays put.
Also, there’s lots of debris in our yard from nearby farms, lumbar yards, and so on. Probably won’t get to remove that until next spring. Though of a different sort, flood cleanup, like college, is lots and lots of work. 
So I feel your pain. But all is well.
Anyway, take care, don’t deprive yourself of sleep, and stay away from the caffeine that so many college students depend on. That’s probably hard given the work load. But you’ll be healthier in the end.
Write again when you have the time,
Tommy
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