Monday the 10^th of July, it rained in Toronto. It rained a lot, apparently. Enough that my brother received a call from the storage facility saying that a 5 inch drain pipe had split and some units had gotten wet. Ours being one of them. **sigh**

The initial report that we had was an e-mail from my dad titled "Soggy Self Storage". I can assure you, if you harbour any doubt, that is not the title you want on an e-mail. The e-mail only contained the little that was known at the time. . Added to the stress of having moved countries and been unable to open a bank account, I for one did not want to envision my sofa and chairs floating away like gum wrappers in the gutter.

As it worked out, only a couple of items were wet and the damage was minimal. It could have easily been a lot worse and I sympathize with people who did have their units flooded. Things that are stored must, for that reason, have some value, either financial or sentimental. If nothing else, it creates a horrible mess to clean up and probably much worse.

I am left wondering at the end of this about the true value of possessions. The weight of stuff we brought with us would win an Olympic bronze in the Clean-and-Jerk, if you could lift all at once. I carefully packed, boxed stacked and shelved everything else that we own. I have referred to the packing of our storage unit as the capitalist jigsaw puzzle. Monthly I render unto storage man that which is storage man’s. Despite all of my efforts, possessions, can ever be maintenance free.

People have asked about all of our stuff when we told them of this move. I tell them; sold the car, sold the house, heck, sold the rollerblades. Many people’s reaction is that it must be cleansing. And they’re right to the extent that everything is gone. Those items that remain still apply the same amount of pressure as any other time that I owned them. Maintenance is the real price you pay for your possessions.

The other thing that is blatantly obvious, yet again, is the value of support of family. One reason that everything was so carefully stored was so other people would not have to deal with our stuff or the problems that having stuff creates. My parents and brother have spent several days and a summer Saturday chasing my saturated belongings around. There is no price that can be put on that. Thanks Mum, Dad, Steve and Wendy.