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Science Forum Index » Engineering - Lighting Forum » The Horror of it
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| I.N. Galidakis |
 Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:33 pm |
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When my mother moved into this apartment in 2000, I was working in Crete, so she
transferred my entire lamp collection to the basement of the condo.
Not just a simple basement. This is the kind of basement where you have to exit
your apartment, go to the apartment complex door, walk in the back of the
building, step down a row of stairs, unlock 2 doors and around 4 locks in order
to reach the packed stuff in my mother's basement.
My lamps were inside a 1m x 1m small fridge carton box, wrapped nicely, with
most of them in their original packaging.
Four months ago, I was solving some inane mathematics problem, and a little
voice inside my mind kept whispering: "Bring the lamps upstairs. Soon!"
I followed the advice of my mind (which I trust 100%) and one good day, I go
down to the basement and put my mother's stuff aside trying to reach my lamp
collection.
To my utmost dismay and horror, I lift just one packaged HPI-T/400W, only to see
thousands of miniscule sand-like droppings embedded in the paper wrapping. Upon
unwrapping the packaging, the inner paper revealed itself to be full of mini
holes.
I almost had a heart attack. I put this lamp aside and dove deeper into the
carton.
$#@%&*%#^^! The sound of the swearing did not even make it to my mouth. It
drowned somewhere between lung and throat.
The ENTIRE carton was infested with termites. The disgusting pests had chewed
most of the paper in the box, so all the original lamp wrappers (some as old as
30 years old) were destroyed and around 80% of my lamps had some sort of
sand-like shit around their glass and sockets. This was termite droppings. Some
of it reached even as far as the insides of the E40 sockets. The pests had gone
even inside the E40 sockets.
I don't know how I managed to not have a heart attack when I saw the damage, but
somehow I stayed conscious.
I unwrapped all my lamps in the basement, with crud and all, and put them in 4
large travel bags. Then I brought them upstairs in 3 trips, and let them rest on
the balcony, because they were full of dirt.
Next day I woke up early in the morning and I went and bought 2-3
Sunday-paper-thick newspapers, and some cleaning arsenal, Viakal, soap, and
filled a big pan full of water.
I spent the entire morning and afternoon cleaning each one, until all traces of
the crud were gone. My mother, who knew what happened by then, did not even dare
call me in for lunch. She just took a peek while I was sitting in the 90 degree
heat scrubbing and cleaning them up.
A young blond girl showed up in the balcony next door. Must have been 12-14 or
something. She did not say a word. She kept looking at me with undue amazement.
I paused my internal cursing for a second and lifted up my head, giving her a
quick look. I did not say anything either. I continued cleaning all the lamps,
until the clock showed 3:00pm.
I wrapped carefully all of them inside newspaper and placed them in 3 new boxes
which I got from the news stand. When the wrapping finished, I sprayed the boxes
inside with Baygon and placed the boxes next to my bed. Then I went and bought 2
more cans of Baygon. Next I collapsed, falling asleep for 12 hours.
After two days, I took the new cans of Baygon down to the basement and emptied
both of them inside the old carton which was still housing the termite nest.
I am a friend of animals, insects even. When I walk outside, I look carefully on
the street in front of me, in order to avoid stepping on ants, snails (when it
rains) and other crawling things. I don't even kill roaches when I see them on
the street in the summer. Nothing should die on this planet for no good reason.
However, I don't recall ever feeling SO MUCH satisfaction from killing those
termites. If I could that day, I'd remove ALL termites from the face of the
Earth. When I was emptying the two cans of Baygon on the termite nest, what I
felt was ABSOLUTE HATE for this life form.
--
I.N. Galidakis |
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| JB |
| Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:52 pm |
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"I.N. Galidakis" <morpheus@olympus.mons> wrote in message
news:1201303995.571628@athprx04...
Quote: When my mother moved into this apartment in 2000, I was working in Crete,
so she
transferred my entire lamp collection to the basement of the condo.
snip horror story!
Oh I really feel your pain Ioannis. What a terrible thing to find..As you
say, even though the lamps are (hopefully) undamaged, the original cartons
are mostly irreplaceable now.
There are times when I do actually appreciate our lousy UK climate. At least
we only have to cope with rodent damage and not termites (yet!).
JB |
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| I.N. Galidakis |
| Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:08 pm |
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JB wrote:
Quote: "I.N. Galidakis" <morpheus@olympus.mons> wrote in message
news:1201303995.571628@athprx04...
When my mother moved into this apartment in 2000, I was working in
Crete, so she
transferred my entire lamp collection to the basement of the condo.
snip horror story!
Oh I really feel your pain Ioannis. What a terrible thing to find..As
you say, even though the lamps are (hopefully) undamaged, the
original cartons are mostly irreplaceable now.
Thanks JB. Fortunately your lamps and some that Don and Max Gendre sent me were
upstairs, so the wrappers on those survived.
Quote: There are times when I do actually appreciate our lousy UK climate.
At least we only have to cope with rodent damage and not termites
(yet!).
I don't even know where they came from. We don't even HAVE termites in Greece
for the love of God! There was only a small water leak behind the lamp carton in
the basement. As soon as the leak showed up, next thing that I saw was the
entire box infested. The damn pests didn't touch anything else from the hundreds
of objects which sit on the basement. They went for my lamps!
#@$%&*!@@!!
I.N. Galidakis |
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