Holy crap! My building collapsed!

[daniel_reetz]

The building I work/study in at NDSU has partially collapsed, trashing my office and my stuff completely.

http://www.danreetz.com/blog/2009/12/28 ... l-at-ndsu/

I discovered this after arriving home yesterday, just after a long week at home with family, one of my family members has cancer. :\

[rob]

I hope you can recover all your stuffs.

[StevePoling]

Dan, what do you need most first? What is not insured?

As for the cancer, I've had it. Same with my parents. The medical science has been steadily improving. Chemo, for me, felt like having the flu for six months, a lot less painful than my dad and a whole lot less painful than my mom. Anti-nausea meds are pretty good. My biggest complaint was hiccups. I'll never begrudge the drug companies' any profits they want, if they can pour some of that cash into research. Most important thing someone with the disease can do is maintain a positive mental attitude.

When I went into surgery, I had Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, and Buddhist friends praying for me, and an atheist thinking good thoughts. Though you could argue the theology, nobody could doubt my friends cared. I'll be praying for you and your family.

[daniel_reetz]

Thanks for the encouraging words re: cancer. I'm cautiously optimistic that it won't be too bad, though it will probably eat the remains of my dad's retirement.

Thankfully I have backups of everything that was on my computer in Minard, and scans of most of the books. I lost some, but they are not mission-critical for my thesis work. My personal possessions in there were mostly low-value books, papers, and small electronics. The University has not yet made a statement on insurance/damages, and I strongly doubt I will get anything that way or get anything back. Fortunately, my experimental apparatus is in an adjacent part of the building and though I haven't been able to get in and see it, I suspect it's alright.

[daniel_reetz]

2009 is just not letting go. At 10:30 today there was a forum about the building collapse. I asked some pretty harsh questions and got the usual non-answers. Driving home, some chick from Montana rear-ended me, trashing the bumper of my car.

My parents want me to drive back to Bismarck; I suspect if I do so I will die. In that unlucky circumstance -- Rob, the forum is all yours, man.

[DSpider]

Luckily you weren't in it when it went collapsed.

[StevePoling]

Hey, this might be a blessing in disguise. Obviously, your office is trashed. So are the offices of all your colleagues. This means there's going to be some mega-sweet dumpster diving when the construction workers dismantle/repair your building.

[rob]

My parents want me to drive back to Bismarck; I suspect if I do so I will die. In that unlucky circumstance -- Rob, the forum is all yours, man.

Don't give me any ideas!

[Hasher]

Dan you havent been conducting some sort of evil experiment i hope