Soiled Stash

One of the joys of New York cooperative apartment ("co-op") living is abiding and enduring the neighbors' renovations. The building which the Pilgrim calls his home is generally terrific, a fantastic place to be. However, recently the new neighbors have undertaken a complete gut renovation on the rooms adjacent to ours, and, well, a bit more than adjacent. You see, their renovation work has now resulted in gaping holes into one of the Pilgrim's storage closets, resulting in a most unwelcome coating of plaster dust (along with a general feeling of invasion of personal space).

The new neighbors - let's call them David and Hillary - have apologized profusely, even offering to cover cleaning for any articles of clothing that might have suffered in the incident. However, as I tried most diplomatically to explain to them, this particular closet is not home to ordinary items of clothing. Oh no indeed. This closet houses electronic equipment, hundreds of CD's, the Long-Suffering Other's collection of archival materials...I shan't go on. They were mortified.

What I neglected to include is that this particular closet - the one now coated with plaster dust - is also home to the Pilgrim's KNITTING STASH.

HONESTLY! It's a good thing they're British, and that the Pilgrim possesses a torrid case of Anglophilia. Depending on what happens next, however, there may actually be a cure for that.....