http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/4113964.stm

Ouch...

Deadlord36 wrote:I have awakened in the dead of the night during rainstorms convinced that my den was flooding and rushed in to check it. It is virtually impossible, but the nightmares are so real I end up awake for hours.

I have had nightmares that I forgot to pay the bill on one of my storage warehouses, and the items within were sold off to pay the bills.  Ironically, the storage place right across the one I use was caught in a nasty controversy a few years ago.  Seems the owner was late on some gambling debts, so one day he broke open all the storage sheds and pulled out all the owner's items, having an impromptu "garage sale" and selling all his tenants belongings.  One of the sheds had a huge collection of Anne Frank memorabilia that was stored by one of her only living relatives (including letters, pictures, etc), luckily a quick thinking shopper that day thought something was amiss and bought the entire trunk full of Anne Frank stuff, which he was able to give back to the rightful owner after everything went down.  As for the owner of the warehouses, he paid off his gambling debts and hightailed it out of town, he was eventually caught and prosecuted and went to jail (not that any of the shed owners got back their original stuff). Of course, since this happened, in my fevered brain I play out this scenario constantly, seeing in my minds eye opening my storage shed and isntead of boxes and plastic storage containers finding some rat poop and dust.....then I wake in a cold sweat...

Mike B.

jkason wrote:Hmmm..

Seems like I should wrap everything in mylar and move the bookcase from under the pipes in the basement....

Wow, I can't believe I actually forgot this....one of my best friends, who was one of the original guys I gamed with for over 20 years until he moved away a couple of years ago, actually had his house burn down with all his D&D memorabilia in it.  A ceiling fan wire broke and his house caught fire, burning up a couple of rooms and absolutely ruining everything in the house with smoke and water damage.   He was the group painter and had a bunch of my minis in the process of being painted the day this happened (no one was at home when the fire started and was put out by the fire department).  When we went through the house later, all the minis were still on his table in the study, as little lumps of lead...they had all melted from the heat.  On the bright side we now had lots of ochre jellys/black puddings/gray oozes if we needed any.  All his books, modules and such were destroyed by smoke and water, although luckily I kept all the group's characters at my place so his character sheets survived. It was a pretty depressing scene going through everything and realizing it was too damaged to keep and tossing it all into garbage bags..

Mike B.

That makes me think of those TSR employees when they've had been ordered to destroy boxes and boxes of old D&D material in the reign of the ugly fat woman...  :cry:

KingOfPain wrote:Several years ago I had all of my comic book boxes stacked up in the garage. I was planning on putting them on pallets but just hadnt done it yet. We had a large thunderstorm come through and it dumped about 6 inches of rain on us in about 2 hours time. Needless to say, our garage flooded and three long boxes and numerous half size boxes were destroyed. Luckily all of my comics were bagged and boarded so I didnt lose anything.

But a fire would be difficult to handle. I cant imaging much being salvageable even if the fire didnt burn it simply because of the smoke damage. What would be the most difficult choice would be deciding which to save: My copy of Amazing Spider-Man #3 or my cats. All you cat haters just shut yer cake holes.

     The problem with fires is the smoke damage.  The stench gets into everything, and particularly cloth or paper products pick it up and hold it (as I well know, I just bought a lot of D&D stuff with the odor of cigarettes that will not go away no matter what I do).  Smoke from a fire is far worse, and will pretty much never leave the item.  That's usually why if you've ever had a fire, it's time to buy a new wardrobe and new furniture even if the fire was somewhere else in the house.  
 I mean, you can replace cats, how many ASM #3's are there floating around????? I might grab that before I woke my wife up..

Mike B.

Deadlord36 wrote:The cats are expendable. They are reprinted daily. Besides, smoked cat is a delicacy in some countries. I'd cook mine up in a heartbeat if the wife would let me. But I have to be content with shaving them whenever they chew up something. BTW, a shaved cat is one of the funniest sights on earth.

I think I had cat last night at the local Chinese food place.
mmmm Cat!!

dbartman wrote:

KingOfPain wrote:The problem with fires is the smoke damage. The stench gets into everything, and particularly cloth or paper products pick it up and hold it (as I well know, I just bought a lot of D&D stuff with the odor of cigarettes that will not go away no matter what I do). Smoke from a fire is far worse, and will pretty much never leave the item. That's usually why if you've ever had a fire, it's time to buy a new wardrobe and new furniture even if the fire was somewhere else in the house. Mike B.

Actually there are a few things you can do to eliminate/reduce odors such as mustiness and cigarettes (assuming that the item hasn't been layered in tar). The easiest is to place the item into a sealed container for a while with an odor absorbing agent such as baking soda, cat litter, or charcoal. Other methods that can be more expensive are freeze-drying (usually done through a service) and ozone bombardment. Have an ozone generator?  Place your item in front of it for a while and your odor should be reduced significantly, if not all together.

Well, I have baking soda and cat litter handy, as an experiment I'll take the most odiforous of the items and place it in a plastic box with one of the the absorbers, and see what it does....I"ll report back in a week or so.

Mike b.

grodog wrote:My mother-in-law passed along the following recommendation, though I haven't had time to try it out myself yet, on the smoky copies of RttToH, Alma Mater, or Fineous Treasury that I've accumulated in the past months:

Pack books tightly on end in small boxes. If musty smelling, sprinkle talcum powder between the pages and wrap the book before packing. Leave stored for a couple of months to eliminate the smell.

If you try it out, Mike, let us know how it works out please

Scented or unscented