that was another long sleep. i dunno.

i got halfway through my fruit salad last night and noticed the stink was coming out of the couch. that's a gross reality, but i have to accept it as some progress - it means the smell from the sewage leak has lifted enough that i can smell the consequences of it. but, it got me gagging enough that it may have knocked me out.

i've got the couch disassembled and the fan running. i may need to go over it with some dish soap. we'll try again tonight.

the landlord mentioned that it gets "humid" down here, and seems upset that i'm not running the dehumidifier, but i think he's misunderstood the problem. wetness on it's own doesn't cause musty odours, you need the presence of bacterial growth. that is, a humid apartment is only a smelly apartment if it is also a dirty apartment, so you don't solve mustiness by eliminating humidity, that's just glossing over the problem. you have to actually clean the bacteria out of the space. and, if you have sewage seeping in, the first thing to do is put a stop to it. in fact, the dehumidifier he appears to be running upstairs may be contributing to drying out the traps; it is probably making the problem worse. not only would running a dehumidifier down here at best cover up the problem rather than solve it, it would probably actually just make it worse.

if i've cut off the primary source of bacteria entering the space, that's a good start. now, i have to figure out how to actually clean up the mess....

so, i want to get that fan off, but it's the only source of moving air in the space, and is consequently probably going to need to stay on for quite a while, until i can get the place properly cleaned.

for right now, i've just got a few more html files to add to the master document, and should be posting relatively soon.