Legwork and Life, week of 11/5/18

This is Legwork and Life, where I track the legwork and opportunities in my career as an autistic advocate, and also describe parts of my adult autistic life, including my perspectives on everyday problems and situations.

Hello from my house, where the cold weather has finally set in properly and the pond out back is starting to freeze in pretty patterns.  

I'm pretty sure if I tried walking on this, my foot would immediately sink through.  Still looks nice!

It's taking longer to recover from the trip to CT than I was hoping.  I'm not sure if that's a function of there being mold in the house somewhere, or the fact that I immediately tried to hop back into almost every weekly event, or what.  It's clearly not blameable on the algae outside, though.  I'm kind of loathe to go on a witch-hunt through my house for mold, but if there's been a lesson in the last year or so, it's, "Are you feeling bad suddenly?  It's probably mold or some kind of environmental factor!"

Maybe my biggest issue with doing these mold hunts is that it's never really a simple question of "well, best check the refrigerator."  It might be the refrigerator, of course.  It might be the shower (which did have mold in it when we bought it).  It might be the sump pump, which has standing water in it at all times (but I was told didn't have mold when they inspected it).  Or it might be something on the kitchen counter, because sometimes that just happens.  Other possible places include faulty window sealants, the air conditioning, and the carpet. 

It's overwhelming and frustrating to even consider, because I don't necessarily know what I'm looking for, or even if I'll recognize it when I find it.  There are something like 100,000 different types of mold, some of them much more subtle than others.  When I'm already feeling bad or foggy-headed, I'm really not interested in taking on a project of that potential magnitude.  

In theory, I suppose this is where I should be calling in my spouse.  In practicality, doing that feels like I'm bothering him and wasting his limited free time on what might well be a fruitless search.  So mainly, I just tough it out until I can't any more or the source is found accidentally.  (Why yes, this is very stupid and not at all advised, thanks for noticing!)