"Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects"

" No one knows what happened that day,
how his car overturned in flames"

Oh dear! A sleepless night, I'm totally dazed.
Billie was staying over last night, and shortly after going to bed she came back downstairs to tell me a strange noise was keeping her awake. Sure enough a strange tapping noise was coming from the walls. It was (is) raining very hard, in fact hail stones at that point. She slept in my bed to avoid the noise, but by the time I went up, said noise had spread to my room and was much much louder. Me being the worrier I am I was kept awake for nearly all the night listening but mostly worrying, in much the same way my tinnitus used to get to me. (I obviously did get some sleep as I had a couple of what can only be described as nightmares - see me for details).
When we came downstairs early this morning (sadly to take Billie to a funeral) there was obvious water damage to my ceiling and wall. I can only imagine water must be dripping behind the cladding on the dormer and finding it's way down the inside wall.
On 'paper' this sounds pretty dull and matter of fact, but it's really eating me up. First the financial implication, but it's also like the straw that broke the proverbial. Lot's of little problems (and one or two big ones), piled on top of my own abundant insecurities and neuroses, equals a messed up Billy. Some days I find it hard to function at all.
To misquote Casablanca 'the problems of one little person don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world', but when you spend 99% of time in your own company, and devout hermits admire your style, then problems tend to get dwelt on, worries tend to get overblown, and personality flaws amplified, a smidgen.

I've contacted the insurance company, it'll be next week before someone comes to look at it, and the forecast for the next few days - rain! (metaphorical and literal) - be seeing you!

“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose” - George Carlin