i should be rebuilding for the next few hours, at least.

i took advantage of a lull in the smoke to start rebuilding the apartment. i'm pretty sure i have the bedroom secured, so long as nobody smokes in the window; i've rebuilt the space so that everything is on the other side, and it's a more rational construction (closer to how i wanted it in the other apartment), so i'm happy about that.

what really happened was that it rained, which freaked me out a little, and made me realize i'd have to flip the living room around, too. so, i rebuilt the bedroom altogether. and then i started rebuilding the living room...

the rain was the best possible thing for the air quality in the unit, so i'm excited about more rain over the next few weeks, and a possible return to seasonable temperatures mid-month. it was so clear in the unit, that i thought maybe the letter had succeeded in modifying some habits.

it was about 3:00 that the illusion lifted, as a plume of smoke came up behind the closet - where i was setting up my keyboards - that was powerful enough to knock me out.

i now have that entire area tarped over, and i'm back to the waiting game, to see. i'll have to give it a week or two to see if that's enough...

i can't have my gear sitting over a smoke plume. i mean, my health is concern enough. but, if it's powerful enough to get me stoned, it's powerful enough to damage electronics.

as to the mechanics of this, it must be fairly exotic. occam's razor suggests that it seems like what is happening is that somebody is hotboxing the closet - that there are multiple people smoking in the enclosed unit with the intent of preventing circulation. but, there's no functional ceiling in the closet; the truth is that it's a dumb place to hotbox, because it's all just pluming out upwards.

another possibility is that she might actually be burning herb as a part of some kind of ritual, which just sounds like a waste of drugs, but explains why the cabinets are such a recurring problem. she may have some kind of shrine under there or something, and she may keep moving it because i keep blocking off the air with tarps.

whatever the source of this is, it's not a single individual smoking. it's either somebody burning it like incense, or it's multiple people burning large blunts at the same time. and, when it comes up in these waves, it hits you like exhaust from a bus or hot air from a hand dryer - if you're standing in it, it's like taking a deep hit on something. and, it's knocked me out, now, several times.

it's maybe easy to understand why the tape isn't working in some spaces, then. this isn't just a run-of-the-mill smoker. this is a smoke machine, of some sort. and, i'm going to need tarps or serious renos to resolve it.

i'll know by the end of the month whether i'm able to stop it, or if i'm going to need to seek a way out of the lease, with proper compensation.