Easter Monday, huh?

Blog entry 03-24-08 an Easter Monday
Ah well, besides freezing every minute of every day so far, I cannot get on-line...nor can I watch TV,
the why's of these little inconveniences have eluded me for the last 24 hours, a few answers, a few more questions. The router...(Alice-Box) in our case a “Live-Box” is anything BUT. It flashes every light it has and actually Saturday nite I connected to the I-net, received our email, read it and then sent many “safe arrival” messages to our friends and family. Then Sunday Morning it was inert, lots of flashing lights but no connection, not even wirelessly from the laptop. What gives here? At the Easter Drunk, oops...dinner with 24 other hungry Brits I approached Don with my problem, he said his Live Box died and had been replaced after much railing at France Telecom. Ah ha! But in HIS case the damnable box was DEAD...not flashing every light and not connecting to anything. Further...the bloody telephone line has a dial tone. Hmmmm. The Easter Dinner was at The Black Price's Castle, spectacular as always and much work has been completed...all the interior walls of the bergerie have been insulated and dry-walled over to make it possible to use year round. Such fun, so many familiar faces and all the kissie-kiss greetings make it a most festive occasion. Much wine flows, many long and involved conversations with people we haven't seen in 6 months. It's charming beyond words to have this connection with so many others, we have a large extended family here, people we care about and want to be with. It's why we come back.

EASTER MONDAY...the Monday after Easter Sunday. We fire up Teresa the trusty Toyota and head off to do our chores. First the Bank, Credit Agricole, HA! It's closed. Shit ...oops merde'. Then off to St Amand to find out why our telephone service has been cut off...besides the fact that we didn't have enough money in our account to have the autopay actually PAY because EDF had DRAINED our account by 265 Euros per month for the last 6 months because they couldn't get inside to read our meter! Thus the Telephone people weren't paid and we have no actual telephone (yes a signal that indicates that the line is there but nothing but incoming calls are allowed) service...no phone, no DSL!!! So we drive thru the beautiful green countryside admiring the trees and forest and puffy cloud cover.
Upon arriving in St. Amand we discover that the France Telecom office is quite closed...oh no!! It's some kind of HOLIDAY! Oh no...tricked again by our always open economy, church be damned.
The boulangerie is, of course, open until all the bread is sold out or nearly so as far as we can tell. I stop at the one nearest our house and buy a loaf for today's repast for $1.05 Euros, at the current $1.55 USD to 1 Euro that makes this loaf cost $1.63 in real (read US) terms. Still a bargain but it could be much better.

So we while away the evening watching French TV and having Earl Grey tea with a bit of Cognac and a lump of demerara sugar to keep off the chill. The house remains at 43.5 degrees F. We have placed the small oil-filled convection heater in the office room and it is holding fast now at 57.7 degrees F. Cold but warmer than anywhere else hereabouts. The other heat source, a somewhat larger oil-filled heater is in the dining room downstairs and diectly under our bedroom (heat does rise), these are the two rooms we have decided to keep warm for ourselves and any guests that drop by with and without invitation. The cats are definitely unhappy with the cold, fur or not, the annual molt and upchucking of hairballs is over for now. They seek us out to lay on and about us, on top when we are in bed. We made the bed over using Ted's electric blanket, a BIG help. The 6” pile of quilts, blankets and thermal sheets were barely adequate, the electric blanket is The Answer (until you turn it on while any of the other heating appliances are on full blast..then it's LIGHTS OUT)! Yes we blow the main circuit breaker until we figure out what can be on and how much, then we rest.