Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wednesday! Smoked Trout!


SITTING DRINKING OUR MORNING COFFEE AND WHAT DO i SEE BUT lIZ WALK BY OUR FRONT WINDOW HEADED TOWARD THE pROXY market next door. Then Kelly detected that something had been placed in our mailbox...yes...smoked trout! To a Sicilian bred soul such as myself this is a |message| and NOT a good one. To the logical Californian they are fish to be consumed with great joy. A conundrum no doubt but one easily solved. So out the door I go to see if that was indeed Liz and yes, there she is with her gas bottle to be exchanged with the Proxy man coming along with a trolley to make the task a bit easier. We made a date to be at Liz's this afternoon for a chat.

With that interaction over I was ready for more! |let's go downtown and see everyone| I said to Kelly when I returned from the gas bottle exchange business. And so it was that we left shortly to walk the 1/4 mile to the heart of Lignieres to see what we could see. First to the bank to get a money amount transferred to the seller of the video card I bought and may never see for $56.50 Euros...17E of it shipping charges! Ahem! That took a bit of explaining to the bank employees, two cuter people do not exist hereabouts (both very female). Soon it was only up to printing the receipts and much paper try swapping and printer door slapping ensued and finally...the receipts appeared and we were happily off. Then to stop at the Pharmacy to visit with the owner and say how overjoyed we are to be back in town. Then to the Tourist Board to chat with Mum Marie C who has a new baby boy! Joy of joys! What a cutie he is too...Christoff I think was the name she said. Beautiful indeed! Finally back through town and to the Bain Douche to see how the renovations are going, wow! what a fine theatre it's going to be! Then into the Marie (City Hall) to enquire about getting a card to use the garbage dump which was done in short order, then home to sit here and write this missive and get ready to go out to Lis's place and sit for a while and chat like old friends do. We NEED to see Sue and Dave too...and will.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Tuesday like Monday only Tuesday

Up in the am about 7:30, seems respectable. Let my duck sleep another hour before I yelled for someone to play with. These days her neck pain has been such a constant presence that it affects everything we do. She found a local person, sounds like a kind of Chiropractor and I think..."what the hell, do it!". We'll see.
Dave and Sue are due back in the afternoon. We did well by the garden it looks like. It's still there and growing by the hour in the bright French sun. No sun today, cloudy and cool. I baked a failed loaf of bread today, I fear the yeast has reached it's age and isn't

working well. I baked a second loaf and it responded with a beautiful loaf indeed. Live and learn, I'll buy fresh yeast tomorrow.
Weeded parts of the courtyard, looks a bit better with lots more to go. Dave lent me his string trimmer which presented itself with some minor problem, I could use it about 1 minute between re-fittings of the cover of the spool. I went with Kelly to Leroy Merlin the huge hardware/garden/home improvement store in Chateauroux and couldn't find a replacement spool at all. They has the homelite brand of trimmers but no replacement spools! What a bitch. So I now use a pair of clippers and my hands to do in 20 minutes what that string trimmer does in one. Awful.
Last night I experienced yet another hallucination...this time a well eaten pillow case and sheet where the little mouse (in full 3D, was eating the cloth between the inked in images on the toile de jouy. I stared at it as it ate and ate, I reached out to tough it and it was gone...zip, flash...gone! I put my head down once again on the pillow and went to sleep.
Jesus it is soooo spooky! I fear that I won't come out of these things and am trapped in some other world experience. Not nice I'll tell you. Yes, I take my meds everyday, some 11 of them. Shit!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Today, tomorrow? Huh?

We drove off this morning to get fuel...gazoil at the local super-market/gas station at 1.34 a liter. Filled the Toyota with 12 gallons for about 60 USD. About the same as in our corner of the US...about 5.00 USD per gallon. Then we were off to Chateauroux for a days shopping for everything possible. Chateauroux is about 20 miles from Lignieres, due west.
We first went to the junk stores on the SE side of the city, We wandered the aisles looking over all the stuff, some imported these days. We found a embroidery of a parlor scene that was quite charming and cheap at 8 Euros. Then an oil painting of a scene of farming in the 19th century. Both fir some part of our idea of how our Maison du Bourg should be decorated. We bought them both. I looked over the computer monitors and systems the had but they just didn't fit our particular need these days.
Then to find Eurodif closed, so then to Babou where I fond the ceramic knives we bought last week. They are as sharp as Exacto blades I tell you, very, very sharp and dangerous to the uninitiated.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Another spring in Ligni__er Paradise

Arrived in Lignieres in the afternoon of 12 May, flight was ok...American Airlines from SFO to Chicago where because of a certain lack of cash and no ATM at the airport left us food-less...with all those beautiful Chicago Pizzas just waiting for us. Ah, use a CC...no, their CC verification system was down for the duration. No pizza. No drinks, we shared a rather ordinary 9.95 cent Ham and Cheese sandwich from fancy, swancy ___________
, boring, ordinary and gummy to boot. Oh well. On the plane from Chicago to CDG in Paris we were subjected to the most surly, rude and obstructive air crew members I've had in many a year. No water, lousy food served in an totally off-hand manner with the entree portion literally thrown onto the tray in front of us! Wow, what service! NOT!

From CDG we taxi'd it to Austerlitz and Kelly bought us 2nd class tickets on the choo-choo to Issodun where we were met by Sue and Dave. I was so rummy, jet lagged beyond sleep into the woozy world of the near unconscious time to time. The house upon arrival looked little worse for wear in the absence of 20 some odd months. The next 3 to 4 days were spent sleeping here and there, me on the couch, then in a chair, Kelly in bed then in a different couch...up at 3am and back to sleep at 9am...all so very awful. Came to about 5 days after arrival. Furry was fine through it all, no accidents, no problems whatsoever. The first weekend we stayed home on Saturday then went with Sue and Dave to a series of brocantes south of Chateauroux. We bought damned little, they did better and bought more. They told us they were leaving for UK on Tuesday and asked if we would water their garden in their absence so we have been doing our duty since. They will return Tuesday afternoon. WE WENT TO TWO brocantes today (Sunday) and bought not one damned thing as is the rule with us these days, we have everything so it has to be either a replacement item or something really wonderful to tempt us into a purchase.
Came home and made a pair of chicken sandwiches for my Duck and I and agreed that they were dinner for the day...late lunch it was after the early afternoon lazies hit us and we both napped shamelessly. 3:30 lunch it was. Afterwards I tore into the courtyard full of weeds with Dave's borrowed motorized weed whipper. It was the correct tool but the spool needs replaced so we'll buy a replacement on our trip to Chateauroux tomorrow. 'Til then kiddies, another spoiled American in paradise.