Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Rainy Tuesday, just like rainy Monday and Rainy Sunday...wet, sloppy and cold.  Up at 4am local time for no reason at all.  Lay there stonelike admiring the warmth of my oh so soft and unfirm wrap-around mattress...just the way someone liked it a VERY long time ago.  Sorta like lying down in a hay loft but less firm.  Warm is good.  Then back to a fitfull sleep waiting til 9 am stream of the Space X commecial launch to the ISS high in orbit above the Atlantic.  Yes, it left on time and perfectly.  Will deliver goods and stuff to the ISS by a COMMECIAL PRIVATE company.  A first!  Good for them and good for us too as this'll cut down the NASA budget a bit and they can spend it on things other than support of the ISS.

Yesterday the Irish Ferry boonedogle reared it's ugly head again...not only did they need the bloody booking number...they wanted us to add Furry to our reservation ourselves! Huh?! How...tried to sign in but don't have whatever name we used nor the inevitable password to the site and no email we had expressed either of those precious things.  So low level panic as the email said they only take 12 "pets" aboard the ferry and we'd better be prompt about getting the reservation modified to include her.
I wrote back that I did not possess the name or password and how could I do this myself?  Night fell...this morning after the launch (must get these priorities straightened out) I attempted the rather simple act of Dialing a damned number on their site to talk to someone in reservations (sorry...bookings) about the situation.  I could not dial the bloody number to save my life.  I tried a dozen times and was just about to launch the damned thing out the fucking window once and for all when Kelly intervened, "Why don't you take the papers and the phone to Dave and Sue's, maybe they can help, they have a free phone".  With that I was off to our helpmates about a 5 minute ride up the road.  There, Sue made quick work of the cell phone, finding it was key locked, once she dialed it was all errors until I figured out we were actually calling Dublin, Ireland NOT Cherbourg, France!  So thru the papers I flew and I found the French number, she dialed it with her phone and soon I was connected to a sweet, helpful and effective person who changed the res for me on the spot.  We are now set. Hopefully.

Kelly's working on the Guest Room curtains (my bedroom...you get the drift...zzzzzz)  white with a puffy French black border. Nice.  I'm sitting here listning to BB King and John Lee Hooker and writing this durge to a very quiet readership...small but loyal you all are. Thank you for your comments when you do make them...it gives me some satisfaction.  Smack!  A sloppy kiss your way!










 

Monday, May 21, 2012

Marketing In The Fine French Rain

Yes, today is Lundi, Monday, Market Day in the market village of Lignieres as has been the case for at least 700 years or so.  Long enough to know what to bring (a bag, sack, duffle or BIG hands) and what to say to obtain the Broccoli of your imagination , ie: "Mr...un Brocolli SVP", and watch as he looks blankly back with no recognition at all like I am transparent. Musta been the accent I think...so I try again standing right in front of the broccoli display and pointing at the one I want..."Merci...Un broccoli SVP". Nothing.  He looks around as though to find someone else to help this hapless idiot (me!).  I pick up the broccoli...and hand it to him, he gasps "Ah Oiu!" and smiles...I wince and shrug my shoulders. Another wonderful English-French battle just took place...The Battle of The Lignieres Market circa 2012.  I then, quite normally without any histrionics or vapid silliness manage to purchase 8 red, ripe tomatoes...from the south of course...all the same like the fine tomatoes from everywhere we get in California in December.  Perfect!


First we had driven to the vet to get Furry a looksee by the local vet for her PassPURRT. Got an appt for 2:15 this afternoon. Be there with bells on.

Then we went off to the Cafe Commerce with Liz and Nick for a Chocolate or two...Nick paid, blessings all around!  Very good too.  Scheduled a lunch with them Wednesday afternoon, she and he are excellent cooks!  We chatted about the goose testicles she just made, very delicate in flavor and beautifully sauces with a spicy sauce of her making.  We will be having hen...french hen this lunch however and not the Hen's Balls as she informed me. Too small I think.

Then after all this we journeyed towards Chateaunuef Sur Cher to the Garbage Dump so nicely ensconced in the middle of the local forest. This done to obtain it's opening times so we can take some of the junk we have on the premises there for disposal. Like the old cracked toilet and a few bags of weeds.

More photos for you too...









Sunday, May 20, 2012

A Rainy Sunday sees the masses headed out...not to a church silly...to a brocante! Used crap and new Crap spread out on the pavement or any handy flat surface.  Today it is featuring rain just like the weather persons said would happen tomorrow.  So be it, we stay home, rest the clutch leg and work around the house finding shit to take to the "emmaus"...a charity very much like our Goodwill Industries.  We have over-furnished this enormous maison (house)...many too many dust catchers, books and old computer parts, clothing etc.  All can be easily dropped off at the Emmaus in St. Amand or Chateauroux so we shall do it.  Tomorrow though we need to read and understand what we have to do to have Fur-Rr-Ee cross the sea with us to Ireland in another 10 days.  Rabies and the Pet Passport are the main items to deal with.  She is up to date in California but maybe not here and maybe not in the Pet Passport either.  Needs fixing a vet does. 

I changed the electrical spider arrangement at the landing on the 2nd floor...to elliminate extra power cables and to better distribute the juice (240/50Hz killer AC) throughout the 2nd floor bedrooms and computer room/office.  Eventually I'll use those connections to guide the new wiring I'm going to do to solve our extended power outage issue.  I can handle that  business...redo the wiring with new and a couple of junction boxes serving the dining room, kitchen and larder/prep room as well as the 2nd floor rooms.  But...I'm NOT going to start on it before the Ireland Expedition with Katie and Paul starring Ireland, East, West, South and North.  I'm really looking forward to it as it is the origin of our first generatuion Irish-Americans...who left from Donegal a very long time ago.

And I had a run in with a very upset 50cm long Bumblebee buzzing around in my kitchen-of-Doom-and-some-Good-Things.  She was buzzing around nicely trying to get out the very closed windows and suddenly changed her mind and flew into the left side of my head just in back of my ear!  Noooooo way was I going to get stung by one of these creatures AGAIN this year (back in California) so I used both my hands to rapidly and forcefully remove her before she curled up and let me have it!  My glasses, without which I am one very blind man, flew from my head and I heard them land and apparently BREAK (!%#$##!) somewhere in front of me.  So where did the Bee go?  I didn't know at the time...I just wanted to see!  But the wayward glasses were nowhere to be found by touching like the blind fool I was there fumbling around on all 4's on the ancient tile floor.  So I stood up and found my way carefully to the foot of the stairs and called out for Kelly...who soon arrived and threw me out the front door as the Bee of Death was still with me...on the back of my sweatshirt, planning her next attack on a more sensitive spot...down there!  She plucked the little monster off my shirt and into the street where it dusted itself off from this terrible insult and promptly flew away.  Then we went into the kitchen and hunted for the not so long lost glasses, not here, not there, under, on-top, in back of?  Yes, in back of the kitchen cabinets and underneigth to boot.  Soon she fished them out, I replaced the lens in it's rightful place ans that was that.  Nice huh? 

I have some pictures today too: Between Lignieres and St. Amand there grow a few POPPIES...enjoy!!