Donkey Day Eve!  Tomorrow is the World Famous Lignieres Donkey Faire!  I've written about this event many times in the past and each time it seems a bit better to me, not the blog...the Faire itself.  More donkeys than you can shake a stick at, the most valuable are the Noir du Berry, all black, shiny short coat, intelligent and docile.  They were used to pull the canal boats thru the Berry Canal in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Others were used as well but the Noir was most prized because of it's tractable manner. I'll be taking yet another movie to post on Youtube as soon as I can upload it with this blasted
s-l-o-w as hell SFR 2G connection.  I'll post the link here or you can find my videos at www.youtube.com  search for hnlute. 
----
The trusty Avensis is in the courtyard getting cleaned up and out of most debris in preparation for our trip to Ireland on Wednesday.  Here to Cherbourg (yes...the umbrella city) then onto an Irish Ferry crossing to a place south of Dublin. The crossing takes about 17 hours so we got a cabin and made reservations for Fur-Rr-Ee as well. 
----
Went to Chezal Benoit this morning to attend another boringly similar brocante. Baby clothes and rusty tools took the day.  All we bought was a E1.60 pyramid of goat cheese covered with minced shallots, a real treat!  Light as a feather, slight goatyness and with a smooth angelic finish, wonderful stuff!  Once home we attacked it and ate 1/2 of it in about 15 minutes!  Delicious!  It is a specialty of this region of France and is the Best in the world in their opinion as well as ours.
----
When we got home we found a note from Liz asking about parking at 35 tomorrow...at first it seemed maybe we couldn't accept any auto visitors tomorrow but I managed to pull the Avensis further into the courtyard so I think she'll easily fit now.  Our neighbor, the Proxi owner/operator will not allow us anything but access in the alley that our back gate is located. No garbage cans, no parking overnight, nope...forget it!  We love him but he insists on this one little point and we obey it for the most part.  If we do park outside our gate is only to unload the vehicle and then she gets moved back to her place across the street.
---
Bye for now...

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!