My Sitcom Morning

We get all our mail delivered to a box at the post office. One: the mailbox on our door is really, really small and not for people who get actual mail. Two: it gives me an excuse to take a nice walk every morning (although not overly thrilling when it's pouring).

So I do my usual routine this morning. We were waiting for a letter from our insurance company, because we're changing policies for various bureaucratic reasons. The letter cancelling our contract arrived this morning. I stopped on the road back from the post office, next to a stone wall, to call JM on the cell phone and tell him. He wanted me to see if there was a check in the envelope (there wasn't). But, I had the cell phone, the keys, Maggie and the other mail. As I was trying to juggle it all a gust of wind comes and grabs the letter.

Does the letter fall into the street? Of course not! It gently floats over the wall and lands in the garden that is 40 feet below!!!!! The house belonging to the garden is closed up tight and, fitting in with the theme of the day, their gate is locked. I just stood there looking at my little white envelope lying forlornly at the bottom of that garden!!

Although it was beautiful and sunny this morning, rain was predicted for later on (and DID come in buckets!!!), and the people who own the house are only there on weekends!

Luckily, I decided to see if our insurance agent, who has an office in town, had a copy of the letter. She did!! So, all's well. But I was quite the embarrassed Possum for much of this morning! I think I won't be setting any letters down anywhere outside in the near future!

Ciao for now.

Randy

Transportation

Next month, I’m having a small surgical procedure that will hopefully help reduce the number of headaches that I have. It has to be done in the hospital in Toulouse, as they're the only place nearby equipped to do this type of thing. The hospital has a great reputation, BTW.

Still, it's two-hours from here and I need to be there at 8 am. Now, although JM could drive me, he really doesn't drive all that much and it will mean a very, very long day, i.e. getting up at 4:30 so we can both shower, etc.

Then, I'm not sure how long things will take, and here, we don't have a garden where Maggie can come and go as she pleases. We'd have to find a neighbor who was available to take her out for walks during the day, etc. So, I started thinking it makes much more sense for JM just to stay here.

But, that left me with the little problem of getting home from the hospital. Clearly, after anesthesia, I'm not going to be allowed to drive (and probably won't feel like it either).

Then, I learned one of those things that really is different here from in the U.S. If you are going for a hospitalization (and this is considered one, even if it's out-patient surgery), you are eligible for an ambulance-taxi to take you there and back. It's paid for by your medical insurance if your doctor writes you a prescription!

So, I had some other paperwork that I needed my doc to fill out today, and he filled the transportation form out as well. Then, I merely called the local taxi service, she set me the appointment and she'll come and pick me up at 6 am the morning of surgery.

I asked about getting home. She told me that if the hospital knows what time I'll be finished, she'll just come back for me. Otherwise, the hospital will call her. That's all there is to it. I don't have to pay anything, I don't think.

When I told my doc that nothing like this exists in the U.S., he seemed really surprised. "What do you do?" he asked me. Well, that is the $64,000 question, isn't it?

Ciao for now.

Randy

Comparing Life Here and There

I realized recently that sometimes my posts sound as if I think everything here in France is better than what I left back in the States. That would be a wrong assumption to make; so I've decided to talk about some comparisons of various things in the two places.

First, let's talk about food. Certainly there ARE foods in the U.S. that I look on with fondness. It's not a question of being better or worse, just being different. For example, as I've often mentioned, Chinese food here is not at all the same as Chinese food in the U.S. But, then again, Chinese food in California is not the same as Chinese food in Philadelphia or New York!

We've recently found a terrific new "Chinese" restaurant in Laroque. Although, as is often the case here, it's more Vietnamese, and in this particular case, Thai than what we would normally think of as Chinese. It's excellent and I'm glad we found it, but it is not quite the same as some of our favorite L.A. places.

Clearly though, in the main, food here comes out ahead of food in the States. But that's mostly because food is really a cultural thing here as opposed to just stuff that you eat.

There are some non-food, weird things that I find vastly superior in the U.S. to what is available here. Now, don't laugh, but I far prefer household items such as aluminum foil, plastic wrap, plastic storage bags, paper towels, kleenex, etc., from the States. It's odd that such simple items can be so different. I'm sure it's what you get used to, but Reynold's Wrap is just superior to anything that I've found here. Okay, I know, I'm weird to even think about it.

Clothing. In the U.S. you have a far, far greater selection of inexpensive clothing than I've found here. Now, part of that may be because we're really not in a big shopping area. It would probably be different if we were to go to stores in Paris or even Toulouse. But I haven't found anyplace (so far) with the selection you find at most U.S. department stores or even Target. I DO find a lot of things that are better quality than what was available at Target, but you pay for it.

Another problem that I have, but this is probably just me, is finding clothing that is long enough! I'm taller than the average Frenchwoman, and clothing lengths reflect that. Sometimes, with things like pants leg length, it's a bit of a challenge.

Then, there are shoes. I find decent shoes to be really expensive here. And, again, probably because of where we live, it is difficult for me to find really comfortable shoes. Yes, there are some decent things at the Gamm Vert, but overall I have not been lucky in the shoe department.

So, you can see that I'm not jingoistic about France. I do love it here and don't consider any of the above differences to be major hurdles. But they are things that have struck me. I'm sure there are many more little things I've noticed, but that will do for today.

Ciao for now.

Randy

Under the Weather

Real weather, that is, not illness!

When you live in the western part of the U.S., you always hear people saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." And, it can be changeable over there. But, today, I've seen a change that really astonished me.

Yesterday was really a beautiful day. Sunny and cool in the morning, but it warmed up to around 22 C in the afternoon (that's around 71 F), and even when we went to take Maggie for her evening walk, it was still around 14 or 15 C (mid-to-upper 50s). All in all, very pleasant , even if it did get a bit cloudy in the latter part of the day.

However, everyone was saying, "Oh, watch out for tonight!" And, the Meteo called for temps hardly above freezing and snow today. I figured that HAD to be a mistake. How could it change so quickly?

Around 5 am, there was a terrified Border Collie trembling on our bed! The wind was howling so fiercely that it sounded like the chimneys were going to blow over; hail or something sounded like it was actually blowing down into the chimney in our bedroom.

Needless to say, there was very little sleep going on beyond that point. At 7 o'clock, we got up and opened the shutters. Better to keep them closed if we don't want them coming off their hinges. There was an icy drizzle falling and it was COLD!

By 9 am we had snow. And this isn't the gentle-soft-fluffy kind either. Nope, this is icy-in-your-face snow. I needed a few things at the Huit á 8 and decided to walk instead of drive (my first impulse). That was a mistake. The wind was blowing the sharp snow crystals so hard that there were times I couldn't see and I actually had to close my eyes because it hurt!

This charming weather condition is called the "Tramontane," and it's the first time we've had it here since we moved. It's this region's version of the notoriousMediterannean "Mistral," and I can see why no one likes it.

Still, the theory is that things will warm up a bit later today, although relatively yucky weather seems to be called for most of the week. I guess we're paying the piper for the glorious days we've had lately...

Ciao for now.

Randy