Deb's Six Month Ruminations 7-31-15

Six months already!

*Holy Parisian Cow! We've been here half a year. The time has just evaporated. Yet I look back and we've done so many things that I know we weren't letting any grass grow under our feet. (I'm currently into pastoral motifs.)

*A dear friend, Mary Schreiner, just asked me what we miss, being here. The answer that immediately leapt into my mind is that we miss our friends. Miss just being able to ring you up and go to dinner and spend an evening visiting. Miss knowing what-all you're doing. Thank you a gazillion times for your emails. I love hearing your "voice", however electronic.

*And silly as I'm sure it sounds I miss our cat, Mapie. A house without a cat is soul-less. Elizabeth has been so kind, sending photos of our fur-friend, but I miss patting a furry belly, and miss the thump-thump of her jumping on the bed in the darkness, then a warm purring presence by my side (Warren's purrs are somewhat less euphonious.) Miss her presence and consciousness, especially when I'm puttering with the plants. How can one garden without cat supervision?

*Miss getting books at the library. Books, especially English books, are expensive and not widely available here, and, old codger that I am, I haven't completely adapted to electronic books. Especially for art books. I miss the luxury of getting a dozen books at the library and guiltlessly abandoning any that didn't suit me.

*Miss my yoga class, the discipline and direction of a teacher. I'm sporadic and haphazard in my practice, forgetting many poses.



Warren really misses his bicycling, both the exercise and camaraderie. The biking is one of the areas that certainly didn't work out like we'd thought.

*But overall, that's really all I can think of missing. Perhaps it's because I know this is an interlude. It's not where we live, and soon (much too soon, I'm thinking) we'll be back. So if we miss Mexican food, we make do with spicy Thai. If it's an ordeal to buy a certain bolt, I'm glad it isn't my house and that I only have to deal with trivial home issues here. We're just enjoying the exotic pleasures of being here, trying to drink them in without being totally overwhelmed.

*Among the things I don't miss:

*My asthma. Even though the air here is much dirtier than Denver, my lungs don't recognize this "foreign" dirt and I've had a blessed 6 months without one wheeze, and very few coughs in the morning. What fun!

*Driving as much as I'm used to. All the walking here has just been wonderful. I do have to admit, though, that recourse to a car when you're not up to par is a lovely luxury.

*Watching much TV. We only get news & business channels in English, and they repeat themselves endlessly after about 20 minutes. Watching the French channels taxes our limited language skills and requires concentration. So all in all, we've pretty much eliminated mindless viewing. I did watch an hour of a Harry Potter movie the other evening and it was great sport to be able to figure out almost all of the dialog. Who knew a wand was a "baguette"?