Still Catching Up 12-4-14

Today we had to actually do a shopping, going to all our merchants.  I had bought food for Deb's return and up until now with a couple small purchases, and of course bread.   But today we had to actually get our food stocks up to date.  A bit sadly we found that the man we almost always dealt with at the wine shop has left and we'll have to develop another relationship going forward.  So it was a quiet day again.
But we did have a celebratory lunch, outside on our kitchen deck in the sunshine.  Then after a bottle of bubbly, I guess our motivation to get out was lacking, that and the fact that it was after 3;30 and the sun was getting low in the sky.
So tomorrow we'll try to show a little initiative and get out to the brocante market over on the street across the canal.  It has yielded more interesting little tidbits than almost any of the other markets. Maybe we'll get motivated to do something else as well.



Notes from Deb - Paris desole, Paris defiant
* I've been trying to gather my thoughts as we move around post-attack Paris. Our most used bus goes by 4 of the sites where people were killed. At each site, there are mounds of fresh flowers and burning candles, both refreshed regularly by quiet people coming to stand and read the handmade signs and poems. Yesterday, a violinist stood playing meditatively by the shuttered Cambodian restaurant that was so devastated. There is an elementary school on the same block, and each day the little children walk by the memorials, and the bullet holes in the walls. Across the street at an open bistro, there were people determinedly and consciously choosing to sit outside for coffee.

*It seems to me that there are fewer people about on the streets, but it is December and perhaps it's just that normal tourist season is past. When I left it was sunny autumn, when I returned it was winter in season and in spirit.

*There are pleas for tolerance from many sources on the media here. An interesting theme for this most tolerant of cities. Perhaps that tolerance is the very reason Paris was targeted. Tolerance seems to me to be under threat is so many places in the world at the moment, not the least in my beloved US.

*I am not bright enough to figure this all out so I will change topics.

*A small pleasant interaction at the post office today. I went to mail things to our landlady in Cyprus, and also to get stamps for some Christmas cards I hope to send. The latter caused a bit of trouble. I showed the clerk my card and asked for some international stamps. She couldn't find any. She had to ask two other, more senior employees. They did eventually find some, but in the meantime they all passed my card around and we had an amusing little conversation about Christmas card design (my card's simple stylized pine tree was adjudged "classique",  "tres correct" and "habile" (skilled)), then types of pine trees, mountains in Colorado, skiing in Colorado and whether or not Warren looked like a typical "Colorado Savage" as I suggested. He was dressed in a cashmere turtleneck and Armani blazer so was somewhat of a disappointment.

*Just in the short time I was gone there are changes in the neighborhood (there were too many in Denver to count over the 8 months.) Here the newest street art, done by an artist named Levelet has been torn down, sadly and unexpectedly. However we discovered another, mercifully intact, just a few blocks away. The artist does witty installations utilizing odd bits of architecture as frames or structures on which to paste his figures of people. This latest one uses some projecting horizontal bars to act as "shelves" for sleeping or dead figures. One represents a dead king, another a street person. Witty. (Habile?)

*Both our old butcher and our charming wine guy are gone. Sad for us, Both were so gracious and nice to us, and added to our enjoyment of the neighborhood.

*Found the exact grapefruit knife I'd been searching for for months at a small cooking store not 4 blocks away. Foolishly, I'd given up and bought a couple of not-quite-what-I-wanted at one of the Grand Magazines. I should have known better. Everything you really want or need is available in your own neighborhood. A person could easily have outfitted a restaurant with what was available from this little store. And in all probability most of the neighboring restaurants have.

*A dear friend, Susan Noll, asked an interesting question: Aren't you guys getting tired of museums? After some thought I realized that I'm not. I guess for me, museums are just like books, each individual, some more appealing than others, but most worth at least a cursory look. Besides, with more than 450 museums in Paris, we haven't had time to more than scratch the surface.

* I owe apologies to so many of you who left kind voicemails and emails while I was in Denver. I'm so sorry I didn't get back to you. It was just such a hurried, pressured time. I'm quite an old dud anymore, and just had to ration my energy to cope with what I needed to do. I would have much preferred to have gotten to visit with you dears,  but just had to attend to other requirements on this trip. I do thank you so much for all your kind thoughts.

* And lastly I need to send grateful thoughts to all the people who helped me get so much done in my short time in Colorado. Bankers who went out of their way to find ways to work around stupid, nonsensical paperwork requirements. Nurses who worked us in for appointments. Moving men who were patient and careful. Legal people who answered dimwitted questions. Doctors who listened and answered carefully and caringly. Poor dear Elizabeth who picked my up at the airport, let me invade her house and then agreed to a much less than pleasant packing gig. And always, always Warren who supports me in all the stupid things I get myself involved in. And then has to put up with an exhausted wife who comes straggling home. A million good thoughts and thanks to all of you!