What a crazy day this has been. Nothing serious, just a lot of small but strange things.

For the last couple of years, life has presented me with a whole new world every day. I try to deal with it by establishing routines, at least, since any schedule I might try to establish would be more of a joke.

This morning a friend tried to help by offering breakfast. Sweet, but my “train day” routine is to grab a smoothie at the station. So okay, nice breakfast but I reached the station with just time to dash to my seat. The train was packed with vacationers, not the usual half-full car of businessmen at all. I had to evict a squatter from my seat, then fend off a pan handler,  on the train. Panhandlers never do that.

When staff arrived to ask her to leave, she had a bit of a meltdown. I could see how disturbed she was. It is one of the great shames of the US that such a wealthy nation throws its mentally ill onto the streets. I am sad to see that this may be happening in France as well.

So off we went. The guy across the aisle wants to play with Jacques but the lady just in front of me is horrified by him, so I spend the next three hours monitoring canine migration patterns.

We arrive. Julien is there, worried that I will finish the house and not need a handyman any more. Come on, this is France. No way will I not need a handyman.  So we talk about work. I find that I can actually speak coherently in French. This us good. The lessons are psying off. It would be better if the conversation weren’t all about car registrations and leaky pipes. Oh, and the fact that due to last week’s escapade, the locking hardware on the door is destroyed. Oh, well.

On to the house. It looks different because, out of the blue,   the metal guy appeared. My portico and handrails are gone. Let’s hope they return.

By this time I had been surprised nonstop for about ten hours straight. Enough already. why do I even do this? Well, this is why. This is the view from my dining room.