I searched our old address in France on Google and looked at the satellite image - it was like a trip back in time to just over a year ago when we came back from touring determined to fix the place up and sell it so we could move to the US. In the photo the shutters are off and yet to be painted, the front door is the dark green we decided against eventually, the massive barn door is scraped and only partially undercoated.
The satellite photo is dated December 2010. A year later, we're living on another continent. Maybe that explains why I feel tired and disoriented a lot of the time. When I'm not ecstatic.
Had some of my family here for Christmas. Managed to cook dinner for everyone even though we ran out of propane in the middle of the preparations, and Eric and my brother Riley had to drive all over Greene County trying to refill the tank (the 24-hour Home Depot kiosk chose Christmas Eve to break down). Riley's girlfriend Natalie used her iphone to locate a propane dealer, Nick's Gas.
"Nick, do you have gas?"
"Excuse me, what do you want?"
"We need gas Nick, we need gas! To cook with, for our Christmas dinner!"
"I am closing in three minutes. Also, I am not Nick."
"Please, uh - sir. They are coming now! Please stay open, please stay open."
How many times did we run out of cooking gas in the French countryside just as the juices started to flow from a high-priced chicken? Maybe the problem wasn't France after all.
But the festivities were festive and everybody loved the new house. Then we made it to the city and figured out how to make money down there: if you avoid getting a parking ticket, look at that $75 you don't end up owing as income! Better yet, go to Hoboken for the last Yo La Tengo Hanukkah show, don't get booted by the Hoboken parking police, and bam - that $150 we didn't end up having to pay (as some of the audience members and even one of the performers did) is now surplus lining our pockets.
That way of thinking made me feel good for a day or two, now it's back to reality and lining up/looking for work.
And trying to update my website/blog etc. I've started to find the white type on black harder and harder to read. Anyone else? I wish I could integrate my music site with the blog - it's all looking a bit disjointed to me.Out of date. But just like everything else after a major relocation, it seems like you can't do one thing without first doing three other things. Aesthetics, technology, culture...yes it's all accessible from everywhere but I feel a little left behind. So I just have to watch every episode of Breaking Bad - then I'll know what to do, right?
In the meanwhile, these ornaments have to go back in the box and the tree has to go...where? Do they pick it up here? Or can I take it to the dump. At least I know where that is - just out past Nick's Gas...
15 comments:
Yes! Please lose the white-text-on-black-background. It fairly shouts, "don't read me!"
Thanks for that - I've started to realize it, don't know what took so long! The same goes for my website...
I find it difficult...but I don't see all that well in any case so thought it was just me.
I'm trying to reorganise my bloggingtoo...oh, but the complications!
I'm going to have another attempt next week when The Men will do in San Jose renovating the (old) new house.
Have a great New Year.
Happy New Year Amy (and Eric)! I also prefer dark type on a lighter background -- but my contacts are as thick as Coke bottle bottoms so I don't think I'm a good judge.
I have to go with the consensus, Amy. Ditch the white on black. Even with my newfangled screen glasses (to save my neck from looking up at the screen through the bottom of my variable focus lenses) it's fuzzy. But so is everything else these days....
death to the white font/black background! when i switch from your blog to a screen with a white background, my eyes produce this Venetian blinds effect that takes a good 30 seconds to fade away!! thanks!
Oh,I am sorry about the eyesight thing. I just have a thing for photos and graphics against the black...but for actual reading it does seem to be getting harder. The easy thing would be to just switch to another Blogger template - but can I do that without thinking I have to change everything? (I do have to change everything, but might as well start somewhere easy).
I don't have a problem with the white on black - & I often have trouble focusing on type via computer. Guess it's just me, though.
Happy new year to you & Eric - E
It started to vibrate in front of my eyes a little while back, Erica. Hadn't even thought it was a problem before. But change is hard...
happy New Year to you, you know Eric's playing ("the hits"!) out in Seattle & Portland next month?
I'm a big, big fan of Wordpress - it's a blogging platform that can also manage a website. Switching, while not without its learning curve, isn't impossible - you can export your blog from Blogger and import it into Wordpress. Might be worth considering...
I've nosed around on Wordpress several times, Katherine, and am always put off by the learning curve...but in a lot of ways it looks like the best solution.
Hang in there, Amy. Also - about the new country thing. I was telling Eric, I don't know if he mentioned it, but I met this girl who came back from Japan on a course from college and the college actually had this thing called an Un-Immersion course. Apparently, to exist in a country you have to immerse yourself in the culture and customs and when you come back you un-immerse.
I was so glad there was a word for it other than "i feel like I've been in a coma" or "homesick".
I notice it when I go back to the UK. You say euro instead of dollar. metro instead of subway. etc. It takes a while.
You may think the internet solves all that, but it doesn't completely. It'll take a little while.
It was lovely to see you at the party. Hope you had some lucky beans and greens and this year opens up treasures for you. xxx
Thanks Daisy, it was a nice surprise to see you! "I feel like I've been in a coma" - you always were very perceptive, ha ha. Maybe next time we see you it will be in England?
PS this is my last comment on the Blogger blog, I have gotten myself set up over at WordPress: diaryofamyrigby.wordpress.com
Hope to see you over there!
Hello you two in Catskills. The photo' makes it look lovely - I thought it was supposed to be winter, Where's the snow, where are the bears..?
Been out in the garden firing another bonfire today - This bit of france is bright and sunny but with a keen North wind. Thought of the fun I had felling things in your garden last year and then burning them. happy daze...
Amy, looking forward to the new style blog. Eric, bought your book in hardback last week - 10 out of 10 - when's the next bit?
Mick! I was just thinking of you the other day, saying to Eric how I missed seeing you. So it is very nice to find your comment. Hardly any snow, so far! No bear sightings yet (though i have seen some suspicious droppings in the yard...)
Glad you were able to find Eric's book, we're making it available as an ebook soon. Meanwhile hope you find me at my new blog and burn baby burn! x
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