Nailed it!

I think I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with all the work being done around the house - or at least I hope it's a light and not a train coming the other way! After about a week of fairly consistent rain it's finally brightened up so maybe that's helping to cheer me up too. Anyway, I'll take it. I love May (and September) as to my mind they are the nicest months round here - sunny and warm, but not too warm and it's when I feel at my best!

On the "bad news" side, my favourite neighbour has put her house up for sale. I honestly didn't think she'd do it but I know she has always said she wants to move back to the west coast where she is from. Given that both her kids and all her grandkids are here I was still somewhat surprised that she's going ahead with it though. On the down side, while houses round here usually sell pretty quickly, she still has the problem of the flooding in the basement, which my previous tiler said meant he wouldn't touch it with a barge pole for that reason. Then, if/when she sells, her parents' house on the west coast needs a lot of remodelling work since it has been uninhabited for about two years now. I asked why she didn't just sell it "as is" and buy herself a small place in the same area, but she told me that if I saw the location I would realize why she wants to hang on to it - perfect for public transport, shops etc. and it's proximity to the ocean! I guess I'll find out for myself if/when she actually moves as I'm invited, but I know for sure I wouldn't want all that hassle at this stage in my life (she's 73)! But, if that's what she wants, then good luck to her, even though I'll miss her!

In more bad news I was chatting to my other neighbour in the garden yesterday and she told me that her husband had found their cat dead in the middle of the road - obviously hit by a car - and they were devastated! I'm not a cat person but this formerly feral cat was so beautiful and adorable, so yeah, maybe I am a cat person after all, even if I don't want one. Added to that, their little dog is on her way out also, and while she has always been a scared little thing, I think after goodness knows how many years she was finally getting to trust me! I know pets bring great joy and I really wanted a dog when I retired, but I'm past that now - too many constraints for my way of life and I don't need the heartache either!

Tomorrow I have to leave home at 6 am to join up with the group for our outing on le petit train de la Mûre and I'm quite looking forward to it as I hear it's lovely. My plumber was telling me that the train ride is steep and wouldn't be for him, but I guess we'll see what happens when we get there! Today when I came back from the recycling centre I clicked on my car's key fob to lock the doors and nothing happened. So I tried the spare key and got the same result, even though I could start the car with both keys and knew the batteries were good as I had changed both of them recently. Damn, I didn't feel like leaving my car unlocked in a public parking place all day tomorrow when I'm on my trip, and then what would happen if it wouldn't start again when I get back? We'll be parked on the market square but as market day is Saturday in St. Pierre it normally shouldn't be a problem - that is unless it gets stranded there overnight - then they'll tow it! So starting to panic a bit I had a lightbulb moment and armed with a can of WD40 and a couple of screwdrivers I attacked the locking mechanism - and whaddayaknow, it worked. I can now unlock and lock my car door, but I'm taking the aforementioned WD40 and screwdrivers with me "just in case"! Then on the Saturday we have our "old fogies" lunch at the village hall in St. Laurent. Initially I thought I wouldn't go but decided not to be a stick-in-the mud and am going to tag along with Mr. and Mrs. Gossip for a few hours to show willing!

My plumber came on Monday and Tuesday but couldn't make it on Wednesday as he had an emergency. Not a problem for me as it was nice to take a break so I drove off down to a place called Cluses as there were a couple of things I wanted to buy for my garden and new bathroom, and then on the way back I missed my exit on the motorway so decided to take myself off for lunch at Bonneville. I don't very often go out for lunch but I have to say occasionally it is a nice treat to sit in the sunshine having a glass of wine with someone else doing the cooking and washing up!

On Tuesday I asked my plumber to take a look at a dripping pipe in my basement which, in my opinion, was becoming more than the occasional drip. As I knew he would be reinstalling my bathroom radiator and would have the right equipment to fix the pipe I asked to add that to his "list of jobs". It took all of five minutes and now I don't have to lug buckets of water up from the basement every couple of days! When we went down there to take a look I told him that it seemed to have eased up all of a sudden, and he laughed and said that was because he'd turned the water off to reinstall my toilet. I guess we all have our skills then and plumbing is obviously not one of mine! Mind you, I remember how we all laughed at mom after my sister's wedding in 1979 because she told sis to "buy a TV here in England (they were moving to Denmark) so you can still get English television"! So I guess my mom's having a good laugh at me now from somewhere up in heaven!

When the plumber showed up this morning he told me I was lucky to see him today as yesterday night their little boy had gone into a form of anaphalactic shock after eating a peanut!!! Their oldest (four) is allergic to nuts but they had him on a controlled desensitization treatment whereby he was given one peanut a day - basically in order for him to be able to live a more normal childhood. I get that, because what little boy wants to have his mom make him special lunches every day and probably never be able to go to birthday parties "just in case"? It turns out that it was their two year old that had had the reaction, though, after getting hold of one peanut - and they hadn't even known he was also allergic. When they called the emergency services they told him that as they already had cortisone at home (for the oldest) to administer that and stay on the phone with them. Luckily he very quickly recovered but bloody hell - what a fright! I remember when André was about 18 months old and I was on my own with him when his eyes rolled back in his head and he seemed to be having trouble breathing. I don't know why I did it but I turned the shower on full throttle and stood in the steam with him for about 15 minutes and by the end of that time he was already better - but again, how scary it can be!

Anyway I told my plumber today that I was going to go out shopping but that if he had an emergency to just run and leave the door open (turns out the little boy was well enough to go back to daycare though, so disaster avoided). I only intended to go the farmer's market for fruit and veggies as I didn't really need anything else but, of course, I decided to stop in at the grocery store as I wanted to buy a nice bottle of wine for Jordan's birthday. While I was in there I went through the toy section and of course there, in full view, were the Paw Patrol figures so I thought "to hell with it" and bought two stuffed Paw Patrol characters as PP is all the rage over here at the moment. I ended up spending a bloody fortune on things I didn't really need right now, but in the end who cares! When I handed them to the plumber he looked stunned and asked how I knew that was what his kids raved about. I just laughed and told him I have a four year old grandson and that I hoped his boys enjoyed them! So yeah, I think we can say I nailed it on that one!