Volume 16 - Day 208/158, 2024 - Friday

I was up at 4 o'clock this morning, which is not that unusual for me. I usually start waking up around then, but I try to stay in bed at least until 5:30 or so. But, I got up, and got some stuff done in the office, which is not a bad thing. I had a lot of things to do today, just clearing stuff that would have otherwise been cleared over the past 15 days or so. I really don't think that I am suffering for any jet lag, so I am happy about that. I did have a nice walk with Paul this morning, and there were five dogs along the way that were happy to know I was back. I am the cookie monster for early morning walking dogs! I had some errands to get done on the way in to the office this morning, and I was happy to get those chores done. All was good in the office, and I got everything on my desk taken care of. I had a couple stops to make on the way home, so more or less, there is really no evidence that I was gone for two weeks. Since I got home, I have been watching a lot of the Olympic stuff on tv, and it is interesting to see things on tv that I saw myself a couple weeks ago. The shots of the Eiffel Tower were very nice, and I just thought I would share this photo of the tower that I took after a very nice dinner with Michael and Lynda.

Volume 16 - Day 207/159, 2024 - Thursday

Well, I lost a day because of flight challenges, but I am back home at the Curious House. I got the girls, and they are doing just fine, everything is just kind of falling into place, as if we are picking back up where we left off. It is interesting to see the Olympic coverage on the television, noting that I was there at a couple places they are showing. Speaking of television, there was very little television watching for the last two weeks. There was no television where we stayed in Paris, I don't remember if there was on in Avignon, and Michael watched Tour de France occasionally when we were in Nice. Speaking of Nice, how did I ever get lucky enough to have such nice friends? Did you see what I did there? Michael and Lynda were nice enough to invite me to tag along with them on this trip. Paulina, Val and Oliver were nice enough to take great care of the girls while I was gone. James was very nice to collect mail and watch the house. Pam was nice enough to check on the house and make sure plants were watered. And when I got home, I found three gifts (estate sale finds) from Pam and Marian. One is a Seriolithograph by Michael Kachan called Eiffel Song. It was done in 1999, and you can see the Eiffel Tower behind the dancers. So thoughtful and topical. Another lovely piece of art and one little Buddah piece. All three lovely things that I will like forever. AND...there was also a baked chicken, a chicken taco kit, and a HUGE apple pie. What could be better? And so, you can see Eiffel Song above, accompanying this journal entry. Lovely. And now, I am going to go a try to get some sleep. More tomorrow.

Volume 16 - Day 206/160, 2024 - Wednesday

Upon review, I discovered that I did not even tell you all about the new friends I made yesterday, from Alberta, Canada. Two women, who we could do a whole Real Housewives from Alberta television show about, although only one of them has been (been) married. THey had just spent a week on a private yacht cruising the French Riveria. They were behind me in line, talking trash about other women on the yacht, and more importantly, women that had not been invited to be on the yacht. At one point I leaned over to them and asked them if they could speak up, because it was hard to hear all the trash they were spewing. SO...I got all the stink. One of the women on the cruise had been given a $35K gold and diamond necklace that she didn't want, and offered it to one of the women I was talking to, and she refused it. I asked her if she was out of her mind, and when we got on the plane, I gave them a business card, and told them if they were offered more jewelry they didn't want, let me know and I would cover the FedEx. Which brings us to today. The flight from France was delayed, which had a domino affect, and we missed the flight to Austin. I am now holed up in a hotel in Flushing, New York. My alarm is set for 3AM tomorrow, we have a cab booked at 4AM for a 6AM flight to Dallas, then on to Austin. If you want to know more, ask me in a week or two...I don't much want to talk about it more right now. The photo accompanying this journal entry is from the rooftop 'restaurant' at the hotel. I have been up since 1AM Texas time, and it is time to get some sleep. Good night.

Volume 16 - Day 205/161, 2024 - Tuesday

I am pretty sure it is still Tuesday, even though this morning seems like a really long time ago. I haven't even really done that much of anything today, either. I did not leave the apartment until we left for the airport, and that was about 1:15 this afternoon. We had a flight from Nice to Paris at 4:55. It took us almost two hours (as I recall) just to check in and get our checked baggage where it was supposed to be. The the flight was about 2 hours late, but we are here and I will be going to sleep shortly. I have my alarm set for 4:45, we have a flight to JFK at 8:55. We are planning to meet in the lobby at 5:45. Heaven help me. We are staying tonight in a hotel called the Citizen M, which is a lot like Trader Joe's in that, it is way too ccool for me tobe here. Everything (EVERYTHING) is done on an app or on an iPad, and you know how tecnologically prone I am. You're right, I don't either. Pizza for dinner and I have a cookie that I am now afraid to eat, for fear that it will have so much sugar in it that I will not sleep. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Volume 16 - Day 204/162, 2024 - Monday

So...I thought this photo accompanying this journal might catch your attention. Just another day in the life! Today in Nice there were not nearly as many people on the streets, the trains and the buses. It was nice. After breakfast, we went back to the Old Town section, and I was let loose in what I can only describe as a really, REALLY cool flea market. I could easily fill a shipping container with what I consider to be really cool crap that would feel right at home in the Curious House. While I was there, I made friends with a family from Singapore. They were visiting the lady's father that had one of the booths. I bought a piece from him, and then asked them if they knew what lagniappe was. I went on to tell them that, when I lived in New Orleans, merchants would often reward customers with a little lagniappe, a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase. Like buying a dozen donuts and getting 13. SO, I was gifted a small piece by the man at the booth, and we were all happy. Much fun! Today was also a day of removing any trace of the Tour de France in Nice. Signage, street crossovers, everything is coming down. What I expect took weeks or months to put up will most likely be gone by the end of this week. Maybe Wednesday. While we were out, we had lunch, and then retreated to the apartment. Frozen pizza for dinner, and fresh peaches for dessert. Tomorrow will be our day to vacate the apartment, we got a late check-out, and we will catch a late afternoon plane to Paris, spend the night at the airport, and then head back early Wednesday morning. I have done a lot of things in the last 10 days or so, and it has been a lot of fun.

Volume 16 - Day 203/163, 2024 - Sunday

We started out the day slowly, I did not even go and get croissants. We had cereal and yogurt for breakfast, and that was perfect. We walked across the Promenade to the beach (it is really not a beach), and got in the water for a while. The beach here is really river rock, the kind of rock you pay $7.50 a 3 pound bag for at Home Depot. But, it was not a problem, we all had big towels, and after we got out of the water, we sat and enjoyed a little bit of sunshine. A little bit of sunshine because it has been overcast most of the day, which proved to make the day more bearable than yesterday. It was better, weather-wise, than yesterday, but I still worked up a pretty good sweat everywhere I/we went. We headed off to tour a couple museums, first Chagall and then Matisse. The transit system here is pretty good, and I am sure it would be even better if I were here for a couple more weeks, and had time to study it. Actually, I am not even trying, I just follow Michael and Lynda, and we (usually) end up where we had intended. The train and a cab got us to the Musee Chagall. We got there at about 1PM, and we knew the museum ws closed for lunch until 2. So, we had lunch in the garden there, and then toured the museum. Joan Miro had another show of works at the Chagall museum, so that makes two different places we have seen his works. Then we were off to the Musee Matisse. The interesting thing about this is, his home was the original part of the museum, and then there was more space added. Very interesting. I like the still life portraits of Matisse, but I am not fond of the cut paper works and the stuff that reminds me of bad wall paper. I think his sculptures are really interesting though. Okay...so Michael went his way to see the finale of the Tour de France, Lynda and I headed back to the apartment, with a quick stop at the grocery. The grocery closest to the apartment is about the size of my house, not including the garage. This is the grocery that coined the term 'limited selections.' We just finished dinner, and watched some paramedics carry a guy in a wheel chair off in an ambulance acros the street on the back side of the apartment. Not sure exactly what might happen tomorrow, but you will read it here first.

Volume 16 - Day 202/164, 2024 - Saturday

Saturday. Let me expand a little bit on the sweaty people here in Nice, France. I am not retracting my comment that EVERYONE is sweating, They are still sweating, and many of them are smoking, too. We got up this morning, and Michael and I went to the bakery for croissants and something else that was chocolaty. After breakfast, we left the apartment and headed for Old Town at about 9:15. We got there, and finally found the entrance to the 'Fun Park,' and had a nice walk around. Shortly after that,we took seats at a little cafe, where I had TWO Coke Zeros. It is REALLY hot here. Then, we went and staked out a place in the shade, or at least as much shade as we could find, to wait for the penultimate stage of the Tour de France. After a bit, Lynda walked across the street to get us a hamburgers at McDonalds, and by the time she received the order, the gendarmes would not let her go across the street to where we were. She had to go down a ways, and cross over a bridge that had been erected for the TdF. I finished my sandwich with about a minute to spare before the riders crossed in front of us. The ride was supposed to start at 1:35 but it did not start until about 1:50. The trains here can run on time, you would expect the ride could start on time. While sitting/standing in the shade, I met two nice families, one from Norway (now living in Antibes), and another family from Belgium. All very nice. Even though English is definitely NOT their first language, most people have a bit of English fluency, definitely more than all my French combined. After the start of the stage, we headed back to the apartment, where we stayed until it was time for dinner. Now we are back, and it is time to call it a day. Stay tuned. But wait, there's more! Nekkid people update... We passed Apollo again today, and I discovered he has four horses on he head, I had not realized that at all yesterday. Okay, now you can close this journal.