Out of the woods?

Well, not quite. In some ways, we are just going in. The roofer we know called me late yesterday afternoon. I had phoned him on both his télephone fixe (land line) and his téléphone portable (cell phone) early in the morning and left him messages. He said he couldn't help us this week, because he is en déplacement (out of town). It was nice of him to call me back from wherever he is.

After waiting for a call from him until noon, I had also contacted another roofer. His name is Thierry Thépot (I call him Terry Teapot, since "tea" in French is thé). The woman who answered the phone when I called took down my contact information as well as some details about the problem, and then said she would have somebody call me back. When I asked her if I could expect a call later in the day, she hedged a little and just said somebody would call très rapidement. Who knows what that means? I'm still waiting.

Our phone rang several times late yesterday afternoon. One call was from a neighbor who, when I told her about our roof crisis, said she'd been calling a roofer named Brinet over in the neighboring village of Pouillé for two weeks and leaving messages on his répondeur. She needs somebody to come inspect and sweep the chimney at her house before the onset of truly cold weather. He has yet to answer her calls, she said. I scratched his name off my list. It dawned on me later in the evening that I ought to call the neighbor back and recommend to her the man who does chimney sweeping for us. He's a plumber and heating contractor, not a roofer.

This green spider was lurking on a window sill inside the house the other day. It wasn't as big as it looks in these close-up photos and it didn't appear to be bothered by my efforts to get a decent picture, even when I used the flash. I'm sure I read something on a blog the other day about somebody being surprised at seeing such a green spider, but I can't remember which blog it was on. I'm pretty sure it was written by someone who lives here in France.