06 May 2021

Life in the moat

The fuel delivery didn't happen yesterday after all. We waited all day, on the lookout for the big tanker truck. No sign of it. The afternoon was fairly warm, and Walt had a fire going in the wood-burnng stove. Now we're running out of wood. We do have a couple of little electric radiators that can help. It's 42ºF outside right now. Meanwhile, I woke to the sound of rain on the roof at about 4 a.m. Bertie the cat just came in soaked. It's supposed to rain all day. Maybe the fuel oil will be delivered this morning.



Here's a short slideshow showing some the animals that were in residence at Carrouges when we were there. That last photo shows our dog Collette at the time. She had traveled with us to the Normandy coast in May 2005. She passed away less than a year later, at the age of 14.

15 comments:

  1. Je me souviens des canards et des oies, des poissons; et de Collette en Californie. Je ne me souviens ni des vaches ni des grenouilles! La Grenouille qui se veut faire aussi grosse que le Bœuf (La Fontaine).

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    1. Did you know Collette's age or was it a supposition since she was adopted from the SPCA?

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    2. We found Collette at the Santa Clara County Humane Society in July 1992. She had been found wandering the streets and taken there. The person who approved us as adopters told us the dog was about six month old, and the vet who spayed her said the same thing. So we always considered that she was born in Jan. or Feb. of 1992.

      I just called the company we're trying to buy fuel oil from. The woman (and I think it was the same woman I talked to yesterday; both times the person said her name was Christine) said she had a record of an order from me for delivery on May 12! I know full well that the woman who took the order on Tuesday never said a date; she just said demain as the delivery date. It's a good thing I called again this morning. I told today's voice on the phone that I was en panne de fioul, which is exactly what I told Tuesday Christine, and this time she said, mais si vous êtes en panne ça change tout. She said she'd do her best to get the delivery scheduled for today. If she can't, she promised to call me back with the bad news.

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    3. La Nouvelle Christine m'a appelé pour me dire que le fioul sera livré aujourd'hui mais à un tarif un peu plus élévé que prévu. Beggars can't be choosers, as they say.

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    4. The fuel has filled the tank. No problem except that our bank cards, neither the American or French card Walt tried, would work. The delivery man's cell-phone-style card reader couldn't pick up a cell signal. I don't know why — maybe it's because we had rain and a really thick, low cloud cover. So Walt wrote a check. We would have preferred to pay with an American card since most of our funds are still in U.S. banks. The delivery guy said the fuel oil dealer's office is closed because the long-time secretary who ran the place retired a few months ago. So this is the last time we order directly from that company. Usually we go through a service that let's us pay on line and then arranges for a local company to deliver the fuel oil.

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    5. Glad you finaly had a fioul delivery. If two different cards didn't work, it's probably because the man's device is out or order.

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    6. Probably. You'd think the Crédit Agricole card would work even if the American card wouldn't. Anyway, it's warm in the house this evening.

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  2. Collette was such a beautiful girl. Three cheers for heat! I wish I could send you some of ours, the high temperatures have been in the low 90’s this week but I’ll take that over being cold, any day.

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    1. That makes six cheers, BettyAnn. Just like you, I'd rather be too hot than too cold!

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  3. Funny, I never think of cows as furry, but when you see them close up like that, they sure are!
    It was very sweet to see Colette :)

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    1. It's fun to see cows and other creatures up close now and then.

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  4. Off topic. About black and red brick patterns on the châtelets towers. Depending on the type of clay used, it will turn red, brown or black when firing. Quod erat demonstrandum! QED, for short!

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  5. I think this is my favorite slide show of yours. Collette was a beautiful dog. I love seeing the cows and frogs. We have had a lot of rain this week and we had two tree frogs on our window panes. Glad you have fuel now!

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