Memories of CHM and new developments in Paris

I got an e-mail yesterday from one of Charles-Henry's nieces who sent new year's wishes and shared some news. It seems she and her sister went to Paris in November and spent most of a day in their uncle CHM's apartment doing an inventory of the contents to see what was to be kept, and by whom. Also to see what could be disposed of. They didn't finish the job. She said it was weird being there with so many strangers (including un notaire, un administrateur judiciaire, un commissaire priseur (an auctioneer), and several real estate agents...) going through her uncle's things . CHM was a very private person, but I guess privacy is no longer an issue when a person has left this world.

I miss going to see CHM in Paris frequently as I did between 2001 and 2017 to spend nights and to go touring around in Paris with him during the day. For example, a few years ago he asked me if I could come to Paris and accompany him to the Arc de Triomphe. There were things there that he remembered and wanted to see again.He was afraid to try to go there by himself, which would involve taking buses or the métro. For me, it was a privilege to spend time with him and to be able to help him. On another trip, we went to Notre Dame catheral. He said it had been years since he had seen the cathedral up close. RIP, CHM.

Au secours ! Ça caille !

Help! We're freezing! That's our cry this morning. We got up at 5 a.m. as usual. The house felt cold. That's because all the radiators were stone cold. A trip down to the utility room revealed that the boiler was not running. Our central heat consists of about a dozen steam radiators and an oil-fired boiler. The boiler is reporting an error code that is B33. We have lots of documentation but most of the text appears to be gobbledygook.

I called the emergency phone number to tell the people who do our boiler maintenance. We have a service contract with them. They are supposed to send out a technician immediately to figure out what's wrong with the boiler and fix it. The problem is, their office doesn't open until 7:30 a.m. and all we can do is leave a message. And wait. The waiting is the hardest part, as Linda Ronstadt sang. We have one little electric heater that we can plug in. It heats up one room. I've already put on a jacket. Maybe we should just go back to bed.

Freezing fog

It's a good thing I went grocery shopping yesterday. The roads were dry and frost-free. I came home with a lot of food for our daily consumption. It was and still is very cold outside. We might be holed up for a while.

 
Early this morning when I went downstairs to let Tasha out to pee and poop, I was surprised to see an inch or two of snow on the ground. Yesterday afternoon was sunny, and when the sun went down we had no reason to expect overnight snow. It has stuck to the gravel driveway on our property, which means it has probably stuck on the paved road we take down a very steep hill to get to local businesses and nearby towns to do our shopping.

Today I'm posting a few photos of the freezing fog we had the day before yesterday just to continue working with the ergonomic mouse I ordered last week and received Sunday afternoon. So far so good. I haven't yet taken any photos of this morning's snow because it's still pitch dark outside.

A test post

This is what the vineyard just south of our hamlet has looked like this week. We had one day of (frigid) sunshine, but the other six days have been really cold and gray. Freezing fog moved in a few days ago, so everything is coated in frost. Plus we had a pretty moon rise a couple of days ago.

 
Our morning temperatures have been below freezing — as low as –9ºC (in Blois) and –8ºC (in several towns and villages closer to Saint-Aignan). That's about +15ºF.

P.S. Why am I posting on the blog today? It's because I acquired a "vertical ergonomic" mouse and it wanted to give it a workout. It's supposed to support your wrist better and cause you less pain. So far, I'm not really sure it works.