Skip to main content

Rain, rain everywhere

 On Saturday I sat in the sunshine in a café in Saumur with friends.  We had a good laugh and then we went our separate ways.  I strolled across the bridge to the island where I had left my car and drove out of Saumur onto the main road.  Then it happened - the sunshine turned to floods in seconds.  I couldn't see the road or the sides of the road.  Cars were forced to stop and put their flashers on but you could barely see them so I decided to keep driving.  It was a nightmare journey, the rain was so heavy and the visibility down to nil, it reminded me of the hurricanes we used to have in the States.

I eventually made it home through floods and downed trees.  In the 6 feet between my car and the house I became soaked right through, and the power was off.  It stayed  off until 7am the next morning, 16  hours later.  I have an all electric house so I couldn't even make a cup of tea.  I gazed wistfully into the fridge and found an apple and a carrot.  I added them to the banana and 2 walnuts, making my dinner a veritable feast.

When the power resumed I discovered that it had been a tornado, which not only caused the flooding but it had ripped the spire off a church and destroyed the surrounding buildings.  I have now lived through a tornado, hurricanes, an haboob (dust storm), a locust storm, floods and earthquakes, a gas explosion and an air crash.  And yet I am still here.

A friend put out a request for somewhere for me to stay for 2 months after my house is sold.  The quickest reply came from a man who said he had a room and he could do with the company.  No strings attached?



.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oops!

 The air conditioning has broken in my car so it was some relief when the temperature dropped  back to the 30 degree mark.  This gave my neighbours fresh enthusiasm to clear up overgrown vegetation.  At my request my American neighbour climbed down to a flat bit of ground where a tree had grown about 6 feet in as many weeks, to lop it.  My job was to clear all the debris when it fell and drag it to a parking space in the courtyard.  The system was working well with another neighbour and her granddaughter joining in to help me clear the debris.  Meanwhile. up above us the American was in full swing, not stopping at 'lopping' the tree but cutting it right back to its roots.  Soon great big branches were hurtling down and that is when it happened.  One branch, instead of coming straight down to the ground decided to take a detour onto his garage roof, creating a big hole right above where his precious car, a Tesla, was being kept safe and sound....
1 comment
Read more

I'm Free

 After being incarcerated in my son's house waiting for the results of the day 2 test I was finally allowed out today.  I went to Chichester and was saddened by the number of familiar shops that have disappeared from the town centre.  Bognor is the same.  You wouldn't die of thirst in either town though as the number of cafes has increased.  Both town centres were busy making it difficult to keep a safe distance from others but many people were wearing masks in the street. I was pulled over by Customs in Caen.  As I opened the trunk of the car one of the officers asked me if I was carrying goods.  'Yes,' I replied, ' French Champagne and French wine'  They nodded approvingly and waved me away. During my 3 days in the house, I have cleaned, filed all their paperwork, mended the shower, cooked dinner and tried watching television, the latter being totally uninspiring.  The news consists of covid, travel restrictions, forbidden Christmas parties...
Post a Comment
Read more

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...
Post a Comment
Read more