Howdy Y’all!

Well, we landed safely in his Paris way back on Tuesday 28 June, which seems a lifetime ago. As soon as we arrived in our beautiful apartment in Montmartre in an iconic Hausmann building, I began getting a cold, la grippe. Luckily, it wasn’t #COVID19 even though many people on our flights and in the airports weren’t wearing masks.

I had forgotten what a pain-in-the-ass having the flu was. I haven’t been sick for over.three years. #SilverLining #ThanksCOVID19. Fortunately, I’m rapidly aging, so I’ve had an array of old man ailments to fill the void.

In spite of la grippe, I’ve loving Paris. Since Ma Belle Femme is also sick, I’ve had to drag my was solo to the pharmacy, grocers, and cafes. Literally, everyone I’ve talked to has been wonderfully helpful and kind. I’ve predicated all of my conversations with, “Je m’excuse, mais mon français set terrible.” (I’m sorry, but my French is terrible.) Usually, I get a worried smile and something like pity in the eyes of whoever I’m talking to. Still, I’m tolerated and treated civilly.

The French love them some natural holistic medicines, too. Everything we’ve gotten for our symptoms has been full of essences of eucalyptus and oils of rose petals and grinding of dandruff and all of those other natural things. Funnily enough, it has all worked. I feel pretty good for a few hours after getting up, feel like crap until I give up and nap, feel pretty good until about bedtime, get restless cough, sneeze, and blow my nose for most of the night and wonder why the medicines have all abandoned me.

Even La Petite Fille has gotten into the act. She has left the apartment every day to do something. She’s learned the four-digit door codes and even dared to.speak French to a vendor at an artisan market who got so flustered she had to get.someone else to help us. We managed to get our ice cream anyway.

In the meantime I’ve been reading The Brain and the Inner World by Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull and Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.Both are yielding interesting insights into our current political situation and will be featured in a blog post near you quite soon.

The flipside to being sick is that it has slowed down our sightseeing and purchasing plans. We have ordered a bunch of stuff from amazon, but delivery dates and availability make it tricky. For example, the plan was to leave the school-issued computer at home for safe keeping and work from my Kindle Fire. It is a pain in the ass to do, but it is doable, especially if I could get a keyboard and a NEW Fire! Delivery time On the keyboard put it at the end of July. Useless. Luckily, they are sold retail but only after I feel up to facing the Metro.

Anywho, this has been fun, except for inserting links — nearly impossible without being driven completely insane — so I’ll sign off here. I hope to post more political, psychological, snarky, sarcasticky, and profaney articles later in the week.

Huzzah!

Jack