the latest thing

I could be classed with the strange people.

Those of you who’ve known me for a while, in person, know this already, naturally. Writing on the children. Locking the boss in his office. Segregating the peanut butter from the jelly.

I should really figure out how to turn the gas back on at the house.

They came around the other day to change the meters in the neighborhood, and when I got home, no gas. Not that I noticed for a couple of days. I rarely use my gas stove in the summer months, and I sometimes go swimming and take my shower at the pool. Summer --- Pool?

So another shower at the pool, and then it was the weekend, and then I went away for a week. And then I came back but discovered that not having hot water at the house meant lots of good exercise at the pool. I can do my 2000m without stopping now.

At any rate, it’s hard to believe it’s been 24 days already.

Yeah, 3 weeks without a major utility.

Reminds me of the time I went a month without electricity. It was early summer of my first year here, and I hadn’t paid my electric bill and I thought I’d been cut off. It was too embarrassing to run to Olivier and ask him to help me (my french was pretty rudimentary in those days), and what with it being light out so late in the evenings in June, and not really needing my fridge (being too poor also to fill it properly), I just let it go for a while.

So I paid the electric bill, and I hadn’t been cut off - O explained they give you quite a lot of slack. But I still had no electricity until finally I discovered the fuse box way at the top of the stairs where I didn’t think I should ever be looking for one. But yeah. Tripped during a thunderstorm.

Honestly, there must be a valve somewhere, something to light, a matter of a few seconds work. I might look into it tonight when I get back from the pool.