April, 2023

Road Trip

Earlier this month we spontaneously decided to hit the road and check out some medieval hilltop villages within a few hours of our place. So, we took a road trip for a few days and visited 9 of them. Some more interesting than others, they all had something great to offer.

One of them was 'Tourtour' that was first populated in the Neolithic period (3,600 BC). Known by a different name in the 9th century, the two large trees on the left seen on the town square below were first planted in 1638 in honor of the birth of King Louis XIV. A great place to hang out and have lunch.

Moving on to 'Flayosk', we visited the Troglodyte caves seen below. Similar to the Mesa cave dwellings in Colorado, they offer few modern amenities. The fountain on the town square dates back to the 1300's when water was piped into the town to run the 11 grist mills and 3 olive presses simultaneously.

Then, to keep the theme going, we spent the night at a 200 year old grist mill

In the town of 'Mons' we came across something we have seen in many old villages that is typical and quaint. They are signs that identify the business that are far more original (and I think classier) than ours. Here is a sample below.

The barber

The coffee shop (Starbucks?)

A small hotel

A hostel

A  seamstress

The blacksmith, who probably made all the signs

The dressmaker /tailor

OK, to be fair, I have to point out other unique differences, including some of the occasional less desirable aspects of life here also. In a number of places (restaurants, stores, gas stations, highway rest stops) you can come across bathrooms in conditions we are not familiar with. Some, but not all, simply don't have a toilet seat. The porcelain appliance is there but nothing else. It is wise if on the road to carry a little travel kit with some toilet paper and sanitary wipes. Then again, some bathrooms (mostly but not only on the freeways) have Turkish toilets. I don't want to become a potty mouth here so I will let you figure out how you would use one. Squatting would probably be a good skill set to have.

Time

Once again, we are sad to report that we have lost another family member this month when a wonderful uncle of mine passed. Dave was a high-faluting lawyer who represented the Canadian government in the 20 years of negotiations with the Nisga'a nation people in settling their territorial claim, 111 years after they first requested it. I know, I know, what is a Nisga'a and where is Canada, right? 

Google it and you will see that Nisga is in British Columbia and the treaty provides constitutional certainty in respect to the Aboriginal people's right to self government on 772 sq miles (2000 sq km) a mere 500 miles (800 KM) north of Vancouver BC. Don't worry, many Canadians couldn't point to it on a map either. In any case, he was a big time lawyer and a very cool guy who will be dearly missed.

Dave, helping me install the windshield on my plane

OK, slowly but surely folks around us are dropping like flies. Some are age related but some are not. Although I chose not to participate in the getting older thing, I still have to be realistic. At 72, I figure I have at least 28 more good years ahead of me. 'De Nile' is not just a river in Egypt. I know that at that time its possible I could be getting seriously older and might even be getting closer to  circling the drain. Who knows, I might even be nearing check out status. If I do, I will want them to freeze me so I can get another crack at finishing all my projects later. I know, you think I am kidding.

Deployment withdrawal

Ok, I was warned about this. Its been months since I have deployed anywhere, although I get calls almost weekly to go help with flood damage all over California and tornado damage in both Mississippi, Arkansas and wherever. Problem is, they won't fly me from Europe. Meanwhile, my skill sets in destruction and mayhem are withering and I am getting rusty.  So I decided to take matters in my own hands and get busy.

      Much like my convicts used to tell me "some people just need killing",   one look at the laundry room wall and window below I could just tell that they just needed smashing!

Outside view

    So I reached for my tools of the trade (jackhammer and sledge) and did Team Rubicon proud, even from 6,000 miles away.

YEA! That's what I'm taking about!

Hey wait! Now what am I going to do...?

Little ducks in a row

Every spring when we are here, we see the latest crop of wanna-be-sailors. These are kids who are getting their feet wet, so to speak, in the world of sailing. They are set adrift in mini sailboats with instructors in motorised zodiacs zipping around them shouting instructions and ready to corral them back to the fold if necessary. Really cute.

March, 2023

 

RIP sweet Christopher

Last month, I wrote that our grandson Christopher was loosing ground after his latest spate of surgeries. Days later, he went into a coma and the situation progressed much as it was expected to. He was taken home where family gathered to say their goodbyes and come to grips with the inevitable. When the time came, folks from hospice came to the house to deal with the medical part of things. Christopher passed on March 1. He is survived by his parents and 7 brothers and sisters. Christopher managed to endear himself with the Nascar driver community as he would text the drivers before a race to wish them well. In turn, they had him ride in the lead car at the beginning of a race. They also had a helmet made for him which they all autographed. All that racket we heard from the heavens was just his welcoming committee.

INCOMING!!!

Early this month, we had the good fortune to have Janice's cousin (and husband) come visit all the way from Nebraska. Monte and Cinde had flown to Germany first to see our daughter Mandy and Markus for several days then were returning for their second visit here. They had joined us several years ago in the area when we were looking for a house. Now they were back to see what we ended up with. They spent just short of a week with us and we had them visit everything from a WWII Higgins landing craft where American troops landed on our local beaches to begin the southern part of the liberation of France to the archaeological remnants of the Roman city of Glanum, founded in 6th century BC. Then, for good measure, we had them help us bottle some wine we got from our local vintner.

Cousins Monte and Cinde visiting one of several medieval villages

The Riviera

Glanum

Higgins amphibious landing craft

Little known facts: Of the 20,000 that were built in New Orleans at a cost of $12,500 each, fewer than 20 remain today. It is made of wood, was originally used by rum runners during prohibition and landed more soldiers during WWII than all other craft combined.

The project

Last month I also wrote about a big project we have going here. Well, more like 'trying to get going here'. When we arrived a month or so ago we had been trying to get a surveyor to draw up a set of plans for our pool project for the past 7 months, get it to the city for approval and be ready to hit the ground running upon our arrival. Then the story about "the best laid plans of mice and men" came into play. In those 7 months, we had not even completed the FIRST step of the process. It's human nature, I guess, that if you are not around in person, your paperwork gets buried at the bottom of the inbox. It is most definitely French nature.

So when we showed up, I relentlessly called, visited, badgered and harangued the guilty parties until I lit a fire under their rears and LAPRA- DE'D them along until they came to their senses and decided to save time by seeing things my way. Since then, we have completed 4 of the 5 administrative steps to make this a wrap. Although we will clearly not get the project done this year, ironically it turned out to be a blessing in disguise by allowing us to plan for a bigger pool and better landscaping. Laser focussed persistence will see us through.

Frejus

OK, I'll bite. What in tarnation is a Frejus? Frejus is the city (Pop 55,000) we live in the suburbs of. Our town is actually called Les Issambres and is part of Roquebrune Sur Argens. Had enough?

OK. So the short story is that Frejus was founded by Julius Cesar. 'THE' Julius Cesar, in 43 BC. It is thought that the Romans had been hanging out here since 124 BC, but that was lost in the history books. This was no outpost as the city still has many important remnants of the Roman days. There is the theater and an arena which has seen better days but was renovated and is still used for some events. There are sections of the 24 mile long (40Km) elevated stone aqueduct that brought drinking water to the city that run here and there though the city (occasionally in someone's back yard) and immense stone columns that clearly had purpose at the time but I'll be darned if I can figure out what for. There are ingenious fish traps they set up using only the rocky parts of the coast to trap fish between the tides and it had an important sea port. No slouches, those Romans.

A part of the Roman aqueduct

Remnants of columns that served who knows what purpose. Each piece is roughly the height of a person

The outside of the Arena

Sections of walls that are found here and there throughout the city including in some peoples back yards

While Frejus has the history thing going for it, today it also has all the big box stores and services you could ever want. Hilltop medieval walled villages surround us and our little neck of the woods is a mere 15 minutes away from Frejus. Being on the Riviera, it does not suck. We are in the middle of a 5 1/2 mile (9 Km) area which on the entire coast pretty much exclusively does not have large apartment buildings and hotels built right up to the water. As a couple of poor Americans, we could not afford what the French call "Pied dans l'eau", (translated to "Feet in the water") referring to having a villa right on the water. Ours is 40 feet away (13M) from the beach, on the other side of the winding coastal road where no one can ever build to block our view of the sea or the breathtaking snow capped Alps in the distance.

Home

Sick Bay

This is not exactly a momentous story but early this month Janice and I tagged teamed being down with illness. She got bronchitis and I got a hum dinger of a cold. She saw a doctor and was soon on the mend. Me...well, I have my own ways of doing things. We don't get sick often so medications tend to linger a long time in our medicine cabinet, so when I get sick I am in no mood to dilly dally around, I want to attack it with a vengeance. I figure that overkill is the best strategy so I pull out everything from athlete's foot powder to dandruff crème, a top to bottom strategy as it were. If a medication calls for 1 pill to take care of business, well I can only imagine how much more effective 2 might be.

And never mind those pesky "discard after..." dates stamped on the box. That is just a scam to sell you more. Unless the product has turned green, if it has an expired date after 2010, I figure it is probably still good. What if it is less effective, you ask? Yet another reason to take two to make up for the loss of effectiveness!

In spite of my best efforts, after 4 days of loosing ground I still ended up seeing a doctor... eh, for a second opinion.

So what do we do with all our free time?

Shameful laziness

February 2023

 

OK, so our cross country trip is now over and we are ensconced at our home in France. As far as the trip went, all worked out as planned, on time and within budget. Sort of. Our first stop to visit family was at my uncle and aunt's home in Phoenix, Arizona.

Moving on, we crossed what seemed an eternally long space called Texas over several days. Flat, deserted and boring to tears, we finally arrived at daughter Kami's home in New Orleans where we helped out with her daddy chore list over a few days. Driving through Alabama, we stopped to visit the destroyer USS Alabama and the submarine USS Drum. Good fun to see stuff on the road.

Fire tubes 1-2-3 and 4!!!!

Next planned stop was in Stuart, Florida, where over 4 days Janice satisfied her hankering to explore real estate possibilities. We did find a place that could work for us but the taxes and astronomical insurance (after the recent hurricanes) were deal breakers. So, we continued on. 

This one caught our fancy

The boat was not included, but it left plenty of room for ours

On our way out we stopped to visit with friends Keith and Lisa, who live mid state. They are fellow disaster response Team Rubicon volunteers that I met in Kentucky while we were deployed together last year.

Next stop to see our old friends Joe and Charlotte (old friends, not old...oh never mind) from California now in Knoxville, Tennessee, where we spent a few days with them.

Finally, we made a beeline for Syracuse, New York, to store our pick up where Janice was scheduled for some medical stuff before our flight across the pond.

      Good news and sad news

The sad news is that our grandson Christopher, born a Spinal Bifida baby, had a massive setback this month. A veteran of 25 + + + surgeries in his 16  years of life, he is currently unable to swallow, sit up, speak, walk and is on a breathing machine. While we were on the road, he was subjected to another 3 surgeries to attempt to correct a shunt in his head and a whole host of other issues, far too many to list. Never having known the joys of running or playing but being an avid football fan, he is a relentless trooper, ever grateful for every scrap of life he can enjoy. We often think that a surgery will fix whatever the issue is but in this case it did not. He is now in hospice and our little rocket man is on hold to be launched to heaven. He has always been and will forever be my hero.

Spirit Island

The good news is that this month we made a little money but got a little poorer at the same time. We are fast on our way to loosing the title of 'island moguls' as the 5 we were required to buy to get the one that we wanted were either sold or are pending closing on sales. It was kinda fun while it lasted but we are happy to see Spirit and Phantom islands in our rear view mirror at the same time.

Since our arrival in France, we have wasted no time in catching up with the required maintenance after an 8 month absence. As the big projects 'for Michael to do' have mostly wrapped up, the ongoing 'take care of the joint' stuff that any homeowner faces are what we mostly have to do now... times 3.

At least until Janice comes up with another great idea for Michael to do when the toolbelt has to come out again. We came here earlier in the season than usual to get a big project done in having a swimming pool put in on a new property we are acquiring but French administration has stimied our every effort. The French seem pre disposed to live in the future. Anything that can be done tomorrow, next week or preferably sometime far in the future is preferable to doing it now. We have been at this for 7 months and have yet to complete step 1. Not being here full time to "La Prod" them along is a real detriment. We will get this done but we will just not see completion this season.

The Citrus Festival

So what do you do with a few million lemons and oranges? Yeah, you make lemonade for sure, but first you tie rubber bands around them, strap them to 50 Rose Bowl type floats (static and mobile) and have yourself a festival. The yearly citrus festival in the town of Menton "The Jewel of France" is a real kick to attend and since it had been a few years since we had, we decided to look in on it again. The largest display we saw was about 30' tall (10M) and 80' wide (27M). All this gawking made us hungry, so being just a few miles from the border, we popped into Italy for lunch.

How each is attached with a rubber band