Thursday, March 31, 2005

Spring forward

So Daylight Savings Time kicks in a week earlier in France. The sun doesn’t come up until 7:30 now but it doesn’t set until well after 8:00. And no I don’t know why it changes a week earlier here, it just does.

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Oh, yeah, it’s spring. Put on my headphones, and raincoat (just in case), and walked to the post listening to a new story on my MP3.

At the top of the hill about ¾ of the way to the post office it starts to rain. Not sprinkle, not drizzle, but pour down, feels-like-pebbles-hitting-the-top-of-my-head rain. Run down the hill to the post office where I join a small crowd all hurrying for the door. As we crowd into the hot little room and form a line, I look around. Just looking at the lot of us shaking off coats and assessing the damage, looking like a bucketful of drowned rats and beginning to smell like wet puppies (and worse) in the oppressive heat of the tiny room, I pray for the line to move along quickly. I slowly become aware of the rising steam of the group as a whole and that the combination of wetness and horrendous heat are starting to create a very unpleasant smell. The funniest part is watching the faces of newcomers as they open the door and get a look on their faces like they’ve just been smacked in the face by a two weeks dead mackerel.

Finally, getting out the door I’ve never welcomed fresh air more, I don’t even care that it’s still raining and I have a long walk home. It never even occurs to me to go back into the post and wait it out. That would be just plain crazy.

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I have photos from the weekend in Provence that I’ll post tomorrow. The Blogger service has been having problems and it has been very hard this week to upload anything, including a post. They are working on their issues and promise to be more stable soon.

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