Bonjour Everyone,
Very early this morning (at around 0045) our "back" doorbell buzzed which had never happened before.
I was already in bed but Cassie, Mark and Susie were still awake. The buzzer kept buzzing so Mark and Cassie went to the kitchen back door and spoke with a French man outside they couldn't see who told them in broken English that the downstairs front door was broken (It's electrically operated with a code pad that opens the latch when the proper code is inputted) and that he needed to come through our kitchen to get upstairs. They let him in which I was unhappy about not knowing who he was and after receiving a notice from the U.S. Embassy this last week about vacation time here when organized gangs of thieves roam neighborhoods looking for apartments to rob.
He was in fact one of our neighbors who knew who we were but who had never deigned to actually have anything to do with us. He came downstairs this morning to thank us again and to tell us he wanted to have drinks with us when he returned from vacation later in August. We actually introduced ourselves and he introduced himself and it was a pleasant exchange.
Cassie called the apartment management company to let them know about the door problem and got an evasive answer from them as to the time that the said repairs would actually take place. Of course, with the electrical door system out that also meant that we couldn't access the basement to take trash down unless we took it down a very rickety back elevator with a thin plywood floor that looks like it was original equipment in this 100 year old building. I also had to go to the store as we've had more mouths to feed this weekend and we were out of some things so this entry will close with the email I just sent Cassie a while ago that explains the above title for this blog entry.
Of course there will be many many more blog entries but this is the most interesting one in a while. Here's the email:
Hi,
Before I went to the store, I met the folks downstairs who I think belong to the fella you let in last night. They were still packing a car with bags for vacation and wanted to know how I was going to get back in. The lady from Embassy (our apartment management company here in Paris...*) lied to you this morning. Angela has been gone for at least 2 days and won't be back until the first week in September. The reason I know this is there was an "exterminator" with grip clamps and a dark green plastic bag in front of our door when I returned from the store with groceries who was trying in vain to get the front door open. I told him that it was "terminee" and asked if he was the repair person while I yelled up to get Niall to come down to let me in. He then let himself in to the basement somehow but when I went downstairs with Niall and Kian to watch the door while they tried to get into the basement, both the exterminator guy with the clamps and green bag and another 30 something type young man with an IPhone and helmet were standing outside the front door. The guy with the helmet lives in the 7th floor and the exterminator was here to meet him and he told me there are rats in his apartment and the exterminator was there to kill them. They both needed to go through our kitchen to access the back steps as the regular steps don't go all the way to the top floor so we now have another neighbor who wants to bring beers down to share with us. I gave him our home phone number in case he's locked out again and told him that we'd let him in.
The twins brought all of the garbage bags back upstairs and Niall took them down to the basement in the back elevator which has a plywood floor so only he went with the bags and came right back up. Mark and Susie took the bottles to the recycle place on their way to some exploring over near Passy and will be back by 3. I'm calling their cab for them momentarily which will be here by 3:30.
I purchased tickets for Enrico Pierranunzi on Saturday night at Sunside. I think the show is sometime around 9.
It's been quite a morning here and things just keep getting better. You might want to let Mr. Tartarin know that there are rats upstairs which most assuredly means that they are in the walls too. There truly was a reason we brought cats particularly Gracie who's way meaner than Nellie and the two of them together should keep us safe but the folks at Embassy have more than just electrical problems. The neighbor from the 7th floor also complained bitterly about the pigeons as I guess there are far more places for them to have sex on the roof than even outside our windows. I look very forward to hearing what Mr. Tartarin is going to do or not do about the rats.
Hope you're having a lovely day.
Love you,
Sid
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"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."
Hunter S. Thompson
Love to all and sleep light wherever you may be tonight. You never know what might be in the walls...
Sid
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