Mama's Home And The Dangers Of Grocery Shopping Here

Bonjour everyone. Just a short note that Cassie came home this morning after a week in Victoria, BC, at a communications course which is as always welcome here. I made a quick run to the Franprix Marche in our neighborhood that's open on Sundays for around 4 hours to pick up a few necessaries for the rest of the day. What's dangerous in these French grocery stores usually involves things that are sweet IE "Baiocchi" cookies or at least that's what they're called on the package. It was an impulse buy as I'd never seen them before and frankly after breaking them open this afternoon, I rapidly came to the conclusion that whoever makes these should be shot immediately and all existing stores of these cookies need to be destroyed.

They're so good it's just stupid and now I'm hooked on them. Sooooooooo.......sometimes grocery shopping here is dangerous at least for helpless old guys like me.

Love to all! Except the folks who make Baiocchi cookies............ The bombers will be overhead before the end of the day.......

A bientot,

Sid

My Eighth Blog

It has been a few more weeks since my last blog and things have gone smoothly, in other words, things are still never boring. As of now I have completely finished my math course in Strayer Online, meaning I am now completely done with math. It has been a long road with that painful and annoying subject, but has finally been taken care of. My GPA in this is a high %90.18, even higher than my last quarter score for math. The next classes I have will be humanity studies (something Niall took and will help me with) along with business class, something Niall and I both did back in high school which we will be taking together like before, making this the first Strayer Course that we'll have done together. Things have been going well for us this far and I hope they continue to do so in the days to come.

Kian Hagan

Stevo And Home For Better Or Worse

Bonjour friends. Our friend Steve Baker (Stevo.....*) underwent a triple bypass heart surgery Monday and is starting to be up and around a bit now. Cassie went to high school with Stevo way back in the day and I met him after we moved to Lynchburg after getting out of the Navy.
He's always been a kind and gentle soul and a hell of a drummer. I just wanted to mention him here because at our age these things usually don't happen and we wish him continued good health and full recovery from this.

I mentioned in the last post that we will after all be returning to Lynchburg which is something I didn't think we would but with our house not selling and the thought of having to purchase a home in the Bethesda area where property values even in a down market are enough to make strong men shake with fear, Cassie and I already decided to keep the house and she'll commute like she did before we moved to Paris. The politics in Lynchburg are ugly and when there is a lot of snow the city has a penchant for not scraping the streets but overall, it's good place to live and we do love our house there. So we'll be back in 2012. Perhaps we'll be able to put a band together that has a drummer. Hopefully Stevo will be available when we get back.

Love to all everywhere especially Stevo today and the rest of this month.......*

A bientot,

Sid

PS
That's our neighbor Betty taken in February after the 3rd big snowstorm.

The End Of The Short Angela Era And Our House Back Home

I guess it took a good long vacation to make our Guardian (French equivalent of a building "Super") Angela who was suggested to us as our "housekeeper" to realize that she didn't like cleaning up cat hair and this even after I had purchased a new vacuum cleaner (aspirateur) that works real well on cat hair. Angela had phoned our good friend Veronique and told her that she would be bringing her cousin up to take her place of course not telegraphing that to me but through Veronique. We'd never had a housekeeper before although occasionally would hire one to do "deep" cleaning sometimes perhaps once a year in the states and our house there was 3 times as big as this apartment. I think initially it was good politics to hire Angela although I had misgivings about the building manager being in our apartment so much. She was dynamite at cleaning and always did a good job. In any event, Angela now claims she's allergic to cat hair and also some kinds of fruit too. What Angela doesn't know is that I worked in health care for over 20 years and know a lot about allergies. Usually folks who allergic to cat hair will react to it almost immediately, not months after the fact. When she came up to see me the next day with her cousin, I had a Google translated note for her thanking her for her good work for us but let her know that me and twins would be handling it from here on out as that's what we used to do in Virginia with a WAY bigger place. I don't think she was very happy but another thing she couldn't know is that cleaning is one of my core competencies being in the military for as long as I was.

Perhaps we'll being someone else in that we vet first but until that time me and the guys have got it.

Our house didn't sell in the over 6 months that we've been gone even after we reduced it in price significantly (knocked 30 k off and still no takers) so we're back to working with Norma Stein who we'd started with in the first place to manage renting our house for us until we return in 2012 so it looks like we'll be going back to Lynchburg which is fine with the twins and me. Cassie can negotiate with Areva for an executive apartment to stay in while working in Bethesda when we get back. We're not willing to pay a fortune for a small place there when we'll almost finished paying for our home in Lynchburg. I guess we'll chalk it up to the continuing economic downturn. Our neighbor Betty was overjoyed as was her son Paul who lives up the street. Should be interesting to find out how the place looks after we return. Norma will do a kick ass job I'm sure.

More to come later on this week. Stay tuned......

Love to all!

A bientot,

Sid

Long time, no blog...

This is my first blog post in a long while. I have passed my 2nd quarter with Strayer University and I left with a 94.15% for my total grade (my final exam was finished on last Saturday) and I know my brother got a grade in a similar range. Needless to say, we are all quite satisfied.

I had some issues with this class (Introduction to Physical Science) in the first couple weeks, mainly in communication and study preparation (for quizzes and tests), but I worked to get through these obstacles, with a little help from my parents. This will serve as a learning experience for future reference should I run into similar issues in future Strayer classes. I have learned to compose my own study guides, and some ideas for confronting communication problems with my instructor(s).

I am also pleased to say that Kian and I have a nice good break until the next quarter begins on the 4th of October. My brother and I have been enjoying our selves with it so far.

Best regards to all,

Niall

My Guys And Strayer University

There was a watershed event here this week. Kian is finally past the college math course required on his way to a Liberal Arts Degree somewhere in the future. Niall also did very well in a difficult Physical Science course and they are both ending this quarter (Strayer is on the quarter schedule as opposed to semester) with averages over 90%. This of course is most worthy of mention in that both guys attended Central Virginia Community College starting Fall 2008 which is a "brick and mortar" school; where Kian's first year English Composition professor who happened to be the Department Chair couldn't pronounce his name correctly at the end of the semester and who completely ignored his ADA mandated accommodations. Where both the ADA Coordinator and senior administrators including the college president told me in no uncertain terms that they didn't have to help either of my sons. That's right, Darrell Staat was the president of CVCC told my exactly that on the phone at this time last Fall when Niall's Business Technology Course instructor panicked after she met him and almost ushered him out of the room because he was "so handicapped". Let's just say that CVCC in Lynchburg is managed like so many other state agencies in Virginia; by career bureaucrats who are interested only in keeping their positions until they're able to retire. We found out when we moved to Virginia that the entire state education system is decades behind almost every other state and for children like ours and for our entire family, it's every man for himself. For the first time since 2001 we're not in struggle any more worrying whether our sons are getting the assistance they need to succeed in higher education. We can only wonder at how other peoples' special needs children are faring in the wasteland that comprises the so called Commonwealth of Virginia VDOE and State College and Community College systems. Needless to say, our sons will continue and finish their educations either with Straye or another private college. Perhaps Dr. Staat is already practicing his golf swing in his office as he certainly doesn't have the time of day for just about anything else.

You can imagine my trepidation doing research on where our sons could continue their educations while we live here in Paris. The French school systems make no accommodations for anyone and have a very strict methodology regarding who goes to school where and at what level that will probably never change so sending them to school here particularly with neither of them being fluent in French was out of the question. After doing some pretty exhaustive research I arrived at Strayer University which is a private for profit college located in Virginia but who has campuses all over the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and also one of the best "online synchronous and asynchronous" classes that span their entire catalog and in which students can attain their degrees without ever having entered a brick and mortar classroom. I took a deep breath and signed the twins up in January of this year to begin Spring Quarter shortly after we arrived here in March. There were some bumps and false starts but overall, the experience with Strayer has been a smashing success. Their online course methodology is perfect for Autistic Students and although pricey it's worth every penny.

After the last couple of school years, to see Kian's self confidence back is priceless. Niall is thriving too and I'm looking pretty good having made this decision on something this huge that's worked great. It's been a great thing for Cassie too as that's one less thing she has to worry about.

Strayer University has proven to be responsive to problem areas and the student support has been second to none. If anyone who reads this knows anyone else in a similar situation to ours, I would highly recommend Strayer University to them at least as a starting point or as in our sons' case a transfer transition to something a bit less ambiguous than a regular classroom setting. The entire Virginia Public School Systems including the State Colleges and Community Colleges could learn a lot from how Strayer conducts their University but as I mentioned earlier, it's doubtful if anything like that will ever happen.

It is indeed an auspicious beginning to this week and the twins have the next week and half off so we're going to do some exploring on the bus system.

Love to all and thanks for reading.

Bon journee,

Sid

Meeting The Neighbors

The beginning of this week ushered in another neighbor who showed up Monday morning.
She lives 2 floors up and I'd actually met her over a month ago. We've been listening to her play piano for months and had marveled at how good whoever it was played and how lucky we were to be able to hear music like that free. She's a lovely, vivacious, and kind woman, who's fortunes of late have not been kind to her in fact her story broke my heart Monday morning. She'd come by to ask what our rent was as she was planning on selling her apartment. For a French person to be that forthright with almost a total stranger told me volumes about her and her situation.

I'll be sorry to see her go particularly right after really getting to know her a bit better. I suspect some of my own stories may have frightened her as our French friend Gilles Asselin always liked referring to me as an "optimistic American" and way to forward for the French.

I plan whenever possible to do nice things for her and try to make her smile. She has a daughter who sings opera and who is amazing. What a gift it is to interact with the French who have such different perspectives. They change all of us in little ways every day here. Our new friend Gerard from Lyon had never heard of the Allman Brothers or ever heard any of ZZ Top's music but had heard of the band. He laughed for 10 minutes when I told him ZZ Top's guitarist Billy Gibbons (The Right Reverend Willie G) had once described their music as sounding like "4 flat tires on a muddy road". I got an email from him today asking when I would add ZZ Top to my weekly music email group. I'm hooking him up for sure.

That's what we must sound like to the French when we attempt speaking their language.

In closing all of this reminds me of how living in Paris is slowly weaving it's way into my fiber and becoming a part of me that's been missing for a long time.

It's great to be back..........*

Love to all everywhere,

A bientot,

Sid

Christine and Melodie

Just a short post to express my happiness and amazement that I get to see my old friend Christine Holzbauer and meet her daughter Melodie later this afternoon. They're joining us for dinner with other friends and for a change I'm extending our my hospitality to her. I met her here in 1975 when she and my friend Chris Madison lived here while they were both in school at the Science Po and Sorbonne. They lived in a tiny tiny apartment in the 10th arrondissement and we were all very very poor but had a ton of fun none the less.

She's one of the smartest people I ever met save for Cassie and has been living the last 5 or so years in Dakar, Senegal, as the West African Correspondent for La Express here in Paris. She and Melodie (Christine and Chris' daughter) are back now so Melodie can attend conservatory here in Paris. The last time I saw Christine was Fall of 1977 so it's been 33 years.

Again, my circle closes making contact with people from my past who had profound effect on me.

As always, it seems I continue to live under a rainbow and again will be blessed with the presence of a dear friend and have the honor of meeting her daughter for the first time.

Love to all everywhere......*

A bientot,

Sid

Shopping Therapy

When the disgruntled masses protest government policies, the decidedly less gruntled go shopping. While I was charging the single most expensive shoe purchase of my life, throngs were swarming the historic Republique and Bastille today to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy's anti-crime proposals. According to the news here, demonstrators hung a stained French flag and hailed the French President as "Sarkozy, son of Petain," referring to Marshal Philippe Petain, who led the pro-Nazi Vichy regime in World War II.
While thousands were protesting proposed laws that would take away French citizenship from immigrants guilty of crimes like attacks on police, polygamy or female circumcision, I wandered into the Francois Pinot boutique, official storefront for Salvatore Ferragamo shoes. Being a rube from Central Virginia, I stumbled into this particular store after failing to find satisfactory shoes in four other stores to go with the gray suit I’ve purchased for a French reception to be held at the World Energy Congress conference in Montreal this month. I asked the very helpful salesclerk for shoes to go with a gray pair of slacks, or “un pantalon gris.” After trying on a pair of shoes that felt as though they’d been custom tailored for my feet in a miraculous color that will go with anything, I was, of course, sold. Then she showed me the matching travel handbag, which was incredible, but at 890 euros, it was a bit beyond my price range. Now, you might think the handbag would have been a clue, but I had not realized my largesse until she gestured for me to enter my PIN code, and I saw the price of my shoe lust: 310 euros, or almost 400 U.S. smackers. Gasp. The shoes were almost two months of rent at the first apartment Sid and I lived in when we first got married. The handbag, almost 6 months.
So, upon acquiring my first designer shoes, I’ve also acquired a higher power of rationale: a good pair of classically stylish shoes will last a lifetime, and it’s not like I dropped a thousand in a favored dress shop. So really, I’ve come out ahead, right? But who am I kidding? The fact is that I’ve finally understood Carrie Bradshaw’s compulsion for designer shoes on” Sex and the City”: nothing feels sexier than haute couture. Except maybe zero credit debt. The jury’s still out on that one.

The Return Of Everyone, Waiting Daddies, Uncle Bob's Fight

At the end of our first vacation season here in Paris I think we'd gotten so used to seeing fewer people on the streets and shops shuttered with signs saying they were on holiday that this week we were somewhat shocked to see EVERYONE magically back!  Tuesday we went to our usual watering hold Brasserie 16, and our favorite waiter Pascal was back from his vacation all tanned and looking like a rock star.  Of course we kidded him about it and he was delighted.  We're determined next year to go away completely for at least 2 weeks maybe 3 one of which will be spent in Chevagny.  More on that later.

The longer we live here the more the rhythm of the neighborhood resonates with us and we've come to immerse ourselves in it and just go with the flow.  People recognize us and wave which makes us feel like we're actually a part of the crew around here.  One of the most notable occurrences involve small crowds of waiting people outside the clinic (Clinique Muette) right next door who smoke and wait for their wives to have babies.  There's also a constant stream of folks coming out of there with eye patches probably due to eye surgeries and a parade of VERY pregnant women some huffing and puffing but always in style coming and going.  We also get to see happy parents with baby carriers leaving with babies wearing the traditional knit caps loading into cars.  It's a never ending thing and again, we've never lived so close to a medical facility which has been another thing we'll add to our Parisian experience.  I sometimes wonder if the mommies next door who are trying to rest want to kill the ersatz trumpet players outside in the street when they're around........*

Lastly today, a little over a week ago we found out that the twins' Uncle Bob, Cassie and my brother in law who we adore has a treatable form of throat cancer which will require over 30 radiation treatments and at least 4 maybe more chemo therapy treatments.  We are naturally saddened by this and will do everything in our power to support him and his wife Vivian during his fight with this despicable disease.  For those of you who've been following our blog, our dear friend Jan Turbes who was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of months ago and then underwent surgery is coming to Paris with her husband Gary October 15th.  We helped out using Cassie's frequent flyer miles to help them make the trip affordable and our desire to do something nice for the person who literally introduced us to our sons and who helped craft the program educationally the brought them from being lost in school to being Honor Students and the amazing men they are today.

We truly lead amazing lives and have to many people we love and cherish.  And.......we continue to be the sum of them all as they shine out through us every day.

Make sure to let the folks you love know it daily whenever you can........*

Come see us if you're able to........*

Best always....

A bientot,

Sid