Truncated Assignment, Swedish Scotch, And Why Everything Here Is A Struggle

After months of exhaustive discussions and corporate maneuvering the final decision was made to assign Cassie to a vacant position back in the US in Bethesda, MD, where she worked before we moved to Paris.

The whole crew should be back in Lynchburg early in May. The move will be accomplished on one of the twins' off weeks in between college quarters. More information will be forthcoming as things progress but it is a done deal and we are definitely coming back to Virginia. Lists are being made and plans are already being activated to make it all happen.

A couple of weekends ago we had dinner with a passel of Swedes as these days here some of our favorite people in Paris are a Swedish couple, Anna and Sebastian with their dog Sture. Sebastian's cousin Vivicka and her husband own a restaurant in the 10th arrondissement that's a fusion cookin joint and quite good. One of Sebastian's other Swedish cousins lives in works in Paris was also there that evening but for the life of me now I can't remember what her name was. The evening was amazing in that Vivicka, Anna, and Sebastian and his other cousin would all start speaking in Swedish which is a vary musical sounding language but totally foreign to anything either me or Cassie have ever heard and we were just swept away with all of it. It was a blast and Cassie captured some of it on her I-Phone that we'll have to download somewhere so we have it to show to folks one day. Sebastian's real name is "Johann Sebastian Bach".......and I'm not kidding there. And no, he doesn't play or write music. Cassie likes to say that he reminds her of a modern day pirate...... Hahahahahahaha....* He and Anna brought us a bottle of Swedish scotch that we haven't opened yet. Perhaps at the next party. We love those guys......*

Lastly, while theses thoughts are still in my head, it becomes increasing obvious to me why France as a country is where it is in the overall pantheon of nations. I've never been anywhere where almost everything is so torturous whether it's traffic, getting paperwork done, having repairs done in one's apartment, where strikes happen almost daily that can make one's life a nightmare, and where customer service is always the exception to any rule of any kind. What a nation of paradoxes.......* Most days it amazes me that anything ever gets done here. Paris is an amazing city and it's filled with beauty and grandeur that rivals anything on the planet and the food and wine, and culture are awesome. Everyone here want's us to learn how to speak French but most times when we do so even correctly we're smacked down by someone and Cassie regularly attends meetings where she works in which everyone speaks French and just ignores her. The list goes on and on. Through all of this we do have some French friends who fly in the face of all of that who we will always adore and miss when we leave. The rest though have contributed to my hair getting grayer.

All of these things leave me changed again which of course is the way any travel should always be if it's good. I suspect the twins and Cassie are changed also. It'll be interesting to see what they write. We still have adventures to experience here before we leave and those will be added to this narrative.

Love to all everywhere!

We'll see ya sooner than you may be ready for!

Ha!

Sid

Chris And The Lost And Found Melodie, 2 Week Angst Festival, Christmas Simply, And Moussa And Sonny And The Toilet Seat That Gave Way To Too Many Bums

Thanksgiving night after we returned from our wonderful meal at Le Petit Tour, there was an email from my old friend Chris Madison that his daughter Melodie had gone missing in Paris and that he wanted me to call him in Denver where he was on leave from the State Department visiting his parents. After speaking with him we found out he was arriving in Paris early Saturday morning and of course we volunteered to host him here for however long it took to find his daughter and provide him with a modicum of serenity in an otherwise pretty insane environment. Chris and his now ex-wife Christine who I traveled down south here with last Summer have an amazing talented daughter who has musical talent bordering on prodigy levels and who is currently 16 which is a tough age for anyone. Melodie's mother Christine is an independent journalist who's beat is usually Western Africa most specifically Senegal, and due to that, has to be gone a lot to pursue her stories which of course leaves Melodie here with either part time nannies or friends looking out for her. In hindsight, perhaps other decisions probably should have been discussed and considered regarding Melodie's needs. Suffice to say, after Chris arrived Saturday morning he showered here, grabbed my cell phone and headed over to Christine's apartment in the 17th and as he was walking into the building, Melodie was walking out so she was found almost immediately much to everyone's relief and joy. Much as transpired for all since that day but that story is not one for me to tell in these pages. Melodie is going to be fine.

Chris stayed with us for a little over 2 angst filled weeks for just about everyone and during that time he and I renewed an old friendship that dates back to 1976 when Chris and I and our friend Mark Patrick used to play in the Metro here in Paris while Chris and Christine were both here in college. Chris was a huge influence of mine as a guitarist and also with his taste in music that I adopted very quickly and I learned many many important things from him not only as a musician but also in his kindness to me and openness and generosity. We hadn't seen each other since 1977 and Cassie got to witness and participate in our musical reunion. We all also got to witness Chris and Melodie play music together and jam with our other musical friends here who all closed ranks behind Melodie chatting her up and making her feel like she belonged with them which was a very special moment for us all...... Chris's smile watching his daughter play with professional musicians and hang in with them was worth the price of admission any day. It was great hosting Chris in our home. His next posting with the State Department will be in Khartoum, Sudan. Chris is a "military attache'" who's somewhat in the terrorism interdiction biz. To say I'll worry about him there is an understatement.

After Chris's departure we prepared for a quiet Christmas and New Year which has been accomplished even thought we had invitations to spend time with other friends some of which would have been in the Black Forest. Cassie needed the down time and we were all very happy to oblige. It's been a crazy year and nobody here knows what the New Year will bring. Many many things are up in the air and major decisions that should have been made by others have gone to the place where all of their kindred always reside which is nowhere doing nothing. Perhaps these things will change soon but we're still in Paris so what's not to like?

Lastly no blog entry would be complete without a French home improvement quandary. Over the last 6 or so months I've been endeavoring to keep the toilet seat in our main bathroom together but earlier last week it finally gave up and came apart. 6 months ago I tried to get it off with the rudimentary tools I had here but I was unable to get it off as the bolts that held it on had no edges to grab plus everything was rusted together. I called one person named "Moussa" out of an English language periodical here who'd advertised as a handy man and he came by, took a look, told me he'd come back the next day and then disappeared. Yesterday, we called another person recommended to us by an American electrician we met here last summer who's an Irishman named "Sonny" who speaks with a "brogue" a mile long. Sonny came and had to use a hack saw to cut the bolts off the old toilet seat after which he proclaimed, "must have one too many bums on that one".........Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I'd purchased a plastic toilet seat set for an absurdly expensive price in the neighborhood here last Summer that he installed for us while regaling me with stories of how he'd been taught to make "petrol bombs" to hurl at the British Troops in Belfast when he was little.........* Wow...... but all that being said he was a great guy...... Still amazing the folks we meet here and brought to mind my favorite running buddy here Johann Sebastian Bach and his dog Sture............

Life is good here in Paris and we're all ok..........it's been a momentous and tumultuous year but a great one none the less.

Love to all everywhere!

Sid

Cruella De Ville At The Casino And Thanksgiving Dinner At La Petit Tour With Sebastian, Anna, And Sture

If you've kept up with this blog you would have read that sometime last year early on I saw a woman who obviously lives in our neighborhood who looks and dresses like Cruella De Ville but doesn't seem to have any dogs nor one of those old cars. None the less, seeing her was quite treat and while grocery shopping yesterday at my local super marche (AKA Casino) she ended up in the same check out line I was in. I never thought I'd check out in the same que as Cruella but there it is here in Paris.

The beginnings of any and all holiday seasons are usually quite frenetic and this year's is no exception to that. Add a 6 day excursion into the Black Forest with a bunch of highly organized French and German folks and it should be an interesting beginning of 2012 for us all.

In the interest of not trying to do too many things all at once this year our normal Thanksgiving gathering was cancelled and our friend Gary from what is becoming our favorite French restaurant in our neighborhood, La Petit Tour, is going to cook for us all tonight including our new friends Sebastian Bach and his girlfriend Anna and their dog Sture. We're looking very forward to dinner there tonight. I'll make sure to take photos and will do another entry tomorrow with a link so you can see them.

Much more news will be forthcoming in this blog in the very near future but this is about all for today.

We wish all of you the absolute best this holiday season.

Try not to eat too much!

Love to all!

Sid

My Friend Mike Who Didn't Need To Die

Last week an old friend of mine died in Rapid City, South Dakota. That's him at the far left in the photo back in what looks like the 70s. His name was Mike Stevens and when I was very young growing up in a small South Dakota town, Mike was kind to me and my friend even when others there shunned me. The story behind my travails there at that time are not worthy of mention here but suffice to say that Mike's friendship and kindness along with his entire family saved me often in what were sometimes desperate times there for me.

I didn't keep up with him unfortunately as our paths lead us both away from the little town, me to Atlanta, GA, and then eventually the Army and him to the western part of South Dakota.

At one time during the 60s my father was Mike's family doctor from what I remember and in South Dakota, times have always been hardscrabble for almost everyone who's ever lived there. Mike's dad was a farmer and they were a large family. My father was one of 2 doctors in that little town and there was also a small hospital. I don't have any memory of ever hearing that anyone was ever denied care there. Back then, it just wasn't something any doctor would even consider. The reason I'm mentioning all of this is that back then, there wasn't much in the way of health insurance nor were there megalithic heath care corporations that owned all of the hospitals or that had huge lobbies in congress. In the town I grew up in while living in South Dakota in the early 60s, nobody was ever turned away or refused care when they needed it and if they couldn't pay the full bill, they paid what they could and continued their lives. Some of my dad's patients paid in barter. Folks there thought we were rich but we were far from it as my father was a healer.....not a businessman. It's amazing how far the lords of greed and avarice have come to control who lives and dies these days in the US and what a different time it was back when we were all young.

My old friend Mike died of complications secondary to undiagnosed hepatitis. For those of you who aren't in the medical field, hepatitis is treatable and if not curable doesn't usually result in death if caught early like say during a yearly physical. I found out that Mike had no health insurance and like millions of other Americans, was probably reticent to go to a doctor or emergency room, or other clinic without insurance, because the fee for uninsured people is either triple or quadruple what it is for people who do have insurance. For someone without health insurance, any illness can eventually spell economic disaster for them and their entire family resulting in a loss of just about everything. It's a terrifying choice to have to "roll the dice" every year and hope that you don't get sick. In some ways, that takes everyone without health insurance back to the 1800s when the flu could actually kill you.....*

In today's economy there are more people in the United States who are without health insurance than ever before and I strongly suspect that this story is being repeated daily across what is the most powerful nation on the planet. It's criminal and when you think about it, anytime the words "healthcare" and "profit" are mentioned in the same sentence you end up with an oxymoron because once profit becomes the driving force in almost anything it's not long until humans become secondary. I think the number of folks without health insurance is up around 60 million.

I currently live in Paris, France, where there's a "single payer" healthcare system that's been in place for decades. If my friend Mike had been a citizen here, he'd be alive today...........* In France, everyone regardless of status has access. The French pay what in the US is considered unreasonably high taxes but to a person, every French friend we have here takes great pride in their healthcare system and none of them have any qualms about paying high taxes for it. The governments throughout the EU all put the welfare of their societies before profits regarding health care for their citizens and regulate what hospitals and doctors and pharmacies can charge including insurance companies. If one is poor, retired on a small pension, or even a visitor in their countries and becomes seriously ill, they're treated without being accosted about what kind of insurance they have if any. Some of my friends here inquired if we could get Mike here but by then it was too late.

In the US, organizations like the TEA Party, and right wing politicians who are in the pockets of the healthcare lobbies spout lies about Obamacare being socialist and the president being an Islamic terrorist and other things like "death panels" and healthcare being a "privilege". Those are pretty interesting thoughts but at the end of the day, people like my friend Mike pay the ultimate price for their lack of access and of course all of the TEA Party faithful in the Senate and Congress have excellent healthcare plans and guaranteed pensions for life even if they're thrown out of office and their esteemed colleagues across the isle have the same things. In my opinion, until everyone in the US has access to health care without bankruptcy or losing everything, we really can't call ourselves truly civilized. Currently in the US, profit trumps just about everything else. Society is secondary.

I'm not writing this to politicize my friend's passing. I can however tell you that my blood boils when I think of how he should have been able to get treatment for his illness without being saddled with insurmountable debt. As it is, he spent at least 10 days in the hospital at the end of his life and his survivors will be presented with a huge hospital bill that they won't be able to pay.

My friend Mike didn't have to die...

This is 2011....

He was 58.

If all of you don't start demanding change, you could be next......

Sid Hagan

November, Carla's Gone, Turkeys In Paris??????

Bonjour all........ Geez, it's November already??????? And after what seemed like an eternity, Carla Bruni had her baby and about 2 weeks ago the cordon of security people and paparazzi were finally gone bringing back the natural order of things here which of course is traffic jams, millions of loud motor scooters, trash trucks at 5 am among other things which now seem normal to us all here. Like living anywhere overseas for an extended period, things naturally become habit and routine while doing what is normal where you happen to be living; and we're no different as we all feel a sense of belonging here when people on the streets recognize us and wave and everyone at our favorite Brasserie (Chalet 16) treats us with deference it is indeed a special feeling that when we leave will go missing.

There was an upheaval of sorts at the above mentioned brasserie when 2 of their waiters we knew well were fired for apparently being drunk at work which was quite a shock but then life went on.

Cassie's colleague Matthew and his wife Audrey had their new baby Hippolite a little over a week ago to add to their growing family which brought joy to everyone here. And we now begin the countdown to the quintessentially American Holiday Thanksgiving here which of course is way different in our approach than what we normally do in the US. For a number of years leading up to our moving here we'd left off on cooking our turkeys and instead paid a friend of a friend to deep fry them for us which really took a lot of the major work out of doing the dinner not to mention how amazingly tasty they turned out. Even if we wanted to cook a big turkey here our oven isn't the appropriate size to do it so we purchase an already cooked turkey (farm raised specially in Normandy) from The Real McCoy along with a couple of pies and invite a small horde of Americans and French friends to dinner making it a big covered dish event too. This year's edition may be scaled down a bit but it will still happen. It still promises to be another great evening of food and conversation.

The weather has cooled considerably and Winter is set to make the scene here soon with gray rainy days which are the norm here in Paris.

Occasionally I'll complain about how things go here in France but I must say again the majority of French people have been more than kind and generous to us and we are very fortunate indeed to be living here amongst them in Paris and even on the craziest days are better for it...................
It'll be hard to leave here when the time comes as I remember it being when I left Paris the first time in the late 70s wondering if I'd ever return.

Love to all everywhere and Happy Thanksgiving as we all have so much to be thankful for......*

Sid

Carla Bruni Next Door?????

About a week ago I got a message from the young British lady who watches our cats and apartment whenever we travel, that Carla Bruni (the very pregnant wife of Nicholas Sarkozy AKA the French President) was going to have her baby at the Clinique Muette which is the Obstetric Hospital right next door. She was wrong but evidently had seen a news report where Carla's father told the reporter that she was going to have her baby there.

This is the same place previously mentioned here that is SO different than American hospitals in that there is no loading dock nor is there any parking which means that everything either coming or going IE: trash, expectant mothers, supplies, etc. goes through the front door. The news reports also all state that the Clinic has undergone a facelift in preparation for the arrival of the president's wife which led us all to wonder what it was like before and why it needed to be so updated..........*

Needless to say we currently live amidst hoards of paparazzi and media folks including television crews who've staked the clinic out hoping to scoop each other when Carla arrives and perhaps even sneak in and get exclusive photos and film of her in labor and pushing the baby out. It's already a narrow one way through street and this has made it even weirder and more congested.

I doubt if this will make the news in the US but if she does have her baby here you'll all know that it was right next door to our apartment building and we have a birds-eye view of the street where all of the vultures await her arrival.

Love to all!

A bientot,

Sid

Aperock Purveyors Gig, New Dryer, October And Missing A Reunion

September 22nd my band Purveyors such as it is these days played a small bar in the 11th called Aperock Cafe with our new friend, the amazing Andy Guthrie who doesn't really need us but he sure made what we do sound amazing.... It was the first time I'd played in a Parisian bar since 1977 so it was really cool for me. Most of the Parisians were somewhat nonplussed by us but we had a blast as you can see in the photo here which has all of us in motion and that was the way of it the entire evening. Honestly, we didn't much notice who was there for most of the night until the end of the show.

Veiled threats offered as "wolf tickets" to the management company who gets paid by Cassie's company for our apartment here in the 16th and who manages the apartment for the absentee owner, finally produced a new clothes dryer after over 100 days without one and constant foot dragging by everyone concerned save us. The implied threat involved withheld money in substantial amounts finally produced the desired result although it was unfortunate that it had to come to that. So it goes managing things here in France.... We DO love living here and there are many things the French do really well but customer service usually isn't one of them unfortunately.

This month in fact yesterday evening there was a 1971 St. Joe class reunion in Atlanta that I missed but helped out a bit with a bunch of music in MP3 form which I hope added to the festivities. I fondly remember the reunion I attended in 2006 that was really really fun for me and served as a huge reconnect with a whole bunch of folks I hadn't seen in many decades. I wish I could have been at the one last night but did see photos on Facebook today that made me smile. I need to get back in touch with as many of them as I can in the future. It's nice to reconnect and I love seeing those folks. I hope they do it again soon so I can attend.....*

Love to all everywhere....*

Sid