The mild weather extends into a fourth day. It's a fresh , but not chilly, 13 degrees when Sophie heads out into the garden at six am. She's listened for an hour, in silence , as Angus talks to Manhattanites in dark suits. They face a busy and turbulent week.
Sophie's hair is defying gravity. I tell her she's a vision of unalloyed loveliness but she seems unimpressed. Her biggest and quite possibly only concern is the audacious hen strutting backwards and forwards across the tarmac in front of the war memorial. Sophie is very keen to deal with this interloper but is 'encouraged' back home.
The Old Farmer has been staying with his lady friend for the last month. This morning the venerable Mercedes makes an early appearance in his driveway. There is a bijou caravanette attached to it. From a brief conversation it seems the Old Farmers lady friend thinks the ancient motorhome is a health hazard. He has invested in this almost equally ancient caravanette to whisk her off to romantic places during lockdown. ' The ladies like a bit of pampering' he informs me. I'm not sure he's understood lockdown. I'm equally uncertain as to whether he understands 'pampering' . There is a sliding door at the back of the caravanette which folds down and provides an almost fully equipped kitchenette. The single calor gas ring set in a formica cabinet is its most prominent feature.
So starts the first Monday in November in a small French village where nothing, but nothing, ever happens.
5 comments:
Page 3 of the powerpoint was indeed fascinating. Not a bad result, in my view. In the fall, we see very large black and yellow spiders at our weekend house, and they also spin these very long straight webs. I walked into one that was strung across our driveway while walking Cherry last week, and I felt terribly guilty - the amount of time and effort involved in creating one of these webs must be enormous. I hope things work out for the Old Farmer, but the caravanette actually seems to me quite a bit less alluring than the old motorhome (which was not alluring at all).
Impressive work by the spider.
Let's hope the Lady Friend has a broad definition of what constitutes 'pampering'...
Does the OF plan to camp within 100 kms?
Disturbing news from the U.S.: a relative who is a firefighter was tested positive for Covid antibodies this summer and assumes he had it in March when he had what he thought was a bad sinus infection. He has it again, tested positive and has been home sick for days, 6-year-old kid also has it but nobody else in the family. Am reading about reinfection and it look like that's what to expect.
Re page 3 of the powerpoint: until the election system changes and there's a straight popular vote and gerrymandering is outlawed (and with computer models, one can count "wasted" votes), then there's only something to lose by breaking up the parties. Already the Republicans govern with a minority of votes. Let that happen one or two more times and voting won't matter at all. Also, how to decide which party to join? I would be torn between Acela and Green.
For the past month, I have been volunteering to get out the vote in Wisconsin. Calling lots of "independents," who rarely are independent. They like to say it, but when you talk to them they are clearly Republican or Democrat. The woman who inherited a business from her father, who feels no responsibility to pay workers a living wage ("nothing wrong with working more than one job if you want to get ahead"), says racism is overblown and doesn't want to pay taxes ("I should keep what I earn and not give it to undeserving people")--clearly a Republican. The guy who thinks there should be a safety net and the government should help the little people when things beyond their control happen--clearly a Democrat. In the rural area I'm calling, for many men the only issue is guns. They might want government support, public education, Social Security, higher taxes on the rich, etc., but they'll stick with Trump because of guns. Why guns? I suspect it's a cover for racism, when you dig deeper. They aren't talking about defending themselves from other white guys with guns but from the lawless people from the cities, which sounds a lot like code.
The amazing spider's web looks as though you have a crack across your phone screen!
It does seem that the Old Farmer has no concept of what lock down is all about. Not sure I'd feel particularly "pampered" in the little caravanette, but perhaps my expectations are little higher than those of his lady friend.
Hari OM
... did Angus enquire about the OF's ADDD??? YAM xx
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