Time is running out! Need to pack in a few more experiences before Ieave.
Like breakfast out by myself! I walked in the drizzle all over, contemplating le saumon fumé et ses toasts or les pancakes avec le sirop d’érable or les oeufs grillés but decided that I could get smoked salmon, maple syrup pancakes, or fried eggs at home.
What is a little harder to get is a whole damn basket of two types of bread and a croissant, plus a little buffet of jams. butter, and chocolate sauce, plus a rosy freshly-juiced “detox aux légumes,” plus a double espresso with a teeny madeleine nestled in the spoon.
The price was 14€, for your reference, although I ended up ordering a second double espresso. (Yes, I got a second teeny madeleine.) And the juice, which was fairly beet-forward, was sweet and cold. I asked for a little sack to take home the croissant.
+ + +
It is day 23, and today (after I get home from breakfast) is the last work day. We worked yesterday too. Tomorrow is the last really free day, then a day that includes packing and cleaning up, then travel.
I think I am ready to come home. Maybe it’s the drizzly rain that will prevail for the rest of the week—we can’t even see the mountains for the clouds! Maybe I’ve just been, well, satisfied with the time we’ve had.
Are the remaining three days wasted on me? I don’t think so. They also serve a purpose.
Ever been annoyed when you can’t get all the toothpaste, or, say, anchovy paste, out of the tube? Or because of the design of, say, deodorant sticks that you turn to send more to the top, there’s always a bit that won’t come out. If you removed the “extra” there would still be something clinging to the package. So the wasted bits serve the function of letting the valuable stuff flow freely.
These last three days are the start of the transition back to the home life. This morning I composed a grocery list to send to Milo (our college senior who lives in our city) so he can put a few things in our fridge for when we stumble in at midnight. I sent a message to my virtual lifting coach asking for a workout week designed to ease me back in. Later I will RSVP Simon to the next Scout meeting on Monday. When it gets late enough to call the pediatrician, I will make appointments for flu and COVID shots sometime next week.
Today I’ll do some school with the boys, and after I’ve finished I’ll write a detailed note to myself for the week after next, so I remember where we left off. (I’ve planned a week of recovery just in case we need it.)
+ + +
If I didn’t have these last three days, now that I’m starting to think eagerly about seeing our friends, sipping coffee in my own chair, getting back to swimming and lifting, making macaroni and cheese or nachos—well, all these tasks would just shift back into the part of the trip where I didn’t want to think about going home.
So the timing is good after all.
And now that I have waxed philosophical, I guess I’ll eat this last madeleine, pay for my breakfast, and head back through the rain to my to-do list.
bearing blog 