24 January 2023
Sitting at my desk here in the apartment on Rua Pedro Nunes I can see it is a sunny day outside. It is about 50 F outside as the clock dances the moments away toward noon. The weather service here in Portugal is warning disruptions are possible due to extreme cold weather. It might go down to 38 or 39 F tonight.
The trip to get Rua Pedro Nunes from Oxford Road, East Lansing was long. Three legs we flew, Detroit to Montreal, Montreal to London, London to Lisbon. The plane from Detroit was really cold. The plane from Montreal had someone who had a heart attack mid-Atlantic. The plane from London to Lisboa was the flying equivalent of a cattle car. Nope, not flying TAP again if I can avoid it. Our connections were so tight we had to run, and I mean run, from plane to plane with a stop to get vetted by immigration authorities at each airport after Detroit. London had about an inch of snow on the ground and was as foggy a place as I have ever seen.
Hit a couple of issues when we got here. One of the bathrooms has developed a mold problem; trust me it is common in these parts. Should be able to take care of that pretty quickly. More problematic is that the instant on water heater is not instant on, it is barely on. I think my landlord wasn’t sure it was a problem until I took a photo of the error code and sent him a link to the manual for the unit that I pulled up. Decades of being a researcher of legal matters has given me some skills in terms of searching and finding stuff out there on the interwebs.
Before we came over last time, I bought a pair of Apple Homepod Minis. Learning how to use them was a bit of chore, the curve was a bit tougher than the usual Apple plug and play. But today I got it figured out connected the little speakers with my MacBook Air. I have been enjoying Pearl Jam’s “Just Breath” segueing into Lyle Lovett’s “Private Conversation”.
Francie is off to the talho to get some meats for our next few meals. When she returns, I will go off to get some breads for today’s repasts. We are tag teaming our presence here until the tech gets here to fix the hot water. It had been a long time since I had taken a sponge bath but I got to do that this morning. Boiled a couple of quarts of water and got the grime off from the 25-hour journey door to door yesterday.
Over the next few weeks, we will be painting this place and hanging art. There are several Kim Kauffman prints that will be front and center on these walls of ours. While we have most of the basics into place, chairs, tables, etc., we will be adding touches that we never got around to in our 25 years on Oxford Road in East Lansing. This is our Refuge of the Roads. A home filled with heart and humility.
If you are passing through Lisboa, give a holler. I am going to set up my ATT voicemail box with a greeting that contains my Portuguese phone number. I have discovered that I can check my US voice mail from my computer. You can message me via email or Messenger if you want the number. Being the internet is equal parts evil and good I am not going to post it here.
As I finish writing this, I am listening to David Crosby sing “Guinnevere”. What a beautiful song from a man with such internal struggles.
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