25 January 2023
Seems I have shaken off the jet lag. Last night when my hit the pillow I fell asleep and was gone to the world for six straight hours. Woke up with a feeling I have felt before. Being wrapped inside warm covers I didn’t want to get out of bed to face a not so warm morning.
Had to get up though.
Today is a day of people coming to my habitation here in Saldanha neighborhood. Got the hot water repair person coming. This, as you may guess, is critical. Don’t want to take a chance of missing this visit. I really am beginning to feel the need for a hot shower. Quite possibly stray animals might mistake me for carrion based on my smell. Also today, the Worton folks are coming by. Worton is kind of like Best Buy. They will be bringing a space heater, a dehumidifier and a vacuum to drop off. Yup, things are coming along.
When I plopped my feet on the cold parquet floor this morning, I was taken back to the few times I visited my grandmother in South Carolina in the late fall. She had a gas heater in her kitchen and that was the warmest room in her house. My memory may be inaccurate but it seems to me that her kitchen was the only warm room in the house. Quilts and the like kept you warm at night and the day would get warm enough, but it was darn hard to roll out of bed into the cool of the morning. Unlike the biscuits and jam I would devour at Ms. Effie’s today I had a cup of hot decaf and a bowl of cold granola to start the day. Tomorrow I return to the oatmeal regimen.
No big plans for today. Although I think I would like to wander through some of the neighborhoods of the city. Time for a ramble through places I have not been yet. Time to look into windows and see what wares might make sense to purchase. Also, I have to add some value to my subway card. Not much beyond that on the to do list for this retiree.
As I type I am listening to Miles Davis’s “Acenseur Pour L’echafaud”. The recording is a soundtrack for a Louis Malle film of the same name from 1958. Recorded in Paris without any rehearsals while watching loops of the film playing there are some beautiful passages on this disc. Prior to this morning I had never heard this music before. I was planning to write and wanted something in the background not too intrusive but not cloying. Miles always fits the bill.
One last thing, technology has changed the world. A few months back I picked up a pair of Arlo cameras for my house. I got the duo before we came to Portugal last August. Yesterday I got to watch the folks who fixed my sewer over the weekend come by to pour concrete. They had to replace the part of my sidewalk which was taken out to reconnect the sewer. But how cool is that? I am thousands of miles away and I could see them puttering around my yard almost in real time.
****. Update
The service person came and spent ½ hour on the water heater. Almost simultaneously the Worton delivery folks got here. The gadgets can wait. With the water working I have to say life is good. The shower I just took with hot water, soap, shampoo and a wash cloth was a religious experience.
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