I’ve been back in Phoenix for a few days now, and the questions I’ve been most asked by friends and colleagues are “How was the flight?” and “Did you accomplish what you needed to accomplish while you were in France?”
To the first question, in the age of modern commercial air travel, getting there is no longer half the fun, so the goal is to get there quickly. Since I left for France in mid-May, Air France inaugurated a new three-day-a-week nonstop flight between Paris and Phoenix, and I was able to take advantage of this new service for the return trip. It turned my usual two-stop journey between Montpellier and Phoenix into a one-stop journey. It also shortened the journey by at least three hours and allowed me to avoid a TSA screening for a connecting flight in the U.S. On the downside, the flight being operated by Air France meant that I wasn’t entitled to a complimentary upgrade like I would have been on Delta, but the food is a little better on Air France, even in steerage, so that softened the blow. In any event, it was great to be back in Phoenix in time for lunch, and I even managed to get a short nap before heading out to a dinner party in the evening.
To the second question, I have a great deal of confidence in the work that was done to the heating system, and that was my primary goal, so mission accomplished. However, I had a long list of secondary goals, and if I had another six weeks, I probably still wouldn’t have finished it. That said, I’m not disappointed in what I did accomplish.
The biggest secondary project was setting up a workstation to use while I’m working from our place in Montpellier. This trip wasn’t a vacation; I only took a half day off of work the entire time I was there. For the first two days, I used our TV as a laptop monitor and worked from the sofa, which turned out to be as brutal on my back as Kathryn had warned. For the remainder of the first two weeks, I worked from the dining room table. Although the ergonomics of an upright chair were an improvement, working full time from a 17-inch laptop monitor was stifling my productivity. With a three-day weekend approaching, I bought a 32-inch monitor, a monitor arm, and a sit-stand desk, which I assembled when it arrived on Memorial Day. I’m quite delighted with the result. The desk came with casters, so I can work facing the wall like I do in Phoenix, or I can roll the desk into the middle of the living room and give myself a view of the outdoors. I now kind of wish my desk in Arizona had casters.
Another secondary project was installing a name plaque on our mailbox. It may sound petty, but it was wholly unsatisfying, especially as an owner, to see the mailboxes in the entry corridor every time we came and went, and to see my last name written on a piece of paper held onto the mailbox with clear tape. In France, for some reason, real estate transfers are drawn up with the birth names of the owners, so Kathryn’s maiden name is also on our ownership and tax documents. Therefore, we decided to put both names on the mailbox plaque, just to be safe. Following the old adage of measure-twice-cut-once, I measured the space for the mailbox plaque several times and gave the engraver the measurements down to the millimeter. I also brought photos of existing plaques so that we would get the colors just right, so as not to irritate the members of the building’s conseil. In the end, I’m now somewhat proud of having gone from a scrap of paper to the best looking, best fitting mailbox plaque in the building.
Although not exactly a project, the personal accomplishment of which I’m the most pleased was breaking out of my comfort zone, at least a little bit, and beginning to patronize some of the local merchants, both in the neighborhood and at the open-air markets and market halls. Artisan olives and tapenades, marinated garlic, a variety of cheeses, farm-fresh eggs, freshly ground-to-order beef, real smoked pork belly and other charcuterie, and lots of seasonal produce were among the items I picked up from places that weren’t supermarkets. That’s not to say I didn’t shop at supermarkets; I shopped at them almost every day. It was about the baby steps.
