Being busy, then a pause

What's been happening, besides time flying by? Trying to get our introduction into the health care system finalized, Kaye has made several trips to our nearest CPAM office in La Rochefoucauld, which is open only one day a week. (Our alternative is going to the main office in the center of Angoulême, which takes much longer to get to and always has a looong wait.) The La Roche office is open till 15.30 in the afternoon. On her first visit, Kaye arrived at 14.35, to find a sign on the door that it was closed at 14.30 that day. Home again. Last Thursday she was told to come back with copies of our passports, which were in hand, but there was no copy equipment there. Of course, they already have copies of these, along with marriage and birth certificates, but these won't do somehow. We have two name problems going: they have difficulty understanding that Kaye didn't take Ed's last name when they married, and, independently of this,  someone seems to have thought that Ed's middle name is actually his last name. This still leaves us with different last names, all very puzzling. We have an attestation with our social security number, so we can make claims, but it all goes much easier when we have a carte vitale with photo. 

We've made inroads in the unpacking. Two groups of people have come to take away stacks of boxes, and a third is lined up to come later. This recycles them and saves us taking them to the dump. We reached a nice stopping place, just in time for a friend from Amsterdam to come for a visit, and tidied up. On the ground floor, the remaining stacks are mostly for the kitchen. The living room is a bit too narrow with the piano standing there. We're not yet sure what we'll do about this. 

The mezzanine look surprisingly empty right now. There a stack of what-are-we-going-to-do-with-this-stuff boxes and another stack of books with craft books and supplies. This stuff is going back into the same space it had before, but it no longer seem to fit. This is a puzzle. 

With Bill here, we're not only enjoying his company, but having our own vacation, relaxing a bit, going for walks, and seeing some sites. Yesterday we made a day-trip to see the cave paintings at Font de Gaume in the Dordogne. These are apparently the last polychrome paintings open to the public. This is extremely impressive to see. 

For the last week or so we've had gorgeous sunny, warm (but not too warm) weather. Now, however, just in time for the weekend brocantes, the weather's turned drippy and even stormy. C'est dommage!