Too much adventure

We've been having one of those adventures we'd rather do without. At lunch on the Friday before easter, as we were packing to go to the Bach à Pâques festival, Kaye had an odd pain in her tongue and within a few minutes had a golfball-sized swelling in her neck. We made a stop at our doctor's open office hours as we were leaving for our trip. He suspected a salivary gland stone (a what?) and prescribed an analgesic, saying it might return. Off we went to the festival. At every meal and overnights the pain and swelling returned and increased, till Kaye looked a bit like she had one-sided mumps in her neck. On Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) she returned to the doctor. He phoned for an appointment with a specialist. Wednesday was inconvenient for us, so the appointment on Thursday. (The specialist turned out to be Belgian, so we have English, Dutch, and French in common.) Yes, stones and infection in left submandibular gland. A ten-day course of antibiotics and surgery scheduled for two weeks later. Two pre-op checks and a visit with the anesthesiologist (who worked for a time at Herman Hospital in Houston and goes every year to the American Society of Anesthesiologists convention), then the surgery itself. It was general anesthesia, but the doctor said she could go home after six hours, so we did.

So far we've written checks for the doctor and the anesthesiologist, showing the magic Carte Vitale, along with a card (which turned out to be a piece of paper) from our top-up insurance. The doctor payments are automatically reimbursed in two parts, one from the government, the other from the insurance company. From the hospital itself, we've seen no bills, so we've no idea what's happening there. And Kaye is feeling much better now, thank you.

Every couple of months a big shopping van tours the area. We get a catalog with the pubs (advertising junk mail) a few weeks before it is scheduled to appear. You can make an order via the phone or internet, and at the appointed time (typically a Sunday afternoon in nearby Montemboeuf) you go to pick up your item. There's an enormous semi-sized van, with a little platform so you can step up to the counter. Inside, both the long walls of the van are covered floor to ceiling with shelves and bins of Stuff, mostly hardware and gardening items (it varies with season). You present your order and pay and the guy hands you down your items. This time we got some spiral poles for our tomatoes and some new mesh covers to keep bugs off our food when we eat outside.

On Monday, Ed started the work of taking down our curly willow/hazel (krulwilg) that died last summer. Over the winter it was a handy place to hang bird food, but now it needs to go.

We now have a small stack of wood that looks ready to burn, and lots of kindling. This fall we'll move the shrub you can see in the upper right corner of these photos down to the edge of the South Forty. (It's a flowering currant, with pretty pink but stinky flowers for a short time in the spring.) In its place we'll put a small deciduous tree, maybe a fruit tree of some kind.

On Wednesday this week, we had an appointment at the US Consulate in Bordeaux to get a paper notarized, there being no recognized equivalent of a US notary public here. This is also where we'll need to go to renew our passports. The office was secure but not as paranoid in feeling as the consulates in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. After the door is buzzed open, you get in the elevator — don't touch any buttons! — and go up two (?) floors to a small room where you identify yourselves and have your bags searched. Then to the waiting room to wait. But not for too long.

The weather has been hot and rain has been minimal. The season is already being compared to one of the worst droughts on record in 1976. Water tables are typical of July or August, rather than May. Agricultural water use has been stopped in some areas. So far no restrictions on personal use. The last couple of days, we've had some rain in the late afternoon and evening, and we hope this continues.