Saturday, August 27, 2011

Jeez Louise

You leave for a few days and all hell breaks loose. An earthquake in Virginia. A hurricane bearing down on the US Atlantic coast. Rick Perry is still running for president. Just one disaster after another.

The "gîte" sign on our vacation rental.

I got home on Thursday afternoon from a three day visit to southern Normandy. Ken rented a gîte (vacation house, pronounced zheet) for a week and we met up with American friends Evelyn and Lewis. Marie from Normandy was also with us. And Callie, too.

I left them a couple days early because I'm always nervous about leaving the house and because we had left Bertie at home by himself. He's an outdoor cat, so he wasn't closed up alone. And he has access to his garage, where his beds, litter, water, and kibble are, through an open window. The window has bars on it so no people can get in.

So Callie and I drove home on Thursday. Bert wasn't home when I arrived, but he was waiting for me on Friday morning when I went down to give him some "wet food." I gave him a good petting and he ate up his breakfast then went to his bed to sleep.

I have some photos from the trip that I'll be posting over the next few days. Ken comes back home on Saturday evening (by train) and he'll have a bunch more photos for his blog.

All the posts since last Monday were pre-programmed to show up each day while I was gone. We didn't have internet access at the gîte, so I couldn't read your comments or reply to them until now. Thanks for hanging in!

9 comments:

  1. Glad to know Ken's mother and family are OK so far. Hope Irene will stay away from land. It could wreak havoc anywhere it passes by. Keeping my fingers crossed!

    Waiting for pictures from le Perche.

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  2. Well, you're back now so everything is right with the world again. I'm sure the Hurricane will move away from New York now.
    Thanks for coming back.
    m.

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  3. Glad you found everyone (Bertie) and everything in good shape when you returned home! And thanks for pronouncing "gite" for us!I had it all wrong.

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  4. Glad to hear that Bertie is OK. Best of luck to your extended family in NC.

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  5. You did well with the pre-programmed posts. Glad you're safe and sound. Hatches continue to be battened down on the east coast. My friends were just evacuated from coastal NJ. Here's hoping Irene will be gentle.

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  6. I was glad to read that the storm has weakened, but it's still pretty bad. My sister in Delaware will be getting it later today.

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  7. You're a good Dad, Walt! Bertie must have been very happy (or not?) to see you and Callie. Pets just don't know why all of a sudden their family has left them. I always have to get back early, too, when I've left a pet without someone else checking on them.

    Mary in Oregon

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  8. I'm glad you're kitty was alright in your absence. I'm also glad you like animals. I was going to say "pussy" but somehow that didn't sound right. :)

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  9. chm, ken talked to his mom Saturday evening. All is fine. Storm's over for them now.

    mark, let's hope so!

    kristi, it's always a relief when you pull up and it's all still there.

    craig, thanks!

    ginny, sounds like it's calmed down a bit, but it's still a pretty big storm.

    starman, I've been reading Ron's (below) blog for updates on Delaware.

    mary, Bertie was happy to have people back in the house. I could tell he was a bit confused. But we're back in our routine now.

    ron, I've been enjoying (if that's the right word) your updates during the hurricane. Did you finally lose power or water?

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