Seizing the weekday

While I’d much rather have spent today visiting friends, we really needed to use our final weekday to meet with real-estate agents instead. Tall Mountain back from Austria (after India – I know, it’s hard to keep track), joined my parents, Ayo and myself at our French rental property for the day. We invited three agents. Would you believe it, one didn’t show and one got snowed in. To be fair, the snow was pretty heavy, today. In fact, it was so cold that we struggled to get the place warmed up in those five hours. That was a little miserable with Ayo, but he was more of a trooper than I was, immobilized in his snowman outfit (with a froggy on the outside) much of the day. Bundled up like this, Ayo really reminded me of Chinese babies during the winter.

Anyway, we called in another agent, who came by at the last minute so that we could tip our show-rate success over to two out of three realtors. It was a cold and strenuous day dealing from morning to night with realtors and bankers intermittently. We of course don’t fit inside any of their set boxes, so that can be frustrating. I may or may not have got a little rush out of the familiar fight (with the banks, not the realtors!). It’s not fun to have to fight for everything, but it’s nice to be able to banter and freely speak your mind. My folks had a good laugh at the ridiculousness of our situation and our “non, c’est pas possible, madame” pessimist bankers. Back at the property, we got a good head-start on (hopefully) selling the house, with my parents standing in for us when we leave. Once that place is sold, I’ll remember being so cold today, but warmed up by a delicious quiche made by mamie and plenty of laughter echoing throughout the empty home. I’ll remember the boys huddling up to the radiators: each on a laptop. I’ll remember stuffing Ayo’s froggy-suit inside his sleepsack for his naptime. I’ll remember mamie and papi playing and singing with Ayo. And I’ll remember the realtor who came during Ayo’s naptime and tip toed into “his” empty room upstairs. Look, that was on her own initiative!
Showing a cold house isn’t necessarily anyone’s favorite way to spend a day and dealing with bank complexities isn’t the most enjoyable thing in the world. But it all needed to happen before we leave the country again, and it created some fond memories.

One thought on “Seizing the weekday

  1. You know the You Tube video “freshness, freshness….cooking, cooking, that’s what it’s all about.” My number one cooking video. Well here it’s here “language, language…persistence, persistence” that’s what this culture is all about. Miss out on any on of those two things and you are dead in the snow. Banking, banking, real estate, real estate, shoveling snow, shoveling snow, chocolates, chocolates…that’s what it’s all about. Bring on the mashed potatoes and our mini family here, that’s what it’s all about. Ayo, Ayo…playing with measuring cups and spoons, that’s what it’s all about. Bring on the mashed potatoes, but who needs them with this precious mini family of 5 we have here. Language and persistence.

    Dad

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