Dropped Steve and the kids off at school, then drove up to Lyon. Walked around Vieux Lyon, Croix Rousse, and the center of the city. Nice breakfast pastry and coffee, and a good lunch of pork tenderloin in a mustard sauce with grilled vegetables and a potato rosti.
Went home, grabbed the laptop, and popped into a McDonald’s to use their WiFi and catch up on emails and posts and bills and such. Came into the mall, put my camera in my backpack, and went to stand in line for a McFlurry avec Oreos. After a few minutes a security agent came up to me, dragged me out of line, and tried, in broken English, to interrogate me about my camera. Good grief, I thought I was in France, not Soviet Russia (or…the US, for that matter). Anyhow, after a while I think he realized I was mostly harmless and wasn’t worth the effort.
Caught up on email, posted my first blog entry, argued with mom (isn’t technology great? I can have an argument with my mom for 45 minutes from a McDonald’s halfway around the world, but at least it was free) and paid for my upcoming Croatian cruise.
22:41 Had just drifted off to sleep when Steve pounded on the door and told me to come help him – the house was flooding! A pretty fierce thunderstorm had just passed through, and all the storm sewers were backed up, with the manhole cover in their street pushed 6 inches up in the air by the force of the gushing water (reminded me of home in Circleville!)
The water was high enough that it came up over the curb and was diverted into their front stoop, where it rushed down the stairs into the yard, but not before getting within a few inches of coming into the house. For a few seconds it was pretty harrowing, wondering if everything on the ground floor (like their computer) was going to get wet, but it subsided quickly.
September 5
Another lazy day. Up, quick breakfast at home, then off for more internet work at Mickey D’s. Almost caught up with stuff. Home for lunch with Nicole, then finally installed the maps on my GPS device. That’s my accomplishment for the day.
Played voetbal with Bram (well, he kicked the ball, I defended goal with two whiffle ball bats, my feet, and on one occasion my face). Dinner was a tasty homemade pasta with salmon sauce (yeah, fish, but I ate it and it was good). Steve and I tried to do some web work at the McDonald’s, but being in there with laptops on a Friday night was too much for him to handle, so we took off for a pool hall, where I managed to play worse than ever and still “won” 4-2 because Steve would always scratch when going for the 8 ball or something. Then wasted 2 euros on about 30 seconds of air hockey. Finally drove all over St. Genis and Oullins in a fruitless search for a bar. Nothing. Home to bed.
