What I Think About My Experience in Congress

Monday, April 4, 2022

2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

Today in my commune of 661 souls the 12 pictures of the Presidential candidates for the Presidency of France sprouted on sign boards in the parking lot of the Community Hall. Similar pictures sprouted everywhere in every village, town and city. Every candidate gets equal billing. The first vote is on !0 April 2022 . Two candidates will survive and the general election will be on 24 April 2022.

The rules are strict in terms of limiting advertising. The candidate can spend $18.612 million dollar. The money has to be raised from individuals in Euro 4600 contributions. There are no corporate donations allowed. Recently a candidate from 5 years ago went to jail for overspending. He had been president but they are serious about the rules. They believe in giving everyone a more or less fair and equal chance.

Who can run? If you are 18 and have done your National service and have not been deprived of your voting rights on a legal basis all you need to do is get 500 local elected officials to sign your petition and file your financial status and business interests. Trump wouldn’t have made the first cut.

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The access to the media is tightly controlled. Equal time must be given at comparable times of day. The favorite does not get interviewed in Prime time and the lesser candidates at Midnight. On Friday night before voting, which is always on Sunday, there is a media blackout on all candidate appearances and polling data on the media. I went through this recital for those of you who would not want to understand how the French Democracy has evolved.

The two tiered system began with DeGaulle who detested parties and wanted the people to have a wide spectrum of candidate’s views. The first vote is with your Heart and the second vote is with your head. This is uncommon in the west but popular in Asia and Africa. Sometimes it creates surprises. A popular French Socialist President was knocked by 8 other left candidates splitting the vote and allowing La Pen to get in on the far right. She faced off with a right center candidate who became president with 82% of the vote.

The election process is the backbone of the core of a Democracy. This fall we will choose to move to the far right or keep in the middle of the road with Joe Biden. I voted for him with my head, not my heart. But I’m very glad I did. Our elections are hard because we are presented with only 2 choices really. I remember an op-ed by Art Buchwald in which he explained how the election of 1976 came down to a peanut farmer from Georgia and a Michigan football player who played too many games without a helmet. It was funny at the time but recently I read a book of 460 pages described the evolution of democracy or maybe the devolution.

Richard Evans wrote The Coming of the Third Reich in 2003. Hitler did not bring about a revolution in Germany. He did everything he could to appear to be acting legally with in the rule of the law of the Weimar Republic. At the same time, he turned his storm troopers loose on Social Democrats, Communists, Jews and labor union organizations. From January 30 ,1933 to July30, 1933 he hollowed out the democracy under a patina of liberal democracy. By midyear all the leadership had capitulated or been replaced. He never won an election and never had a majority of the members of the Reichstag. The Nazis won by appearing to have the votes of people who didn’t like one aspect or another of the Weimar democracy. The vote for Hitler was an expression of protest. There was no plan to run the country except to bring back the true German spirit. .

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels. Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

Senator Scott(FLA) is the richest man in the Senate. He is the chair of the RSCC and just came out with an 11-point plan which terrified Mitch McConnell. Scott proposed to tax more than half of Americans who are presently exempt from income tax. He also proposed to sunset all legislation in 5 years which includes Social Security and Medicare and why not throw in the Military pension legislation too. Mitch told him to “Shut Up” in very senatorial terms because all the rats were running for beach. What he didn’t say is “go read Goebbels!”

Goebbels said, “The stupidity of democracy. It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed. The persecuted leaders of the NSDAP became parliamentary deputies and so acquired the use of parliamentary immunity, allowances and free travel tickets. They were thus protected from police interference, could allow themselves to say more than the ordinary citizen, and apart from that they also had the costs of their activity paid by their enemy. One can make superb capital from democratic stupidity. The members of the NSDAP grasped that right away and took enormous pleasure in it.”

If this quote doesn’t make your skin crawl as we approach the 2022 election one needs to accept that Trump wasn’t the beginning of the Jan 6 insurrection. In Germany before and after WWI the government was having difficulty delivering a government that the people accepted. The protest came from the right and the left. As things got worse the desire for a strong man emerges.

Turning a few seats in the Senate and/or House will make it impossible for Biden to deliver anything because of Mitch and the filibuster. 2024 will be a protest vote. Squabbling progressives and liberals with help from a minority of conservatives can elect a Cruz or Rubio or Scott or DeSantis.

2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels. Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels. Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels. Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Supertankers Momentum in Congress 28 December 2021

House Progressives Leadership does not Understand Public opinion

It took FDR 4years to get the Social Security Act of 1935 out of the Congress. The disaster in 1929 was not responded to properly until 1935. Overcoming the resistance to change took tremendous effort and persistence.

When we tried to bar supertankers from the waters of Puget sound the only convincing argument was that it took 20 miles to turn a ship away from the rocks. The San Juan islands Often had far less than that between islands and thus if a ship lost steering it would be on the rocks, spilling millions of gallons of oil on beaches, birds and seafood feeding grounds in spite of a sober and able bridge crew.

I was once a coalpasser on an oreboat that ran aground in Lake St. Clair on a clear day in the channel between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. A cotter key broke and jammed the steering engine. The crew were unable avert the disaster. It took 3 days to unload the boat so It could be refloated. The momentum of the ship carried it into the mud.

Lest you think such examples are far fetched we have all been witness to the grounding of the world’s most sophisticated container ship in the Suez Canal as recently as this year. A ship, 4 football fields long , was driven a ground in the Canal despite the best technology and human brains. The wind blew the ship sideways and the momentum carried into the mud.

In more ways than one the President of the USA is at the helm of a supertanker of more than 300 million humans as he tries to mold public opinion to accept a plan for controlling an unmanageable epidemic inspite of the Medical advice in the world. At the same time he is trying to guide economy between the rocks of stagnation and collapse on one hand and inflation on the other hand. If that was not enough he is trying to change the social safety net to pick up those who have fallen through the cracks in our society. Children, overpriced pharmaceuticals, and lack of health insurance are just a few of his problems.

Getting public opinion to accept all this change at one time is a gargantuan challenge. Progressive leadership seems to have no idea or concern about the momentum of the ship of state to an ugly grounding in 2022 for the Democrats. They seem to believe that the Public opinion will shift dramatically if they get some minor change perfectly in July as they adjourn for the August recess.

By their insistence on getting the last turn of the wheel of the ship of state they are certain to run us aground. Even FDR knew when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em and when to get away from the table. He wanted National Health Insurance but it was too much to get done and he left it on the table for next time.

They are losing momentum every day they don’t take the good instead of trying for the perfect. When the ship runs aground the Progressives will get the credit.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

14 December 2021 There is no Democracy with a Filibuster

On the 25^th of August 2009 Ted Kennedy died. With his death the Senate Democrats lost the votes to defeat a filibuster and pass Obamacare. I spoke to my senators and told them that it would be impossible to pass a good Healthcare bill using the rules of the Senate to avoid the undemocratic 60 vote rule.

All the resulting problems with passing Obamacare that persist to this day are still traceable to it birth in a Reconciliation bill. If one looked then, you could see the coming paralysis of today’s Senate. We are now down to 50-50 with the vice President as a tie breaker. So even one self-centered Senator can frustrate the President and the American people’s desire for free and fair elections and the programs contained in the Build Back Better legislation.

If one contemplates history one can see the future. Two books and one article are plenty to convince one of the dire nature of the present paralysis threat will lead to Totalitarian rule. In 2003 Richard Evans, a British historian wrote, The Coming of the Third Reich, which tells the tale of what happened before Hitler. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in 2018 wrote, How Democracies Die, which tells the history of a number of countries that have preceded the USA down the rabbit-hole into Totalitarianism.

The next Atlantic Monthly has a article by Barton Gellman, Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun. If the two books don’t make you uneasy this article will. All three tell the same story from different perspectives.

Like a fall on a glacier there is a chance to arrest the slide into disaster. It requires swinging hard and burying your ice axe in the ice. Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer must call Sinema and Manchin into their office and deliver an ultimatum. “Either you will vote to amend the Senate rules by a majority vote or we resign” and you can try to resurrect the Senate from the ruins of the Tornado. The Senate will look like Kentucky after the last week but it will be clear that the Democrats tried to act before we lose the House in the 2022 elections and our Democracy in 2024.”

This will not solve everything immediately but it will create momentum to pass election law reform and additions to the safety net Laws so that the effects will be felt in the election of 2022. Time is rapidly passing and each day of Paralysis in the Senate is one day closer to the election of an autocrat whomever he or she may be.

The time has come to Stand in our Democracy rather than to protect Senatorial privilege. My old friend Warren G Magnuson, when asked about running for the Presidency or seeking a Supreme court appointment, said, “I’m not leaving the most exclusive club in the world for anything.”

Standing up for Democracy is worth risking the loss of status. Nathan Hale, before he was hanged on 22 September1776, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

Monday, December 13, 2021

10 December 2021 A New Strategy for the Democratic Leadership

There is a way to save the Midterm elections and our Democracy for the American people. Sports offer a clear path to success. The USA is enamored with the brute force of Football. But clearly the Democratic leadership does not have the power to force movement on BBB or voting legislation to halt voter suppression. For many, the 2022 elections are becoming a foregone conclusion. The Democrats will lose their majorities in the House and Senate. The inability to get several members to commit to voting for specific proposals has created a situation in which the Democratic Party is being slow walked into impotence and obscurity.

The national sport of Japan is Judo. Every Japanese is taught that skill and cunning can beat strength and speed. The key is recognizing the leverage one has in order to take down your opponent. Two senators have total control of the entire process at this time. Over and over, they have rejected proposals made by their leadership. There is no doubt in Washington that the whole process is balanced on this point. These two want to hold back the Congress for their own ends, not for the common good. It is not clear what their goals are, other than Personal.

The only way to move them from their position is to use the leverage of public opinion. Right now, the leadership is looking inept and weak. If they reversed the leverage and said to the two Senators, “You win. You are now in total control. Let us know when you have decided what proposals you support for creating fair elections and what you will do to solve the problems daycare for the children of working mothers. At that point we will move forward. Until then we do not intend to have anymore fruitless meetings. This government is paralyzed and we will inform the press that you are coming up with the solutions you can support. Whatever happens in 2022 you will get full credit for.”

48 Democrats and the President and the vice-President are presently hostages of two person junta. The refusal to call it what it is makes it impossible for the country to move forward to solve its problems. When the legislative body becomes paralyzed the appeal of authoritarian leadership rises. People expect their government to solve problems but they can be lured into believing that authoritarian leadership with a rubberstamp legislative body is acceptable. Examples exist in the world today. Russia, Hungary and other countries are moving toward or have reached this model.

Time is of the essence. District boundaries for Congress are being drawn. In addition, money appropriated to solve problems takes time to be distributed so no one will ever believe it happened. They will never see the infrastructure projects. The time has come to put the two Senators in the hot Seat, driving the vehicle of state. Right now the struggle over who is driving is has the state headed for the cliff of totalitarianism. But it is not too late.!

Thursday, December 31, 2020

The Four Women of Begadan

I bought my house in Civrac-en-Medoc in 2017 but began to actually live here in 2018. I stayed for 3 months in 2018 and 3 months in 2019. I stayed through the vendange.

When I first came in town I had to establish a routine for my day. I had no scheduler to tell me where to go or no one to tell me what to wear or whom I would meet.

Coffee is the great starter for your day, so I began the 2 KM walk north to Begadan where I discovered Chez Joelle. It is an episcerie which is like a 7-11 in the USA. Since I speak limited French, I practiced my request standing outside. The store is only 3 meters wide and 15 meters long and social distancing and masking make it necessary to be aware of other customers.

«Bonjour Madame, Je voudrais un café et une Choclatine et un Journal”. I must have been close enough to the proper French that they understood me. Whoever was working at the cash register would get me what I asked for. When I was especially feeling confident I would ask for a demi-baguette. I was routine enough that they would start the expresso machine when they saw me at the door.

The store is managed by Joelle, a woman who epitomizes what I was told was common among women in the French working world. She is always perfectly coiffured and dressed very attractively despite the fact that her job requires hauling produce around the store. There is a Dior touch to her style. Her scarf is always attractive.

It should be no surprise because she also runs a beauty salon called L’Indispensible which is entered through a door next to the onions and eggplant. At Christmas time this year I bought five scarfs from her shop to give to other local friends. They were pleased by my selections.

D’Ange’lique is a quiet reserved attractive woman who deals with me with quiet efficiency. I always wish when I come to coffee, I could start a conversation. But my French is very inadequate, so I am afraid to try. She is the one who introduced to the third female at Chez Joelle’s. I asked the name of the dog who is often there. She told me LOU LOU ‘s name so I could address the dog directly. I said, “Bonjour Monsieur, Lou Lou.” She corrected me and said, “MADAME Lou Lou.”

Lou Lou is an old basset hound who is always friendly and stands next to my chair as I drink my café and eat my Choclatine. I have had dogs for much of my life so I can tell when she wanted me to feed her. But I learned never to feed from the table, so I began bringing doggie treats in my pocket. She is not always there when I come but, if she is, she makes it clear what is expected. Sometimes it is spoken in a deep voice.

The last of my Begadan quartet is Susan. Neither Joelle nor d’Angelique have ever spoken in English to me. I am not sure if they studied English in school but aren’t comfortable in trying their skill on me or if they never had English in school. But Susan has had some English and every once in a while, she will throw in the word I am looking for. When making change if, I can’t remember quarante, she will say “40”.

Recently I was interviewed by a reporter from Sud Ouest which is the Bordeaux regional newspaper of SW France. The interview was published on Christmas day. It is the only day in the nearly 11 months I have been here that I didn’t buy a paper. The next morning, I went to Chez Joelle looking for yesterday’ s newspaper. The remainders of yesterday are returned when the new papers come.

Using my Google translator, I explained to Susan what I was looking for. She broke into a smile and told me she had seen it, since one of the regulars, Jean-Denis had brought it into the store and she had read the story of my coming to Civrac.

I ask if she could ask Jean-Denis to sell me his copy. Today as I came in to get my coffee d’Angelique was reading the story standing at the counter. When she was finished, she offered it to me. When I asked “Combien?” she indicated that it was for me to take.

This quartet of Begadan start my day with beauty and humanity and a warm style that sets the tone for the day. Although the mask changes the interaction, the humanity comes through in these short interactions.

Once I asked Susan what vin blanc I should use in order to cook my mussels. She pointed me to a little green bottle on the shelf I never would have seen. “La Villageoise Vin Blanc.” I get my refills there every time. I have never seen it in the huge Carrefour in Lesparre but then, there is no Susan to ask.

I am hooked on Chez Joelle. It makes me smile even if it rains. The weather here is very much like Seattle, so I feel quite at home.

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

8 Dec 2020 Prediction of Trump’s Future

For four years I have watched Donald Trump and predicted that the end of his term in office would be the worst in history. I also recognize the problems of prediction of human behavior, but I am writing this so that I can think through what I expect to happen.

Donald’s personality is built around narcissism and is defended by total denial of reality. He continues, 30 days after the election, his massive denial of the results in November. My explanation of that behavior rests on my belief that everything he does is meant to further his own personal well-being. He is using the myth of a fraudulent election as a way of continuing to keep his fundraising operation running at full tilt. He has no serious belief that he can overturn the election but what he can do is raise enough money to isolate himself from feeling the impact of his defeat. The PACS to which he is sending the money is simply a ruse to pile up cash to protect himself from the ultimate reality that he knows will come. A careful reading of the paper every day reveals that the wolves in the judicial system are circling him and his family. His children are being questioned and he knows what is coming. In the past he's always been able to protect himself by bringing lawsuits and attacking his accusers. This time he recognizes his vulnerabilities.

Don’t be surprised if he resigns from office on January 15^th and President Pence then pardons him after he pardons all his family of Federal Criminal crimes. He will have raised all the money he can and now he can leave.

He is now going to become hunted man by all of those who have been outraged in the past. I fully expect him to run the fundraising machine right up to and including inauguration. Despite his best efforts to create trouble in the United States House of Representatives when the Electoral College meets, he will be faced with the fact that Joe Biden has won this election. One can only guess what his enablers in the House and Senate will do at that point. This would be a sideshow as the legislative branch of the Republican Party tries to extract itself from the hole that they have been digging during the last four years. More about that later.

If is he free from Federal criminal convictions Donald is still exposed to civil suits, both at the federal and local level. He is also exposed to local criminal charges. If you simply Google “countries without a extradition treaty to the US” you find there are many places that he could go to get away from the US court system. Top on the list of course is Russia. He could take up residency with Edward Snowden in avoiding American law. Other options might be Saudi Arabia or Mongolia or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Any one of a dozen African countries would be a possibility except perhaps they will remember what he called them when referring to their status in the world.

From this position outside the United States he could continue to run all his businesses unless of course United States government froze his assets. We know from his son's mouth, the fact that most of his financing has come from Russia in the past. We know that he is 400 million dollars in debt, and we have no idea who his debtors are. Leaving the United States may free him from the rule of law in the US, but it is unclear to me what his plan is for evading the tsunami of debt that is coming toward him.

Consider his options: he could start a TV program on Russian television and make a lot of money, undermining our Democratic system from abroad with his endless lies and insinuations. Usually a president can count on those he helped when he was in office to help him when he is outside office but once he leaves the United States he makes it much more difficult for his old friends to send him money.

One source you must not forget is the value of intelligence about our security apparatus. Saudi Arabia is a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the US. Giving away or selling intelligence is treason punishable by death. Joe Biden should remove Donald and Jareds’ security clearance by executive order by 1PM on inauguration day.

Never forget that money is the main and only source of Trump's feeling of self-worth. His use of the presidency as a cash making machine has been the most egregious in the history of our country. Many of the people who have left the office, have enriched themselves immensely once out of the office, but very few of them have tried to continue to raise money during the entire time they were in public service and on the public payroll.

He reminds me of George Washington Plunkitt who was in the state Legislature of New York around the turn of the 19th century. New York was beginning many infrastructure projects in the 1890’s and Mr Plunkett was in real estate had a sand and gravel yard which fit nicely into the paving contracts for the city. He made himself a fair piece of change which someone challenged. His reply was, “I seen my opportunities and I took him”. Donald Trump raise this philosophy to the zenith in the politics of this country.

Donald’s legacy to this country will be profound. He has used the corporate communication systems as a bullhorn for the destruction of democracy. The leadership in the Corporations of industry dedicated to communication has been feckless almost to a person in standing up to the endless lies and misrepresentations and destruction that he has made in the public's belief in democracy. The Washington Post counted his lies, but they continue to give him publicity. What is freedom of the press all about? That issue will have to be discussed. An even larger question is the part played by the so called “Tech platforms”. They, on a daily, basis amplified the lies and misrepresentation by the president.

The second legacy the president will have is the COVID-19 epidemic and its disastrous aftermaths. Much of this is as a direct result of the president's desire related to money to perpetuate the myth that we can go on having a raging economy in the midst of a raging epidemic. He was told by reputable people who knew this was not possible, but he went ahead and did it anyway because he had to keep the image of someone who had made America great again. To admit that nature had defeated him was not within his psychological capabilities. His father told him you must never be a loser and by God he was not going to be a loser to a virus. The losers in this battle for a vaccination will be the less able in the developed and undeveloped world.

At this moment nearly 300,000 people have died in this country, in part, because he refused to follow any advice of a positive nature. Even at the end when a vaccine is within grasp he denied the request to buy a significant number of vaccination doses from one company because he had invested in another company and he wanted them to get the first shot with the American people. As the vaccine rolls out, he will try to take credit for being the savior of the world because he shut off immigration from China and financed the Pharmaceutical industry in producing vaccines. This story isn't over because there is no plan in the United States for successfully distributing the vaccination doses nationwide that has any rational basis to it. The ugliness of crony capitalism will certainly rear its head in the month of January as the vaccinations are spread across the country.

There is a more powerful impact to his legacy then either of the other things which are self-evident. The most powerful impact of Donald trump's four years in the White House is on the moral upbringing of our children. Our children have been witness to a president who has proven that if you have enough power or will or obstinacy you can get away with anything. It doesn't take a child psychiatrist like me to make clear that if you're a parent and trying to teacher a child to tell the truth that you will have no response when the child says,” but the president lies and he gets away with it. why can't I?”

California city mayors and the governor have recently gotten their comeuppance. They put out orders for people to wear masks, wash their hands, socially distance and stay at home. They then walked down to the airport and got on planes and flew halfway across the continent in direct contradiction of their own orders. Raising children by the standard of “do what I say! Not what I do!” leads to very disastrous results. If you don't lead by example you create in a child a cognitive dissonance in relationship to how they should behave. “My parent gets away with it so why can't I.” None of us are so perfect or so pure as not to have fallen victim to our own weaknesses but to have the president of the United States for four years blow off all the rules and norms and standards of our society while paying no price whatsoever will have a long term effect on the morality and sense of the common good in this society.

You already have the United States Senate led by Mitch McConnell refusing to negotiate a piece of legislation that would protect families from hunger and eviction from their houses. It's particularly ironic that it is occurring at Christmas time. McConnell's comment was, “Where did you get the idea that I cared?” That's the temperature of the United States Congress for the next four years. Remember he was the one that said, “My number one objective is to prevent Barack Obama from getting a second term.”

Although he hasn't said it yet I have no doubt that Mitch has set his objective for the next four years:“ I intend to prevent Kamala Harris from having any chance whatsoever to be the next president of the United States .” Just as he spent eight years undermining Barack Obama's attempts at climate change prevention and health care expansion, I expect him to in a myriad of ways undermine any attempt by Joe Biden and especially his vice president to accomplish anything.

Each night when I go to bed, I pray the God will elect two senators in Georgia who will change the balance in the US Senate. In any case this is going to be a very tough two years. Most people have forgotten that this is the time in 2011 that the Republicans won control of statehouses and therefore the redistricting process of 2010. This led to the most awesome abuse is that we've seen in gerrymandering on a large scale. I expect the same to be put in motion in 2021 to be brought out in public in the election of 2022. The Democratic house as a slim majority and I expect you will see a very tumultuous fight in 2012.

Meanwhile Donald Trump will be sitting in Moscow undermining democracy which might inevitably lead to an autocracy. The destruction of the Weimar Republic in Germany preceded Hitler. The French Revolution ended with a dysfunctional democracy, followed by Napoleon.

All this brings to mind the story about Benjamin Franklin coming out of the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1789. He met a woman who said, “Mr Franklin, what kind of a government do we have? A monarchy or a republic.” He responded, “We have a Republic if we can keep it.” The emphasis was on “IF”.

Monday, December 28, 2020

New Neighbors in France 17 Decembre 2020

When I came to France on the 1st of February 2020 I had no idea that I was about to become a long term resident of my little village Civrac-en-Medoc.

The epidemic hit this area in March when president Macron announced the confinement in order to control the epidemic. I had packed for a trip of two months and thought it would return to the United States for at the beginning of April. The old joke that the way to make God laugh is to make a plan came into play. I planned God laughed and here I am almost 10 months later.

Rural communities are slow to take in newcomers. I had visited my home here in 2017 2018 and 2019 for various periods of one to three months. Getting to know people is not easy especially when you speak French as poorly as I do.

My next door neighbors Paolo and Celine and Salome’ have always been friendly although only Salome’ speaks English. But there's a saying that good fences make good neighbors.

Celine has a spa in her home and has many women who come to improve their appearances. Celine has a swimming pool in her backyard that as the year goes on, is increasingly shaded by trees growing on my side of the fence between our yards. Several years ago, she came to me and helped me to understand the trees in my yard were shading her swimming pool and asked if she could have someone come and trim my trees. She hired someone and I paid him to bring my trees down to an acceptable level. I'm convinced that this is the beginning of our real friendship.

This year the tree trimming occurred in April and ever since then I have had a wonderful surprise at my front door at your irregular intervals. It seems that's just when I am feeling lonely or forgotten in Civrac, Celine’s smiling face appears at my door with a luscious dessert in her hands: Creme brulee’, chocolate mousse, confiture melon. The other morning she appeared with a piece of nut bread at breakfast time. Sometimes she sends Salome with the dessert. These are special treats because Salome’ can talk to me in English for a minute or two. I often return the dish by giving it to Paolo when he is out cleaning his car or sweeping the street or trimming the vines.

Paolo is a friend who keeps an eye on my house. His house, yard. plants and curbs are perfect. One day he told my friend Guy who speaks both French and English that I needed to get the English ivy off the side of my house since it appeared to be invading under the tile roof. Guy told me and we proceeded to get someone to go up and take all the ivy off the wall and out from under the tiles on the roof.

Finding English speaking friends is much more difficult. I'm sure that Celine and Paolo would be closer friends if I could speak French. Ever so slowly I'm learning to speak French but until I do, this limits my friendships. I came in February I had two English speaking friends that I had left in 2017 and had carried on a friendship since. Guy is involved in the wine industry and Corinne runs a bed and breakfast in her family Chateau in St Yzans. I can't remember now how I found out about the Cafe Polyglotte that was held in the City Hall once a month. This is a gathering of people who speak a variety of languages and once a month gather together to find somebody to talk to in their own language. I went once in February, the first and only time it has met since I arrived here, and it was there that I met Anne Marie Kwiatkowski who has become My biggest access point to meeting people who speak English. At her dinner table I have met her family and their significant others as well as her daughter Laura is a teacher in Montpelier and Boris her son. Her most important contribution to my life has been her husband, Edmond who has been my ever present handyman who solved all kinds of household problems for which I was unprepared, especially in a French situation. He has fixed or taken me to stores to get fixed things that troubled me in my life. I seriously called him my Polish magician because he fixed the motor on my back window screen that has been broken for three years. He took me downtown to his multimedia store where I diagnose the problem with my computer screen monitor and we got a new cord for ten euros and fixed it. He diagnosed my plant problems in the backyard as Limaces which is the equivalent of slugs in Seattle. He found the workmen to come and fix my oven which had not been working for three years and tonight I will grill some salmon in it for the first time since I bought the house.

Beside being a thorough repair man, he is a former city councilman in Civrac so he knows everyone although he was not born here. When I needed a letter from the mayor attesting to my residence in Civrac he brought Beatrice over and introduced her to me and she quickly wrote the necessary letter. I live around the corner from the Mayor’s office so we greet each other often with a wave and a Bonjour and ca va.

When I needed a tall ladder to change a smoke detector, I asked Edmond if he had one. He said no but said,” give me a few minutes”. I really don't know where he went but I suspect he went over to the city gar age and came back with a ladder that reached all the way to my 12 foot ceiling. He Insisted on climbing the ladder and changing the smoke detector making it clear but I was too old to be up on ladders.

Anne Marie had invited me to Christmas dinner, but I declined because Corrinne had already asked for me to come to their family. She told me her sister who works in the pharmacy that will give us all a COVID19 test the day before dinner. Anne Marie told me she would go to Christmas mass with me.

Anne Marie invited me to News Years day lunch because curfew means you are supposed to be home at 8 PM.

All of this leads up to today when I was sitting at my table having breakfast, I heard a knock on the door. Sometimes it's the mailman or Edmond coming for a visit or Celine bring me a goodie but today when I answered the door there stood Isabella and Friedrich. When I answered the door, they handed me a red bag and said, “Bon Fete’.” Isabella is the mayor’s assistant and Friedrich is a member of the city council. They explained it was a gift for Bon Fete’ from the mayor and the city council. It felt very special to be remembered at Christmas. I don’t know how many others got gift bags. It was filled with little jars of pate’ and herbs and bottles of olive oil and vinegar. There was a bottle of Bordeaux white wine and some chocolate candy. If you think that is the end forget it. The next knock at the door was a tall Danish winemaker, Merete Larsen whom I met at Anne Marie’s table. She had invited me and I accepted her invitation to watch the process of vendange(Harvest) at her Winery, Chateau D’Escurac.

When the vendange was over she suggested we could have dinner in the future. The other day came an email suggesting we have coffee. I responded and she said she would contact me this week. Today she appeared with a baguette and a croissant for my breakfast and suggested she would come back at 5 PM for tea. I said I was Zooming to the USA at 5. She said, “I’ll see you at 6PM.”

All these people live in a village of 660 people. Rural France has been warm and kind to me this Christmas away from home. Don’t believe anyone who says you can’t make friends in France.