What Did He Get

For Those Big Bucks?

Paris:– Monday, 22. November 2004:– If you feel drowsy or depressed or both, it is because you lack sunlight – according to tonight's TV–weather news. You might have been feeling under the 'weather' for several weeks now, but it is only as of this date that the symptoms of the lack of sunbeams become apparent.

Well, er, this is leading nowhere. Short of shining a bright light in your face. Because the forecast for Paris is not at all brilliant. Despite it being the beginning of the French kiwi season the sky tomorrow will be gray and low. In fact, tonight's TV–weather lady said that a high pressure thing is pushing the clouds down, causing humidity as well as lack of light.

All cloudy tomorrow then, with a high of 13 degrees. The outlook for Wednesday is a bit brighter, if implausible. It's supposed to be cloudy in the west and dryer and brighter in the east, and the east includes here. The temperature is expected to be lower, with a high of 10 degrees.

Thursday looks like being another day of implausible weather, with nearly all of France having veiled skies, with some sort of weak sunshine. The temperature is supposed to be no more than 8 degrees, so maybe it will be brighter than the weather maps suggested.

Now, about the kiwi season. The chief of a kiwi plantation is called a 'kiwiculteur' and kiwis in France are grown on the Ile de Kiwis. TV–news didn't say where it is but showed the kiwis being freighted to the mainland by way of a skiff with a tractor on it. Doesn't seem like a likely way to transport 60,000 tons of kiwis annually, but what do I know?

Café Life

I wondered what was wrong with me. I'm glad tonight's weather news has provided an explanation for my desire to stay in bed with the covers pulled up to my nose and the curtains drawn. I guess I've been doing the wrong thing by missing four hours of daylight every day, ending up with a serious light deficit.

Friday was pretty bright and I got out for some of that. The sun was so low that it didn't take much of a corner to go around before being plunged into blue gloom. I left the quartier and tried out the gloom in a new quartier – a quartier I haven't been in for about 25 years.

Back then it was cold and dark. If it was the same place there was an 'all you can eat so long as it's steak' fixed–priced restaurant where it was important to be early because standing outside in line was pretty uncomfortable. Sitting inside was uncomfortable too, but the fixed–price was supposed to overcome it. As I remember it, the steak was about as good as any steak–frites anywhere for 15 francs, except that it cost 18 francs on account of the ambiance.

If it was the same place as on Friday, the restaurant isn't there anymore. I'm not surprised. The equivalent today is 'Chez Papa,' two blocks away. Except that the price is 15€, and the portions are a lot bigger. The hungry are still waiting outside though.

Last night about quarter to midnight Matt Rose called me on the phone. He wanted to know if I had anything for fixing his computer. He helped me out a couple of weeks ago so I gathered up my meager tools, tossed on my coat and hit the sidewalk.

While crossing Gassendi he called out. Backlit, I thought he was a mugger or a carless taxi driver. But it was Matt. He was in bad shape, chain smoking his fingers.

He's got a job to write a piece for a ritzy client – big bucks! – but his computer did a belly–up on Saturday. He called in the computer doctor and this guy did all kinds of stuff – for big bucks! – and it was running okay until Sunday when it 'lost' its hard disk.

Matt called the guy 40 times. When he finally got him the guy said that his Sundays are sacred. Must be some kind of civilian. Guys like Matt don't have any sacred days – I mean, he lost all of Saturday, didn't he? And what did he get for those big bucks?

We got up to his place and did various thing to his computer but it kept on not 'seeing' his hard disk. Time passed. I did not want a Coke or a café. Gradually I began to feel that maybe the computer doctor had loaded up Matt's machine with the wrong system. It's the kind of detail a 'big bucks' computer doctor might overlook.

So we used one of my tools to put an older system on his iMac. It takes about 15 minutes. On restart we crossed our fingers, which is what witch doctors who are doing stuff for free after midnight do.

'Bong.' Have you ever noticed that happy Macs have this drawn out 'bong' when they're feeling good? 'Boonggg!' Matt's machine came on with this hideous screen background, and all this new junk was in it – including the contents of his hard disk.

When I left, thinking it was quarter to one, Matt was looking for 5000 missing emails. They were certainly there but I didn't have any idea of how to access them. The machine was online, and the piece he was working on was there, so I figured he was up and running.

Back here at Metropole central, I looked at what I'd left on the screen and couldn't remember what I'd been doing. A lot of time working is like knitting. If you drop a stitch by forgetting you have to unravel everything and start over again. Instead I went to bed and pulled the covers up to my nose.

The state of affairs of this issue is due to resuming a task I suspended in June. At the time I hit a brick wall that seemed pretty sturdy. After banging my head against it for a couple of weeks I put it aside to wait for a better horoscope, stars, signs, hocuspocus.

Something must have been working unconsciousnessly because when I came bak to it last week I did everything right instead of everything wrong, and got a green 'go' signal.