Overwhelm

UPDATE: 4th of July parade

early hours July 5: That one word describes exactly how I feel right now. Why am I even awake? It's 4:30 in the morning and I have only had about 8 jours of sleep in the last 60+ hours, none of it good sleep as I have too much on my mind. Our journey was long, but not difficult taking 29 hours from leaving our hotel in Nice to arriving at our friends home in Ashland at 4 am on the 4th of July. Aer Lingus was clean, modern, and relaxed. United seemed dumpy and cheap in comparison. But somehow our good karma got al of our bags through (over the limit and over weight) without any charges. Huge thanks to Phaedra who drove to SF and back just to get us!

We awoke after 3 hours of sleep to attend the parade which is always a big event here in out litttle burg.
I didn't feel too bad considering the lack of sleep. What a day to repatriate! Walking down the closed main street, Siskiyou Blvd,, lined on both sides by people waiting for the parade, was like Napoleon making a triumphant return to Paris, I was a on mission to get 2 dozen donuts for our group (not french pastries these, just good ole American fried dough and sugar), but ran into dozens of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances who I knew. Lisa and I walked down to see her hula sisters preparing for their dance entry in the parade and the surprise, the tears, the joy of seeing Lisa was so very evident.
Between the parade, staying at John and Taylor's (who have been so welcoming and generous), going to a picnic in our neighborhood, and a pool party at the Feinberg's we had a glorious and busy first day home!

morning of July 6: Then there's our house. With a few down-time hours in the afternoon before the neighborhood picnic we went to our house for the first time. The cleanliness factor wasn't bad considering our tenants have been out since early May, however, there are some bigger issues here that will be addressed today. We pulled up to see a huge bundle of cables snaking up the front of the house and along the gutters to a satellite dish for which we were never asked permission. Broken kitchen cabinets hinges and entertainment center door. A long florescent-tubed light removed from the ceiling of the garage. Missing shelving units, ironing board, paper towel holder in pieces, and a huge binder of all our appliance warranty info (WHY?). Our yard looks like it was completely ignored all year: yard dead and waist-high, dead plants, automatic drip sprinklers not turned on, no clipping or raking of any kind done. And then we discovered that one of the cabinets in our bedroom to which I had applied strong keyed-locks had been pried apart and the contents stolen! Luckily, they left the other one alone and that was the cabinet that had our iMac and safe in it. Sadly, we haven't even yet figured out what is missing. The property management company seems to have missed all this, but we will be filling them in today.

Yesterday we had great support from so many friends! We essentially emptied our locker of it's contents which are now all filling our house (or Lisa's office). The house feels much better with stuff in it, even if it will be weeks before things are in their proper places.
I hurt from head-to-toe, mostly my back from going so hard on so little sleep, but it sure felt good to be so productive and get so much done yesterday. For a reward we took ourselves and The Nabes out for mexican food and stayed again at their house so we wouldn't be surrounded by the chaos.

Today, Lisa is off to get our phones and internet up and running, and to get her office ready for her return to work one week from today. I want to get our beds put together, get some groceries in the house, and start on the yard. Luckily the 99 degree temps of the 4th and mid -90's yesterday are lowering to about 80 today. We are back in the U.S., and yet I've had very little time to reflect on that yet. Last night I downloaded over 100 photos from the camera and it was a mix of our last couple days in France and our first 2 days here - a very interesting conglomeration of our week. I would like to do more about these last few days: both our goodbyes and our hellos, parade videos, etc., but that will have to wait until the next post when I have more time and internet up and running at home.