Day 28

Descending through the 7th circle of electronics hell with a chest cold and a bear named "Benji".

I am overly excited to report that the last of the boxes have been emptied and we are "officially" moved in.  Things are still in quite a state of ill repair, but the worst seems to be behind us now.  We were even fortunate enough to wake this morning to a functioning television set that appeared to have satellite reception.  This day had promise.  In the end however, the ongoing battle I am having with French technology is beginning to swing in favor of the French.  First of all, I believe the home phone system is working, but I haven't a damned clue how to make a long distance phone call.  The procedure involves the "plus" symbol, but I can't seem to make my piece of shit German phone enter that character.  So for now, don't expect a call.  At least not in any case other than an emergency, so if you see my number on the caller ID, answer for god's sake cause it means I need immediate assistance.

Second, as a celebration of the completion of the unpacking, I settled onto my sofa late this evening to check out the premium satellite package I had purchased a few weeks ago.  It sucks.  None of the channels that I was supposed to be paying for even appear on the channel guide.  It isn't like I have a lot of time for TV, so this wasn't a day ruiner, but it still was a disappointing turn of events none the less.  What few channels I do have, appear to be home shopping and public access.  Watched a knock of Man vs. Wild where the host carried hiking poles and ended up at a very quaint mountain cottage.  Something must have been lost in translation.  If this wasn't a survival show, then I just wasted a half hour of my life watching some guy take a nice long walk.

It was also a bright day at the school house.  The youngest was awarded a priviledge as a result of having a good week at school.  His priviledge was the opportunity to take home a bear that they call "Benji".  The assignment is simple.  Take Benji with you everywhere you go over the course of the weekend and photograph your child with the bear along with a written description of the weekend.  Apparently this is the kind of thing youngsters here really go for.  Unfortunately, my son did not see the honor in the gift and would not accept it.  Upon my afternoon arrival at the school, the project was explained and it was conveyed that my son didn't seem to understand that this was a prize and didn't want the bear.

You see, my youngest son has a general hatred for all stuffed woodland creatures.  He was given a bear once on a trip to the emergency room back in the States and we hadn't made it a block from the hospital when he felt it necessary to roll down the window and chuck the bear from our moving vehicle.  I believe this is the fate that he intends for good ole Benji.  One our way back to my parked car, my son insisted that he did not want the bear and that I was to return it to the school.  In fact, he was quite insistant that the bear not even ride in the car with us.  Once if was evident that I would not be returning the bear to the school, he changed his tactic and demanded that it be thrown in the trash immediately upon our arrival at the house.  Neither of his requests were granted, but I did throw him a bone and left poor old Benji in the 206 for the  night.  We will see if we can coax him to accept Benji and complete his assignment.

If my wife hadn't broken my favorite camera, I am quite certain I could have caught a nice action shot of my son sailing Benji out of the car and onto the motorway with hundreds of cars trampling over his little stuffed head.  We could have called it Skydiving with Benji.  I wonder now if he is lonely there in my front seat.  I wonder if his feelings are hurt that my son will not love on him the way that so many other youngsters already have.  Benji is a bit . . . well . . . dingy for lack of a better word.  He is heavily encrusted with all manner of boogers and child slobber.  I believe that Benji may be a distant relative of Typhoid Mary.  So, in the end, it is probably just as well my son has absolutely no interest in Benji as I am not sure his weakened immune system could take another hit this soon.

Oh, I almost forgot . . . another piece of bright news.  I had shipped our PS3 to France with a promise to my eldest son that it would work.  To be honest, I didn't have the slightest clue at the time whether it would or not.  There are some very complicated flow charts and mathmatical equations that I could show you to explain why it potentially wouldn't work here as it had in the states.  This is much more complicated than a simple matter of voltage.  The amperage and the country coding of the games are just a couple of the, what seem to be endless, factors that could relate the the improper functioning of the American spec electronic device.  Fortunately, with the help of our power converters, the system seems to function just fine.  I had done quite a bit of studying on this issue before we left the US and was able to decode enough information to come to the conculusion that so long as you don't try to play a French game in the American machine or vice versa, it should function properly.  I also found out that there are some televisions here that are programed to follow both the French and the American broadcasting standards.  This all means that it may be possible to take our new television with us when we return to the US.

I am so dog ass tired that I am having trouble staying awake, so I am going to call it a night and will speak with you again tomorrow.