In flux

I am trying to decide whether I should switch to a different blog setup. I want to get the most readers and followers I can and I wonder if a change would facilitate that. Since I know just about nothing about blogging and getting my blog visited, I'm really writing blind here. Any and all suggestions that you dear readers would like to make, I accept gratefully. And here is a link to a practice switch that I am thinking about.  http://mindofahummingbird.tumblr.com/  Please visit it and let me know what you think.

Should I stay or should I go?

Car accidents that haunt you years later...

In 2008 I was driving along with my sunroof open and my windows rolled down, soaking in the late afternoon sun on a hot July Friday. Traveling at about 40 mph, moving with traffic, I saw a white flash out of the corner of my right eye and then BAM!  I was hit by a box truck that was exiting the freeway without stopping or yielding to the flow of traffic. The truck hit my little red Subaru on the A-pillar of the right side and smashed the car in all the way to the gas cap. My car was shoved across the busy street where I came to a dead stop. Miraculously, no other cars hit me. Thankfully my window was down so my head and upper body swung outside the car and then back in. Although I was sore and my kidneys were bruised, I did not sustain any immediate and more serious injuries.

Except that today, while visiting my French Homeopathic doctor for another treatment of my neck/arm and shoulder pain on the left side, he asked me if I had ever been in a car accident.  Um...yeah, why?

Well, this pain that I have been living with now for over 4 weeks may be due to that same car accident years ago. The tingling down my arm, the stiffness in my neck and the occasional left-side headaches that I suffer with are all long term injuries from that guy not obeying the traffic law, striking my car at 50 mph. It is a real possibility that I may have developed arthritis in my neck causing all of this pain, a condition that will only deteriorate as I...  wait for it.....AGE!

Arthritis....at 34.   So discouraging!

The next car I buy will have to have side-impact airbags!

Everything takes longer in France

I have flat feet. Not a very interesting topic. Because of my flat feet, I wear custom made orthopedic inserts in my sneakers and boots. It helps. On a recent journey to RI to visit my family, I forgot my inserts in a pair of boots that I decided at the very last minute not to pack for my return trip to France (since my suitcase was long past the sitting-on-it-to-close-it stage) I also purchase a pair of shoes while in RI but thy didn't arrive before I had to leave.

Being that I am in overseas for long periods of time, my parents kindly mailed these two items to me, here in France.

THREE WEEKS LATER

I receive a letter from the post office in Paris. They want a written statement disclosing the contents of the package and the cost of the items inside.

So we comply, explaining that the orthopedic inserts are used and 4 years old, the shoes where purchased in the US, costing about 30 euros.

We receive a phone call three days later.  "Oh no no, that is not possible. Orthopedic shoes cost much more than that. We need a receipt proving the cost of the shoes before we can release the package to you."

We are talking about SHOES and used, cracked and most likely smelly orthopedic inserts to boost my fallen arches. Not weapons, drugs, merchandise or body parts that we plan to resell, or even seditious printed material.

SHOES!

And the French postal service is holding them hostage. I recommended that they simple open the box and see for themselves.

We submit further information regarding the contents of the package and I receive an email explaining that they are releasing the package but I may be responsible for import taxes upon its delivery.

On a side note, I called the US embassy here in Nice on a question in regards to my passport and was informed by recorded message that the Embassy is closed until January 31 and that I should call back then. What if it was a matter of life and death? I guess it would have to wait until January 31.

Here in France, even the US Embassy works on French time. Nothing moves efficiently, nothing is easy, nothing gets done without ten steps or 14 pages of paperwork, at the very least. In view of the Subaru Saga my sister and her husband are tangled up in, I'm starting to think that Subaru is perhaps really a French company.