22 April, Wednesday:
I drove out to the airport this morning and dropped off the car. I had scheduled the drop off for today since Beagle was supposed to be flying in this morning, but obviously her plans had changed. Dropping of the car was as simple as dropping off a normal rental car. If anyone is thinking of spending a few weeks or more in France or Belgium, etc. and needs to rent a car, check out IdeaMerge. We had a brand new car, complete insurance, etc., and it all costs much less than renting a car from Hertz. We had no problems with our car, a Renault Megane, a sort of funny looking little car…but it had plenty of room, plenty of power, and it averaged 43 mpg for our entire trip, which included a fair amount of city driving, being struck in traffic jams, etc. I took the train back into Brussels and gloomily contemplated packing, but I was rescued by a three-hour French lesson with Aurélie, my last. We spent a lot of time on colloquial French expressions…none of which I knew. That made Aurélie happy, and I picked up a few new expressions…such as “être en nage,” which means “bathed in sweat,” which is frequently my state. Sufficiently cheered up, I packed up Beagle’s office. There goes one suitcase. It’s a little one, but it now weighs a ton. Lamb chops for dinner.
23 April, Thursday:
Today was my first day of serious clothes packing. I was stunned to see how many different articles of clothing Beagle has here. Her clothes plus jackets, etc. took up my biggest suitcase. I managed to sneak in hiking boots, etc., but getting everything else into the one remaining suitcase will be a challenge. I had an American Rivers conference call this afternoon, went out to try to retrieve Beagle’s watch from the watch repair place, and had dinner with Claire and Jacques, who had taken pity on me. It was a lovely dinner, and Claire and Jacques are very nice. The whole dinner was in French, since their English is even more limited than my French. I may not have gotten the pluperfect subjunctive just right, but I don’t think I disgraced myself either. Jacques is a big film buff. I asked him if he liked Ernst Lubitsch’s work and he almost jumped out of his chair. Apparently Lubitsch is his favorite director. I asked him if he knew David Mamet’s work, and he didn’t. I urged him to watch “House of Games,” my favorite, as William and John both know.
24 April, Friday:
Today was another gorgeous day in a string of gorgeous days. Apparently it was lovely in NYC as well. Beagle went to a physiatrist (a specialist in pain management, spinal problems, etc.) today. He looked at MRIs and confirmed that her back was a mess. He is going to give her a bunch of injections on Monday and we’ll take it from there. I spent much of the day packing. I pretty much filled up the 4th suitcase and I still don’t have most of my clothes packed. I can see this is going to be a problem. I turned my attention to Beagle’s medicine cabinet. Yikes! That alone will take a suitcase. I had hopes of using my backpack to accommodate most of my clothes, but that hope is fading fast. Lucky thing there are several luggage stores on Chaussée d’Ixelles!
25 April, Saturday:
This morning Jeun, one of Beagle’s students, and Erik, a young German man who is doing his doctoral work in England but is in Brussels for a year, turned up to pick up Beagle’s printer, my iPod speakers, a bunch of left over wine, etc. It was either that or leave that stuff in the apartment. As it is, we are leaving a lot of food, sparking water, etc. for the people who clean the apartment. I went out and bought another suitcase this morning. I was looking for a medium sized one, but the shop only had a big one of the kind I was looking for, so I bought it. That turns out to have been a good thing. The new suitcase is absolutely full and weighs a ton…but I was able to fit my briefcase, backpack, several pairs of shoes and most of my clothes in it, not to mention about a dozen books. Now I have 5 full suitcases and one carry on bag that contains 2 computers, etc. I will have to pay a staggering amount of money for 2 extra bags, since I am only allowed 3, and in excess weight charges, but there’s nothing that can be done about that. I just wonder how I’ll get all this from the cab to the check-in desk! To celebrate having finished packing, I treated myself to a farewell lunch at La Régence. It is sort of a dive, but I like it. A very mixed crowd…some people having lunch alone, some families, some people having drinking beer, etc. I had a beer and pintadau à la Normande. Very satisfying!
26 April, Sunday:
Departure day. I got up at the crack of dawn, hauled my 5 suitcases and 2 computers out of the apartment, and got a cab to the airport. Fortunately I had called a cab the night before, so I didn’t have to go looking for one on Chaussée d’Ixelles, which was deserted. It rained on the way to the airport, which somehow seemed fitting. At the airport there was some confusion since I was two bags over the limit, 4 of my 5 bags were over the weight limit, and the person checking me in was a trainee. I did have to pay €232 for the extra bags, but they took pity on me and didn’t charge me an excess weight penalty as well. The flight was uneventful, I got back to our apartment in NYC with no problem, and spent the afternoon unpacking. It was good to be home and to see Beagle after two weeks of being on my own. Unpacking was better than packing. We had dinner with John and Vic. Vic served us home-made ravioli. A real treat!
27 April, Monday:
This morning I took Beagle to the Hospital For Special Surgery to get some cortisone injections in her back. That all seemed to go well. The anesthetic they give you before they give you the cortisone is supposed to make you feel better, but not to last too long. The cortisone takes about a week to take effect, so we’ll see. In any event, Beagle felt relatively good all day, which was nice.
28 April, Tuesday:
This is the last entry in this journal. A good thing, since there is not much to report. Beagle feels OK. I spent the day sorting through mail, paying bills, etc. Very satisfying, but not very interesting!
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