A final insult after settling back into Boulder

We are back in Boulder three weeks now and settled in.  The trip home was long, 21 hours, but fortunately uneventful.  There was one event that didn't make the blog.  It took a bit of editing to make it safe for public consumption.  

Until the next adventure.

         --A Romantic Walk in Paris

Some may have noticed I have a habit of taking my shoes off at business meetings, movie theaters, etc.  This isn’t just part of what the MurMonster might describe as my “typical anti-social behavior patterns”.  I am prone to athlete's foot.  I can feel it coming on when I get too warm.  Taking off my shoes has been a nearly socially acceptable solution to my problem.  Even when people are sitting too far away to fully appreciate my feet, I can see by their facial expressions they often don’t approve, but I don’t let it bother me.   If I do get some inflammation between my toes, and I am home, massaging some rubbing alcohol onto them helps clear them up pretty quickly. 

After doing some walking around Paris.  I got that same sensation of "you have a skin condition coming on" but on a new part of my body.  I like to think of myself as an open, creative-problem-solver type of person.  But even I didn't feel like I could get away with taking off my pants as we walked along the Seine river.  I felt helpless like a kid who had his wet underwear and still had a long way to walk home. 

For a while it didn't seem that bad, but, eventually walking became as though I were rubbing sticks to together to light a fire.  I had to start thinking about how many beans were in the soup I had for lunch because the growing possibility of pyroflatulence.  But finally we made it back to the apartment.

As soon as we got back I rushed into the bathroom.  This in itself is not unusual for people our age after a long walk.  What was unusual for the MurMonster was hearing me shrieking like a little girl as I attempted to apply my tried and true foot fungus solution to my new problem. 

What I was learning that moment was that "the cleansing burn of rubbing alcohol affects some parts of the anatomy more intensely than others".  The MurMonster wasn’t learning anything new.  She is very familiar with men doing stupid things.  She burst into the bathroom with a look of concern one might normally reserve for car accident victims, but, her sympathy turned to chuckling as she watched me doing my own version Riverdance next to the porcelain throne. 

Normally, the most cruel thing a woman can do to a man is laugh at him with his manhood in a state of disrobe.  But I was so concerned with getting airflow around my sensitive parts I had to wait to be offended.  Adding insult to injury sometimes a little time as the injured party has to think through whether to continue trying to flush with water, or make a break for the fridge for some milk and give all the folks on the street below a show as well.  Only after such matters have been deliberated can one ponder having one’s masculinity laughed at by one’s paramour and allow a second opportunity for reddening of tissue.    

I did let her help by walking to the pharmacy for me.  I gave her the French word for fungus which unfortunately is the same one they use in restaurants for entrees containing mushrooms. My little moonbeam returned with my cream (so I wouldn't have to rely on rubbing alcohol). 

She described the back and forth she had with the French pharmacist trying to explain what the cream was for.  I will leave the required hand gestures to your imagination.  She was able to communicate that "no, it wasn't really for her it was for her boyfriend."  And so she fortunately returned with something suitable for external use.   

Thanks to my brother Sam for helping to make the above story funny.

Winds of Change

We had a very windy forecast for the last couple days on the boat, so the couple who rented it to us invited us to their apartment.  Murray hates being a guest, but the view convinced her.  They are from Belgium and speak more French and Spanish than English, but the food has been excellent!  It is always a treat to travel and meet such nice people.

Cuevas de Arta

This was really a spectacular place.  I went to Carlsbad caverns as a kid and that made an impression, but I don't get awestruck as often as an adult, except when I am around the MurMonster of course.

A day of sailing pics

There are some really cool people, and great adventures to be had on couchsurfing.com if you haven't used it.  Meetup.com is great too.  I met Alejandro at a language exchange, and most Saturdays he takes 6 or so folks out on the water just because he likes to sail and likes to meet people from different places.  Very cool.  Catalonians, Bulgarians, Mallorquins, Germans, Coloradans... and a beautiful day too.  

Isaac no longer believes in unicorns

I haven't put much stock in unicorns since I stopped playing dungeons and dragons at age...  well never mind at what age.  But I do still believe in rainbows!  Some shots from our marina home.

Out of the shower and into the rainbow

I couldn't ever express the awesomeness that is a double rainbow as well as Yosemitebear62  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI 

Pics from Playa de Palma

This is how you sunbathe if you are Isaac.  In the winter, with long sleeves and pants on, and your jacket protecting your face.

Me listening to Murray's warnings about hypothermia again before a swim.

Our Spanish Instructor and cutting the cake at her boyfriend's 70th birthday

For all those people in Boulder, the city of bicycles, that have known Murray for years and wondered why they have never seen her on a bicycle.   It is because you never went to the beach with her, where it is flat with an ocean view.

This was made by a homeless looking beach bum.  It was as tall as I am.  I was astounded, but then I heard his german accent and something clicked.

Our new home

I'm on a boat for the last three weeks of the trip.  Hopefully we will get to take it out on one of those days.  The marina is nice and quiet in winter.  

Freedom to offend

The MurMonster felt compelled to get politically active this weekend so we went to Placa de Cort for the Charlie Hebdo inspired rally.  She is standing on a platform in the second pic.  The platform was setup for the San Sebastian festival later in the evening.  She kept inching up onto the platform and a line of people followed her up there eventually.  I don't get to see her leading the charge too often.  It was fun.

Birthday Pics

For her birthday Murray got some black clingy stuff that is hard to find in the states.  We also rented a car and drove out to Valldemossa.  She wanted to see the Chopin - George Sands Museum where the two stayed a winter in 1839 even though she never read George Sands and the two of us have probably only listened collectively to a half dozen Chopin works in our lives.  It was nice though.  And it was her birthday.

We don't intend to hurt the ones we care about

The problem lay with expectations.  Behind the cupboard door in the picture, is a bag of Lund, white and mint chocolate balls.  I approached the cabinet three times, and each time the MurMonster thought "Oh he has come to give me a kiss on my birthday."

Then she figured out I was after a different kind of sugar.  Yet another case of unknown and unmet expectations.  The buddah claimed attachment is at the heart of our suffering, I think perhaps unvoiced expectations give attachments a run for their money.  To her credit she did explain to me why it had become so annoying to be sitting next to my where I keep my stash.  I don't think I would have ever figured it out on my own.

Swan Lake

We went to see the Moscow Ballet do Swan Lake tonight.  I thought the dancing, especially the jester, was great.  Murray though the dancers ought to move together more.  It was a good thing I looked up the story before I went.  Not just because my spanish is so limited, but the program was in Mallorquin not Spanish.  Mallorquin is closer to French than Spanish, kind of like Catalan.  But the big bummer was they didn't have a live orchestra.   One of the big reasons I wanted to go is that I really like Tchaikovsky.  Swan Lake was one of the first three classical CDs I bought as a teen.

But the bathrooms at the auditorium were impressive.  Didn't really make up for the music though.

The beginning of the end

I bought our plane tickets back.  We drift back into Colorado at 9:10PM Feb 1st.  The MurMonster doesn't want to look at the flight details.  Even though it is a month away, she doesn't want to think about the trip ending.

We start spanish lessons tomorrow morning.  I tried to get us practicing together at a regular time each evening, but let her talk me out of it on the fourth night.  So we are getting professional help. Something every couple needs at some point.