October 23, 2011

It rained all night and practically all day. It seemed like the answer to my prayers as I hope that all dust is removed from the streets, houses and trees so my allergies diminish somehow. I chose the perfect day to stay home in my pajamas as it was cold and dreary outside. Caroline ventured to come here and bring me her portable hard drive containing some of the teaching materials she got to use while working in Oman. I repaid her the favor by improvising a pasta dish with olive oil, tomatoes, peppers, garlic and shallots. I grated some of the cheese I had purchased earlier in the absence of Parmesan cheese. It wasn’t too bad.

By mid-afternoon, the apartment felt frigid and we played with the remote control to the AC/heating unit, but couldn’t get any heat to come from it. Finding the manual helped and in a few minutes we felt some warmth, but not enough to heat up the entire apartment, as I had suspected from the beginning, and Caroline suggested we simply close the door to the living room and stay there. We had pastry and tea and felt much better.

Yoomie had called to pick up the portable hard drive with tons of movies and TV shows she had loaned us and Caroline had offered to meet her at the corner. It was already dark when Corrie came back to take her bags and it was still raining. I begged her to just take what she needed for the night and come back the next day in better weather.

After both of them left, I had my privacy back. I hope I don’t have to sleep in the living room couch during the winter as my bedroom was pretty chilly tonight.