Someone once said that a house with a soul is a home. We can verify that because every time that we go on vacation and leave the house alone, its soul gets lonely and breaks something. It knows when we’re away and wants to convince us never to go again. We’ve had minor things happen like light bulbs that were not on while we were gone be burned out when we returned. A plastic bottle developed a leak and emptied its contents onto the shelf. A framed picture has fallen off the wall. A bit more major was when the refrigerator thermostat went berserk and froze everything inside.

But today was worst of all: we returned home and the Internet wasn’t working!! Yes, double exclamation marks are warranted since you’ve probably been through the same horror. No phone, no TV, and no Internet. How are we to survive? A technician from AT&T is scheduled to be here tomorrow between 4 PM and 8 PM. At least my Kindle has 276 books on it so I might have something to read until she/he shows up. It feels like the old days before copy machines when we had to use carbon paper. Where IS my typewriter?

So now you’re wondering how we are going to deal with a similar situation in France. To be honest, so are we. It’s hard enough to understand someone in another language when you are face-to-face with them and especially challenging if you are on the phone with them. Because AT&T seems to have most of its customer service agents in India, we already sometimes have difficulty understanding what these folks are saying, and they are speaking English! Too bad that Google Translate doesn’t do audio yet.