Random Stuff

• I think I have an infected bug bite on the back of my calf (it's either that or leprosy). Thank god for Neosporin and the salt levels in the sea, they seem to be taking care of the worst of it.
• It's really hot here this weekend. Showing about 1ooF in Rethymnon right now, according to the little Google gadget on my laptop. Registering a cool 83 here in the house on the alarm clock/temperature gauge that Debbie got me as a gift several years ago.
• Mike: My English speaking friend brought me over several DVD's the other night after work. Mostly comedy and light entertainment. I watched "Dude, Where's My Car" when he left and although it was mindless it managed to keep me awake through to the end, despite the fact that it was WAY past my bedtime (2:30am!). I also learned that sometimes the farmers here water their crops in the middle of the day because there's not enough water for everyone to do it at once, so they have to stage it (I had asked him about this because it seemed counter-productive to water in the middle of the day when evaporation rates are highest). He also told me that they have water "skirmishes"...one will decide that he wants to water now, so he'll go and shut his neighbor's water supply without letting him know. Then later, when the neighbor discovers that while he thought he was watering his crops he really wasn't, he'll turn around and do the same to the next neighbor, etc. This makes me think of a conversatin that Joanne and I had regarding a special police contingent that comes here from Athens specifically to handle certain types of altercations between families, as the local police are reticent to get involved in what can be rather deep, complicated and violent family feuds. Whether this is still true or not, I don't know (I've read about it in several places) and I'll depend upon Mike to correct me where I'm wrong.
• Yannis: My not-so-much English speaking friend can speak enough to translate parts of my neighbor's conversation, which basically amounts to a domestic squabble. I've often heard them raise their voices, but didn't want to assume that they were always fighting -some people just speak passionately, right? Anyway, he knows something about them and says that she is a bitch. I don't know, having never met either of them. Yannis actually knows about a fair number of people here in Drapanias, having been coming here from Albania each year for about 15 years now. He works here March-November doing stone work, then goes back to Albania where his family is for the winter. He and I are going for dinner to what is supposed to be a really good Italian restaurant on the peninsula just to the east of us. Looking forward to not cooking tonight (it's just too hot!).
• My other neighbor's boyfriend has been parking in my "space" lately, and it's irritating me. I guess it's not technically "my" space, but she has a short driveway that he could pull into and use. She just came over to borrow the vacuum cleaner and I mentioned it to her, but she says the space is too narrow. I think she was a little offended that I brought it up, she said he doesn't stay for long, but it doesn't really matter how long he stays for if he's there when I get home, does it?
• Yesterday at the supermarket, a German woman came up to me and asked me if the product she had in hand could be used for washing clothes by hand. I had absolutely no idea (I've had a very difficult time figuring out which cleaning products are used for what, since all the writing on them is in Greek) but I was somehow flattered that I must at least LOOK like I know what's going on.