French apartment renovations, Day 184: Lost & found

11,233 steps

Eric woke up early this morning, determined to find the scuba masks that Ivy had lost. He's not much of a morning person you know it was important! He came back around 9:30, triumphant: he found the one she lost yesterday! It was quite deep, more than he had expected.

I played electrician this morning and hooked up about 3/4 of the circuits to the "tableau électrique" (circuit breaker). I stopped when I ran out of 20 amp breakers. This one came pre-equipped and it had far too many 10 amps, an adequate number of 16 & 32 amps, and far too few 20 amps. So I placed an order with an online electrical supply place and should have them in a few days. (Sorry for the blurry photo.)

I like electricity; it's so logical. You just get the right size wire, hook it up in the right order, and put it with the right grade circuit breaker. The French stuff is all push & click--no screws. It's actually unusual and/or forbidden to have screw connections like we do in the US (in our plugs, light switches, or wire connectors, for example).

We had our usual soccer/grocery afternoon. Then we arrived 7 minutes early to Dio's RDV point to be extra super duper sure he wouldn't get left behind this time.

Ivy and I stopped by a little thrift store on the way home, and she bought a pair of red velveteen slippers for 2 Euros. She then looked up some YouTube ballet classes and did ballet lessons in our living room.

Zari came home from soccer practice a bit glum. "I don't really want to talk about it right now." She had such a good game on Saturday, and it's frustrating when things don't go well.

She and Inga got into a big argument while Eric and I were on a walk (picking up sparkly water). I wish I could say my kids never fought but I'd totally be lying.

I had a Zoom meeting tonight, a debrief about a breech birth that we supported virtually. It was a very difficult birth--the birth attendant got thrown just about everything you can imagine: trapped arms, trapped head, an exhausted mother who was fighting the birth and clenching her legs and muscles, a long labor, and weak & intermittent contractions. Phew.

I think all of us felt better after the debrief. I embedded timers into the original video, and we went through the birth in detail, pausing to discuss all of the things that had happened.

I told my colleauge Dr. David Hayes afterwards, "It's so hard to feel the weight of that responsibility! I usually have the luxury of not having to worry about that; I just get to do the research and teaching." (We had two experienced breech providers supporting the birth virtually--it wasn't just me! But even still, I felt the enormity of it.)