French apartment renovations, Day 279: Dead batteries, jumpstarts, rain, and hail

9,045 steps

We were heading out this morning and we saw that one of our car lights was on. Only one and not the main beam, just the small day lamp. Sure enough, when we tried to start the car, it wouldn't turn over. We can't figure out why the light was on since we haven't changed a single setting or switch for years! (We've always had our car lights on the "auto" setting.)

Luckily we were taking care of a friend's car that needed moving to a better parking spot, so we had a second car right there! And after having a dead battery several times over the past year, we had also invested in a pair of jumper cables. Of course it started raining during this whole process. We got our car started, our friend's car well parked, and ourselves en route, arriving only 7 minutes late in the end.

Eric and Dio hurried off later in the morning to a soccer match. The rest of us walked back home from Cimiez. We had a dramatic storm blow in after lunch, with it looking as dark as evening in the early afternoon. Apparently it hailed while Dio was playing. We got big splats of rain on the coast--enough that my dry laundry turned wet again.

I stumbled upon a documentary about minimalism and it inspired us to clean out our bookcase. We got rid of a pile of books we don't use any more. I told the kids they need to do the same thing in the attic with all their little knick knacks they have collected.

We had time to watch two episodes of The Flash as a family. I cooked roasted fennel & sausages with mustard, thyme, & red wine. Dessert was the tiramisu I made yesterday. I'm also making sourdough bread for the first time in almost a month. I tend to bake less in the summer, but the weather has cooled off enough now.

Oh, after the AC guys installed the flexible drain pipes into our drain lines a while ago, we've started getting leaks in the staircase area. At first it was just drops and we didn't even realize it was coming from our pipes. We thought maybe it was a few drops of water from where our upstairs neighbor had watered her plants.

But when Comrade was over on Friday taking window measurements, we heard a massive waterfall of water in the building's staircase. What on earth?!? We ran out to see, and water was fountaining up from the connection that they had installed. (Our washing machine was running.) Liters and liters of water were on the floor a few stories down.

I sent off a text to the AC installers with a picture and left a voice message. I haven't managed to connect with them yet, but I did see one missed call that afternoon.

For now, we've had to disconnect the washing machine drain and run the hose into a big bucket. During every cycle, I have to babysit the bucket and empty it periodically, usually 5-6 times over the cycle.