Wired and Tired

 Cheers, everyone!

It's a chilly, rainy, windy morning here on the Emerald Isle. I'm a bit relieved that the outside is so inhospitable because it reminds me that I need a break. We have been so busy for so long that it's time for me to just sit and enjoy the time and space. 

I have a lifelong tendency to forget the things I have accomplished and focus on what is still undone. Getting documented, moving to a new country, and discovering a new house in the middle of a global pandemic was enormously challenging. Instead of looking back at that with any sense of satisfaction, I look at a box marked "Pantry" and my stomach starts to knot. 

We received a flurry of deliveries this week that demanded our attention. It's interesting to see how drivers either know our house by the shopping habits of the previous owners or simply cannot find it at all. Ireland uses a system of Eircodes, similar to ZIP codes in the US. Due to our rural location, our Eircode is specific to our house instead of a neighbourhood. Some delivery people buzz in, drop stuff off, and head straight away. Others call, asking for directions. When they hear my American accent, I sense their heart dropping and imagine them plugging our Eircode into their GPS to find us. 

We took three trips to Nenagh, a town about 30 minutes away from us, to get our Irish cell phones set up. It looks like we are both finally done with that. Neither of us has figured out how Irish phone numbers work.  

Mac, our lawn man, came yesterday to mow. The yard looks beautiful in the lashing rain that is encouraging it to keep growing. 

The FedEx box over which I fretted for weeks finally arrived this week. It did not have the two pieces of paper I was hoping I had stashed in it. More stomach knotting. 

Ikea delivered three items to us early in the week. We put together the bathroom storage. I swear, putting together Ikea items evoked more relationship tension than the entire trip over to Ireland. We persisted and succeeded in getting two of the three items done. Our bathrooms are tiny. I ordered what looked like toy furniture. They fit perfectly. The third, a test of a dining chair, will have to be returned. This requires a trip to Dublin, an hour away. 

We received a package with a water fountain in it for Velvet Jane. She refuses to drink still water, insisting on a moving stream. When we were in temporary housing, we just opened the taps in the bathrooms. We expected her to be delighted to have a fountain similar to the one we had in our home in Virginia. But she looks at it with scorn and jumps up on the sink in her bathroom, impatiently waiting for one of us to provide her with water. 

Our technology needs continue to be ticked off the To Do list. The network was in place when we arrived, thanks to the helpful previous owner who combined the removal of his router with making sure that ours was put in place. We have TV (the Sky man dismissed our Amazon Fire TV stick by simply removing it and laying it on the floor), our computers and printers function, our phones are Irish, and we are slowly acquiring appliances with Irish plugs. 

We have gotten so much done! Time for a cup of tea, a blanket, and a long, lazy day. 

Sláinte!