Snips 'n Cuts

Ola! Snips and Cuts was the name of my high school yearbook. This post is going to be mainly answering questions or other things (snips and cuts) that might come into my head.

Mail – Portugal I still haven’t been able to figure out what’s supposed to happen. I’m 99% sure that I have the correct address now. Message me or something, if you want to know what it is. A couple of days ago, Scott was gone to Portuguese class; I hadn’t gotten up yet. The buzzer buzzed, meaning someone pressed it in front of the building. I did an old lady sprint to the apartment door, picked up the phone and said, “Hello?”. A male spoke rapid Portuguese in return. I had no idea what he said and don’t even know what I said All I really know is that whatever I said it was in English. I pressed the button to unlock the building door. Then I waited. No one came up. I went to look downstairs and no one was there. Sigh.

Scott again went to the post office and retrieved whatever it was. I thought I had received everything I had ordered. Yesterday, again, Scott not here, I wasn’t up yet, buzzer buzzed. Another old lady sprint to the door. Again, I picked up the phone and said, “Hello?” A man spoke slower Portuguese, but I still didn’t understand what he said. So I asked if he had a package. I don’t think he knew what I was saying either. ARRG. I unlocked the door with the buzzer and asked again if he had a package. Then I just hung up and opened the apartment door. After a few seconds I thought maybe he was waiting for me to come down. So I walked down the steps. I wasn’t quite to the bottom, but saw that he was about to get on the lift. So, rather loudly I said, “I’m right here!”. So he turned around, gave me a big smile and handed me the package (it was Spray n Wash, which I haven’t been able to find just in store). I believe we both said something akin to “Have a good day!” in our respective languages and went on our way. Crazy man!

Mail – US I read in some Facebook groups about others’ experiences with US mail. Quite a few people use the address of one of their kids or a sibling. At least initially, that seemed to me to be a lot to ask. My step kids live in TX and MA anyway. People do use one of the various rental mailbox locations. On November 1st, I signed up with iPostal1. What a freakin’ pain in the tookus. First, USPS requires this form 1583 and it has to be notarized. I never heard of this before and I don’t know under what exact circumstances it’s required. There IS this notary service that will connect you to a notary via video call and take care of all that. For whatever reason, I had to do that like THREE times to get it to work right. I requested a box with an Albemarle Rd address. By the time we left Charlotte on November 29, it still wasn’t working properly. They HAD told me what the address would be and I put in a change of address request with USPS.  USPS altered what I put on the form, and didn’t include the actual box number (that should like an apartment number). The stupid ipostal1 service has uploaded pictures of the mail exactly 3 times. I know we’ve gotten more mail than that. I called the phone number that is supposed to be for the specific location where our box is. A woman answered and just said, “Hello?” That threw me for a minute, but I explained who I was and why I was calling. She  immediately started backpedaling and in no uncertain terms let me know that SHE knew nothing and could find out nothing. WTF?? So this is another story that has long, incredibly boring details AND is not yet resolved. At the moment, I have received an email telling me that the place where my box supposedly is will be closed soon. They offered me another one on McDowell, that normally costs $20/month more than I’m paying, but they’ll let me have it for my current price. Dear God, keep me from choking someone, wouldja please?

Pickleball Scott did NOT bring home a “pickleball set”. He brought home a “tennis net” that is portable and adjusts to some different heights. It is, of course, still in the box. He said he went to some places he thought might have paddles, etc., today to no avail. I ordered a set with 4 paddles and 4 balls on Amazon Spain this afternoon. He bought some chalk somewhere that he will attempt to use to draw the pickleball lines. This is all pretty hilarious to me and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Weather Part of the reason we moved to the southern part of Portugal is because I read that the winter weather is better there than more northern regions. I really liked Porto, which is quite a bit north, well north of Lisbon, and they apparently usually have cold rainy winters. That totally doesn’t work for me. That said, along with many of you still in NC, I’ve missed seeing snow fall. I do also enjoy the various versions of this meme that shows up under these circumstances. But I would have been once again ticked off about how it turned out. How do y’all feel? 

Here, in Faro, in the last month we’ve had about 2 rainy days. The daytime temps have been in the low to mid 60’s and the lows mainly in the 50s. It might have dipped into the 40s a few times, but at like 47-49. I’ll take it!

I will say that after the sun goes down, it can feel pretty chilly. This apartment, like most others throughout Portugal, doesn’t have “central” heat. There are 2 mini-splits that aren’t in very useful areas. I bought one of the little electric heaters that looks like an old timey radiator and circulates oil inside it (I think) for the bedroom. So far <knock wood> we don’t have a humidity or mold problem. We do have some of those outer window coverings that you can raise or lower that blocks sun. They’re kind of a pain, though, and make it dark.  Those will probably be more useful to me in the summer. I don’t really mind wearing sweat shirts or sweat shirts over a long-sleeved tee, but I do mind needing to keep my @$@#%! shoes on. I didn’t bring any of my slippers, but I THINK /hope I shipped them.

Portuguese language Bless his pea-picking little heart. Scott is working really hard on homework from his class. I am becoming motivated to review the materials from the lessons I took before we left Charlotte (and will then contact Cristina, my teacher) and resume lessons myself.

Stay warm, stay safe, come see us. It’s easier for us to ignore the craziness going on in the US from here. But we’ll always be Americans and I absolutely can’t just not stay at least partially informed. Need a break from it all? C’mon!

Did you know that the family behind Duke's Mayo sold out to a company in BOSTON?

"What a world, what a world!" The Wicked Witch of the West, aka Elfaba.