Sept 8 Connected Again!

After several attempts over several days to get Internet Explorer working, my son, Jonathan, suggested we call Aris in Athens to find out what he had changed when he adjusted my laptop to work in their wireless system. It was a good suggestion. Computing the time difference and Aris' penchant for sleeping days and waking at 3 p.m., we called him about 3 p.m. our time (1 a.m. his time) and he not only answered the phone but in short order was able to tell us what he had changed and how we could change it back again. He apologized saying he had intended to change it back for me before I left, but did not think of it as we had not had wireless service for several weeks. He is still waiting for the ISP to resolve their problems in Athens.

I am relaxing and enjoying the company of Jon and Beth, reading, writing, and walking the hills of West Seattle. After Athens and walking its hills daily, these hills are not as challenging as they had seemed on previous visits. It is sunny but cool here in Seattle, only getting into the mid seventies in the afternoon, a big change from Athens.

On my last evening in Haidari I wrote this poem:

It seems fitting somehow
That on this last night before I leave
I walk along Acropoleo street
Where I walked that first morning
After my arrival.
To enjoy once more the old houses
Tucked among the new
And view all the hills Athens has encompassed
(I think we must have eaten atop each one)
There's the house where the parrot
Shatters the morning quiet -
Except on Sunday
When only the bells call out
And I meet the lady in black
Climbing to her church up high.
The buses lunge up from Papandreos street
Like huge leviathans from the deep
To congregate at the corner
Swapping gossip.
It is hard to leave this place
I may never be back again.

Pios nakseree;
Who knows?