Oh, but did the wind howl!

It felt as if we were in a wind tunnel from early in the morning until just a short time ago. The air was moving with such energy and so violently that the mountains were hidden behind a huge cloud of dust that stretched from horizon to horizon. It was a good day to be inside, wearing earplugs.

The day's work consisted of a pretty short job, and in retrospect, it was a good thing, too, because of an email we received from a party who had agreed to let us say in their flat in Paris this summer in exchange for our letting them stay in our New York house. The email basically expressed shock at learning things about our property that we had posted online at the site that had brought us together.

This was disturbing for two reasons. First, we've already arranged for travel on certain dates, and offering us a link to a bed-and-breakfast web site seemed like poor compensation for pulling the rug out from under us like that. Second, I just couldn't shake the feeling that our correspondent's outburst seemed too—studied, as if composed in order to be free to accept a better deal somewhere else.

Galina and I have both been scrambling to find housing alternatives that won't break the bank, and we've got a number of irons in the fire as of a few moments ago.

Time for dinner.

Cheers...