Exhausted and Bored (1/4)

I need a video game or a book or a magazine or some DVDs or sumthin’ for these evenings after the work’s finished. I’m a little discombobulated right now, but there’s nothing to do but write this post, so that’s what I’m gonna do. The others are playing card games, and it’s not that I’m being antisocial, I just don’t see the point in playing when people are getting called away for various predinner duties at random frequent intervals.

We worked especially hard today at the Château, but we got a double ration of chocolate as a reward. Thérèse finally bought a whetstone for the scythe, so I led Sylvain and Theo with the sickles in clearing the courtyard and the area around the site where Yann and Niels were slinging mortar to restore one of the walls. She told us with a smile last night at dinner that she had finally convinced the Briançon people in charge of such things to give us some goats to keep in the fort so we wouldn’t have to worry about the grass anymore, but we won’t have them until the 25th. I brought my camera along and was able to shoot for my documentary project in between annihilating stretches of grass. The sun would have been broiling if there hadn’t been so much wind that it was almost cold.

Among the tourists there have been a whole bunch of old-timers that have given me advice on scythework or else told me I’m doing it all wrong. No, I’m doing it exactly right, I must be, because it’s WORKING exactly right! And I don’t care if the scythe was your weapon of choice against the Nazis back in the day à la the black guy from the Soul Caliber games, it’s not up to you to criticize my work!

I also accidently called out a guy for looking too feminine today. As the work was winding down and Niels and I were sitting enjoying our chocolate, we saw two women sitting on one of the off-limits walls smoking. I told ‘em that tourists weren’t allowed there, addressing them as “mesdames,” but when they turned around I saw that one of them was a guy. I didn’t apologize, nor acknowledge my mistake in any way. If a guy and his girlfriend wanna git mistaken for a pair of lesbians, ‘at’s ‘eir business. And ten minutes later we saw them traipsing around one of the areas that was CLEARLY marked with a red and white security ribbon as off-limits to visitors! Stupid tourists, they deserve to have a wall fall on ‘em!

Yesterday Laurent, another CVM veteran, came to the site to demonstrate mortar techniques and the rock climbing safety we’ll need to work on the top of one of the walls. Since Sylvain and I are the only ones above 18, only we can work up there. I was thrilled to do some climbing, probably tied with kayaking as my favorite physical activity. If there were some triathlon where you had to cycle to a river, kayak down it, and climb to the finish line, I’d totally train for and compete in it. Everything seemed to be going well until Thérèse showed up to tell us that everything was n’importe quoi. I still don’t know what that means! She says it all the time. I can only remain hopeful that when something is finally importe quoi, she will inform us.

One great thing about the group here is that they may not be inclined to behave as nerds, but they’re impressionable enough that they’re revealing themselves as nerds under the influence of the intense singularity that is my nerdiness. Yesterday the team of us working at the Château totaled nine including Laurent, triggering what I call a Group Naming Effect. Much like the Wizard of Oz effect which occurs when four guys and a girl are together, nine guys activate the Lord of the Rings effect. Laurent is Gandalf, Niels is Legolas, Theo is Frodo, etc. I’m Gimli, because of my proven potential to grow a giant Gimli-esque beard. Later I settled a debate over whether the Nazgûl are the undead men or the flying beasts, and last night I introduced everyone to the Yachting Club game Rock Paper Scissors Everything.

In exactly one week I’ll be back in Clarke County, driving home from the airport.