Located on the Ile de la Cite, only a few steps from the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sainte Chapelle, this large (1,600 sq.ft.) and elegant three bedroom, three bathroom apartment overlooks the Seine and the Pont St. Michel. . . . The main and second bedrooms overlook the river and are located on each side of the living room.
Congress has just eight days on the job between now and the start of the next session on January 7, with the House coming back on Monday and adjourning for the year by December 13 and the Senate returning on December 9 only to most likely adjourn for the year on December 20. In total, the House will have had 239 days off this year with even more scheduled for next year.
Certainly members of Congress have work to do when they’re not required to be in D.C., including meetings with constituents, running their other offices, talking to local community leaders, and doing media interviews. Some may also use those days off on other jobs for supplemental income, but most make side money by owning businesses or from investments.
The picture is very different for the rest of Americans, however. The country doesn’t guarantee its citizens any paid vacation or holiday time off, unlike 20 of its developed peers. All European Union countries guarantee workers at least 20 paid days of vacation a year, with France going so far as to lock in 30, the United Kingdom mandating 28, and Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden guaranteeing 25.
Of course, many American employers still give their workers paid vacation time and holidays off. But that holds true for fewer and fewer workers. . . . . The biggest drops have come for those who work part-time — a position more and more find themselves in — or for employers with fewer than 100 workers.
The U.S. also lags developed peers in other kinds of paid time off. It is the only one out of the top 15 most competitive that doesn’t guarantee paid sick days, which leaves 40 percent of private sector workers out of paid leave. Those who do get paid sick days also get fewer of them than two decades ago. The country is even more lonely when it comes to maternity leave to take care of a new child, joining just three countries out of 178 in failing to guarantee paid time off. Fathers similarly get no guarantee of paid time off when a new child arrives.
After an inauspicious beginning in Rome with the 110 Stop& Go Bus – e.g., extremely rude personnel, a bus breakdown and then stopping and not moving for 15 minutes with no explanation – we ended up having a very nice day on our own self-guided tour of parts of the city. We were dropped off by the ship in front of St. Peter’s Square and hence the photo at the end of this post of what I view as the center of a foul source of evil in the world a/k/a the Roman Catholic Church as personified by the Nazi Pope and his morally bankrupt hierarchy. Given my love of history and classical Greece and Rome, we focused much of the day on the ruins of Imperial Rome including the Coliseum - which was known in its heyday as the Flavian Amphitheater – the Palatine and forum. The Coliseum is far larger than it often appears in photos and brought home the building genius of the ancient Romans. After that we had lunch at a restaurant called “The Glass” at the Hotel Cosmopolita where the food was great and the wait staff was almost without exception “male beauty” quality. Then we proceeded to the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon which is amazing given it’s almost 2,000 years of age.
Tomorrow we pull into Naples and we are going to Pompeii – again to satisfy the history buff in me. Friday will be a welcome day at sea where we can just be and relax followed by a day and a night in Barcelona before flying back to the USA.
There have been a number of ongoing minor irritations with the ship – Internet access being the worse - but overall we are having a wonderful time. Tonight we went to the ice show – the ship has an on board rink – which was very good even though the rink is far smaller than standard. The cast which was from around the world were talented and the male skaters very cute – a definite added bonus.
Meanwhile, at home the demolition started on Monday morning and sheet rock is being removed from the floor level up to a height of four feet. After the old insulation is replaced with foam non-absorbent insulation, concrete board will be installed in lieu of sheet rock and covered with a skim coat before PVC bead board wainscoting is installed to create a fully water proof seal. Once the repainting is done, marble floors will be installed throughout the first floor. Money over and above the insurance payment is being applied to guarantee that should the house ever flood again, no tear out will be required and the place can be literally hosed out.
The coming two days will be insane as we get ready to go to Key West early on Friday morning (A photo of where the boyfriend is taking us is above - it's on Fleming Street. He's taking me on the trip as his Christmas gift to me - frequent flyer miles amazingly covered all airfare). With contractors coming to tear out sheet rock throughout the first floor from the floor up to a height of four feet and to remove all of the lower kitchen cabinets at the boyfriend's/our house on Monday morning, we are in the final push to get EVERYTHING out of the first floor. The guest bath tub now holds all our household cleaning items, food stores are in plastic tubs in the master bedroom closet, and the second floor looks like a warehouse. One last trip to the storage unit will take place tonight. In about 68 weeks, we get to move everything back in.
