6 months!

I haven't written in 6 months. No excuses, really, just didn't feel like writing. I'm not going to try to catch up in a single post, either; Rest assured.
Let's just start with yesterday. I had my 6-week post-op appointment with the orthopedic surgeon who replaced my shoulder at the end of September. The clinic, which is where I had the appointment, is in Paris, opposite from the eastern suburb I live in. It takes an hour to get there on the RER and métro and about an hour or more by car. I've been hand knitting quite a bit during the convalescence and needed to replace one of my circular needles. Being the efficient person I am, I googled "mercerie" (that's the French word for a notions shop, haberdashery in the UK) and Exelmans, the métro station closest to the clinic. To my astonishment, there was one.
I left home in sufficient time to go to the mercerie on my way to my appointment. This was an old-fashioned shop, a hole in the wall place, no light, drab. Usually, this is ideal for finding a knitting needle. The young girl at the counter didn't know what a circular needle was but I explained and looked in the drawer of few needles with her. There weren't any circular needles, at all. And if anyone were to go there for straight needles, there weren't many sizes in stock. The needle wasn't the only thing on my list. I've been knitting tubes of self-striping sock yarn on the knitting machine (the grandkids have been very helpful) and adding the toes, afterthought heels, and top ribbing by hand. I wanted some solid, off-white sock yarn for the hand-knit parts. Well, there wasn't any sock yarn, at all.
After my appointment (doctor very pleased with my recovery, as am I), I decided to go to a shop in the 14th on rue des Plantes, the Atelier at 13bis (https://www.atelierdelacreation.com/). They would have what I wanted. I dislike taking the métro so one of my pleasures as a retired person is to take a bus, even if it's more time. The 62 bus was not too far away and would take me to the rue des Plantes, just a short walk from the shop. It took 45 minutes! They have a lot of sock yarn but, for some odd reason, this year, no solids. They had the short version of the needle I wanted and I bought it, thinking it seemed kind of expensive. The sales clerk told me to go to another shop near m° Etienne Marcel ....
By this time, I wanted some lunch and was not far from my son's, where he usually works from home on Fridays, so I called to see if he could have lunch with me. Exceptionally, he was at the office. Still, I had to get to the métro station, so I stopped for lunch, got on the métro to go to Etienne Marcel and got there before 2.
The shop Lil Weasel (https://www.lilweasel.com/) is located in one of those original shopping centers, a covered passage joining two streets. This one is the Passage du Grand Cerf. It's very picturesque and I recommend strolling through these galleries on rainy visits to Paris. You can almost make your way through central right-bank Paris without getting wet. The hours painted on the door indicated opening hours 10:30 - 19:00. The door was locked. I knocked. No sign of anyone. I waited. Then, I went across the way to the fabric part of the shop and waited for the clerk to finish up with a customer and was finally told to keep waiting. I went back. I finally knocked loudly by using my phone as a knocker. The clerk finally came downstairs to the door, yelled at me for my impatience (15 minutes of "open" hours) and found me some very expensive yarn. I asked about the circular needle, the size and length I would prefer, but it was more than twice as expensive than the one I'd gotten before lunch and the price of the yarn and general snotty service put me off.
From there, I went to visit S, up near Barbès. A year ago, I would have been able to go straight to visit her from the clinic for my notions because there was a great mercerie on rue Cadet. If I had thought my search would take me all over Paris, I could have gone straight to the Marché St. Pierre, just up the hill from Barbès, before going over to see S. But by the time I had gone to 3 merceries, I just wasn't in the mood to trek up the Montmartre hill.
There used to be two merceries in Nogent, until maybe 15 years ago. There were still two in Fontenay, a few blocks over from me, until 4 years ago. Monoprix used to carry some notions. There is still a mercerie stall at the main market in Nogent, but she doesn't come every market day and she doesn't carry everything, so it's hit or miss. The shops in Paris are expensive. It's quite a schlep to get there and then to have to go from one to another to another. Does anyone still wonder why Internet shopping is successful?