One never knows how the day will go on Patmos. Some days are uninterrupted landscapes of time to enjoy and others sneak up and surprise you with events and happenings you didn't see coming. My goals for this morning included waking up a little earlier (getting up in the morning is where jet lag affects me most), buying vegetables early when the selection is best, getting to the plumbing and bathroom/kitchen renovation shop (I don't have a better name for it) to look into shower shelves and doing yoga. For a Patmos morning, it felt ambitious, but not really challenging.
Then, just as I was about to get my vegetables, Mohammad the contactor/painter/all-around-good-guy-around-town texted asking if I was home. He needed to get a paint can stored in my bathroom cabinet to know the formula for the blue he was going to paint my railings and stairs today. And he kinda' needed it NOW because he was at the hardware store to buy paint. I didn't know he was going to paint today – he said probably Friday – but today's just as good to me.
I photographed the cans of paint – all 72 + 0.50 MAYRO, whatever that means – and went about my errands.
As it turned out, not only was my house not Mohammad's only job today but he wasn't the only one with paint on the brain. Walking through town, guys who I figured out work for/with Mohammad were refreshing the lulaki (the blue trim on windows and doors) paint on two buildings while another man was doing the same to his own shop. Yet another business-owner still was scraping peeling paint off his overhang and refreshing the whitewash of his building. Did I miss that it's Painting Wednesday?
When done with their other jobs, Mohammad's group came to my house and began scraping flaking paint off the staircase that goes up to the roof – the thing that most needs attention. In fact, when I left the house to get lunch and write they were on my porch mixing lulaki (I'm having my house's lulaki extend to the stairs and railings). So, Happy Painting Wednesday to them. I'm working at Agriolivadi enjoying the breeze and a great lunch.
The vast majority of painting on Patmos happens in the mid-to-late Spring when the weather is dry enough but and it can be finished before the tourist season. And there is always a lot to paint. Unlike homes in California where one might do an exterior paint every 10-20 years, the stone or stone-surfaced buildings of Patmos need refreshes every 2-3 years. The ocean air is hard on paint jobs and peeling paint is not just unsightly, but poses a real risk to the structure of a building. Paint is de-facto weather sealant, which is why the exterior whitewash of a Patmos building or home has so many coats.
Obviously, one of the draws to a place like Patmos is how much it stays the same. The traditional white buildings, the water wells, the town squares in Skala and Hora – the 900+ year-old monastery on the hill, the donkeys in their donkey garden… Patmos has the charm of the past only with electricity and running water.
But in its little ways, Patmos changes too. New homes, a desalination plant was built out of sight on the Western shore and a few years ago the EU helped fund a new, more efficient and ecological wastewater processing plant. On an island like this small, sometimes it's the small things that are the most shocking.
This year Patmos got its first public electric car charger in the public parking lot next to the Chris Hotel. I haven't seen anyone using it yet – maybe in August when Greek tourists bring their cars…? The ferry terminal is under renovation and is currently off-limits leaving everyone to uncouthly walk up to the unadulterated dock when boarding and disembarking their ferries.
The post-office moved out of its historic building in the town square and over to what used to be the Alpha Bank branch – maybe 100 yards down the way. I'm told e-commerce is responsible for the change. Patmians were receiving so many packages, the Post Office was running out of room inside and began stacking some in bins out front. This could only go on for so many years before something had to be done – and apparently Alpha Bank closing its branch during COVID paved the way for a solution. Only it hasn't improved the lines. There may be more room for packages, but not for customers – the service lobby is even narrower than in the old building and now lines look much worse.
The one thing Alpha Bank left behind was its still working ATM. On an island with approximately seven ATMs, four of which are bank-owned, every ATM counts – especially for Alpha Bank customers. Therefore, Alpha Bank worked out a deal with my friend George who manages luxury properties to house their ATM is his storefront for which they modestly compensate him. I suppose George being a former banking executive made it a natural fit – only he says now people come in and want his help whenever they have a problem with the ATM – something he hadn't considered.
But the biggest, most shocking change – at least to me – is that Patmos' one full supermarket – it's only chain besides banks – changed hands. What was Alpha Beta as recently as my Winter sojourn is now (and I have to read from a label in Greek in order to write this) Sklavenitis. On principle, I wanted to hate the change. As the two-story, complete supermarket of Patmos, Alpha Beta has always been a haven. If there's something I didn't know where to find, I'd check Alpha Beta first and there was an 80 percent chance they would have it. They spoke English and delivered when we stayed up in the Kastelli neighborhood the summer of 2019.
Best yet, their name is Alpha Beta which always brought back childhood memories of the Southern California grocery chain my mom never really liked, but nonetheless had a snappy jingle, "Tell a friend…" which repeated in whispers ad infinitum in the commercials. I even wrote about this in an August 2010 post entitled Alpha Beta in which I was relatively critical – "Much like the Alpha Beta some of us may remember from childhood in Southern California, the store lacked a certain something. There is no need to "tell a friend." It's bland, rough around the edges, but comprehensive. We found absolutely no lack of cheese, yogurt or olive oil – the main ingredients of everything Greek."
Like so many things, familiarity bred affection and now my Alpha Beta is gone.
However… Sklavenitis is an upgrade – roughly from a Ralph's (or Kroger-owned equivalent for your region) to a degree below a Gelson's. Sklavenitis had me at freshly sliced pineapple which they were literally slicing in-store. And it's quite affordable. Add in better organization, cleaner, better labeled, better produce, nice shopping bags and even a prepared foods case (not that any of it looked amazing) – it's Sklavenitis for the win. And for anyone who read the Alpha Beta post and might worry – Sklavenitis also has an octopus section.
I suppose that's life. Change comes and sometimes even when it's for the better – we resist at first because we like stability. Me, I'm going to get on the Slavenitis train. The new ATM location means an excuse to stop by and visit George. The jury's out on the new post-office situation – but I suppose keeping the packages safe is more important than the length of the queue. And I'm all in favor of desalination and better wastewater treatment. Go Team Patmos!
Other changes are more challenging. In my quest to address the landscaping of my yard, I began with talking to George (and an ATM visit). I told him how hard it was to get my network of tradespeople for what I've needed done already. Being from Athens and setting up a property management business here, George said that's the challenge for anyone coming from outside Patmos – even if they're Greek and not to despair. He knew a couple of great gardeners, but their schedules are full and they're taking no new business. He knew all the places they work – and they've turned him down for work before too. And that's sort of the issue – most tradespeople on the island get more work than they can handle in the summer – so they're fine to just turn away business.
Luckily, I know the counter-curse to this problem. I told George I don't need the work done this summer. I just need to source someone, work out a plan and then they can do the work in the off-season when I'm not here. That changes everything. More money in the slow months is much more welcome as is a project instead of an ongoing commitment. George felt he might be able to sell that to the two gardeners he knows. He also suggested I inquire at the nursery. I may also ask Prokopis at the hardware store because he knows everyone and they all come to him for what they need.
On Patmos, it's definitely easier to accept change than to make it.
Nonetheless, it's possible with patience. Dimitris the appliance repair man says he can come tomorrow to talk about replacing the living room air-conditioner. And the painters were working as of last sighting.
When you really think about it, is painting the house really changing anything? In Greek, light blue is a color in its own right – Galazio. It's one of the most traditional colors in Greece and the typical choice for lulaki. I think it's fair to say I'm not changing anything. I'm like the Patmos Justin Timberlake – I'm bringing Galazio back.
