I have two homes. As I was figuring out the four or five days of clothing to take with me back to Thousand Oaks, it hit me that I have two homes and of course the one here is the one I own – outright. Given I'll be back next week, I didn't overpack and instead lent some of my packing bandwidth to the kids making it easier to bring back the gifts they've selected for their key people and a few things they've picked up for themselves. I have an entire giant backpack I brought here full of things for the house that is not needed for the trip home and which I think will remain here for the rest of the summer.
Not knowing what else to do, I brought all the sheets and blankets except my own to the laundry and of course picked up our clean clothes to pack for home. We're going home with a lot of nicely folded, good smelling clothes.
I'm still not sure whether to shutter up the house completely or not – but I will retract the awning in case of wind. I've told Christina the furniture lady and Manos my attorney I'll be away in case any deliveries come. I'll have to get the car keys back to Dimitris tonight. When I return, I'll get a motor scooter instead – it will be much easier to park and cheaper to rent for just me.
What does one do with a last day on Patmos? With Sennen feeling better, the kids knew they wanted some beach time but debated which beach with great care. It ended up Kampos in the end.
We had one far less typical experience today. My friend and colleague Barrett and his partner, Beth arrived by cruise ship this morning at about 11am. They had 2.5 hours of "free time" before some planned excursions. So we had the rare opportunity to see someone from home. This hasn't happened since Conlan and Sharon visited us in Patmos in 2019.
Barrett, who started off a consultant for my company but quickly became a good friend is a funny person who is smart, well traveled, worldly – things I could say about Conlan and Sharon too. Beth, who I met for the first time today, is equally so. For people who have never met my kids, they did exceedingly well connecting and going along with the sometimes frantic flow of Sennen and Ailyn both sharing everything they know about Patmos and life. We showed them Skala, our house and took them to Petrino in the town square for a light lunch. Being the first of my friends to see the house and stylish people at that, they had some good ideas for the living room and kitchen – which is great. I need ideas and options.
Patmos is a major part of my world and sharing its specialness is a hard thing to do in just 2.5 hours. Luckily, like Bali, the island speaks for itself. It's not terribly hard to understand the overall appeal. Perhaps I know Patmos so intimately that I care about details and aspects that may not matter to a first-timer. In this case, our scope was narrowed to Skala because Barrett and Beth's cruise-planned excursion involved going around to Patmos' most photographable locations.
Showing all of Skala is easy – an hour is fairly sufficient if you don't know anyone and an hour and a half if you know people. Naturally, we saw just about everything and Skala was its usual charming self. Sennen's emergency bathroom need led us into the Greek pie bakery where I knew the owner would be accommodating to Sennen and to my surprise, she had both tahini pie and chocolate bougatsas available – two of the best and most snatched up items. We made sure Barrett and Beth got a taste of something hard to get elsewhere before they had to return to their ship.
When it comes to final days, there's always the temptation to try to "cram it all in" – to get those last greedy wisps of what you love about a place. We had a little of that. Kampos, not Agriolivadi or Petra (the kids' ranking, not mine), dinner at Ktima Petra (I agree on this one) and a waffle from Stelios for dessert.
Yet as much as anything else, we spent a couple of hours lounging in our air conditioned living room this afternoon. The kids played. We took out the garbage and recycling and cleaned up the craft table. We happily engaged in the mundane because the little moments between us matter as much as anything else. I learned about Stefanos' (Dmitris and Christina's son) girlfriend and Sennen knowing because he saw them making out down the street. We chatted about why the police on Patmos aren't allowed to come from here to prevent favoritism, nepotism and corruption – and discussed why the EU has different agricultural standards than the US including pesticides allowed (no Round-Up) and pasteurization percentages (3 % of microbes still allowed). The kids did some art and finished up some laniards and rainbow loom bracelets. We enjoyed another day of living life together – without schedules, demands and constraints. We continued to enjoy the gift of time that Patmos seems to make so available.
Small victories on the house: Manos got the phone company to agree to provide internet to me, only since there were never any hardlines laid to the house, they would have to do significant and expensive excavation work. Instead, they have a wireless internet product that would give the same speeds at the same monthly price. Only Manos has to cancel his original application and fill out a different one. But it's coming!
IKEA shipped my kitchenware and White Mattress (which honestly sounds tone deaf coming from America) is sending my artisan-made mattress from Rhodes. And because nothing in Greece can be that straightforward, instead of the mattress going directly between two nearby islands, it will be shipped to Athens and then dispatched to Patmos. I won't quibble.
Now that the yard has been cleared, I also need to start imagining what it becomes – which is very challenging for me. I'll be leaning on friends - and maybe local landscapers – for ideas.
Still, slowly – slower than I'd like and with lots of follow-up required – the house is beginning to come together.
And we've arrived at the pivot of the summer – or perhaps half-time. My time on Patmos with my kids is ending. We take the midnight ferry to Athens. Then on to the airport, Toronto and LAX. We have our last few days of summer together at home. The the adventure and the project continues in a new mode, with a new flavor and undoubtedly new thoughts, feelings and focus. This phase has been amazing and everything I had imagined – and hopefully the first steep in a much longer Patmos story for our family. The next phase will be for me.
