Snuffleupagus

I feel like hot water had attained snuffleupagus status during our first week.  We heard about it and other people had it but there was no real proof of it at our house.

I lasted from our arrival on Friday night until Sunday without baring my soul to the freezing cold water.  But by Sunday, my hair stayed in a ponytail even without a hairband.  It was time.  I lasted longer than I thought, partly due to the dust we churned up – it helped absorb the oil in my hair but Sunday was warm, I was stinky and I couldn’t wait any longer.  1.4 minutes later I was numb but clean.  My toes were SO COLD.

The struggle for hot water started before Rowan and I arrived.  Neil had found out on Friday that we needed a new boiler. Awesome.  Two different people had come to take a look and see if we could fix it but the end result was no.  So Neil arranged with Mauro to have the new boiler installed on Monday.  Now in Italy, lot of things are closed on Monday so when we got up that morning, we weren’t really sure when the blessed event occur.  We were committed to embracing the Italian lifestyle so we just let it go, got on with other things, assuming that they would show up at some point throughout the day.

They did not.  Neil texted Mauro mid-afternoon to see what the plan was but didn’t hear back.  That evening, Mauro’s daughter call to let us know her father had a heart attack and was in the hospital!  OMG – we felt so bad and were very concerned as in our basic Italian, it didn’t seem like he was doing very well.  On the bright side, Mauro has some amazing friends.  Two of his colleagues came on Tuesday to replace the boiler – everyone had good laugh when I went whooping and hollering through the house as the water started to warm up.  Best thing EVER!  They said that we can settle up with Mauro once he is better and out of the hospital.  Its refreshing that people trust each other and have each other’s backs – things might move more slowly in this part of Italy but people take care of their people!