And then there was heat

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Here I am sitting in the kitchen at 4 in the afternoon, thinking what should I do next? Every day we try to do a little to make this house ours. Move something here. Move something there. Open a box. Clean this. Clean that. We had planned to drive around today, to go exploring. But the wind has been so strong, we just decided to stay in and do more organizing.

Thursday we drove over to the house where we were told to buy a propane tank. That’s because our living room was so cold that Mike actually broke down and tried to turn on the gas heater. It would start but not stay on. Our neighbor Robert thought perhaps it was out of gas. So started of another adventure.

We pulled up to the house but no one seemed to be around. Mike honked the horn, and in a few minutes an elderly gentleman strolled out. With sign language and my limited Italian we learned his name is Angelo, and we were able to tell him what we needed. We drove around to the side of the house, exchanged our old tank for a new one, paid him, and then he started talking. Some of it I understood. Once he learned that we are here as residents, not tourists, his attitude changed. “You have to meet my wife", he said. As we started to drive away, a woman stepped out of the house and waved. She came up to Mike’s window and asked us to come in for coffee. We said no, thank you, it was nice meeting you. But they wouldn’t take no for an answer. Angelo threw open Mike’s door and held his arms out. So we turned off the car and went in for coffee.

Angelo’s wife's name is Giussepina. She is a delightful woman. She led us into a very large room, with a long well-stocked bar. The room had tables and chairs set up as if for a party room. We sat at the bar. It was fun talking with them, although we used Google translate for some. Angelo made us each espresso. Once they learned we are neighbors of Maria and Robert, Angelo called Maria on his phone to find out more about us. All of a sudden, we were family. From what I understand, the house that we now live in was once Angelo’s grandparents’ house.

When we were getting ready to leave, I asked if I could buy a bottle of wine. She said, "Si," ran upstairs, washed out a Coke bottle, and came down and poured it full of wine from a jug. Then she wouldn't let me pay for it. It is really really good wine. And it's from their vineyard.

We took the new tank home, hooked it up, and got the same result as before. GRRR. And BRRRR. Paul stopped by and fiddled with it, but couldn’t get it started either. A few hours later, there was a knock on our door. Paul brought over to us an extra heater that he had. It was nice to have heat.

When we had been at the housewares store earlier this week, I bought pots and pans and some cleaning supplies. But I needed a few more things and ordered them from Amazon. Mike was still uneasy about using a propane heater. So I did my usual research and ordered two electric heaters. I’m sure our electric bill will be crazy high, but, hey, it was COLD.

The heaters arrived Friday and we were able to sit in the living room comfortably that evening and sleep in a warm bedroom.

What will tomorrow bring?