The Chaos of Moving PLUS Lightning

Moving Day (next Tuesday 5/18) is rapidly approaching and the house is beginning to reflect it.  The television now has a new home on top of a stack of boxes.  We have packed up a lot of things but there is still lots to do.  Tomorrow we are taking our winemaking equipment to Mercatino del Usato (a consignment store for used "stuff") and later we are taking some grass cutting equipment to a friend's house for storage.  Later, we are having dinner with other friends and taking a few things to their place for them to keep for us.  The big day will be Tuesday when the bulk of our goods goes into storage until we find the new house.

Those of you who have visited us know that our second floor landing does not normally look like this.  Most of the house is in a similar state right now except the kitchen, bathroom and our bedroom.  By Sunday evening I hope nearly everything will be packed.  It will be our last night here and Monday we move to a nearby rental house.

The top floor is particularly chaotic.  Dom broke down the secretary and the daybed.  Both pieces came from IKEA and can only be taken down the stairs in pieces.  It all looks rather bare now and there is nothing to keep us from bonking our heads on the low beams.

Why a picture of the microwave you might ask. Because it is now a non-functioning microwave destined for the recycling station.  Yesterday morning we had thunder and lightning along with the torrential rain we have been experiencing for the past two weeks.  There was one flash of lightning and clap of thunder that seemed right on top of us.  About ten minutes later there really was one directly on top of our neighbors' house.  It apparently hit their TV antenna, blew a hole in their roof at the eaves and jumped a 20 foot gap to fry a telephone junction box.  It also blew out all the street lights in our part of the village. 

Their house was really a mess.  The circuit breaker panel was full of switches that were just flipping freely.  It blasted the cover off the panel AND the door to the space under the stairs where the panel is located.  Soot from their chimney blew right across the room.  Stuff on top of their television ended up on the floor.  I am sure it must have felt like an earthquake.  However, they obviously know people and managed to get power up and running and the hole in the roof fixed yesterday.

In contrast, we are still trying to get our caldaio (water heater) fixed. The lightning seems to have fried a security thermostat inside and we cannot get water any hotter than tepid.  Actually, Dom figure out how to do that in the middle of my writing this blog post (at 9 pm) and I ran up and took a quick shower.  I have made several calls to various electricians, plumber and the Ariston service center and still no luck getting someone here to fix it.  At this point it will probably be Monday before anyone can see it.  We really would like to have it taken care of by Tuesday so we can turn over the house to the new owners in good order.  It is times like these that I get really frustrated at my limitations in the Italian language.  I can make myself understood but am never quite sure I have understood the responses. 

In addition to the caldaio and microwave, we also lost the dsl modem, one of the modem filters and the satellite dish.  The modem proved to be both a quick fix and a frustrating one.  We ran to the computer store yesterday and replaced it but could not get it working properly.  Today we went back and had it tested.  Turns out it was a bad modem.  With another one in hand we came back home and are now reconnected to the world.  The microwave is a minor loss and one less thing to store.  We will buy a new one when we have a new house.  The loss of the satellite dish is also minor EXCEPT that I am missing Flashforward tonight.  It will be one more episode for me to catch up online when we get back to Whidbey. 

This might be my last blog post for this trip.  I hope to do a few more before we return to our U.S. home on May 28 but our access will be a bit problematic after we leave this house.  However, I will do at least a quick recap of our last two weeks at some point.  A presto!