Water

A bit over a week ago on a Monday morning, a crew arrived on our street and started to dig up the sidewalk directly across the street from us. We did not pay much attention to it and continued living life normally. Dishes were washed, the house was cleaned, and multiples loads of laundry was done. Later that evening as the last load of laundry was put in, we ran out of water. I went and checked and our 2 thousand liter tanks were empty. Doh! I wish someone had told us they were going to turn our water off. That must be what the crew was doing across the street! So I filled the inside tanks with water from the yard tanks so we could at least flush the toilet and take really fast showers in the morning. Usually when the water is shut off it is only for a day or so.

Tuesday evening I get home from work and still no water. I walk over to the landlords business next door to ask when it will be turned back on. What? Your water is off? Ours is working fine. O.K, that's odd, but they are one house uphill from the hole so that may explain it. So they call the water company and the reply is, everybody's water is on. We finished the job and it should be on. Great. That means there is a real problem. I walk over and look at the hole. They replaced a piece of the main line, but did not dig deep under the pipe, so most likely dirt and debris got in and jammed in our line. The landlord put in a ticket with the water company to come out and we wait for the next day.

Nobody shows up the next day and we are out of water again. The landlord pulls his hose over to our tanks and fills them up. We are going on vacation to Florence the next day and the kids are staying home with their aunt. great, we are leaving them with no water. We buy tons of bottled water, wish them luck, and head off to Florence.

Saturday we get a call that the pump is now not working. So I call the landlord and he sends a tech over to look at it. The kids all bath at a friend's house and they fill the toilet tanks with bottled water to flush. Just like camping in a house!

Monday when we get home i see that the water is out again. But it is an Italian holiday so no crews were working. I call the landlord and fill my tanks up again with his hose. He is so embarrassed he disparages his homeland, "Sicilia bad," in his non-existent English. He vows to light a fire under the water company the next day.

Tuesday---no water crew.

Wednesday, look, they're here! the landlord is out yelling at them for their slow response. they take 30 minutes to blow out the lines and poof, we have water. It took a week to do 30 minutes of work. Nice. A family with four small children can wait a week for running water.

Va bene!!!!