staccato

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I had a little run in with one of our neighbors - a water issue. No surprise there. Also not a big surprise that when a hot-headed, short-tempered southern Italian started yelling at me, I yelled back. It seems that I possess all the same traits as my neighbor, plus, unlike my neighbor... I'm always right. He must not have known that or he wouldn't have gotten into it with me. Instead of going into the whole ugly thing again let me try to summarize:


n: "WHERE'S DAVID?

L: He's not here.

n: XOIDFN IGH AKSDF SOIDFU XN DAVID VXIO A;DGNFAIFD !!!! SDFN OVI A!!! ; ALKNOVIDF !!!! STACCATO!!!!! COIANDF AOIFND IOIS AONEFOIA!!!! TUBO!!!

(a note here: he was actually speaking italian)

L: YEAH?! WELL HE STACCATO IL TUBO BECAUSE WE NEED WATER TOO!

(another note: I was actually speaking Italian. Well, kind of. It seems that adrenaline doesn't improve my language skills)

n: COIANSDF OK AO DAVID!!! AKFN VFOIH AFOI STACCATO!!!! ANOCI A;IODFNA STACCATO!!!!

L: THERE WAS A LEAK IN YOUR TUBO AND WATER WAS SHOOTING LIKE A FOUNTAIN! THAT'S WHY!

n: OWIENA DF;OADN !!!! FNAIO;SFN OIV DAVID!!! OIAF A;NODI A! TAGLIATO!!!! CVO AIDF OA;I AKDN OADIFO SIFO IEN!!!!

L: DAVID DID NOT TAGLIATO TUO TUBI! HE ONLY STACCATO I TUBI!

n: COIWSNDF AIO AKDN OAEIF NKNC AIOF DAVID!

L: WHY WOULD DAVID MAKE UP A STORY ABOUT YOUR TUBES LEAKING?

n: OD IVNA ;FIOAKN ;O!!!! NIAODA;IODFNAOIFAIHOAVCN ZE!!! AOWI F;OAIFWEOH!!!!!! DAVID!!!! IO FO;AIF;IOA;OI FUOCO!!! OD IVNA ;FIOAKN ;O!!!! NIAODA;IODFNAOIFAIHOAVCN ZE!!! AOWI F;OAIFWEOH!!!!!! DAVID!!!! IO FO;AIF;IOA;OI FUOCO!!! OD IVNA ;FIOAKN ;O!!!! NIAODA;IODFNAOIFAIHOAVCN ZE!!! AOWI F;OAIFWEOH!!!!!! DAVID!!!! IO FO;AIF;IOA;OI FUOCO!!! OD IVNA ;FIOAKN ;O!!!! NIAODA;IODFNAOIFAIHOAVCN ZE!!! AOWI F;OAIFWEOH!!!!!! DAVID!!!! IO FO;AIF;IOA;OI FUOCO!!!
OD IVNA ;FIOAKN ;O!!!! NIAODA;IODFNAOIFAIHOAVCN ZE!!! AOWI F;OAIFWEOH!!!!!! DAVID!!!! IO FO;AIF;IOA;OI FUOCO!!!

L: WHILE WE'RE TALKING...

n: OD IVNA ;FIOAKN ;O!!!! NIAODA;IODFNAOIFAIHOAVCN ZE!!! AOWI F;OAIFWEOH!!!!!! DAVID!!!! IO FO;AIF;IOA;OI FUOCO!!!

L: YES! I HEARD YOU! WE ARE A FIRE HAZARD. WHILE WE'RE TALKING, YOU NEED TO GET YOUR ELECTRICAL BOX OUT OF OUR HOUSE!"

Ok, I'll just stop there where it went down hill quickly. You get the drift. Two pissed off, belligerent, hot heads yelling at each other.

So then yesterday, the neighbor came up again. Again asking for David.

This time, instead of yelling he started explaining. He explained where all the water comes from. He explained who has rights to what vein (not surprisingly, what he was telling me was rather different than what he told us 6 years ago when he was trying to sell us his dead father's house, which we bought...partially because of the abundance of water rights we would have...which we some how lost in the 6 years since we've moved in). He explained where all the tubing is, when in went in, who put it in, and how much it cost (in Lire).

Then he explained why he was disconnecting the tube that carries water to our house from the tube that actually has WATER flowing through it and attaching it to a completely dry tube.

Since I figured that all this calm explaining was probably as close to an apology as I was going to get from him, I gave him the best version of an apology that I could by calmly asking him (and not screaming swear words at him in every language I can) how I was supposed to get water.

"You just have to clean the spring. There's plenty of water."

Fine. I can do that. I bit my tongue when the obvious question came to mind, "why do you get the already flowing water and I have to clean the spring?" Of course, had I asked him that, he would have stared at me as if I were thick since he had just got done explaining that HE has rights to the water from Lake Geneva if he wants it and we have rights to that trickle that comes through some rocks behind a the forest of cane.

"Can you show me what I have to clean?"

"Sure. Do you OWN a rake?"

"of course we have a rake. Just show me the spot. I'll clean it this afternoon."

I thought it best for everyone if I waited til I was alone to pull this out ...







My new friend showed me this and was off.




Sporting my rubber boots and armed with my handleless rake, I went at it. (****)





Ruff was a big help.




After minimal work (which included extracting the tube from the mud UNDER that puddle and shoving my toothpick sized arm down into it past my elbow to unplug the blockage), I heard the water start flowing.

It was beautiful, flowing music. Nothing STACCATO about it.


PS: I'd like to add here that the neighbor came up later, checked out my work and then did a great job explaining to me how my own water system works - the tubes, the taps, the pressure, how to make neat tube connections. He was amazed by my lack of knowledge about things that he thought were as obvious as breathing. I thanked him for teaching me so much and we made an appointment for tomorrow when I'm going to teach him to knit socks.

PSS: Of course I was just joking there in that bit about the socks.



***A note to those readers unfamiliar with the system of utilizing spring water for household uses (eg: DAD and LAURIE): it's only muddy and gross looking like that because I was digging around in the surrounding area. Normally it is crystal clear mountain water. If some dirt should get in it (like yesterday) there are places along the way to the house where the dirt settles out and filters before the water comes out the taps. We don't drink it, although we probably could. We do bath in it and wash our clothes with it. I'm clean (for the most part) and my whites are still white.