Reflections on a rainy day...

I woke up from a lovely, rainy day afternoon nap today with a conversation I had with my dad on my recent trip to Wisconsin on my mind.

As a worrying father who continues to believe, 40 years on, that his daughter's safety and well-being is inversely proportional to the number of miles she lives from her parents' house, my dad asked me the usual question, "Do you want to move back (to the US)?"

The usual response, "I don't rule the possibility out, but at this time - no, I don't want to move back."

Usually this question is followed up by a long sigh (dad) and a list of reasons that Italy, Maberga in particular, is a mighty fine place to be (me).

This year there was no sigh but rather a follow up question, "Are there any, umm, how can I say it, conveniences that you are missing?"

This question kind of caught me off guard. I mean come on...my house now has stairs connecting the two floors, I have (almost constant) running water, switches to turn the lights on and off (some are even 3 wayers!), and with the most recent renovations and upgrades I've got roofs that keep water and bugs out and heat in. I've even got high speed Internet now.

The only thing that popped into my head was, "I'd really like to install one of those shower nozzle hooks above our tub so I don't have to hold the shower head in my hand the whole time I shower."

A hook. That was all I could think of.

Here are some "conveniences" that you won't find in Casa Cornwell (in no particular order):
--a microwave
--central heat
--closets
--a dishwasher (other than myself)
--satellite tv
--a tv
--air conditioning
--a fridge that dispenses cold water and ice from a hole in the door
--a clothes dryer
--a garbage disposal

Apart from the last one, and that shower hook, I can't say that I really miss any of those things.

I'm not sure exactly why I thought of this conversation upon waking up from my nap today. Maybe because in my former life (pre-Maberga) when I did have all of the above mentioned conveniences the one thing I didn't have was the time to take a lovely, rainy day afternoon nap on a Tuesday in September.