Is progress always good? Right now I would say, no.

So the idralico came to Maberga today.

The idralico put in them tubes I've been waiting for. Actually, it was just one tube, made of some space-age polymer that is guaranteed for 50 years, AND insulated against freezing. Here it is...



Lovely, no? No.

Trying to be optimistic and find the neon blue lining in every cloud, even in one that runs across my back yard, I keep telling myself, "cool! Never ending water with pressure."

So the idralico, and his father, attached this eye-sore from the main water tube to our house. Then they made sure that the boiler didn't leak and that the water actually ran into the house. Cool. All working well. Then they left.

Approximately 10 minutes after they left, I washed some dishes. I washed dishes in some high pressure sink water that had no insects in it. Very cool.

Then....

I turned off the water in the sink. Nope. The water just kept running after I turned the faucets off. We're not talking here about a drip. The water was gushing, with all that beautiful high pressure right through the kitchen sink...whilst the tap was closed.

Ring, ring.

"Augusto?"

"Ciao, Lina? Hai l'acqua?" (do you have the water?!)

"Yep, Augusto. I sure do!"

"bene. bene." (great)

"Yeah, but there's a little problem. It doesn't stop. The water is gushing from the kitchen sink, I can't get it to stop, AND now I have to pay for the water so I've got to make it stop."

"hmmm?"

"yeah. Can you tell the idralico?"

So the idralico calls and tells me he will be here first thing in the morning.

"so I should turn off the water at the main for tonight?"

"si. Se non vuoi pagare per tutta la acqua persa" (yeah. unless you want to pay for the water you are losing in the sink).

So after making dinner tonight, I went out to the garden hose ... which is now connected to the old water tube from the mountain spring. I filled the watering can several times to bring water into the kitchen sink to wash the dishes.

As I was filling the water jug for the third time I thought, "wow, this is really funny. It's like what it must have been like in the old days when one had to bring water inside from the pump to wash." Then I stopped laughing when I remembered that just a few hours ago I had running water INSIDE my house.

So, as I sit here wishing I could have a high pressure city water shower, or even a bug infested mountain spring green water bath, I'm thinking maybe I prefer the old technology.

Good news is, if I have to go several days without a shower, I have a new hat to hide my unwashed-hair...



On a completely unrelated note, I'd like to thank everyone for your kind words of support about my better-than-half success on this summer's projects. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy but, shucks, with you guys behind me, heck, I feel like I can be below average whenever I want. I love this blog.

I would also like to thank Lois for giving me this award. That's so very nice. Thank you.

From now on, I'm an optimist.

So here's the thing. Pessimism doesn't pay.

Remember that city water that we've been waiting for? How could you forget, I've been whinging about it for ...um...years? Yeah, years. I've been waiting, and talking and planning and talking and waiting for the city water to arrive at Casa Cornwell for years. I've got to be honest with you, I just never really thought that it would happen. Pessimism.

Then this heroic neighbor fought and fought, filled out form after form, raised money and interest, and then fought some more. There were arguments with bureaucrats and neighbors and then, when one group was satisfied, the other group started up again with complaints, always stopping or slowing the progress. I'd like to point out that this persistent neighbor doesn't even live in Maberga. He has an amazing rustico (read: ruin) that, with about a million euro and 100 years of work can be habitable. But all the same this neighbor stayed on the water cause. He must have been dreaming about that hot shower with loads of pressure that he could have when he finally moves into that house of his. Optimism.

So then when the bureaucrats finally gave the go ahead, the tubes came. Kilometers of tubes going from the top of the mountain to the bottom. Neighbors pitched in and the tubes were installed. And still, I doubted. So we had some tubes, the water still wasn't running through them.

Last Friday I passed this neighbor on the road. "Lina, the water is open."

"What?"

"The water is open. You can turn on your tubes and have the city water in your house."

No. No I can't. I have no tubes connecting the main to my house. Pessimism dampened that fire that should have been under my ass to organize my water tubes.

So now all that clean, potable water with all its beautiful pressure, that should be showering down on my head, is just rushing by my house.

Lesson learned, from now on I choose optimism.

Let me start here with a look back at Project 20/20...which I have declared is over. Since it was meant to be a summer challenge and since I've just done the summer/winter clothes exchange thing and I'm thinking about turning the heat on tonight, summer must be over. Project 20/20 over.

Let's look at how I did: 12 house and knitted projects completed. Twelve. The challenge was 20. Twenty.

At this point we can take one of two perspectives.

12 out of 20 is 3/5th, or 60%, or a D-. Wow. Decidedly below average and a total drag to think about.

Let's try that again in a different way...

12 out of 20 is more than half done! My glass isn't merely half full, it's 10% MORE than half full! Plus, I have 12 + 12 (house and knitting) projects done that weren't done at the beginning of this brilliant initiative of mine. That's actually 24 projects...wait, I haven't quite finished a couple of the knitting ones, so let's subtract 2...that's still 22 projects which is actually more than 20!!!! That is truly awesome! Well done, indeed. (shut up you pessimists...I know that the project was 20/20 which is actually a total of 40 projects. Just shut up, ok?) Now my glass is over flowing!!!!!

Optimism is way better.