It was pretty chilly in the morning, but warmed up some during the day. With a week having passed since getting our new fridge, we were able to throw away all the packing material, which was a huge pile on one of the beds in the back bedroom; and there was much rejoicing. I ran down to Conad in the morning to get some fresh produce for my vegan meals; I'm trying to do a better job of sticking to my diet, and it feels much better. Almost all my fruits and veggies had been depleted in the fridge. There was even some smelly stuff in each fridge that we managed to detect and toss.
About 11:30am we left to go across town to the apartment of the Sorelle from Roma 1st Ward to install their shower rod and curtain. We also would inspect their apartment, as we do regularly, as well as that of the Anziani who live up the street. Before leaving there was a bit of a flutter because the Sorelle got a call from a handyman the mission uses, saying that he was coming to do something in the bathroom. Turns out that, unbeknownst to all of us, the brother in charge of apartments had heard our complaint from the last inspection that there was no shower and sent somebody out. How odd that it would happen to be on the very same day! Given how many high priority problems there are with the 100-ish apartments, we never believed this issue would get attention. Fortunately we were able to cancel the visit from the handyman, saving the mission some money and taking all the credit ourselves! 😊
Anyway, we got there just after noon and had the new shower rod and curtain installed within 15 minutes. We were told we couldn't make any holes in the walls, so we came up with a fairly ingenious scheme, if I do say so myself. We bought three extensible shower curtain rods that install via tension: springs that hold them firm again the wall with rubber feet. Two of them went across the width of the bathroom (140cm, or about 55 inches), resting on top of the lip of the tile (210cm high, or almost 7ft high) to give it vertical support in addition to the tension pushing against the wall:
I also tried to adjust the temperature of their hot water heater again, with more time and better tools this time around, but still no luck. However, their faucet ran for almost 10 minutes with water too hot to touch before it even started to cool off, so if they cut the flow a bit and mix in cold to get a good temperature, they should be ok.
The Herways lived in that apartment until a month ago, and it turns out that they had an assigned parking space in a covered garage attached to the apartment building. Parking is a real nightmare in that neighborhood, so we were delighted to find out about the spot. The Sorelle gave us the remote and the garage key so we can use it next time we go there for inspections, which will make life much easier for us. Both inspections went quickly and well. We have the drill down now, and it's much easier than the first few times.
On our way home, we stopped at Lidl to buy food for us and for Friday dinner at the Institute. Given the schedule for the next few days, that was really the only time slot available. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring all our shopping bags (just two with us), so we had to buy a bunch of small plastic disposable ones, at just a few pennies each but not as useful as our big ones. Anyway, we had a very full cart and were able to get all the items home and to the Institute as needed. I also did our monthly gas meter readings and odometer reading and sent it all in to the office.
Tonight was movie night at the Institute at 6pm. We were going to watch Chariots of Fire (in Italian), but only Claudia showed up. It is always wonderful to visit with her, but after waiting for well over an hour, we gave up on the movie and headed home. Too bad, as there was a whole bunch of goodies -- popcorn, chips, and cookies -- set out for the crowd that never materialized. We wonder if the start time is too early, since on the way home several of the kids asked, via WhatsApp, "what time does the movie night start?" Or maybe it's just kids being kids. Anyway, we'll figure out this new Wednesday evening thing eventually.
It was good to be home a bit early, since we both have lessons upcoming and some busy mornings. This mission stuff is fun, but definitely not relaxing! I think it's keeping us young, both because we get to hang with wonderful kids, and because we spend our time serving others.