No phone=nothing to read, not able to call Doug, no shopping lists, no dictionary lookups, no maps, no camera, etc. I missed a really pretty picture on the Ponte Milvio bridge, where the clouds added a great dimension and the reflection of the bridge in the water was gorgeous.
Oh, and then the implant didn't match, so I need to go back next week. My teeth have a transparent look that they didn't manage to capture. They keep shaking their heads at how white my teeth are. In the land of smoking, wine and espresso, white is definiteley not the typical color. Teeth are crooked, missing, discolored and plain old rotted. I wince when I see young people with inflamed gums, knowing where they're headed.
Our front windshield wiper is always needed to clean off all the dirt that accumulates quickly here, using the wiper fluid. Unfortunately, it leaves big stripes of dirt, making it hard to see, which is what happens after a few years when the rubber gets less flexible. So I ordered a new one on Amazon, which arrived Thursday morning. It was instantly obvious that it wasn't big enough, and it was indeed the rear wiper. Reviewing the item on Amazon, it never said one way or another, although reading the reviews it became clear. Silly me. Fortunately it was only 10€. Now I have to try harder to find a new front wiper.
In the early afternoon, while working on my lessons, I got an email from the mission office with two ZTL (limited traffic zone) tickets from our trip to Tivoli in August, costing almost 150€. Yikes! They were spaced only 5 minutes apart, which doesn't quite seem right -- having taken a wrong turn into the ZTL, it takes a while to get out. But it wasn't worth a trip up there to fight city hall, and you get a discount for paying within 5 days, so I just went down to the post office and paid the fines. I was afraid this would happen when we got lost for a few minutes that day. Riccardo says that these smaller cities depend on the income from tickets and often make it hard to know that you are in violation. It was still a wonderful trip, just much more expensive that we had thought! I listened to a comedian talking about his custody fight for his daughter. He said it changed how he looks at money. When his current wife mentioned going to a Billy Joel concert and bemoaned the $150 tickets, he answered that custody of the nine-year-old daughter costs $100K and she doesn't even know the words of their favorite songs. They went to the concert.
Only a handful of kids came all day, typical for a Thursday. So I had a bunch of time to work on my lessons for Friday. When some kids and the Ganziani showed up for English class in the evening, I went in and told them that I had a problem and needed some help. Everyone was very willing to help, and then I said that we had too much leftover carrot cake and needed space in the fridge. They were particularly happy to be of service!
Samuel came in with his new laptop to use the WiFi for his online Pathway class. He needed some help getting Zoom configured on his laptop, which I should have done earlier, but he was able to participate. He is trying really hard, and his computer skills are still minimal but improving quickly. I told him to come back Friday afternoon between my classes for some more help installing the free copy of Microsoft Office 365 that Pathway provides for its students.
When I got home, Dee was already zonked out on the couch. I made a few phone calls home, trying to get one of our insurance policies renewed and working on a few other financial issues. I spoke with Lynn and my sister-in-law Donna about some of the things we need to do to help my in-laws.
Doug's sister Karen offered to bring us some stuff when they come visit next week. They're bringing some cards Wendy made (that Wes forgot, oops) and we'll stock up on cheap acetaminophen and another supplement. Yay!