​Weathering the Storm with the WP#203

It is very interesting what each week here brings. Mostly good, but always something to temper the good feelings, but nothing that can be overcome. It was a busy week with work and work or teaching and travel, as it were, not me traveling, but me arranging travel. Right now, there is no time for that and as everyone knows, my travel anywhere outside Italy, is currently restricted, so in the end, I put things tentatively on the calendar times after March, where the possibility of escaping to another could come into play. Only temporarily, as this is where my home is and will return to, in any case. No, the work is definitely keeping me busy on all fronts and that is a blessing.

Rosa and I also took time this past week to go out, call it date nights, and did several things. On Friday, she said, we must go check out this sandwich (panino) place near home, a place she said she had tried before with a colleague by the name of Walter (pronounced with a V), and to tell you the truth, it was not a good experience and having met Walter, his palate is not up to snuff. In any case, it is called Metro and claimed to be gourmet, and it was a glorified fast-food joint and not that good at that. How you burn a fried chicken sandwich is beyond me, but Rosa finished her burger and my sandwich. Lesson learned. ​

The next night, we had planned to have a real date night as it has been a while and this was Sunday, to see the Bob Dylan movie, and when we go there, it was sold out, so we decided to make the best of it. We hopped on the metro and went to an area called San Giovanni and were going to check out a place an acquaintance suggested, a pizza place, that was to do really good Roman pizza called pinsere and, well it looked way to fancy. We had eaten a number of times at a Chinese restaurant near there, so opted for that instead. After eating, I had the crazy idea to find a pub in Rome and watch the action, sorry the NFC Championship game and so we hopped a bus and made our way to a place called the Highlander., went in, packed to the rafters, but in a corner that had one table, already seated, had two stacked chairs and so we sat down and watched the first half. Knowing that the public transportation ended around midnight, we left at around 11:00 pm and did get home about midnight. ​

The result of that game, we know, and it turns out that Rosa was happy, since she likes the city of Brotherly Love and the Eagles colors, even if she does not know the game at all. One aside, the people sitting at that aforementioned table, watched the game intently and knew, very well, the rules. I was fascinated by how much they followed the game. Not totally unusual, but not what I expected. In the pub, the crowd was, with a few exceptions, Philly fans. For me, it did not matter. The Vikings, forever bowed out early in the playoffs, so in the end, it was just a fun night to go out, and doing something crazy like this. It also reminded me of my first “date” with Rosa, back on the 21st of February 2020 when we met for the first time after our initial meeting at the Borghese and her panicked feeling knowing that all the buses and trains had stopped for the night for me to get to my hotel at FCO airport. Well, we all know how that ended up😊

In any case, when we got home, remember I said in the beginning of this post that good times need to be tempered. Well, when we got home and came into our condo, when we walked in the hallway and into the living room, we heard a cracking sound. Did not think anything of it at first, it is an ancient house, as you know, and I proceeded into the living room. Of course, the lights had been off, so we did not see that the floor (and its original tiles, ones not replaced in the remodel) had buckled and we walked them and felt the movement and eventually one had cracked, so we will have to replace it and several others. We thought at first a pipe underneath had burst, thinking the worst, or perhaps there had been a tremor of some sort when we had been out. Rosa went to the neighbor below us and she said at the same point in her ceiling there were marks which she had not noticed, in essentially the same spot as our floor in the hallway. ​

We contacted the people who owned the building, and they came out the next day. It turns out, it is an old building and the heat and cold over time (remember this house had been a storage place for some 20 + years until the renovation), so eventually, that area has fallen to the elements, with no support underneath the tiles, and so the freezing and heating eventually lead to this. We apparently have old tiles still in the storage until, so we will have to do more renovations, how much is yet to be seen. A problem, yes, and one not expected, so another welcome to home ownership 😊. Today, our contractor is coming by to inspect and let us know, but something will have to be done, so we have a floor to walk on between the entrance and all the other rooms in the house as the break somehow chose to be right at the point where everything comes together. ​

So, remember, I told you that the Bob Dylan movie “A Complete Unknown” was sold out the night we were supposed to go, well, having made the trek to the theater, why we did not simply buy tickets online in the first place, but that is neither here, nor there, I purchased tickets, to assure that Monday, we would see the movie and we did. For me, I totally enjoyed it and appreciated the actor chops of the person who played the part. I guess having spent the largest part of my life in Minnesota, would account for that. I also years ago, had a chance to see Bob Dylan in concert in Saint Paul, MN and while it was not the best performance, he is a legend and so I am glad I had the chance. Also, last year, I believe, Rosa and I had the chance to see his art collection that was on display at a museum here in Rome, so there a true appreciation. Of course, I grew up on folk music of Pete Seeger and Woodie Guthrie, Peter Paul and Mary and The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem to name a few, before I was exposed to Rock & Roll, and the rest is history.  I definitely recommend the movie to anyone who has an interest in Bob. 
As always thank you for your support with our crazy little world. Have a wonderful week ahead and stay safe, happy and healthy.