The Silver Lining

As an odd twist of fate would have it, the sun has been out for two days in a row now, and the temperature has dropped considerably. At night, it gets below freezing, and in this drafty place, I can hardly get it about forty. One thing about the room I do not like, besides the windows themselves, is the fact that all the windows are frosted so you cannot see out of them. The only way to look out is to open a window, and right now that would be too much for my little heater to take. So, I make tea, take hot showers, and try to keep as covered and warm as possible. The other day, Pam happened to say I needed to have my heat off when I am over at their house. EEeeeeKk! For the past three days I had kept the heat on the lowest of low all day to keep my apartment comfortable. I asked her later, if it was okay for me to turn on the heat right before I came over for dinner, that way the apartment would be warm when I got back. She told me it was fine, then, almost as a realization, asked if I kept the heat on all night. I told her I did, but only on the lowest setting. She seemed OK with this, but not thrilled. The way I see it is this. If she and Sam want to make the apartment more energy efficient so you need less heat to warm the place, then replace the windows. Since that is not an option right now, and as I am not running the heat like a princess of Sheba, I say suck up the cost of the gas for another two months, and be done with it. Once April hits, there will be no need for the heat, and I will most likely not turn it on again until late October. But, this family is weird about cost.
Pam is really big on saying, ‘I do not have the money to do that’, or ‘that is too expensive’, or ‘we cannot afford that’. Of course, Emma is at the age where she wants, and asks, for everything. So, I understand Pam telling her no, but I wonder if it would not just be better to tell Emma no when she wants something frivolous instead of ‘we do not have the money for that’. Honestly, that makes me uncomfortable. Even though I know it is not my being here, the cost of me being her, that makes her say things like that, I still feel like a bit of a burden every time I hear Pam say she cannot afford something or other. Even at the grocery store, when I wanted some Nutella for my apartment, I ended up choosing the store brand version because it was a few cents cheaper. But, it is not that Pam buys the girls nothing. When we were in Siena yesterday, she spent about 7 euros on a piece of cheap jewelry for each of the girls, we got desert during our lunch – so let’s say about another 15 euros there, then we bought socks and underwear (because they were on sale) for another 40 euros, and if you combine all of this with the 50 euros she gave me initially to buy a pair of pants for each of the girls, we could have bought two pairs of pants for each girl at United Colors of Benetton where they both found pants they liked, but were over the 10 euro price Pam was willing to spend. In a nutshell, Pam will buy a lot of little frivolous things for a low price, has nothing all that nice, and spends about the same amount on cheap things, that she would have paid for a few nice things. Well, this is my observation at least. But, I think most people are like this. Most people do not think in terms of the long run.
Something that has been in my thoughts more and more is, why do people choose to live where they cannot live well? Pam and Sam could run their tour business from the states, and if everything is so expensive, and Pam cannot buy a pair of 35 euro jeans for her daughter, then why are they living here? And, it is not as if this family does without the conviences of home if they can help it. Every time Pam and Sam return to the United States, they have a laundry list of things to buy and then lug it all back to Italy. Things like, clothes, baking powder, a tea kettle, etc. Just things we do not even think of as luxuries in the United States. I can see how living here for a few months out of the year would be quaint, but then it is time to get back to reality. I like how America has grown, and how there are no restrictions on building anything new like there are here in Tuscany. I like how, when you call the phone company, they will actually come out to your house when they say they will, and fix your problems. I like the beauty here, really I do, every day sunset looks like a watercolor painting, but is THAT enough to make you give up everything and move here? Well, it must be for some people. I hope I am not sounding like I HATE Italy. I certainly do not, but now that I am living here, I see the silver lining.
Speaking of silver lining. Bugs, are never things you think of when you think about romantic Tuscany. Yet, I have five spider tenants in this new abode. I do not mess with them, hoping they will do me some good once mosquito season comes along. However, there some… unwelcome guests I have had to deal with as well. Yesterday, while I was rushing to get out the door to go to Florence (which we did not end up doing), a HUGE FLYING BUG appeared in my line of vision. It was like, I really really really oversized moth with wings flitting about as fast as a humming bird. I was in the bathroom when I spotted it. I had no idea WHAT it was or if could sting you or not, and so naturally my flight (not fight) syndrome kicked into high gear. It was banging against the window, and hoping I could get it outside, I ducked back into the bathroom, by this time I was hugging the outside of the bathroom door wondering if I should try to spray it with any static spray (the only spray thing I had), covered my head like there was a tornado drill, and quickly flung open the bathroom window. I scurried back out of the bathroom and slammed the door closed. I checked every few minutes, hoping it had flown out the window, and every time, it was still flying about the bathroom. I was debating on whether or not to call Pam, when I decided to check one last time, and sure enough it was gone. I slammed the window shut like nobody’s business, and tried to seal it up tight. The thing is, the window was closed when I spotted this bug, and I had not opened a window in days. Where did it come from? Ugh, I do not even want to think about THAT!