Losing Battle

Ottobre 6, 2010

Today the goal was to work on the internet and do laundry after the work out. I did and easy abs and chest work out in the flat (leg is feeling better, but not 100%), and that completes the list of accomplishments for the day. I tried to do laundry, I put all my laundry in my laundry bag and put in my sheets as well, but Annita was doing several loads and by the time I would have been able to do mine, the sun was cooling off and drying them would have taken forever. I don't remember if I mentioned in general, Italians don't use dryers. My gifted book says it's because Italians don't trust technology, I think it's because it's a waste of money and energy. Why pay for what you could get done for free? Yeah, it's a little less work but c'e' non problemma, that's not a problem. So I will do it on Friday. I began today's assault on the internet connection. I called Telecom. I said, "Vorrei parlare con qualcuno parla inglese." (I would like to speak to someone who speaks English). I was told they would call me back in about 5 minutes. I waited. Enrico called. Enrico said he didn't speak much English. I did not notice any confusion he had throughout the conversation, so I'd say his English was good. He asked me to turn off my router. I obliged. He then said to turn it back on. Again, I obliged. He told me to wait 2 minutes and then to tell him if the ADSL light was on. I waited. Then told him no, it was not. He told me that means that the problem is with the line and that he will send an email to the technicians and they will have it fixed in 2 days, but in the mean time, I'm not to turn off the power to the router so the technicians can fix it. Awesome. I told Giorgio I'd take the router down to Zio Marco's and test it just to make sure the router's work, but since I was able to speak with Enrico, and he told me to leave the router on, I decided against moving the router... in terms of this internet issue, as Spongebob would say, "I'm ready!"...for this to be over.

I read a lot today... went to McD's and checked my emails... did a bit of facebooking... just to let everyone know I'm still alive... and to stalk a bit... ;) I also went and had some pizza. Not from a Pizzeria, but a 'Pizzataglio', where they have long rectangles of pizza and cut you a piece and weight it and you pay. Great for walking and eating. Usually more variety than at ristoranti, bit thicker crust too. When I got back to the flat, Nonna was there and had baked a pie, some kind of cream pie. Looked good. She helped Nic with his Italian math, then we did some drawing for some health in English then he had to go to tennis. When he got back we had penne mezzine with pesto and ham... it was a delicious ham, salty and had a flavor about it that was reminiscent of bacon... yum. After dinner, when Giorgio got home, he asked if I'd tested the routers, I said no, but I had spoken with Telecom and they said it would be fixed in 2 days. He said that everytime I call Telecom, they call him. Oops, I did not know that, sorry. He said that most likely it would not be fixed in the two days and that this was probably just their protocol when someone called with a problem. Tell them it will take a few days and then work on it later... I hope this is not the case... (I'm pulling for you Enrico) I don't like how the book I'm reading makes me think things that I haven't experienced yet, but it does make me wander if, as a whole, Italians are skeptical of technology, or if that is just the book showing its age as it was published in 2000. I apologize to Giorgio about the calls and tell him I'll try and work on the routers tomorrow. Tomorrow will be another battle. As it stands, the points are as follows: Internet 6 vs. Dub 0. :(

Facebook status if I had one right now...
Dub Walston is "I go out walkin' after midnight, out in the moonlight, just hopin' you may be somewhere a walkin' after midnight, searchin' for meeee."