In the groove...

The Medieval campanile of Codiponte... 

its charming set of bells ring in the hour & the half-hour... 24/7. Suddenly, I find myself counting off on my fingers the clangs... or, the clangs & a cling... to know the time. This is a godsend, since I crushed my cellphone... which functioned more as a watch than a telephone... while working in the garden a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to wrestle free one of my ancient boxwoods from the clutches of 30 year old & very rusty chicken wire. I won the game, when the metal finally gave way but, I lost the match, when I landed... PLOP!!!... on my out-size Scottish rear-end, pulverizing the NOKIA into a fragmented Time/Space Continuum. Naturally, I had put the phone in one of my jean's back pockets. No great loss though. I always had to have my glasses handy to read the microscopic time in the tippity-top right hand corner. Hard to do when juggling a shovel, a hoe & swatting at flies, etc. Fingers & Bells are easier. 

And, the bells also chime the 10 minute alert for Mass. It's a little ditty, somewhat akin, yet, slightly more sober than those tunes game shows use to cover the time it takes Barbara-Ann Kraminski from Battle Creek, MI to Come on down! and test her skills on The Price is Right. Boy! Am I showing my age.

But, what's all the noise about at 7AM & 9PM? The Hour/Half-hour's donging & the Mass's little melody are substituted by a grand concerto of clinging & clanging & clonging for nearly five minutes. What a racket. Is it to sound out to the Codiponte Community the important Masses at 7 & 9? My grandfather, a rosary twisting faithful to the One True Faith, went to Mass every day at 7 but, never at night. He usually was on his 3rd gin & tonic by 9PM & aiming for his bed. On a visit to see Domenico... my Heavy-gardening Saviour... & his wonderful wife, Anna, they asked how I was getting along in Codiponte in between sips on a late afternoon caffe'. I complained that The Dog & I were having a hard time with the 7AM wake-up call. They chuckled. I said I always notice them from my bathroom window working in their garden-patch along the river around 7AM. It is a great convenience that my bathroom has a panoramic view of Codiponte. I can detect the latest Comings & Goings while otherwise occupied. They chuckled some more. Anna then said the  campanile's pealings were to get us out of our beds & out into the fields. Make hay while the sun shines, I suppose. And, it's best to hit the turf early when the thermometer reads 95+ by 10AM. The 9PM one is to get us back in our beds so won't miss the next morning's reveille. 

So now, The Dog & I are in the Codiponte groove. Gads.