Reflecting While Stationary...

I am sitting at my Dining Room table listening to the watery spur of the sprinkler on the hydrangeas outside the window... 

The heat is terrific here. Yet, it isn't THAT hot. Not by the thermometer. It is by all other indications the RAI-TV weathermen rarely mention... the type of blazing desert heat shot from North Africa... a vengeance upon us Westerners, I suspect... the sea-bourne humidity accumulated by winds as they brush up past the Italian peninsula, never in direct contact with the cool air of the Apennines Mountains to produce a good afternoon shower... and both helped along by the Global Warming CO2 trails of the massive mid-day air-traffic over-head and from the fumes of the car-traffic of tourists invading the coastal roads towards the heart of Tuscany and the truck traffic bearing the fruits of our poisonous capitalism.

I am temporarily out of harm's way... reflecting on how a builder could dig himself into such a deep hole with what ought to have been a simple, easy & fast construction project to knock-off with some ample earnings for him to boot... the Upstairs Apartment & Laundry Room. But, he has. And, he has sorely wrecked my faith in his ability to render our il Poggiolo sound in its structures, habitable in its spaces & services and more lovely than in its long history. Yes, he has. Not a single item of the three page contract has been fulfilled to satisfactory completion AND in a timely manner. Every day that now passes, Our Builder is being docked Euro 75. He agreed to this at the signing, arrogantly dispensing its threat, falsely secure in having more time than needed to do the job. Well, it hasn't turned out that way. And, I am pretty darn angry AND fed up. In ten day's time, 40 wedding guests will show up on our door for a dinner the night before the actual wedding. I have had to cancel housing a few of them. Now, I am faced with giving a dinner in a building site.
The other failure of this adventure of Phase III is Our Geometra. It was AND still is his responsibility to insure the proper course of the re-construction work. Oh, he showed up a couple of times to take a look, hound us about the wood flooring... a totally cruel & pointless exercise in light of all the other items of the contract waiting to be tackled AND were not!!!... and smoothing the way with us while re-inforcing Our Builder's in-efficiency in tending to our job... like facilitating a drunk... dammit.
I am not having any fun AND I should be having fun. At least that since, I have forked over Euro 250,000 so far. That translates into weakened Dollars as $322,000!!! More than just gads.