Of course I am looked at like I'm an alien. People that walk past the end of the calle will back up and stop and stare. It's just a chair in the doorway. Calm down folks. It will be fine. Nothing to see here... unless I put the stepstool out too, acting as table. One of the ladies from the building across from mine now pokes her head out the window from the second floor and calls out “Buongiorno!” to me and asks how my office is today. Things I love about this city, if they see you more than once they stop and talk to you like you're a neighbor.
Add to the spectacle that I plug in the magicjack to make calls. A phone on a cord, connected to a computer, on my lap or on a stepstool, halfway into the alley. But wait, it gets better... it began to rain when I was calling home. I put a scarf over the computer so drops didn't bounce up and wet the screen and keyboard, and put an umbrella over it all. I liken it to the machine E.T. & Elliott placed the forest with the Speak & Spell, the record player and various odds and ends.
But a thing not very neighborly that has frayed my patience is the B&B upstairs from the studio. It's bad enough that their plumbing is the cause for the leak in my ceiling but the guests currently in the room drop their garbage out the window. Ugh. Really. Come on now. While sitting in my doorway the past few days at various times of the day and night I have had ice cream confection wrappers float down, cellophane from sandwich packages and clementine citrus peels. Every time I shout “Hey!” to see if someone will look out the window, but they don't cowards. I know it's a cut-rate crappy hostel calling itself a B&B but they have to have a garbage can somewhere in the place. Quit throwing your stuff into the street. Heathens. When it isn't raining I have swept them up and put them in a plastic bag. I will eventually either present them to the B&B or throw the bag back up in the window at the offenders. Rude bastards.
Mamma came home in the afternoon. Marco's friend Rigo brought his boat to pick her up at the hospital so we could avoid having to wheel her to and fro the vaporetto. Rigo is a big bear of a man, a fisherman by trade. He's a childhood friend and has known Mamma practically his whole life as her mother is one of her close friends. He has one of the coveted slips for parking his boat and it's been in his family for decades. This is his personal boat, not the one he uses to work in the lagoon. It's about 15 feet long and reminds me of my dad's boat (my granddad's before that) that I spent countless hours fishing in while growing up. It's not the same make and model, but the vintage is early to mid 1960s and the seats feel the same. He tied up at the hospital dock – this city is such a different kind of life than back home - and was waiting for us when we wheeled her out. Scooped her up and into the cabin, actually, just under the top tarp cover and off we went. It wasn't raining so hard as we made our way across the Giudecca canal. It was about a ten minute trip from Dorsoduro's Ospedale Giustinian. He tied up as close to the building as he could get, scooped her back up and as if she was a sleepy toddler he carried her upstairs. Deposited her and quickly took off to do other things. Thanks Rigo! Human transport service.
We were given instructions from the doctors not to have her climbing up and down the stairs for at least a week. She still needs to get up and walk around on the cane for her leg, but just around the house. We're going to do laps. Whoo! I'm sure the priest will find his way daily to the house since she won't be coming to church. Unless Rigo carries her down. He's a busy guy though and I'm sure she wouldn't ask him.
In a little over an hour I had and early dinner prepared. Zuppa di zucca (butternut squash soup) and roast pork medallions in a balsamic glaze with rosemary potatoes. Skins off because Marco spazzes out at potato skins, even on new red potatoes. Freak. I didn't expect her to eat much, but she chowed down pretty well. Her appetite definitely appears to be back. We'll see in a couple of days, because she may just be starving from hospital food objections.
She is so much more animated now. I know she must be feeling better. The phone kept ringing with her friends calling to wish her a happy homecoming. Word is out. Mamma is back on Giudecca. She chatted with each phone call. She's laughing and engaged in things going on around her. Definitely feeling better. Received her pain shot and was slumbering away by 8PM. I went home for some sleep. I have to get over there early tomorrow. There's a called strike of the vaporetto system and I needed to get to Giudecca before it starts at 7AM.
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