The tiny island of Bourtzi at night.
After a week crossing Italy by car, we arrived in Greece. Anytime we get
to Nafplion, we arrive to some new issues that need to be fixed.
The last few times (and years), among other things, it’s been the roof
which leaked in various places. For a while, rainwater crept down the bedroom
wall whenever a squall sailed its way across the Old Town. Once that was
patched, water migrated to the kitchen where we could just perch a bucket precariously
between the windowsill and the kitchen counter.
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| Bougainvillea still blooming in Greece |
After finally replacing the roof, at nearly twice the cost of replacing
our roof in the States, last year it was replacing the living room windows
which had lost their seal and made the view of Palamidi, the 1700’s Venetian
fortress just next to us, difficult to see, along with the hillside, the
rooftops, and stairways.
Palamidi
I call it our Greek Money Pit. Ed, in response, says that it
is our ‘Investment Property’ and please don’t call it that thing you call it.
This time it’s the stairway lights not working (even though Ed climbed
up on the ladder, replaced the bulbs, cleaned the sconces, etc.) Still not
working. And we’re on the 4th floor. So, we have to call an
electrician back in (after being here last time to fix a few light fixtures
that simply would no longer work among other electrical issues.)
One of the things we awoke to the first morning (besides the sunrise
over the bay at 7:30am and the smell of the peanut factory’s exhaust across the
bay toward Argos) was what sounded like someone on the ceiling opening and
closing something heavy. Ed said he could also hear it during the
night so guessing we have an animal in the space between our ceiling and
roof. Not sure how it could sound like it’s opening and closing a sliding door
or window since there’s not one up there. Now we need to call the roofer back
in to see if he can get up there, find out what it is and get it out.
Walk around Akronafplia
We can’t drink the water in the Old Town (where our place is located) so
we spend a lot of time either hauling bottled water up all the stairs (there
are 3 flights of stairs up to our pedestrian street from the street below and
then the four flights up in our building) or filtering, boiling, cooling and
refiltering the tap water to use for coffee/tea and drinking water. We realized
last time, after boiling it for coffee/tea water, just how much plastic is in
bottled water (it sticks to the side of the pot after boiling like a white film
and is frankly shocking) so sometimes we now even filter the bottled water.
But the last two days have been sunny and crystal clear (the latter sometimes
being few and far between here with the nearby factories), making the bay its otherwise
indescribable Mediterranean blue just past the Old Town buildings in their varying shades of tan and pink, and the rolling waves of ochre rooftops with rounded clay
tiles.
My To Do List includes cleaning windows, washing linens, replacing damaged
things, and buying household items including a few pieces of furniture to make
the downstairs apartment more livable. With guests coming in the spring, it
still needs much work. Besides that, trying to get a few workouts in at a close-by
gym along with writing time and submissions done. This does not include Ed's To Do List which is another ball game completely involving the attorney, tax payments, the engineer, roofer, electrician, water and electrical bills, repainting the terrace furniture and sanding and re-staining the terrace railing, which needs to be done nearly every other visit.
The list of things to do here keeps my mind occupied from the unspeakable things in the news that are too horrific to describe or hold in one’s mind for too long. I know that we cannot look away and yet, I cannot look for long. I will make a point of watching more in-depth discussions to understand better and more deeply rather than the horrendous clips of unspeakable violence. They are meant to be watched with horror and fear and I won’t be a part of that aspect or help them fulfill that goal.
Wishing
you peace in your way of dealing with all you are seeing right now. May peace
prevail at some point in the near future of our humanity.
