Day 150: Plumbers and workers

Today is a very hot and very humid day. After having lived in the dry heat of Northern California for so many years and had the luxury of air conditioning, I'd forgotten what this kind of weather is like. This weather takes me back to the 1960's as a child where we had no air conditioning and only a whole house fan to ward off the hot, humid Ohio weather!

At any rate, I take my mind off the weather by working on personal finances for the better part of the day.

Ted had arranged it with the caretaker that the plumber would be here at 11am. He showed up with an apprentice and a bag of tools. Fortunately he spoke a little English. I was able to figure out what he wanted to say when the words wounldn't come to him.

His apprentice got down on his knees and started to fix the unit. I watched him dig something out of his tool bag. He was going to fix that drain with plastic tie wraps??

The plumber said this is a different system and while he didn't think there was any water under the shower basin, he couldn't say for sure. He applied some putty to the missing drain piece and finally got the drain fixed. He showed me how to remove the shower head, plug up the drain with a cotton towel and force the pressurized water down the drain to clean out any gunk in there.

I wanted to make sure he was paid and he told me 20 Euro which is about $30. I'm not sure if we will be billed again or not from our Landlord so I'm going to have to send him and email and let him know that we took care of it and paid him.

I had the glass sliding door opened and I heard voices and yelling. It sounded like there was an accident. Being somewhat nibby, I walked out onto our balconey and noticed there were three road workers and two trucks. It took a bit of time, but I finally realized that they were there to replace the street signs! Three men and two truck to replace two street signs! Unbelievable!!!

Ted had a therapy session with Brigitte so I will not be making dinner tonight. It's too hot to eat anyways! But there's cool yogurt for a snack later on.

Wednesday 08/19/09