girl at large

little Italian mama driving me nuts continued…i've mentioned the first floor neighbors before…well, here today's installment of the story…the building was cut up for sale as individual apartments (condo-style) rather unfairly..the retired Italian couple on the first floor have a huge back garden, an extended kitchen with another terrace built (illegaly i might add) on top of it, the second floor apartment's original balcony (leaving it with none) AND ALL FOUR caves (basement storage rooms). which, though they claim it was just cleaning work..we know via the workers that they made those caves into extra guestrooms for their noisy grandkids (again, highly illegal). kinda piggy, don't ya think? not that i would mind really, i mean they paid for it, it is their home.
but this is an apartment building, a community…comprimise and neighborlyness required. (you can't leave the front street door open at all hours for instance just because you want a breeze in your place…which they do all the time, it's a SECURITY door people! as in keep it shut! and i know it was you that took down my very polite sign in three languages, that took me an hour, about keeping the street door closed)
but all they do is complain. ABOUT EVERYTHING. and they only stay here for three months out of the year! mom and i are the only ones who live here year round..the other three holiday apt. owners are happy to have us here for security, and seem to appreciate (in various languages) whatever help we can be and how gracious we are about the frequency of short term holiday renters coming and going and causing various amounts of disruption..we never complain, even that one week we had five drunken boat chicks partying all hours downstairs. so, why am i ranting about all this?
because, this morning, AGAIN, in her house-dress glory, she pounded (we have a bell like everyone else) on the door…i know she could hear i was in the shower..until i came out soaking wet. to hand me a bit of broken pot (about the size of a two euro coin) and look cross and wag her finger and give me a lecture for ten minutes in Italian. whaaa?
after apologizing profusely (for what?!?!) i went to investigate our balcony..well, the Mistral winds have kicked up again the past two days…the other night i brought in all the balcony furniture and put all the loose items, planters, etc. in safer positions. unfortunately, and entirely out of my control (it's the WIND!) a potted plant on the floor of the balcony tipped over and cracked..the wind blew a shard of it through the railing and down to the ground.
THAT WOMAN NEEDS TO FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO BESIDE DRIVE ME CRAZY. she should take up house-dress sewing or something. whew! this is a serious rant, maybe the heat is getting to me.