In Love with France, At Home In Italy

 (THIS IS PART ONE OF TWO) Water, water everywhere BUT in our water tank! Mirko and Diego contemplate the problem They decide to consult our dog Murray who is an expert on making water Mirko looks temporarily stumped, but these things cannot be rushed. After all, this is Umbria, the land of S-L-O-W cooking and "slow" everything else. AHA! Well, here are our two brilliant electricians solving our water problem--for the moment, that is. They have just installed a new "Made in China" sensor, all the while saying somewhat admiringly how "furbi"/sneaky those Chinese are to be manufacturing everything nowadays. It seemed to work great until shortly after their departure. On exiting, Mirko had said confidently, "just call me if there's a problem." Love those Italian phones! Easier said than done. He has a special phone that will not take messages and that has the world's worst reception. He can't bl...

(This is Part Two of THE MIRKO STORY, IN WHICH MIRKO REVEALS ALL) As much as we love Mirko, we were hoping not to see him again quite so soon;however, it was just a day later that the changeover to the Made-in-China sensor did not result in telling our well it was time to send more water to the holding tank. The first indication was an unsuccessful attempt to flush--not such a happy way to start the day. But Handy Hubby had previously figured out a solution for that: go out, open the top the the tank, reach in for the sensor, and give it a good JIGGLE. Or two. Or three. Unfortunately, despite its cheerful color, the new sensor seemed not to have gotten the message that this was how it was supposed to behave:Jim jiggles, and il sensore swings into action. We began to be nostalgic for the old sensor, which at least had known the drill. Time to try shouting into the phone again to get Mirko to return. Mirko's next visit revealed many new wrinkles, both about sensor...