What Would You Have Done?

Last Friday morning I was in our landlord’s office complaining that no one in the building had Internet service. He promised to call our provider immediately (we got service back the following Monday, by the way). While I was there he showed me a notice in the newspaper indicating that the utility company would be doing repairs and our neighborhood would have no water Saturday from 8 AM until 6 PM.

This was going to be a bit of an inconvenience because we had a group of friends coming over that night to watch the Final Four basketball games. Just to be sure we had our bases covered we got all the water for food preparation ready Friday night before going to bed early.

You see, we had also been invited to a brunch Saturday mid-morning, so we had to get up and take our showers way ahead of time. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned that while on the phone Friday night I ran out of minutes. This meant we would spend the next day with no Internet, water, or phone—and we had people showing up at our home at 5. OK-----------.

Saturday morning: showers---check; brunch---delightful; phone minutes---bought. And when we returned home that afternoon the water was back on already. Things were looking up!

Except---now we had no electricity. (Sigh) That was going to make it really hard to watch TV. So with my newly purchased minutes I called our guests and suggested they might want to delay their arrival a bit. Some of them immediately set about creating a Plan B by going to a nearby sports bar to see if the games would be broadcast there. You might think that would be a given—sports bar/Final Four---but never underestimate soccer power in South America, amigos.

Once this was affirmed everyone decided to come on over to our place since we now had a fallback position. The gods then showered us with blessings as power was restored literally minutes before tip-off.

Alcohol was of course plentiful, and Cynthia had prepared lovely pasta and tossed salads to go with the Papa John’s pizzas we ordered. So where was that delivery guy?? Oh, crap, just then I saw him meandering around down the street on his motor scooter looking for our building. For unknown reasons the address here has out-of-sequence numbers that you can’t see from the road in the dark anyway, and no one can find us the first time they come here.

I jumped up and sprinted down four flights of stairs but, alas, he had given up and returned to the restaurant. Back up four flights of stairs to call and have the pizzas redelivered. Back down the stairs to flag him down this time. Back up the stairs when dinner arrived and was paid for. My cardio has really improved since moving to Cuenca.

The games were outstanding (as opposed to that abysmal final, perhaps the most miserable sporting event I’ve ever witnessed). The camaraderie was convivial. The day had turned out splendidly.

A year ago any one of those problems would have been irritating; two would cause anger; three at the same time, an epic outburst of profanity. Four? Or---FIVE??? Can you say Amazing Hulk? My shirt would have been splitting and I’d have turned green, roared, and thrown cars around.

Instead as I lay in bed that night I smiled and thought, “No Internet; no water; no phone; no electricity; almost no food---no problem.”

Life is indeed good.