A little visitor

The last 2 days have seen a change in weather--a rainstorm one night followed by 2 days of grayer cooler weather. You would have laughed to see us in our long-sleeved shirts yesterday because it was only 75 deg. out. You would have laughed even more to see the workers on the roof next door in their sweatshirts with their hoods up over their heads.

Our condo manager is Stefano, who is almost too sterotypically Italian, as if he'd read a manual saying, "Be warm, be charming, be expansive, be excitable, be voluble." His English is spotty--sometimes he struggles to come up with a fairly common word, other times he uses words like "draconian," as in, "I don't like it but you know, what can I do, sometimes I have to be draconian." This is in reference to his efforts to get workers to deal with an ongoing plumbing problem (fortunately finally fixed).

Yesterday we asked Stefano for a mousetrap, as little nibbles on our bread and cookies indicated an unwelcome guest. "Yes, I will bring you a mousetrap," he said. "It's not a small mouse." And he held up his hands about 6" apart. "He's teasing us," I thought, "or maybe he's including the tail." Anyway, he brought us a live trap. "Please, do not kill it. Promise me you will not kill it. I am a sort of Buddhist. I cannot kill anything. I will bring it far away." So we set up the trap, baited it with a small piece of Edam cheese, and went to bed. Not 15 minutes later we heard it spring. And sure enough we had a 6" mouse. I wonder how Stefano thought we'd kill it-- no way either of us would have dared touch it. So now Stefano will take it far away and we hope there are no brothers, sisters, spouses or children left behind.