Today, Angel called the heating repair man, who was here two weeks ago, and whom we have not heard from in the interim. The man left all the valves to our hot water radiators completely turned off at the source, because the main valve is broken, and on a day when the temperature outside was 95 F., the radiators were pouring out heat. He came once and succeeded in leaving us with no hot water in the faucets. Two days later a man who works for him returned to restore the hot water to the faucets and to say that the master valve needs replacing and will have to be ordered. We are now at today, when Angel called. Angel speaks Italian, so there was no misunderstanding what transpired.
- Angel: Buon giorno, blah blah blah. I am calling to find out when you will be returning with the new valve.
- Man: Oh, I am very busy, right now my schedule is full.
- Angel: Can you fix the problem before the August holiday?
- Man: No, that is not possible.
- Angel: Then let's schedule an appointment for early September.
- Man: Oh, if I put in my book now, I will forget about it. You call me in September.
- Angel: Wait a minute. You or your worker have made two visits to my apartment, and if this isn't fixed before the cold weather [not an unreasonable thing for Angel to say, as we have experience from 2006 with A/C repairs taking five months], then we will have no heat in the apartment when the cold weather comes. Isn't this something you need to follow through on?
- Man: I'll forget. You call me.
- Angel: Well, I think you should be the one to call me and let me know what your schedule is.
- Man: Well, whoever remembers first should call the other person.
- Angel: Mille grazie, molto gentile, buona giornata. [If you don't understand that last part, that is the pro forma 'thank you very much, you are very kind, have a nice day'...with just the tiniest touch of sarcasm].
