Utilities in Romania

Two days ago I woke up to something that would have been a surprise a year ago. But now it gets only an, “Oh. OK,” response from me. There was no water of any kind working in the apartment. I thought, “Oh well. It'll be back on before tomorrow.” And it was. By noon, the faucets were gushing. Of course, it was several minutes before they were gushing anything I actually wanted to touch, but at least the toilet would flush.

Then the Internet connection went down for the next 12 hours.

So far, the only thing we haven't lost for at least half a day is the gas. I'm not going to get too happy about that yet, though.

Things just can't be expected to work for more than about a week and a half at a time without a hitch here. If at all. Mark has been assembling a body count for all the things we've bought that just refused, under any circumstances, operate. Like the blender. And the zipper on some pants I bought. And the first TV card that we bought. (Software was missing.) Manual can opener. (How in the world does a manual can opener not work?) RoboSapien. (That one didn't come with the remote control in which the batteries were supposed to go.)

There are more but trying to think of them all is making me hyperventillate.

It's pretty common to see people in the grocery store open boxes of hot chocolate or coffee to see if all the packages are inside. No one seems to have a problem with this. Everyone understands. It's even more common, however, to open an appliance to make sure all the parts are there. You're out a whole lot more if you take home cake mixer that is missing one of the paddles than if you take home 7 packs of hot chocolate when the box promised you 8.

If you tend toward becoming outraged, you may need to be on serious drugs before going grocery shopping in Bucharest.