the good. the mended.

...do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Well, fortunately, right now it's all good news. 

Good news #1:

we are now the proud owners of a brand new 

1990 subaru legacy! currently covered in snow.

We spent the last week car hunting. I was ambivalent about spending money on a car, since theoretically, we'll head to the States once we can complete Serkan's visa paperwork. But plans change. Life happens. The immigration process drags on. So we did it, a 4x4 station wagon! It feels great to drive, smooth and safe. Not only is it a great car, but the seller was such a nice person too! He tried to help us find tires, invited us in for tea after the purchase (we dropped him off) where we met his lovely family. They all invited us--numerous times--to stay with them that night, because I was a little skeptical about driving home on the super icy roads in the dark. Dusk falls before 5 p.m. these days.

We spent another night in Punta Arenas to purchase snow tires and to take showers. (We haven't had water since Saturday, as all the pipes froze.) They actually put nails in the tires here to add traction. I have never heard of this practice before... but it seems to work. Yesterday we drove the 260 km home yesterday in four hours. Normally it would take three hours, but I haven't driven in ages, and I've only driven in the snow about 10 hours in my entire life, so we made a granny viaje.

Good news #2: This starts on a stressful note. We returned to our house with high hopes of having water. The day sunny, snow melting everywhere. I flushed the toilet tank, full for the first time in days! Serkan checked the kitchen sink, success! And then I heard the stream of running water and we went out back to visit our little flood. Of course, the pipes exploded. 

When we went to the corredora, rental agency, the woman there basically said: Too bad. There are more than 200 houses without water and with exploded pipes here. There is no way for us to find a plumber to repair the situation any time soon. No, I cannot pass you the number of any of the plumbers we work with. She also said we should wait to do anything while she gets a hold of the house owner, whom she hadn't been able to reach in the past few days. (We asked them to reach the owner a few days ago, when all the water froze.) Then she just sat there and watched as Serkan called the owner on his cell phone. Ugh! 

So, we weren't dealing with the boss of the office, who is a lovely woman. Later that evening, she called Serkan and they talked for a while, and she smoothed everything over. Meanwhile, Serkan had fixed one of the pipes himself. But there were two other broken areas, which we didn't have the tools for. He called a friend, who came this morning, when he said he would... Oh, you have no idea what a big deal that is! People, working, getting paid, say they will come every day at a certain hour and won't show up for weeks. Within two hours this morning, they fixed everything! We have water, people! We can shower and wash dishes and we don't have to melt snow! 

Blessed.

  

snow lovers found here.