Is That A Rotary Phone???

Seriously, some conversations are just too unbelievable to have made up.  Take one that happened in our home recently.

Dear One and I use technology as much as our patience will allow.  We received numerous mailings from A Large Telephone Provider who finally sent a screaming red beacon to our house (or at least it seemed like it)

"YOU MUST CONVERT YOUR INTERNET OVER TO *********** AS THE TECHNOLOGY THAT YOU USE WILL NO LONGER BE SUPPORTED."

The two technicians arrived.  Courteous men who fumbled around a bit--but were able to convert us to Whatever the Heck It Is that we now have that provides our phone and internet.  While wrapping up conversation and passwords and account numbers in the kitchen, one of the Dear Technicians spied our 1940s vintage phone and squakked,

"IS THAT A ROTARY PHONE OVER THERE?"

Now, this guy was certainly not a teenager or twenty something.  If truth be told, he was well into his 30s.  The way he spit out "rotary phone" and rushed over to it  was like he had just spied a lump of gold sitting in the middle of the road.

His next exclamations of "wow" "look at this" and "does this really WORK?" "It can't work on OUR system."  His comments when he spied the ringer box on the floor and wondered if it was a MODEM defy logic.

Yea Pal, it's a rotary phone.  Still works, actually--better quality than the junk we have through the rest of the house made in a land far away and over the sea.

Sure Do Wonder About That Vintage Purse in Noto

Why is it that antiquers always obsess about "the one that got away."

You can be at an all day auction, come away with fabulous buys, and then mull over and over that one piece that you should have bid higher and it slipped away to another buyer.

Or the piece you see at a fair or a show--and it is priced a bit too high--you walk away and come back a minute later just in time to see it being sold to someone else.

It was not my fault.  One got away in Noto Sicily.  And I am STILL thinking about it. 

Noto is a wonderful town--made for strolling and soaking up history, eating the best granita in the world from Cafe Sicilia and noshing on wonderful deli treats and condiments at Sabbinirica.

But I keep thinking of that darn purse. 

At the end of the long main shopping street was a second hand shop--or vintage clothing shop --and it was CLOSED.  It was Saturday morning--but the shop was closed.  An adorable 1950s purse, convered in glass and plastic flowers and beads--and-- only 30 euros.  Translation--about 32 bucks.

Lovely day-adventures-food and experiences.  But I keep thinking about that darn purse.