Housing Issues

We have our house through the American Housing Office at SHAPE. They are great people and they work hard for us. Any time we have an issue with a house, whether military housing or on the economy, we go there first. They are our advocates and help us with any and all issues. I think there is one American employee, the rest are Belgians with amazing English language skills. They are use to the way things are done (ha ha) in Belgium and I think they work as a cushion so we don't go all ape-crazy in and English speaking tirade that would do no good.
Here's just one issue that they get to deal with. Our heating system is run on mazout, which is like heating oil, and we have radiators instead of vents. So, I guess, the heating oil goes through the boiler and heats the water and the water heats the radiators. However it's suppose to work, the issue is that it doesn't.
We shut off the thermostat in March/April and my husband did something to the system in the garage, flipped a knob or something like that. It's been getting cold in our cement and rock house, so I finally gave in and asked him to turn it on last weekend. Nothing. The thermostat works, the batteries are good. The water heater works better than necessary and the mazout tank is full. My husband flipped the knob and nothing.
This past Monday I went into housing and told them about this issue. (and a few other things, but my fingers aren't strong enough for the others right now) They called both of the property manager's cell phones and the agency he runs. Nothing on the cell phones and an outgoing message at the agency saying that they'd be back from lunch at 1400. We waited until 1415 and called again. Usually this property manager lets things go to voicemail and calls right back, before I get out of the chair. Not this time. So, messages were left on cell phones one time and the agency two times, so four messages on Monday.
Nothing.
I go back in on Wednesday. The man at the office had not put away our file because it was still and open case. (great customer service) We called again, I purposely came in after 1400, and left messages. This is just a pain really. I left times that I would be able to be home for him to call and come by. Wednesday evening, Thursday evening, Friday after 1300-1500 and again after 1600 and Saturday morning.
Wednesday at about 1600 the property manager had called back and I got an email saying that he was given my cell phone number and he would contact me before he came over.
So, here is is Friday night, almost 1900 and I have had no contact with the property manager. Thank goodness we have a wood burning stove to heat up the kitchen and living room, but it does nothing for the upstairs.
 I'm happy that it's only been getting into the high 40's at night. I'm happy that my husband made sure that we had have plenty of wood and that I can start a pretty good fire.
I'm not happy with the property manager. I'm pretty sure if we were a member of his tricked out Land Rover family, that we would not be having this problem.

Autumn Leaves

We recently got the Nebraska Life magazine with the beautiful autumn cover showing the trees in all their vibrant fall glory. Autumn is my favorite time of year and one of the reasons is because of the leaves. People talk about the beauty of autumn leaves in New England, but I've always thought that Nebraska looks pretty good too.
With that being said, Belgium's leaves have just begun to turn. When I look out the kitchen windows, all I see are trees from the chateau grounds, and a few of them are turning yellow. It isn't the "brown and fall down" turning that Texas and Georgia had, but it's pretty close. The trees just don't have the vibrant colors that they do in Nebraska. There are very few that will be burgandy, orange or something in between.
Don't get me wrong, I still love it here, that hasn't changed, but that Nebraska Life cover made me miss autumn in Nebraska.