Spanish views from a small town

My daughter has been cleaning her room these days, and she has found a time capsule. Well, not really, but it seems like it. She has unearthed stuff from years ago, including a catalog from autumn/winter, 1993-1994. It's a catalog from the German business, Quelle, and I must have received it after ordering something from another, earlier catalog. I do remember buying some clothes from them years ago. My daughter must have had that catalog since she was a little girl, and used it like I used to use an old Sears catalog. I had no need for video games, tablets, cell phones, or other electronic diversions when I was a child. I had an old Sears catalog from God-knows-where, an old mail-order catalog my mother picked up from the trash in her office-cleaning job, and the sales flyers from the Sunday newspapers. The last, I picked up from the first floor apartment, when the tenants left the old papers by their door, ready to give to the garbage men on Thursdays.  I would pore over the ...

Though the moments of greater travel were last week as people scrambled to be home with family for Christmas, there are still people travelling home for the New Year. My brother-in-law and his girls came to spend that holiday with the grandparents. We went to pick them up at the airport last night. Theirs was the last flight into Santiago for the night. As we awaited them, others arrived through the door. The first one out was a youngish woman. She walked up to an older man and a little boy and a big smile lit up her face when she saw the boy's reaction. Another woman, close to her in age, shouted, "No!" She backed away, then ran into the traveller's arms, and the two engaged in a prolonged bear hug. Apparently, the traveller and the man who seemed to be her father had made her believe they were awaiting someone else. It was a surprise that made many around them smile in complicity. Others started straggling out. Some were older couples, who appeared through the d...

Another year, another Christmas lottery. Yesterday morning the house was filled with the sing-song voices of the children of San Ildefonso School chanting the numbers and their prizes on the televised, hours-long extraction. That lottery marks the official beginning of winter and the social beginning (lights and commercialism notwithstanding) of Christmas. After it was over, news vans travelled all over Spain, interviewing winners and losers. (We're neither - nor this year, we recuperated all the money we spent - not much.) Winners shouted out a hundred and one ways to spend the money (€320,000 after taxes), and the losers lamented their luck. Among most people, the Christmas lottery day is the day of health. Because the optimists among those who don't win anything tend to say, "Well, at least we have our health." But we losers have so much more than that. I saw a meme this morning that reminded me that we did win the lottery. We've won the lottery of luck. We...

I finally got around to going to Vigo this past Friday. There is an art store there, that, while it's not fully comprehensive, still has more material than the small ones in my radius. I also wanted to walk a little along busy city streets in the largest city of Galicia. A few hours in the morning wasn't enough, though, so I'll probably return during Christmas vacation. What caught my attention the most, even though it was daylight, was all the Christmas lights in all the streets in the center. There was a tangle of cables and designs in wire overhead that defied the eye. On a large corner where the pedestrianized main shopping street began there was a large round structure that seemed to be a tree bauble. Along that pedestrian-only street there were many winter decorations, as well. They were comprised of a mound of earth, with real fir trees, and different structures, such as snowmen. One had small house structures that were still being set up or fixed. But those mounds...

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming! Actually, they've been coming for a month, now, and are as yet to be glimpsed through the fog and mists of December days that still separate us from them. But, if one turns on the television or goes anywhere near a store or two, one would think Christmas is tomorrow, and we still haven't done anything about it.  Because, of course, one must buy presents. For everyone. You are such an absolute cheapskate if you don't buy something for the mailman, who hasn't stopped by in over a year now that you do everything online. Or for that cousin five times removed you happened to bump into yesterday for the first time in ten years. And if you don't buy anything special for your sister's furry companion you are the lowest of the low. Your tree (because, of course, you've already put up the tree; how could you not?) by now should be surrounded by at least a hundred little packages all expertly wrapped in the most expen...

Spain is now no different from other European countries in a sad way. We now have an extremist right wing party with elected officials, which David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, congratulated. This past Sunday, there were elections for the regional parliament of Andalucía. Vox gained twelve seats, mostly thanks to the almost 54% of elegible voters who decided not to vote, because "they're all the same." But, they're not all the same. It's true, the local Socialist party, which has been ruling in Andalucía since it was declared an autonomous region, is riddled with corruption. That's the problem with holding power indefinitely. A glance at the Franco family with it's ill-gotten gains, and their friends from the dictatorship, can tell you what a long time in power will do. Power does corrupt. It may not corrupt all who hold public office, but it will cast a pall over those in office at the same time as the corruption. If the Socialist party had ...

Yesterday I had an appointment with my nurse to check my blood pressure (normal) and my weight (going up after having gone down; not good weather for walking). Since I was there already, I also asked for my flu shot, because I have asthma and it's not nice to have to sit up in bed to breathe during a bad bout of the flu. She said there wasn't any problem and went to get it. I clenched my teeth, closed my eyes, and grabbed my chair with the other hand as she jabbed me. (No, I don't like needles.) Then, I just picked up my purse, gave thanks and left.  I didn't have to open my purse to take out money. I didn't have to swipe a credit or debit card. I just asked for a service and received it. It's not free, of course. Our taxes pay for this service, and that's it. Once our taxes have been paid, we have access to all health services. That's the beauty of this system. We only have to pay for a percentage of our prescription medications, or full price for any...