New Year, Same Old, 2. Potpourri.

Frigid days are upon us with the new year. This morning, when I got up (okay, it was late, around 9), the temperature was 3.1ºC/37ºF. A low fog formed when the sun started to shine on us, about an hour later. These days, I am warm only when in bed, or standing in front of the wood stove with the fire raging. My hands and feet feel like blocks of ice most of the day. I don't know which I hate most, the summer days of heat when I vegetate in the cooler kitchen, or the winter days of cold when I vegetate in the warmer kitchen.

It doesn't look like the showers flying down from the Arctic will bring any snow to the nearby hills. It's been snowing in the interior, in the mountains of Lugo and Ourense, but we can't even think about driving out there. This year, I will probably have to get my snow fix by looking at it on television. 

Speaking of travelling, the police did bust several illegal New Year's Eve parties in various towns, here, in Galicia. At one in a Sanxenxo hotel, they found people from all over Galicia, who had no valid reason to be in the seaside town. They all got hit with fines of six hundred euros, and I don't remember what the owner of the hotel got, but I hope the police closed it down for its attempt to make money over public health. Yes, the pandemic has hit the tourist industry hard, but we all have to understand that a business can close and reopen later. Lives can't be lost and regained.

This year is supposed to be a Jacobean Holy Year, because the day dedicated to the Apostle Saint James the Greater, supposedly buried in the cathedral at Santiago, falls on a Sunday. All pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela who attend a Mass, say several prayers, and go to Confession, will receive a plenary indulgence this year. Since 1993, the regional government has used this to promote Galicia and the Way of Santiago, to attract as many pilgrims and tourists as possible. This year beginning the way it does, it would mean loss of tourism and money. (For all the regional government touts the spiritual Way, the last thing it really cares about is spirituality of any kind not linked to money.) 

Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, our regional president, had been pestering the Holy See to prolong the Holy Year. Just hours before opening the Holy Door, he got his wish. The Jacobean Holy Year is to be prolonged into 2022. So, we get not just one, but two years of massive tourism. No, we haven't learned anything about diversifying the economy. 

The good news today is that total numbers of infected are going down, here in Rianxo, in Boiro, and Ribeira. Let's see if most of us have acted responsibly these days, and the tendency remains in the coming weeks. At the very least, I would like to be able to move beyond this township into the surrounding ones, even if I can't get to Santiago or any other city. It would also help with the vaccination process. 

There are still people who don't want the vaccine. Some older people refuse it. Worse, the family members of some elderly who can't speak for themselves decide against it. A controversy has sprung up. Some are comparing a decision of this kind to the refusal by Jehovah's Witnesses to receive blood transfusions. In that case, when the patient in question is a minor, and unable to decide for themselves, the courts have stepped in and decreed that the transfusion must take place, putting the patient's life above their beliefs. In the case of the vaccine, such a decision might also be taken. When an elderly person with dementia can't decide on whether to have a possibly life-saving measure, the courts might very well decide against the family. We'll see where this might go.  

Life continues.