Spanish views from a small town

August is winding down. It's hot this week, but mostly because it's humid. Rain is forecast for tonight or tomorrow, and then the temperatures are going down. We're headed for fall. Our daughter is worried. There are three cases of Covid at a factory where a friend in her circle works. There are rumors that at least one person at her own job is infected, too. Rules are being re-introduced, maintaining people in areas without wandering to other spots. And the contagions keep growing. There's more of the same in the United States. Another Black man was shot, this time in the back while walking to a car where his children were. More riots, more dead. More property set on fire, and more hatred against the police, which doesn't seem to be able to get rid of its bad seeds. A 17 year old was arrested and charged with intentional homicide after shooting and killing two people during the riots. A 17 year old. The Republican National Convention is a sham. The President is usi...

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...

September is my month. I am on vacation, with no classes. Yesterday, since my husband wasn't coming home for lunch, I went for a drive. I decided to go to Vigo along the old national road, the N550. It passes through countless towns and the city of Pontevedra before reaching Vigo and melting into its urban streets. As I was driving, however, I automatically made a right turn into the entrance to the tollway that runs north to south from Ferrol to Tui. My automatic pilot was on, so I turned it off and took the first exit, to Caldas, where I finally incorporated onto the N550.  As I drove south from Caldas, I remembered an old disco, A Condesa, where I had gone once with friends, well over twenty years ago. Now, large modern factory buildings dominate the area, and the disco is long gone. Lone gone, too is what used to be the cheapest gas station in the area, buildings in ruins, spray painted logos on them, weeds adoring the tarmac. Further on, to the left, is the park Ría de Bar...

Once upon a time there was an emperor that tried to bring most of Europe under French rule. He planned to make Fr ance great and pu t Britain out of business on the Continent. To that extent Napoleon instituted a commercial blocka de against Britain on the Continent, and got most of the European kingdoms to sign it . He had prob lems with two of them, thou gh. Port ugal and Russia complied, but not as well as Napoleon would have liked. In 180 7 General Junot invaded Portugal. He did it overland, because the S panish king, Carlos III, involved in a famil y di spute with his son and heir, Fer nando VII, allowed him to do so. Along the way the French took note of the Spanish defe nse. In 1808 the French formally invaded Spain. The Spanish royal family was taken to France, and Napoleon's brother, Joseph, was named King of Spain. Napoleon's troops invaded all of Spain and occupied the most important cities.  Here in Galicia there was a battle in A Coruña betwe en the British an...