Spanish views from a small town

A meme on Facebook caught my eye t hi s past Sunday and I had to share it. It goes, "O final, tiña razón Rajoy cando decía  que cando chovese iamos aforrar en luz. Xa levamos dous días sen ela." Roughly translated, it means, "In the end, Rajoy was right when he said we would save on electricity when it rained. We've been without it for two days." It all refers back to about a week and a half ago. They were the coldest days of the winter, and the deregulated electricity market raised prices to maximums of over €100 per megawatt. That translated into harsh price increases in most people's electric bill. A medium ho usehold's bill was expected to go up by ten to twenty euros. Then there is the fixed part of the bill, which includes the kilowatts contracted (The more things you can plug in simultaneously, the more you pay. We have the smallest possible, 2.2 kw, and can't turn on the microwave and the hair dryer at the same time.), having th...

Yesterday afternoon a cold front came raging through. Rain was thrown against the windows, and the wind drove it in under the front door. It was one of the most miserable days yet this winter. Nor could we stay home. There were things to be done outside; life had to continue, even though wet. Toward evening, though, clouds broke up and the wind died down. The calm was upon us. Not for the electric cables supplying us with light. Some hours after the storm, the lights went out. We were given enough time to find candles with flashlights waving beams of light into darkened, suddenly unfamiliar rooms. As soon as we lit the first candle, the lights came back on. Fine, put the candles away. A few minutes later, it happened again. This time we got to light a candle and a parrafin lamp before the blessed light returned. Just in case, though, we left the candles out this time. Good, because the third time was the definitive.  With five candles and two parrafin lamps we could see what we...