Spanish views from a small town

I've had an internet problem these days. Fiber remains elusive, though another company tells me they're working on getting Movistar to install the damned connection box. I won't be holding my breath. My wifi router, after two weeks since its billing period began, reached the maximum of the gigas it offers me, and my connection slowed to a snail's crawl. I shopped around, found a mobile package with unlimited calls and 100 gigas, that works with the antenna of the only provider that has coverage around here. I contracted it, inserted the SIM card in an old phone, and now use it as a hotspot. The fine print said the company allows tethering, so there should be no problem. Why else would they offer so many gigas? Still, I'll wait a month or two, paying for both services, until I finally get rid of the old one, which only offers 40 gigas a month.  This week we have finally gotten summery weather. It's warm, and I'm not complaining. Yesterday, it reached around 3...

In our neck of the woods, this is becoming the year without a summer. Or, at least, with an anomalous summer.  We have had a few, perfect days, and even two days where the temperatures went well above 30ºC/86ºF. But the majority of them had temperatures with a maximum of 25ºC/77ºF and below, with a few days colder than normal. And the sun has found it hard to string three or four days together with few or no clouds. Meteorologists say that that is because air from the Arctic isn't allowing the Azores high pressure area to strengthen and touch us with more than just a tentacle. In the meantime, parts of Europe has baked in unusual heat, while other parts drowned in unusual floods. The western U.S. and Canada have also passed record high temperatures, which have resulted in enormous wildfires, the same as in Siberia (again), Turkey, Sicily, and other areas. On the southern half of the world, southern Brazil and northern Argentina have received unexpected snow.  Yet, could we be ...

Today is a grey and misty day, as we wait for a cold front to come barreling in this afternoon and evening, leaving much water and high winds. It's a normal December day for Galicia. This weather is forecast to continue well into next week, so I doubt we will be able to see the "Christmas star" on Monday, when Jupiter and Saturn align for the first time in the night sky in 800 years. Well, at least I got to see the comet this summer.  All in all, this has been one of the warmest years, again. While we didn't have many days with extremely high temperatures, at least not here, on the coast, the colder months weren't as cold as they should have been. This fall has been quite warm, except for a couple of days at the beginning of December. How warm? Well, one of my oldest apple trees has its buds beginning to swell. That's after it already gave us blossoms in September. With every passing year, the change in climate becomes more noticeable. My husband says that dur...

Beer is going the way of the dodo bird.  I'm sure that sounds like the ultimate catastrophe to many. That foamy beer after work, with friends, on a sultry summer's afternoon, will become a luxury item until it disappears altogether. Nooo! Well, yes. It's really an idea that has been around for a few years. A few days ago a study came out showing it is true. The quantity of hops and barley will wither thanks to climate change. When one stops to think about it, it's really very simple and predictable. The hotter temperatures don't only affect us, with simmering heat waves and increased storms, they also affect our crops. So, climate change affects us in more ways than one. It also affects our stomachs and our taste buds. In 2009, it was estimated that crops were moving north about a quarter of a mile a year. That means that the ideal growing zones for a specific crop were changing. Soy and corn crops were moving north into areas previously planted with barley, a...

My husband this year collected a lot of firewood for the winter. We hired a splitting machine and those logs were splintered lickety spit in two days. At a much better rate and less cost of muscle than if my husband were to have done it all by hand over the entire summer. Well, the firewood was intended for the coming winter, but we've had to start the pile already. In August. While July may have been the hottest month on the planet so far since record-keeping began, in our little corner it was a normal month. It and June were a bit dry, so some areas were worried. Mostly along the coastal stretch the temperatures were normal or a little under average, though we had the usual few days of wising for an air conditioner.  In the interior they followed the national average this year - broiling! So when August rolled around we thought we'd have more of the same. No. Except for about six or seven scattered days at the beginning and last week, including a couple the pyromaniacs de...