Spanish views from a small town

Last night, our daughter went out with a cousin and another couple of friends. First they went to two nightspots that were rather empty. Our daughter wore her mask, which she pulled down to drink, and kept her distance from others. Then, another cousin came by and asked the friends, why not go to C** M***'s ? Eventually, they agreed, and drove up into the hills.  That is the name the locals have for a parrillada (a restaurant specializing in barbecued meats) that sits in a small hill village nearby; in 2014, there were 68 people listed as living there. Neither our daughter nor her friends quite understood why their friend was insisting on them driving up there. When they got there, they understood why. The parrillada doubles as a night club of sorts. Our daughter felt she was in another dimension where the pandemic simply doesn't exist. The joint was jumping with young people and music. She and her friends sat outside at a terrace table, but it didn't matter much beca...

Days are getting shorter now we're past the midway mark of August. It's almost a quarter past ten and the sky is a gradient of blue, navy up above and turquois at the horizon. Back in June the sun would be just touching the horizon at this hour.  Already the night is turning cool. A month ago you could still feel the heat of the day at this hour. Now it's cool enough to put on a sweater to sit outside under the yellow glow of the streetlight. A little later on I'll start to close windows to avoid having a chill breeze settle over me as I try to sleep. The blanket on the bed is welcome now and some nights I'm thinking of piling on another one. Today was a beautiful day, but the past couple of weeks have been cool and rainy. The house hasn't accumulated as much heat as usual this year.  In the morning the sun comes up later and makes it harder to get up earlier. In June the sky was light around six. Now at seven it's still grey. I feel sleepier later in th...