Spanish views from a small town

Of late, I either haven't had much time to write, or much motivation. My classes began this month, and now my afternoons are all occupied. Once I finish at eight, I don't really want to be in my study much longer. In the mornings, I don't have much time because I've been running erands or walking, getting home with just enough time for a shower and to start making lunch. Covid cases have been going down, though they are now edging up, again. The pandemic has become part of normality by now. It's there, it will be there for a while, and we just have to be cautious and make sure we have all the necessary shots, so that, if we catch it, it won't land us in the hospital. We have been hearing horror stories about how our trees will be nude this Christmas, because of shipping problems. Personally, I don't care. I even welcome it. The delays in shipping are mainly due to Covid, and people who have gone big on online ordering. China has a zero Covid policy, which me...

Leftovers and trash. That's what the day after Christmas is all about. Leftover seafood, leftover meat, leftover sweets. How many recipes for leftover food can there be? It doesn't matter that you try to buy so that you finish the food in one sitting. There will always be moments of, "Well, everybody loves this dish, so of this I had better buy a little extra for seconds." Those seconds turn into thirds that leave something else uneaten. And, of course, after gobbling down three dishes of seafood, and one enormous dish of meat, the sweets are ignored. So you nibble on them whenever you visit the pantry. Which is often. The day after Christmas you look at the exultant refrigerator, you look at the pants that shrank, you look at your thinned wallet, you think of all those in the world who are starving, and you swear that next year you will buy less. And next year comes and you do the same thing all over again.  Trash is another story. I remember the trash day after Ch...