the week in review

I did not sleep well because Big Jim was up all night working on my computer. For the past couple weeks, my laptop has been slow and temperamental, so my at-home "tech support" asked if he could have a look. At 2:30 am, I awoke and Big Jim was still up. He had found a virus. This finding dismayed him greatly as he takes tremendous pride in the defense system he has created to fortify our network. I went back to sleep for another couple hours, until 4:30 am, and found Big Jim in the office, dozing over my computer. "Go to bed," I said. "Oh no, just resting my eyes while I'm running a test," he replied. So I returned to the bedroom; the Precious Boo, ever the opportunist, had taken over Big Jim's pillow. I slept for another two hours, and woke up at 6:30 to a stare down by C.K., the cat. She carefully climbs on the bed, tiptoes around the sleeping dogs, sits by my head, and looks down on me with a penetrating glare until I wake. This means, "Feed me now." So I stumble out of bed and head to the kitchen to make coffee and serve up some vittles for C.K. I find Big Jim still in the office. He believes he has fixed my computer, but is running one final test. Big Jim is finally in bed, and my computer seems a better. My Internet connection remains a little slow, and the bug in one of the editing software programs I use is still there. I have a love-hate relationship with my computer. I love that I can easily stay in touch with what's going on back in the US via the Internet, and I love that it allows me to telecommute for my clients. But I have no patience when it doesn't work properly. I have a few hours of work to do before we head to the beach later this afternoon. I haven't felt "in the zone" so to speak in regard to my work this week. I'm not sure whether this is because I've been working on several projects simultaneously or whether my concentration has been off. A couple times I caught errors that I should not have I missed on my first pass, which of course then made me paranoid and supercautious going forward. I probably just need a break. Which I'm actually going to have later next week. Our friend T. arrives from Frankfurt on the 22nd, the first day of the village's summer feria. I'm taking off for the duration of the feria because there's no point in even trying to work. The 5-day festival is a round-the-clock affair. One morning last year I woke up and found the bumper car ride still full of drunken teens at 9:00 am. Big Jim received a bunch of promising job calls this week, but we've decided not to tell anyone when he has his next interview. I suppose it's part superstition/part a need to keep our business private to avoid the explanations should he not get the job. The three unsuccessful interviews he has had have been no fault of his own. The first one, the hiring supervisors had not communicated and the people brought in for interviews had a different set of skills required for the position. The second, Big Jim was the 40th person interviewed for the job; to no surprise, 4 months later the position is still being advertised. The third, Big Jim was overqualified for the job, having more experience than the supervisor. But still, we have received looks and comments from people that imply Big Jim somehow had failed or not tried hard enough, and frankly we don't need that crap. Despite the reports of an improving economy, in our immediate world, there are few signs of this. My father has just been given notice his office is shutting down the end of the September, the work being moved from suburban Philadelphia to Utah, Florida, and China, where office and labor costs are cheap. I am not ignorant that the global economy is inevitable, but at what price for American workers? The $5 toasters at Wal-Mart better soon be free because at this rate no one in the US will have a job. I also had a disturbing run-in with Spanish machismo this week. Before I moved here, the one concern of my friends was I how would handle this aspect of Spanish society. For the most part, I have had few problems. Spain is changing, and the current leader Zapatero has made the equal treatment of women a major platform issue. That said, it will not happen overnight, as I found out Thursday morning when walking the dogs. We came upon one of the old farmers, and I stopped to have our usual chat about the weather. He then took a step closer to me and asked if I would kiss him. I took a giant leap back and told him no way. He replied, okay okay, no problem. But now I'm a bit uneasy about going back to the goat track because I don't want a repeat encounter. Which is a pity because I love the morning walks there and it is the one place where the dogs can run freely off their leads. We also learned two new Spanish words this week: calentador de agua and enchufe. I took a shower Wednesday morning, and there was no hot water, which isn't a big deal in the summer because the sun first heats the water in roof-top deposito, so I had a warmish shower. When Big Jim got up, I told him there was no hot water, but his reply was dismissive in that way that men can be at times, "Well there should be hot water." So I said no more. About an hour later, Big Jim emerged from the bathroom, "There's no hot water." Typical. After investigating the situation, we found the plug to our beer keg-sized (not even a full keg, more like a half barrel) water heater singed, the socket charred. Big Jim, being the resourceful guy he is, found another unused plug, which he used to replace the burnt one, and rigged up an extension cord because the old socket looked a bit dubious. We shrugged it off as bad Spanish electrics, the same system that requires us to be sure to put on shoes before touching the dishwasher; we learned the hard way that doing so barefoot results in a nasty shock. So I'm looking forward even more than usual to our beach trip later today. It's the one place where Big Jim and I can completely relax away a few hours while we catch up on our reading, the ebb and swell of the sea massaging away the stresses of the past week. hasta manana, mylifeinspain