I got my laundry out on the drying rack first thing, this morning. Tee-shirts mostly seem to get sweaty and smelly damn fast and I’ve gone through two shirts per day. It’s misty outside. Fitting, I suppose I’ve always imagined Galicia as something like Britany; rocky and cloudy. There weren’t any of the basics like coffee here at the place when we got in last night, and nothing’s walkable, so I vowed to drive off early and get some stores before everyone else woke up. I’ve cancelled most of my calls this week, but held on to one that’s starts at 10:00AM. The supermarket opens at 9:30AM. It’s a ten-minute drive away. I reckoned I had plenty of time.
Parking in O Grove at 9:30AM on a Wednesday was like trying to park in Noe Valley on a Friday night , only more complicated because in addition to their being no spaces the rules aren’t particularly clear. I sailed past the supermarket and eventually found a place a five-minute walk away. Parking up on the curb was the best I could do in this clumsy, oversized SUV. When I left the house, I’d thought wearing flip flops was a crack idea. It wasn’t and I was limping by the time I reached the market. Grabbed a bunch of things quickly. Asked the same nice lady in a bonnet to show me the coffee and then the bread. Returned to her when the check-out gal reminded me I’d need to weigh these bananas and peaches. And limping back down to the waterfront where I’d left my car, I realized I’d need to take this call, sitting in the vehicle.
Call went alright, at first. Then they couldn’t hear me. Called back, and then muted as the GPS directed me out of the city and by the time I got back home, one of my other team members reporting in, I decided to take a left and head up into the woods I hadn’t otherwise seen here. They were lovely but then the road got thin and thinner. Ferocious stone walls closed in on tight turns and, coming upon one egress, discussing a deal, I really wondered if I could make it through without scratching this vehicle mercilessly.
Later that day I heard something I haven’t heard in a while: both my daughters call me to come splash around in the pool. Cloudy, cold, I put down my work and mounted the requisite bravery to descend into the cold pisquina. It only took that one dive in, my head underwater to give me swimmers ear, like I knew it would. Too much wax up there. Later we all went down in the basement and played a few rounds of the Chinese national sport: ping pong. Like chopsticks, any true Chinese person has the proper way to hold a ping pong paddle, that ain’t a bit like the way I grabbed it, and I teased my daughters that this was a qualifier as to their avowed Chinese-ness. “Look at the way your mom holds the paddle.” I managed to defeat my wife, but only just and only because I can serve OK, but can’t hit much back when challenged. Chill day. And more of it for tomorrow.
Wednesday 8/25/21
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