Doing laundry and hauling dirt & rocks – but the sky is wicked cool

Of all the architecture, history, and art I've seen thus far here in Spain, I have to say the sky is really the most captivating and beautiful thing I think I've ever seen. Shifting your eyes upward, you're hard pressed to find anything but every reaching day or night in your periphery. I don't know anyplace I've lived in the States where that's possible. Mornings and sunsets are especially moving here – hues of orange, red, violet, and yellow streak across the horizon and play with the clouds to create something new each day, causing pause every time I'm fortunate enough to witness it. And the stars! There are so many of them it's hard to believe. Constellations are so clear cut against the pitch black evening sky. I need to get a star chart. Well – that said, my day today really does pale in comparison! I woke up at a regular hour – even before Sebastien! James had come over to rouse him out of bed at around 10 – and had some bread and coffee before hopping in the shower and getting ready to go into Sahagun with Paddy. There we got a replacement butane canister, then Paddy went to get some things and I headed over to German's to see if I could hop on his WiFi. I knew he wasn't going to be there, he'd told me he was going to Peru for a couple weeks, and sure enough the shop was locked and no one was inside. I was a little surprised not to see at least the girl who is there sometimes (wo)manning the operation. So I squatted outside to see if I could catch a signal, but sadly he'd shut down shop completely. Bummer because then I had to go to Cafe Zentral, which is nice and has a speedy connection, but at a Euro per half hour and no USB ports to hook my camera up to, I'm a little picky. Spoiled I guess you could say even. [Ed. Note: so if this post isn't up for days after it's writing, you all know why!] Paddy and James showed up not long after and Paddy checked his email while James looked for a hotel. I guess he, Marianne, and les enfants are taking a weekend holiday in Leon. I emailed Jeremy (the SIM card guy) to see if he could help me a bit more than the VodaFone rep, and then tried my card in Paddy's phone. Lo and behold, it worked – so I'm guessing Jeremy's going to tell me to suck it up and buy another phone. That's really crap though, especially since the damn things worked in Madrid! So after all this Paddy and I headed back to Moratinos. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the two “oafs” (as Reb calls them, and then, much to my entertainment, usually scolds herself for doing so after the fact) had completed the work on the house. I have to say, they did a really great job, even if they were really slow and left huge piles of dirt in places they didn't really belong (more on that later!). They installed an opening and framing for a door leading into the hay storage room, and also installed the small window Pad & Reb bought last week. James may have them come over and help soon at The Alamo once things are in place for the Great Wall to be erected. Paddy and I sat outside reading for a bit then decided to give Una a much-needed bath. I think she was even more confused than usual because of the tag team effort made in an effort to scrub all the dirt off of her. After we finished and gave her a preliminary dry she tore all over the yard, rubbing against the house, rolling in the grass, and shaking herself wildly. Paddy made some onion stew – tasty but really noxious, I couldn't sit in the kitchen, and I think my body is becoming really adverse to the smell of onions – and Sebastien came over to join us for a nice lunch outside in the sun. After we ate he prepped some things and his guitar and took off to walk for a while, and will be back Sunday night or Monday morning. I'm glad he's taking a break to re-center himself. He's getting too worked up and stressed out over things at The Alamo that really shouldn't be his concern. Paddy and I cleaned up and I continued the laundry I'd started earlier before eating. Walking over to The Alamo to swap loads in the drier, I decided to take Una along with me, thinking she could use the time outside after her traumatic bathing experience. Approaching I could see a woman with two puppies and a German Sheppard (a lot of people around here have them). They certainly weren't Shep puppies, so I didn't expect anything bad to happen – and so it was much to my surprise when one of the puppies, a black fuzz ball, launched a full attack on Una and went nuts. So Una got angry, and then the other puppy started in, and the lady's yelling at them in Spanish, and I'm yelling at Una in English, I dropped my key and the wash, trying to fend the ankle biters off with the basket while restraining Una and praying the G.S. Didn't decide to take a bite out of someone. Once I got Una picked up and the little dogs stopped the lady handed me the key and I grabbed the wash, her saying something to me, which was I hope her apologies, and all I'm saying is “I'm sorry!... Thank you!” in Spanish to her. I came back and Paddy and I decided to do something about the trash and rubble the workers had left behind. We picked up the cement bags and nail boxes they'd left behind, and then after tossing around a couple of ideas about what to do with the dirt and chunks of adobe from the door/window installation, started shoveling it over to the runoff area next to the field behind the house. We moved quite a lot of it, but decided the best was left for tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't rain before then. I finished the laundry and came back to find Paddy eating bread and some of the strongest blue cheese I've ever had. Tasty. Neither of us really felt like cooking anything complicated for dinner, so I decided to throw together some hodge podge ingredients from the fridge and the Dispenser (which I learned is actually “dispensa” in Spanish, and it's not actually been a running Terminator joke to call it that!) and made what ended up being kind of my own version of Ensaladilla Rusa. Tuna, peas, shredded carrots, anchovy stuffed olives, and cold boiled potatoes. It was really nice. Paddy and I read some more and listened to some Phillip Glass and Thomas Newman stuff over the rest of the wine we'd opened for dinner and now it's about bed time. Una's sighing and grunting and rolling around in the other chair in the kitchen. She dreams more than any sleeping dog I've ever seen. Sweet dreams Una. P.S.: I weighed myself this morning... right before I left a check-up weighed me in at 309. Since arriving I've lost 21 lbs, and I'm down to 288 (131 kilos). Rock.