Batten Down the Hatches

The Azores anti-cyclone is dropping to the south. And that means storms from Iceland and Scandinavian, or northern Siberia are rapidly bearing down upon Galicia. The weather is wet and wild. And it will become even more so over the next week.

But has that stopped Pilgrims from walking? Heck no. Sure, there are far fewer walkers passing our gate. But they are still coming. Most appear to be long haulers, like this guy.

Meet Taksi from South Korea. And his donkey, Donkey-ote, (you heard it, right?) who he picked up in Roncesvalles. Walking together 790 kms. Adorable.

We had to drive into Lugo to meet with our banker today. Jeff is buying the tractor and all the implements. (It deserves a post unto itself) He was giddy and hardly felt the deluge and the pea-soup fog that marked our trek into ‘the big city’.

We took care of business and made all the arrangements. And we ran some errands. A new Bricomart (Home Depot) is opening in Lugo this Spring. I love seeing cranes working. That means the economy is humming. We are very happy to see the building is nearly finished. In the local news they said 80 new jobs were created. And it is spurring Leroy Merlin (another home improvement store) to gut their old location and expand. Cash is flowing in Lugo!

We were hungry by the end of our long list of errands and it was only 11:30. You can’t get real food at a restaurant or Café in Spain at 11:30 in the morning. We never, ever eat fast food anymore, and I very rarely eat anything but fish on advice of my Dr. But sometimes you just need a Big Mac. And in Spain and Portugal McDonalds will make them entirely sin gluten upon request, but it is not on the menu. So we decided to grab a quick bite before heading back to Melide to the tractor dealer.

We went inside and ordered our food from a very nice guy who taught us that a Quarter Pounder with Cheese is Quarto de Libra con queso, and right as he concluded our order he asked for our Covid passports. We were a bit surprised. Yesterday, we drove into Santiago to our favorite restaurant. We had made a reservation with the manager anticipating taking Emilie there straight from the airport. I didn’t want to cancel on them at the last moment, as restaurants are struggling. And their Poké Bowl is to die for. The food is so good. But they never asked us for our Covid passports. Yet McDonald’s in Lugo did. Maybe the regulations changed over night. That does happen in this ever changing Covid environment. Or maybe it’s because they know us.

So now, all indoor dining, no matter the time of day, must require the Covid passport for all patrons in Galicia. We were very happy to show it. Its on both of our lock screens on our phones. We thanked the guy for asking. And we felt 100% better when we took our masks off to eat. Everyone around us was fully vaccinated, too. Or they couldn’t eat inside.

We got home and Jeff went into Melide to order the tractor and all the attachments. I’ll let him tell that story. I stayed home and met with our contractor in monsoon rain, so he could measure for our new Pilgrim bathrooms and showers. And a new septic system. Yesterday was a rough day. But today we are bouncing back and kicking it up a notch. Please don’t tell my cardiologist about that Big Mac. 😉🙏