It’s Weird, Man. Really Weird

So this last stretch has been super strange. I won’t go into all the details. But suffice to say it has involved a couple of protests and stealing some of our land.

Not In My Backyard

The city of Palas has proposed something that has the entire community within a 40 km radius up in arms. Like a pitchforks-and-torches type of deal. I won’t bore you with the details because the details don’t matter, but our mailbox has been stuffed with fliers about it. And our friends in Melide, restaurant owners who turned out to be lawyers in a past life, are leading the charge.

I was having lunch with a friend when my neighbors called me.

‘We need to see you immediately. It’s an emergency.’

I was alarmed. Normally, my friend and I have a lunch that lasts until after dark. But this time I had to go. An ‘emergency’ had been called in the neighborhood and like any good Batman I answered the call!

Over beers, including getting Jeff involved, we canvased the neighborhood and it seems the danger is real. My community activism gene has been activated. There is no turning back.

I’m Gen X. Like first-year Gen X. I watched the protests of the Vietnam war with interest as a child. It seemed to me that the only way to effect change is to demand it. Even if you have to do it at volume. And all my siblings are boomers. Boomers generally liked protesting. So it rubbed off on me. I have marched for women’s rights. For unjust firing of professors at my university. For the end to gun violence. Give me a sign and a bull-horn and I’m there for it.

I may not be a real citizen of this country but I still care deeply about it and my community. So I’m marching any time justice is under attack. I can’t help it. And yesterday was no different. I accompanied my neighbors to our local cultural center in Melide and we protested something that impacts us directly. I shouted and chanted right along side my neighbor. My picture is in our local newspaper paper. And I met a ton of new people! Really cool people. 😎 And we had a funny misunderstanding.

‘Would you like some Ex, Kelli?’

I was shocked. Sure, I remember the protests in the 60’s. The drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll. But in 2024? Besides, ecstasy isn’t my bag. ‘Uh. No thank you?’

‘You don’t like ex?’

Ecstasy? 😳

‘No. I’m not really into Ex. But thanks for asking.’

Then, the guy standing next to her caught on to my confused look.

‘Huevos.’ he said ‘Ex.’

Ah. ‘Oh. Ok. Yes, we love eggs.’

Jeff laughed when I told him this story. So many times he’s been frustrated when people don’t understand his accent in spanish. Now he sees how the difference between the ex sound and the eggs sound matters a whole lot! An egg-white omelette’s worth.

It will be a long fight for this issue. I am now in charge of a few things to help the struggle. Research, letter writing, etc. But I will gladly do my part. And am happy to be included.

Except When It Is In My Actual Backyard- Sneaky Bastards

I got home late after my Dr appointment in Santiago yesterday. It was a busy day of protesting, driving, and medical procedures. I took Fergus out to the barn to switch out the laundry when I noticed bright orange markers a meter inside our property line. WTF?!? Jeff heard my shout and we stood with our jaws open. Who came on our land and laid these markers?

After printing our property records of our four plots, Jeff and I headed to the ayuntamiento in Palas this morning. The same place I have graced with Christmas cookies for the past three years. I was loaded for bear and as I breached the top of the marble staircase in front of the windows for the customer service counter, the gentleman behind the counter didn’t miss a beat. He pointed towards the city architect’s office. Somehow he knew and we went straight there.

Jeff had it all typed out. The guy was courteous but explained that they were taking part of one of our plots of land for a new road. One meter of it in some places. Two meters plus in others. And it would be going down the centre of our Horreo and our woodshed. Like slicing them in half. You can’t physically do that. Again, what the actual fuck?

He explained that our land had been reregistered into someone else’s name – a Solar company – and they probably got the letter explaining imminent domain. They had a year to protest but they didn’t. Why? Because it isn’t really their land. So now Palas can take 1500 sq meters of our property for this road. That’s when I LOST it! And Jeff let me off the chain. We have spent years – years!!! – getting permissions from the GDM patrimonio and Xunta. Years following the rules. Fucking stupid rules with twisted nonsense and bureaucracy. And then, they can reregister our land to someone else to bypass the imminent domain notification and waiting period, and then steal our property. CROOKS! They better show me the money or I’m calling our lawyer.

What about the blessed forestry study we had to do? No one came to do that for their new fucking road. They will take out more than 40 of our trees in this land grab! Old trees. Big shade trees. In our albergue permissions they said if we cut down a tree we must plant another. Where are they replanting 40 of my trees? Remember that stupid roads guy who showed up last year without a measuring tape and told me I couldn’t have a gate because he could ‘tell just by eye-balling it?’ Genius!

We drove home from Palas with a hand full of papers and bullshit excuses rolling around in my head. Including a type of dejection I had yet to feel but was now drowning in. A new low, and that is saying something. Has the universe stopped whispering ‘Leave Galicia’ and it’s now shouting at us ‘Run! Before it’s too late?’

I want to stay and help my neighbors win this fight. But today we need to seriously consider if this is the right place for us. Jeff is vacillating, but leaning towards selling up. The next owners would have all their permissions to build. The ones we fought for. But none of our bitterness. Is it time to dream a new dream? Find a new place to call home far away from here? France 🇫🇷 , anyone? There is one upside, I guess. Until then at least the Ex, I mean eggs, are free.