La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
The above photo is a window display not far from City Hall. After 15 years, I no longer look at the penitents and see the Ku Klux Klan. However, they do still make me uncomfortable, and this display with the jumbo-headed, dead-eyed figure holding a too-small hood (capirote) completely creeped me out.
I went over to La Bandera this morning later than planned, around 11:15. It was filled with customers inside and out and I only saw two people working, so I quickly slipped away and will try again for photos another day.
San Geraldo walked back over to public health today to complete his diabetes check-up, his eyes. He hates that because they put drops in his eyes (or as he says “they drop my eyes”) and he feels like he’s lost control. SG does not like to feel like he’s lost control. Ever. This is the appointment he walked out of last week while he was in the waiting room and saw three patients get eye drops.
As he was leaving the house today, looking pouty and miserable even after I hugged him and tried to get him to relax his shoulders, he muttered, “They’d better drop my eyes immediately. They should know by now that I’m a runner.” And then he laughed at the thought of that. I announced, “We’ve got a runner!” He’s still there and I hope he’s behaving. Note: He just texted to say they “dropped his eyes.”
I’ve been recently ending my night’s sleep with the most intense and peculiar dreams. Yesterday morning I woke up from a dream about a gathering of my extended family, my maternal grandmother, and San Geraldo. SG and Grandma were having a ball telling each other stories and laughing freely. SG did meet my grandmother three weeks before she died in 1984 and she of course approved (she only knew him as my “friend” but I wonder what she truly knew), but it was a formal, deferential visit. During the dream I thought how well she looked for 132 years old. I was delighted to see her unusual unrepressed joy and I took dozens of pictures. When I woke up, I immediately grabbed my phone to look at all the photos.
La foto de arriba es un escaparate no muy lejos del Ayuntamiento. Después de 15 años, ya no veo al Ku Klux Klan en los penitentes. Sin embargo, todavía me incomodan, y este escaparate con la figura de cabeza enorme y ojos muertos sosteniendo un capirote demasiado pequeño me dio mucho miedo.
Fui a La Bandera esta mañana más tarde de lo previsto, alrededor de las 11:15. Estaba lleno de clientes dentro y fuera y solo vi a dos personas trabajando, así que me escabullí rápidamente e intentaré sacar fotos otro día.
San Geraldo volvió hoy al centro de salud pública para completar su revisión de diabetes, la de los ojos. Lo odia porque le ponen gotas en los ojos y siente que pierde el control. A SG no le gusta sentir que pierde el control. Nunca. Esta es la cita de la que se fue la semana pasada mientras estaba en la sala de espera y vio a tres pacientes recibir gotas para los ojos.
Hoy, al salir de casa, con cara de enfado y tristeza incluso después de que lo abrazara e intentara que relajara los hombros, murmuró: «Más les vale que me quiten los ojos de inmediato. Ya deberían saber que soy un corredor». Y luego se rió al pensarlo. Anuncié: «¡Tenemos un corredor!» Sigue ahí y espero que se esté portando bien. Nota: Acaba de enviar un mensaje de texto diciendo que «se le cayeron los ojos».
Últimamente, termino mis noches de sueño con sueños intensos y peculiares. Ayer por la mañana, me desperté de un sueño sobre una reunión de mi familia extendida, mi abuela materna y San Geraldo. San Geraldo y la abuela se lo pasaban en grande contándose historias y riendo a carcajadas. San Geraldo conoció a mi abuela tres semanas antes de que falleciera en 1984 y, por supuesto, ella lo aprobó (solo lo conocía como mi amigo, pero me pregunto qué sabía realmente), pero fue una visita formal y respetuosa. Durante el sueño, pensé en lo bien que se veía para tener 132 años. Me encantó ver su inusual y espontánea alegría y le saqué decenas de fotos. Al despertar, inmediatamente agarré mi teléfono para ver todas las fotos.
• El Gran Capitán, General Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. Quizás debería llamarse El Guano Capitán. Si tan solo las palomas pudieran aprender a ir al baño.
• Más sombra.
• Incluso hace demasiado calor bajo las sombrillas.
• Casi llego al Ayuntamiento y lo tengo todo para mí solo.
• Ni un alma a la vista.
• Cerca de casa. Intento imaginar cómo era y cómo se usaba ese arco en el pasado.
Click the thumbnails to enlarge.
Haz clic en las miniaturas para ampliar.
I had a dream recently that J was being chased by a spider monkey, while I sat in my father’s 1972 Chrysler – the bronze four door one.
David:
Oh, that old spider monkey/Chrysler dream!
I still see KKK in those dolls.
Wouldn’t it have been cool if there WERE photos on the camera??
Boy, Cordoba is a ghost town in the heat; we don’t get that here, people are still out and about even though we’ve been in the 100s for several days.
And I have this vision of SG breaking free from the nurses with the eye droppers and running through the building looking for escape!
Bob:
It would have been SO cool if there were photos. Locals tend to be very practical when it comes to the heat. Business is done early in the day and late in the day. But this is also the time of year when the city empties out. Everyone is in Fuengirola (or some other beach… but mostly Fuengirola). SG did once get up and run out of the dentist’s office a moment after his cleaning began.
I have been having really weird dreams lately myself, but when I wake up, I don’t really have a vivid memory of the dream, but I do know that it was a dream. I just feel a bit unsettled. I am glad that SG got the eye drops thing over with.
Michael:
I usually get up to pee around 5 (that’s why they call it the “wee” hours). The next few hours of sleep leave me with dreams I remember (usually briefly).
The “wee” hours are a perfect descriptor of that 5:00 time!
Isn’t it amazing how people long dead can come back to us so realistically in dreams?
I’m glad SG stayed to get his eyes dropped. It’s not fun but it’s important.
Steve:
I’m glad he did, too.
Aww, it’s beautiful to think of your loving reassurance to SG… love truly is grand 🙂
That dream! Everything about it, and your re-telling of it, is amazing to me. Grabbing your phone to look at the photos…haaa!
Judy C:
I was seriously disappointed there were no new photos of my grandmother. That would have been magical (well, in more ways than one).
I, too, have the most vivid and generally insane dreams right before I wake up. I’m sure I remember them because they DO occur right before I wake up. Recently I dreamed that Glen had covered a cement floor with a contact-like product that looked like wood flooring but was simply sticky vinyl paper, and then covered that with BEIGE SHAG CARPET! I was so pissed at him. Beige? Beige? How dare he?
I’m glad you got a visit with your grandmother.
I don’t like my eyes being dropped either. It takes me about an entire day for my eyes to return to normal after those damn drops.
Mary Moon:
Yes, I’m sure you’re right about the dreams being vivid because they were the most recent. Having my eyes dropped doesn’t matter to me. If anything, I find the weird vision kind of fun. That dream of yours has me picturing the house on the lake before Glen got to work!
Yep, the penitents look like klansmen to me too (having actually SEEN the klan marching on the street in Richmond in my childhood its a very triggering sight!). Like SG I am very averse to having my eyes dropped. Miserable feeling!
Ceci
ceci:
I have never seen the Klan marching. That would be frightening and sickening. Clearly you would not be comfortable at a Semana Santa procession here. It took us a while to adjust to the appearance.
I hope SG has a good pair of “old man wrap around sunglasses” to wear home after getting his eyes dropped. They’re ugly AF but I swear by them after every optical dilation.
Debra:
SG’s eyes are very light in color and super-sensitive to sunlight. So those are his sunglasses of choice. What’s funny here is that no one makes fun of them. He has several times put them down on a counter while shopping only to have another customer (always young and cool) pick them up to try them on.
After my cataracts were removed, my eyes became very sensitive to light too. Now I have to wear my old man wrap-around sunglasses every time it’s a sunny goddamn day. They’ve become my standard sunglasses too. I am desperately hoping everyone thinks they make me look cool.
I worked for an ophthalmologist for a few years, so I was the one who did the “eye dropping.” I know it’s not a fun thing to experience but necessary for the doctor to be able to see the retina and blood vessels, especially in someone who’s diabetic.
As for me, I have some macular degeneration and have to have scans every six months and the full exam with drops yearly. Did that in May and it takes about 10 or 12 hours for my pupils to go back to normal size. Until then, I look like something out of the 1960 movie “The Village of the Damned”.
TexasTrailerParkTrash:
I get out a kick out of the eye-drops exams. I like the change in vision. I have had some times when it took an entire day to recover (and that was annoying). But that was probably when I had a torn retina or detached retina. Then there were the cataract surgeries.
You’d have thought someone might have taken a brush to get the shit off the poor Gran Capitán! It would appear that midday’s a great time for sight-seeing in Cordoba… Jx
PS I agree – what SG needs on such occasions is a big pair of “Roy Orbison” sunglasses.
Jon:
The City does regularly clean the Gran Capitán. This is the worst I’ve seen him. SG has those glasses. His eyes are very light in color and extremely sensitive to the sun, so he’s worn those glasses for years. In the States, people had a good laugh. Here, people think they’re stylish.
Poor SG! It’s an ordeal getting anything done with your eyes. I’m glad he was successfully dropped. What a nice partner you are, no telling him to snap out of it! Boud
Boud:
We have both learned over the years to roll with each other’s moods and not lecture (much).
I love that purple figurine ,,,can you send it me and I’ll give you the money
finlaygray:
You don’t mean the purple with the big head, do you?
The hooded characters do nothing for me as well.
Big hugs to SG for braving the eye exam. Good practice if he ever needs cataract surgery.
The whole neighbourhood to yourself! All that stone sucks up the heat…..can’t imagine how hot it gets.
Jim:
SG has already had cataract surgery on both eyes. He did amazingly well. The last couple of nights, it hasn’t cooled down. Still high 30s after 10 p.m. And, yes, I can feel the heat coming off the pavement and walls.
Oh, he did have the surgery! His sight must have improved a lot. I had it done two months ago…..what a difference!
Even if it’s not the Klan, I bet the intent of those hoods still are to freak people out.
Kirk:
During the Inquisition, convicts had to wear the hoods as humiliation and public repentance. After the Inquisition, penitents adopted it as a way of showing humility (and supposedly keeping their penance private).
Well, we know where the Klan got their wardrobe. Let’s wrap our hatred up in the church.
I never dream of my grandparents, one lived across the state and died when I was 14, the other when I was 18. I do however dream about my deceased parents though rarely and they are never pleasant dreams. The one that baffles me is when I dream of my sister who died three years ago. They are usually full of rejection from her, I’ve moved on why are you calling me back.
A city as big as Cordoba you’d think some people would be out even in the heat.
Ellen Abbott,
There are actually people out. I just like to make a point. Locals, however, do get out early and late and avoid the hottest part of the day.