La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
One of my nicknames for San Geraldo is Gruñon which means Grumpy (like one of the Seven Dwarfs). This week, I’m thinking of stealing the name. Yesterday was a bad stomach day. Not a day to get out much. Today, the stomach is fine, but the hip is awful.
This was Elena’s cleaning day. She changed from the usual Wednesday for her final two weeks before Merchi returns next week. We headed across the street to La Bandera only to find it closed. We had forgotten they’re closed Tuesdays. So we walked down the street to La Sultana, our trendy, popular cafe bakery. Although the coffee and pastries are excellent (usually), the service is mostly impersonal and unfriendly. The boss doesn’t tolerate staff visiting for even a moment with customers. Not our kind of place. But our server today did smile.
We were inside near where the service counter is located. The staffer was loudly banging dishes and silverware on the counter non-stop. It’s a wonder nothing broke. It was deafening. Behind me were two men speaking at a volume that would reach people out on the pavement. After my second cup of coffee and my pastel cordobés, I announced that I couldn’t take it anymore and we paid and left.
You know that sound you get in your ears after a rock concert or a night in a dance bar? I’ve got that. It reminds me of when I saw Bruce Springsteen perform in the ’70s. He and The E Street Band were amazing but way too loud. I had a ringing in my ears the entire next day.
My hip truly ached on our walk home, and that did not help my mood. I’ll keep stretching. I’ll keep exercising. And I’ll keep crabbing. As my hip has done in the past, it will probably just ease up on its own. Maybe I should take a break from the news, too.
The top photo is my pastel cordobés. It wasn’t as fresh as it should have been. Immediately below shows the new throw pillow covers I bought last week, cheap! I had intended to use them in the bedroom, but they work fine in the living room, I think, and the old living room throw pillows did not. So I switched them and I’m pleased about that. (Oh my god, that’s not a complaint!) And that’s followed by shadows on the wall on a walk through the Merced Gardens yesterday evening during a quick trip to the grocery store.
Uno de mis apodos para San Geraldo es Gruñón, que significa Gruñón (como uno de los Siete Enanitos). Esta semana, estoy pensando en robarle el nombre. Ayer tuve un mal día de estómago. No fue un buen día para salir mucho. Hoy, el estómago está bien, pero la cadera me duele muchísimo.
Hoy le tocaba limpiar a Elena. Cambió su rutina habitual de los miércoles durante sus dos últimas semanas antes de que Merchi regrese la semana que viene. Cruzamos la calle hacia La Bandera, pero estaba cerrada. Habíamos olvidado que cierran los martes. Así que caminamos hasta La Sultana, nuestra cafetería-panadería de moda. Aunque el café y los pasteles son excelentes (normalmente), el servicio suele ser impersonal y poco amable. El dueño no tolera que el personal hable con los clientes ni un instante. No es nuestro tipo de sitio. Pero hoy, nuestro camarero sí sonrió.
Estábamos dentro, cerca del mostrador. El camarero golpeaba platos y cubiertos contra el mostrador sin parar. Es un milagro que no se rompiera nada. Era ensordecedor. Detrás de mí había dos hombres hablando a un volumen que se oiría hasta en la calle. Después de mi segunda taza de café y mis pastel cordobés, anuncié que no podía más, pagamos y nos fuimos.
¿Conoces ese sonido que escuchas en tus oídos después de un concierto de rock o una noche en un bar de baile? Ya lo tengo. Me recuerda cuando vi actuar a Bruce Springsteen en los años 70. Él y The E Street Band eran increíbles pero demasiado ruidosos. Tuve un zumbido en los oídos durante todo el día siguiente.
Realmente me dolía la cadera en el camino a casa, y eso no mejoró mi estado de ánimo. Seguiré estirándome. Seguiré haciendo ejercicio. Y seguiré molestando. Como lo ha hecho mi cadera en el pasado, probablemente se relajará por sí sola. Quizás yo también debería tomarme un descanso de las noticias.
La foto superior es mi pastel cordobés. No estaba tan fresco como debería haber sido. Inmediatamente debajo se muestran las nuevas fundas de almohadas que compré la semana pasada, ¡baratas! Tenía la intención de usarlos en el dormitorio, pero creo que funcionan bien en la sala de estar, y los viejos cojines de la sala no. Así que los cambié y estoy contento por eso. (¡Dios mío, eso no es una queja!) Y a eso le siguen sombras en la pared durante un paseo por los Jardines de la Merced ayer por la tarde durante un viaje rápido al supermercado.
I would have been tempted to shout “Shut the Fuck Up!” However, you are too polite for that. Even if you are Mr Grumpy (Señor Gruñón) at the moment…
That shadow pic is much better in colour, in my opinion. Jx
Jon:
I came close to shouting “shut the fuck up.” We were walking by a cafe on the Paseo in Fuengirola one day. A baby was crying. A man at another table shouted, “Oh bloody hell! Shut that brat up!” I think maybe it’s better that I made my quiet escape.
I think you tend to prefer the color versions, don’t you? I start off thinking “this needs to be in black and white” and then can’t decide which I prefer.
Complain all you want. Sometimes letting it go is the only thing that helps. If it’s not the stomach, it’s the hip, oy gevalt. I like the throw pillows.
Love you Scooter,
Janie
janiejunebug:
Like Roseanne Roseannadana said, ””It just goes to show you, it’s always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Either you smoke or you have a sweat ball hanging off your nose.”
My left hip has been bothering me for months but is finally a lot better. I have some exercises that seem to help. The pastel cordobés looks good. Too bad it wasn’t fresh. I usually prefer the color versions but I think I like that shadow in black and white better.
ellen abbott:
Do you know what’s causing the hip pain? I can never make up my mind about the color or black and white.
I think it’s the piriformis muscle in my butt. You can do certain stretches to ease it. And yeah sleeping on my left side sometimes wakes me up with my butt and leg aching which will ease if I pull my left knee up to my chest and hold it there a little while.
I’m with Jon; I would have f-bombed the place!!! Of course, then I would have f-bombed ’em from the street when they threw me out!
I love the colorful pillow. Lively!
Bob:
If we hadn’t left when we did, I might have shouted something. Sometimes I wish I could. But I’d live with the guilt for the rest of my life.
The pillow is one of two Klimt-based designs that SG embroidered. He started another one years ago, but just barely. I wish he would finish it. I love them.
That lamp really caught my eye! Perfect. I’ve been cranky for a while now. Everything is a problem. Sigh. I’m not sure how to shake this, but it’s got to get better. Olivia
Olivia:
Oh, I’m sorry. You didn’t strike me as someone who gets cranky. (Is there anyone who never gets cranky?) I hope you soon find your way out of it. If not, just crank to me!
Isn’t that lamp great. I found it in a little shop in Seville. It sits right now on a piano stool. I need to get a taller table for it to sit alongside the sofa. I was with a visiting family member when I found it and she, very conventional, was silent. Her only comment was, “Oh, that’s interesting, isn’t it?”
Crab all you want, Scoot — it’s YOUR blog, LOL! I really like the colours of your new pillow slips — they co-ordinate so well with the “Klimt” pillow, grey couch and burgundy lampshade, who wouldn’t want to sit there for a chat?
I hope your hip feels better soon. If it’s bursitis, that does take a couple of months to fully heal. If it’s arthritis, join the club, LOL!
Tundra Bunny:
I’m pleased with the new pillows. Only €3.50 each! This seems to be exactly the same as the bursitis that began when I was in my early 30s. We’ll see how it goes.
A restaurant with good food but lousy service. Reminds me of the soup place on Seinfeld. Relax that hip if you can.
Kirk:
We’ve found several places here with great food and unfriendly service. We don’t tend to return.
I would have bought that lamp in a heartbeat. It IS interesting. And it’s awesome.
You don’t have sciatica, do you? I know that gets worse with walking. And it’s literally a pain in the ass. Sounds like whatever you have is too. Of course you’re grumpy.
Mary Moon:
I’ll try to keep this short. I had sciatica for 6 years (from 2017). What was strange was that the only time it didn’t hurt was when I was walking (although bending and twisting were dangerous). Lying down could be torture. It flared up at times and I could go for a week without sleeping. I sprained my ankle during covid lockdown. It didn’t heal properly and in 2023 I talked to the doctor about how I was walking differently because my foot didn’t land the way it used to. She watched me walk and said it was nerve damage, not my ankle. I had three MRIs and learned I had a tumor on my spine. The neurologist told me the nerves it was wrapped around had nothing to do with the sciatica. I had surgery. The tumor was removed and I haven’t had pain from sciatica since. And my foot still doesn’t land like it used to. Go figure. I’ve been doing special stretches for that ankle lately.
My other half “Madame Arcati” was only diagnosed in later life with one leg slightly shorter than the other (as well as dropped arches) and was prescribed a special insole to wear, which helped with some problems he experienced that sound a bit similar to yours. I’m no doctor, but it’s worth exploring… Jx
Jon:
Isn’t it amazing that that wouldn’t be noticed until later in life. All the trouble that could have saved. But, no, I’m apparently well balanced (only when it comes to my legs). The bursitis is due to tightness. (I’m very tight.) My ankle clearly has less rotation since I sprained it and was unable to go to the doctor due to lockdown. I’ll keep working at it.
Whoa! You have quite the horrid history with sciatica! And know ten thousand times more about it than I do, especially as pertains to your own sciatic nerve. I can’t help but think it’s all related somehow to your present problems but again, I don’t really have any idea. Doctor’s don’t always have any idea either, do they?
Mary Moon:
I talked to so many doctors about the sciatica in those 6 years. One told me to enroll in Pilates. Before laying out the cash, I researched it and every scientific journal or study said pilates was of absolutely no benefit when it came to sciatica. So much for expert advice.
Right there with you! The older I am getting more I cannot tolerate being in loud environments; it’s a trigger for me and I begin to shut down. It’s one of the reasons we no longer eat out a lot; every restaurant seems to think we need a bank of television monitors blaring at us. One place had a combination of tile floors AND monitors. I was like trying to eat dinner inside a subway station during rush hour. I just don’t know how people can think that much noise is necessary during dinner.
Rade:
I’ve always gotten overwhelmed with too much volume and background noise. I’ve never understood it. SG’s first experience of my mother’s family, 7 siblings and their more than a dozen children and their grandchildren, and all the spouses at a holiday party, nearly put him over the edge.
The living room look lovely and the pillows look great if not adds a nice touch of the pale yellow color for some pop. And someone should tell the owner of that place, that when staff mingle with its patrons it makes the difference between a lovely neighborhood haunt… to that of just another uncaring cookie cutter chain.
Mistress Maddie:
The pillows I had in the living room went well with our old furniture. In addition to the neutral sofas here, we bought an unusual gold comfy chair. The gold and off-white pillows did not go at all well with the gold of the chair.
On top of it all, SG bought a loaf of bread at that bakery as we were leaving and when he went to use it for lunch, he found small spots of mold on it. This is supposed to a high-end neighborhood place. Jeez!
It is party, you can grump if you want to, grump if you want to. Now that should put an earworm in your brain that will drown-out some of the noise. Annoyingly. Take care, get some rest.
David Godfrey:
Oh that song. I still love it. That was the theme song of a friend at university. We were a group of friends who were always singing it about her. She was dating my best friend who treated her like shit, so there were tears at every party. They’ve been married 50 years now. (We’re no longer friends.)
My musings:
a) I’ve always considered having a proper grump to be an art form (to David’s dismay)
b) When the cosmos does not behave properly, it needs to be chastised; that’s the only way it will ever learn.
c) I adore SG’s pillow! (I also adore Klimt)
d) Your place always has a bespoke sophistication (A couple of years ago people here started using “bespoke” all over the place, whereas before one never heard the word. I thought it was silly.)
e) These days NEVER listen to the news when you’re feeling even slightly off; it will only make things much worse. Best to never listen to it at all; I cut myself off from all news media during both of Trump’s terms.
wickedhamster:
I really should take your and my advice about the news. I was just reading and got into an even lower funk. SG does such a precision job with his embroidery and those pillows are stunning. I don’t think I’ve ever used the word bespoke myself but I always like the sound of it. We’ve got two proper grumps in this house.
I saw grunon (still can’t figure out how to do the squiggly thingy over the n) and thought “for the aquarium?”. That is all.
Deedles:
Like a grunion! I love it. I have a Spanish keyboard.
Oh, no, I just saw your reply, above, mentioning mold spots on your bread from the bakery! Eww!
I, too, am very, very irritated by loud noise from the dishes and cutlery at a restaurant… like, when they are re-stocking, or dealing with a busser bin… I glare their way a number of times. I wouldn’t yell, though, either… but, what I would do, would be to ask to speak to the manager, or tell the person at check out, or someone like that… when I’m finished, and leaving… and just say that I’m sure that the worker didn’t realize how loud and irritating what he was doing, was. I think they’re just oblivious, and bringing it to their attention would be good.
LOVE THE PILLOWS! (and the whole living room look!)
Judy C:
Oh, I hate the slamming of everything by the bussers, too. I don’t know who I would complain to at this place. It’s a way of life and with a manager who doesn’t seem to care about the customer experience.
God, I hate people being loud in a public space, almost as much as I hate people walking while looking down at their cell phones. Sometimes crabbiness is necessary and called for!
Steve:
I recently read that Italy is about to make it against the law to walk while looking down at your cell phone.
My hip pain was incorrectly diagnosed as bursitis until a better doctor instantly ordered an X-Ray and found advanced arthritis. No wonder it kept giving way. And a month later I got Hippolyta. But you may not have to go that far.
Meanwhile be like J B Priestley, who used to say I might have had a bad day, but I had a good grumble!
Boud
Boud:
Well, I’m going to keep believing this is bursitis since I had it when I was in my 30s and it feels exactly the same. I noticed this evening it’s greatly improved. But I did “have” sciatica for 6 years until a tumor (that had grown around nerves) was removed from my spine. No more sciatica!