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November 9                        Sunday morning and its bright, clear, and cold outside. it's going to be another beautiful day here in Rota. The annual "Tapa Feria"  is in progress this weekend. I have written about this feria many times. This year there are a few new restaurants involved and some old standbys as well. Basically several bars and/or restaurants complete with each other in presenting samplings of the tapas they offer as specialties of the house in their establishment at very reasonable prices for the public to enjoy. There is music and a generally good atmosphere where lots of interesting and delicious tapas are available to be consumed, along with a few of your favorite beverages. This year the event is being held near the old port.

Yesterday while enjoying a second delicious Café con Leché at Bar Edu's (located in the Rota Poligono) I noticed a lottery vender using what I had always thought to be just a device to print out lottery tickets, but then I realized that this was just another example of how fast Spain has embraced modern technology. This machine would indeed print out Primitiva Lottery numbers but it also incorporated a laser scanner that could read these tickets. I'm talking about those strips printed out that resemble a noise pattern to see if your ticket was a winner, figure the odds on that one! Well that got me thinking about the past and things that used to be and how they are today. Visitors to Spain in years past might remember those every-present knife grinders that rolled their grinding wheels along mounted on the backs of mopeds and playing their signature music pan pipes (I always call them grinders rather than sharpeners because my knives were always a lot thinner and smaller after receiving the treatment). Well that doesn't happen anymore or at least it doesn't around here. Now all these folks carry tape recorders that play their pan pipe music. Do you think this might be because nobody can remember the music any longer or maybe their are all short of breath. I mentioned Spain jumping onto the technology train and that 's a plain old hot smoking fact. According to various articles on the subject, Spain is nearly the most computer wired country in Europe and is first in the use of cell phones. It's kind of funny to be in a bar and watch everyone grab their cell phone to see if it's their phone when someone's phone sounds off. Just about everybody I know carries a cell phone and they all use some kind of music as a ring tone so I have my ring tone to what is called "Old phone" and that's what it sounds like, a normal telephone ringing (a new 16 GB iPhone thank you very much) and I'm usually the only person that doesn't use music for that purpose.

Well time to hat up and go feed the outside cats and head out for my Sunday morning café con leché and mollete with the works as my lady bar keep says.

November 1                        I have been away for awhile it seems, well this time I do have an excuse and it's called the flu!!! Yes I got my flu inoculation, being somewhat over 50 I can't inhale the mist version, and as luck would have it before the newly injected viruses could cause me to become immune the flu bug struck me very hard. I know it's hard to believe that you can have the flu shot and still get the flu but it happens to me all the time. Anyway I'm nearly finished with these nasty bugs after battling with them for more than a week. Enough about this already.

Rota is kind of damp outside these days as we've had lots of rain. Nothing like the deluge of a few weeks ago just steady everyday rain and our Silver Lining here is that we won't have to be concerned with water restrictions any time soon and our local farmers are happy to have the surplus water. The tourist have all departed anyway so there basically isn't anyone left to complain except perhaps for the mamas who have to get their small children to school and back while trying to keep them dry.

What else, well the dollar/euro exchange rate has improved by about 10-12% over what it was a month ago and the Spanish government has decreased the cost of gasoline at the same time. This effectively means that those of us who receive our daily stipend in dollars can buy much cheaper gas for our cars, something around $4.50 a gallon I believe but I'll have to double check the numbers.

I missed Halloween completely so I haven't anything to write about on this subject. However, today is All Saints Day here in Spain and with this bit of information I'll say bye-bye.

October 19                        Last week parts Rota were flooded out. Many underground parking garages for apartment buildings and private dwellings had from 3 to 6 feet of standing water after our recent storm. The base fire department as well as Public Works Department facilities were made available to the local government to assist in de-watering  these flooded spaces. You can read the article from Stars & Stripes by clicking on Rota Storm link.

If anyone expected to see the 4th Quarter Cultural Schedule on the home page - I'm sorry that it isn't available. The fault is all mine. I had the schedule then I didn't have it, then I got another schedule and left it some place. So I'm hoping to find the missing schedule tomorrow (Monday) and add it to the website and update the link.

Please remember that the Spanish News Items page has a link that will take you to the http://WWW.TypicallySpanish.Com website were you can read in English the happenings in Spain. I no longer personally update this page by cutting and pasting items from their website.

October 11                        Yesterday Rota experienced a terrific rain, wind and thunder storm with nearly continuous lightening and accompanying thunder throughout most of the night. There were many below ground level parking garages flooded and several streets closed for flooding. It seems to be drying out some now, but rain and showers are schedule through this coming Tuesday.

Happy Birthday U. S. Navy and yes I know it's Monday, October 13, but the Navy Ball was held here in Rota Friday night. Monday is Columbus Day for both the Spanish and American communities and a holiday for everybody. Fiesta del Rosario was finished last Monday, there was a procession, horses and horse drawn wagons paraded, and lots of community things going on during that weekend. A big time was had by most folks and some just stayed at home.

 The dollar continues to improve slightly over the euro and Spain along with the rest of Europe are continuing to experience economic problems so I suppose the dollar, wait a minute . . . didn't I write just a few days past that the dollar would probably drop due to these economic conditions, I think I did which goes to prove that I don't know anything about the situation. So there . . . don't pay any attention to what I say about which way the dollar might go in relation to the euro.

October 5                        Sunday, no more rain for awhile but it's growing colder at night. What's happening in Rota now, well . . . it the Fiesta del Rosario. This happens every 7th of October. Many events and displays have been scheduled over this weekend and continuing through until the 7th. This morning there was a mini-marathon through some of the busiest streets in Rota, although I could find no mention of this on the Rota Municipal Website. How then did I become aware of this event, well I was trapped on one side of town while riding my bicycle this morning and wanted to get to the other side of town. This meant that I had to ride from downtown back toward the base nearly to the main gate until I could cross the route of the runners. Not to worry, I wasn't in a hurry, the sun was shinning and I didn't have a care in the world, or maybe I did but just didn't remember them Sometimes it can be a blessing to have developed memory loss with age.

Reading the comments below about the woes of the dollar/euro exchange rate . . . it looks like I was way off base, thankfully, because what I expected to happen hasn't and this is that the dollar would start dropping and exactly the opposite has happened. It's about time whatever the reason. Ever little bit helps as the cost of living here in Rota keeps on rising for those of us with dollar incomes.

One more thing, actually two things -  the first is that return readers of this website might notice that the page titled "Hans' Art Works" (or whatever it was called - refer to memory loss above) is missing. I happened across Hans this weekend and he asked me to remove the page as he now has no time to sell art works to private parties. He is contracted to sell everything he generates to art galleries and is probably rolling in the dough-re-mi. The other thing is that I just plain got tired of culling for new items to add to the Spanish News page and there is a link at the top of this page that will take the reader to the "Typically Spanish News" website for those interested in reading the news about Spain in English.

September 28                Rain showers are here today and we should be seeing more rain the next few days. The good old Yankee green-back is down (again) against the Euro even though Europe has plenty of economic problems of their own, they apparently don't compare with our home grown American economic problems. And here I was planning on maybe buying a new car next spring using the expected bounce in the value of the dollar when changing of the presidency happens. I don't know why this happens , but it always does. Every time we get a new president in American for a few months the dollar always seems to gain against other currencies. So I guess now that we're going to be taking 700 gadzillion bucks from the tax payer to solve (maybe, hopefully, and a few other wishes) our problems and our global economic position won't be so good for awhile, if ever again, and my anticipated dollar bounce will probably not happen.

Oh yes, the last time I wrote in this news column I was hot to buy an Apple iPhone, 3G type, but as is usual with me, after the first days and weeks of keen anticipation of having a new toy and having to wait and wait the desire begins to fade. Now with a cooler head I'm more able to think dispassionately about this new venture into the world of pocket internet, GPS, etc. access and having read so many negative comments about the iPhone, I think I'll be waiting a few more months before getting my feet wet.

So is there any news from Rota, unfortunately not from me. I'm still kind of out of the loop. For me to recognize something new in Rota it would have to literally jump up and down screaming for attention.

September 22                At 1722 (1122 EST) local time in Rota, today, the seasons change from Summer to Fall according to the news on Spanish TV, so they must be correct. Readers of this page will know how much I look forward to the end of someone saving my daylight for me as we come to the end of Daylight Saving Time. This happens sometime during the month of October in Europe but it can't come soon enough for me. You might wonder what's the big deal, well I live in an area where folks don't believe in bring their children in and settling down for the night until the wee hours of the morning and a change in the clock time vice biological time causes that to come about an hour earlier. It's true what they say about older people, we like (some of us do anyway) to go to bed early and get up early when the day is still fresh and bright and not encumbered by noise and hustle and bustle of day-to-day living . The birds are singing and there is plenty of tables or seats at the bar in our favorite morning coffee bars.

So ok I still don't have anything to write about except for the changing season. The dollar was gaining against the Euro for a brief period and then there was a kind of meltdown back in the U.S. financial scene so the trend is back the other way for now even though the European economy also is having big problems. Maybe one of these days we will see some significant dollar gains, enough so that I can consider buying a new car. I don't actually need a new car, the one I'm driving (occasionally driving that is) only has 19,000 kilometers on the clock and it will be 9 years old in a few more months. Right now my aim is much lower, I'm searching for a place that has an Apple iPhone in stock, a kind of mythical creature here in the hinterlands of Spain. There are lots of buyers around but no iPhones for sale. Every once in awhile I ask and I'm told that a shipment is expected next week, but so far it just haven't happened or maybe the shipment arrived only to be sold off before I get around to checking again. Why do I want an iPhone, well I certainly don't need one, but I look at things this way now and this is that if I want something and I can afford it and it doesn't hurt anyone else then go for it. I'm past 70 years old now and who knows what's around the next corner (smile) so why worry about things like retirement (it's here already, this is it for me and I'm not saving for it any longer (laugh-out-loud)) and what will the neighbors think, etc. I just like new technology type toys and it is, after all, a phone. Only while I'm sitting at my favorite morning, afternoon, etc. coffee bar I can use the GPS feature to know where it is just in case I forget where I am. Did I forget to mention that I'm starting to get old.

So what's happening in our area these days. . .  I just don't have a clue. Vendemia is finished; summer is nearly finished (the beach season, not the calendar season); we're in limbo between summer and not summer but a long way from winter, not that we ever get any real winter here anyway, except for once in a blue moon type year. Se if you want to know the happenings in Rota and other nearby towns then I guess you can check out the Our Links page for the website to the Rota, etc. where they abound with good information type stuff.

September 13                OK, so I'm still on vacation. Actually I'm not but I am spending a lot of time at my volunteer job at the base hospital. Well, summer although still here is beginning to wane. Nearly all the temporary summer tourist have left Rota until next year, but there are still plenty tourist types here - like the ones that own their own apartments or vacation homes or older folks that don't have children at home any longer. School on the base started a week ago which is a bummer for American children who live off base as their Spanish counterparts haven't returned to school yet. This happens within the next few days I believe.

This morning as I was riding my scooter, it was a shopping day or I would have been on a bicycle, I had to notice that a light jacket or windbreaker would have felt very nice. When I arrived at my usual morning coffee bar all the outside tables were unoccupied, but the inside area was kind of full. I sat outside as I usually do. By noon however the sun was up high enough to make it feel hot enough for a trip to the beach, not for me but plenty of others took advantage of the sunny day.

So what's happening these days. In Jerez, a much larger neighbor town, a famous festival is happening now. This is the Vendemia festival, celebrating the harvest of the Sherry wine grapes. Here are three websites where you can read a bit about the Vendemia Feria: Number 1, Number 2, and Number 3. There are many more websites including a few from Jerez to be found on the Our Links page.

I guess this is all until another day folks. Hurray for football season, that's American football, the kind where when you see a ball on the ground it's probably a fumble and everyone tried to pick it up and run with it instead of kicking it around with their feet. Got to love the NFL and college football season. So many hopes and expectations at the start of the season and then . . .

September 1                Hooray, Rota is beginning to return to us Roteños as our summer tourist are slowly departing to return on the weekends for as long as our nice beach weather remains. It's nice not to have to plan for a shopping excursion to one of our markets trying to avoid the overcrowding and long lines and I think parking spots are beginning to once again become available throughout town once again.

Every year it seems that August takes longer and longer to pass. It must be my advanced age making it seem so. Also this year the month of August was probably the mildest we've experienced in decades. We only had a very few days when the temperatures reached into the nineties and there wasn't any levante winds to speak of. Now we all look forward to the beginning of the cooler autumn weather.

August 30                    Summer vacation and I didn't do nada, except watch a lot of TV, the Olympics mostly, goof off except for 4-5 hours during Monday-Friday when I spent time at my Red Cross Volunteer job. I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable summer, I know I did. This year had to be the best weather of any August in a long, long time. I used my a/c only 2 days this entire month. Things were mostly quiet in Rota, no strikes, labor unrest, etc. I'll write more when there is something to write about.

August 10                    Well summer is moving on swiftly. These next 21 days can't pass to swiftly for me. I'll truly appreciate the end of vacation season, of course the entire year is a kind of vacation for me so I don't have to crowd a whole year of fun into one hectic 30 day period. The usual happenings are still happening and all those events can be found on Rota Municipal website so I won't be listing them again here.

Your webmaster will be turning 71 years of kicking and screaming and taking up space next week so if you don't see as many update or new photos as you want, please cut him so slack. He does a really good job of remembering his name and where he lives most of the time and doesn't always remember to attend to this website and sometimes he actually opens the website editing software only to forget why he did. Until next time... stay out of the hot sun and don't take any wooden nickels (what's a nickel?).

August 4                    A friend (???) mentioned the other day that if I was so concerned about the over crowding here in Rota that I should consider leaving as I represented about 1% of the population. Well I'll have you know that I have been dieting and I surely can't represent a bit more than one-half of one percent, I think this is written as 0.5%, of Rota's summer population (LOL).

Rota is sweltering in heat and humidity, but mostly humidity. Actually if it were dryer out, the temperature wouldn't be too bad. Hanging a wet bathing suit out to dry can take a long, long dry with little or no breeze with this high humidity. We still have heat warnings on CNN's weather page with 100 degree Fahrenheit plus days just around the corner. Woe is me.

August 3                    Rota is full of people and they all brought their own car! Summer vacation time has definitely arrived. The Feria de Urta in Rota is in full swing as well. As I rode around parts of Rota this morning on my nice commuting bicycle I could only see two legal parking spaces, but the streets were full of cars circling around doing the Sunday Follies of searching for a parking space so as not to be towed. So these two parking spots would probably last about as long as it takes a niño to eat a one scoop ice cream cone.

It's hot outside folks and it's going to become hotter in the next few days, but CNN's latest weather update, and this agreed with the Spanish TV forecasters', state that the current heat wave should be over on next Wednesday, I truly hope they are correct. It's too damned hot to write, and I'm out of ideas (again), so adios amigos.

July 27                        Back again! Hurray for Carlos Sastre of Spain (I hope I spelled that right), winner of this year's Tour de France. So what's the news from Rota. . . it's a full town. there isn't room for one more car anywhere. This weekend was the first of maybe two Operation Salida weekends as the month of August begins prior to next weekend. Operation usually begins on the first weekend in August but not this year. Operation Salida is the name given to the mass exodus from towns and cities everywhere in Spain at the beginning of the vacation month. Notice I wrote "month" and not week or weeks like in the USA. In Europe most people, except for farmers, fishermen, truck drivers, etc., those who work in offices, factories, government and the like have a month long vacation and sometimes I have to believe all of them from everywhere in Spain all come to Rota or nearby towns for their summer month long vacation. Anyway, Spanish TV last Friday showed long lines of folks in airports waiting for flights to exotic places, like Rota, and huge traffic jams of cars all heading out of towns everywhere for the beaches and mountains, but mostly beaches for the beginning of vacation. I said that this weekend was the first and there might be a second wave of vacationer's still waiting to stake out their space on the burning sands near the water somewhere in Spain, but not Rota because we have been all staked out and as I said you can't fit another car inside the town. The next person who enters Rota driving had better have their own personal garage to park in or a full tank of gas to drive around while they look for an elusive parking space. Now readers of this page in years past will know that the term parking space is a very, very lose expression meaning you can stop the car and turn off the engine, not necessarily an actual parking space, but this is Spain and it's vacation so who cars. There aren't enough tow trucks in Spain to clear out all the cars not parked correctly in Rota during the summer months  and Spaniards love to gamble so maybe they can get the car moved before the tow truck comes.

July 13                        I hope no one paid the ransom because I escaped! Well I was trying for a cheap laugh there to cover my absence. I have been spending my days enjoying the terrific unseasonable weather we have been having for the past week. I had to put a blanket back on my bed last week as we had temperatures in the mid sixties and it was sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed those cool nights, great for sleeping or walking or maybe bicycling the streets of Rota checking out the scenery and happenings. However, CNN has a quick end coming to this very enjoyable weather. 100 degree days are once again in our immediate future. Well, we've been there before and this year we here in Rota have plenty of water for late evening showers.

I've been keeping in touch with the states by reading the news on the internet and via CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and other initials daily and I'm hearing about the high cost of gasoline there. Guess what folks. . . a measured U.S. gallon of 95 octane gas here in Rota cost $7.59 as of a few days ago when I filled up my scooter. I get really good gas mileage on that scooter and my car is a Renault Twingo, kind of a sub-sub-mini-compact sized car that isn't and never will be for sale in the states, and it gets great mileage. Also I make it a point to always have a passenger or two with me whenever I have to drive on base or out of town, so you can color me green. I have two bicycles as well and they get pretty good mileage too, but only because I'm on a diet. Otherwise I'd probably get about 2 miles to the hamburger, slice of pizza, or equivalent.

People have been telling me that Rota isn't as crowded now as in previous years and I think I can agree with that. Although there are plenty of summer people here now, it's nothing to what I'm used to. Maybe its the cooler weather we've been experiencing, but I would bet it has quite a lot to do with the current economic situation, which isn't a bit better here than most other places and not as good as some. That coupled with the really high fuel prices might be the reason. Our summer vacation high season is still a couple weeks away and I'm sure that when August arrives the crowded overloaded conditions will prevail again.

July 4                        It's a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA to us all. Last night there was a fireworks display on base at midnight as is usual, but I'm sorry to report that I missed it. I haven't a very good excuse, I was asleep, shame on me I guess.

Yesterday I saw a miracle! While having my morning desayuno (breakfast) on the patio of Bar Edu's I couldn't help but notice that there was a car double parked on the street just in front of Edu's and the bar next door called Machuca. Well this created quite a choke-point, or bottle-neck if you prefer, and turned a busy commercial two-way street into a single lane street at the point where the car was double parked. Anyway along can one of Rota's municipal police cars with two of our finest men in blue inside and lo and behold (I don't actually know what the words "lo and behold" mean, but it sounds good) they stopped, wrote a ticket, and placed it under the windshield of the offending car. Not long afterwards the apparent owner arrived and nonchalantly removed said ticket and drove off in the direction of the local police station. Do you think he was maybe going to be a good citizen and pay his traffic fine to receive a discount? I've been told this parking violation could cost upwards of 60€ which is about $100.00 U.S. or will be soon.

Well by now everybody who knows anything about soccer will know that Spain won the Euro Cup for 2008. This is a very big deal in Europe and is an event that is held every 4 years. So Spain will be the Euro Cup holder until Euro Cup of 2012. The next big even in the world of Soccer will be the World Cup in 2010 which will be held in South Africa. This will be the very first time the World Cup has ever been conducted on the African continent.

This past week has seen a couple of very, very hot days followed by two beautiful days of cool evenings and early mornings with warm afternoons and low humidity, but I'm very much afraid that these cooler days are leaving us and the hot, sweaty - if you're bicyclist like me or just plain old hot if you're sitting in the shade with a cool beverage in hand, weather is returning. Oh well the NFL will start training pretty soon and then the preseason games begin and not too long after that collage football will start and by then the really hot days of this years summer will only be a memory.

June 29                    It's "HOT" and it's not going to cool off tomorrow, it's going to be hotter. Well the bars and any place with a public television and cold beverages for sale will be doing a land-slide business tonight. Spain's national soccer  (or football as it's known in Europe) team is going to play the Germany national team in the final of the Euro Cup 2008 tonight. The game starts at 2100 hours and the sun will still have another hour to bake our parched and thirsty citizens. It will be hot and if Spain should happen to prevail in its quest for the championship their won't be any possibility of  going to sleep early to get ready for the new work week. No that won't happen. It's been 24 years since Spain played in the final of the Euro Cup.

You have to understand that working for most Spaniards is just a necessary inconvenience that is required to obtain the means by which the true purpose of life can be pursued. Nothing should be allowed to get in the way of a goodtime; which means being out all nightlong while its cooler than during the hours of bright sunshine and with friends and boon companions  almost anything is a good excuse to indulge in this practice, but Spain having its national team playing for the European soccer championship is  especially sweet and a great reason to say to hell with Monday. In Andalucía people generally prefer sleeping during the hot summer days and living it up at night after the sunset and the heat of the day begins to fade. This time Monday will just have to start without me.

Also I'd like to add that the silly season has arrived! School is out for the year and now we have hundreds upon hundreds of mopeds and scooters mixing it up with normal traffic which has been doubled by the arrival of our summer visitors. Another addition to our hectic traffic are the infamous Quads or what is called is the states All Terrain Vehicles (ATV's). These machines  are abundant on Rota's streets during the summer months. They are very loud and generally aren't driven by people who know that they are subject to the same laws of physics as the rest of us. So why do I call it the silly season, well the unusual is going to be normal during these next 8 - 10 weeks of summer. And as usual but more so at this time of year, people park anywhere at all without regard to others. If you want to buy a pack to cigarettes and there is a curbs-side vender just ahead, then those folks in the busy street behind you will just have to wait while you stop your car, truck, bus, or whatever you might be driving and get out walk over to that tobacco vender, or newspaper, flowers, bread shop, it doesn't matter what it is. All that matters is you want it and shouldn't have to be inconvenienced by parking down the street or around the corner or wherever and walk back to take care of your business. And the folks who were driving along behind you... well that's their problem... they can wait, park and come along with you , go around it that's possible, or just sit there. Now it's also well known to most people who live in or come to visit Rota during our gloriously hot summers that those blinking lights front and rear of our vehicles actually cause us to consume more gasoline when they blink so we mostly ignore them. In some parts of the world they are used as turn signals, but rarely for that purpose here. Now that we don't know the car in front of us or the one coming toward us is going to turn, or not, nor in which direction if they plan on turning, this just kinds of spices up our driving and anyway how can you turn on a turn signal if you have one hand on the steering wheel and the other is holding your cell phone while you're having a conversation with someone. And yes, we know that it's now against the law to be driving while talking on a cellular phone, but isn't that only in big cities? Certainly not in Rota where we live and work (oops there is that word again, sorry).

So now that our parking problems are solved, we just park where we want, and all the guesswork is removed as to the intentions of those we share the road with (we just assume that they are wrong and we are right, about the right-of-way and everything else), it's time to get on with the chief business of Rota's summer, having a great time.

June 23                    I just checked the CNN Rota weather forecast for the coming week, woe is me. I'm used to seeing "Sunny" for this time of the year, but for this coming Wednesday through Friday the forecast reads, "HOT". Like close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I guess the old trusty A/C will get an early workout.

Spain won their Euro cup Soccer match last night against Italy. The match had to be decided on a penalty shoot-out after regular time and one 15 minute overtime period. According to today's Spanish press, this is the first time Spain has beaten Italy in an official competition since 1920. As you might imagine there was no possibility of going to bed and hoping to get to sleep early last night, unless you lived way out in the country somewhere. Immediately after the conclusion of the match the fireworks started followed by parades of horn blowing cars and people singing and generally raising hell for the best part of an hour, but who sleeps at night in Spain anyway. the nighttime is for partying and other fun stuff. Except for me that is, at my advanced age I need more rest and much less hell raising.

June 22                    The Trucker's strike must be over and if it isn't then there is no sign of the strike to be seen. According to some articles on our Spanish News page ( which are reprints from Typically Spanish News the government states that the strike is over, but I've been told that there are some independent operators still striking. Anyway the gas stations have gas and diesel fuel and all the market shelves are filled once again., so as far as any effects of our daily lives is concerned it's a done deal. Also the fishermen's strike is done as well, thankfully for those of us who enjoy a tasty plate of fried fish, or steamed shrimp, etc.

Today isn't the longest day of the year, that was yesterday thank you very much. So now begins of long summer of lazy days with the heat rolling over us like a wet blanket. Actually the humidity hasn't been too bad so far this year and we here in Rota haven't as yet suffered any really hot days. Of course if you are laboring out in the direct rays of the Andalucian sun, well then that's another story entirely. Me, well I try to do my bike riding very early in the morning after my 35 minutes of cycling indoors on my cardio exercise machine. All the exercise and early bike riding makes my morning break for a couple of glasses of world class Café con Leché as can only be found in Rota at Bar Edu's located in the Poligano or Industrial Park. I mean these folks know how to make a mean cup (glass, whatever) of espresso café. Another favorite at Edu's is the toasted Mollete filled with sliced from the bone Jámon Serrano. They make so many of these typical Rota treats that the use an entire Jámon Serrano every two days and that's a lot of molletes folks.

Spanish school is out for summer, Friday was the last official school day, but most children still have to collect their grades for the year and for some this is only the beginning of the summer tutor season, aka Summer School.

June 17                    Well folks the current Trucker's strike is all but over. There are delivery truck doing their thing, i.e. Butano, Meat, Bread, etc. It looked like the largest gas station in Rota was pumping gas this morning but as I don't use much riding a bicycle (smile) so I haven't checked it out yet. I did go shopping this morning at the local Mercadona (my preferred supermarket) and except for a very few exceptions the shelves were full again, there was plenty of fresh seafood to select from and I was going to check out the meat counter when the lights went off (I later found out that the lights went off everywhere on that side of Rota). They came back on within a few seconds but not in every section and the meat counter was still dark. Well I'm still on a diet and didn't have meat on my mental shopping list (I'm one of those people who seldom create a written shopping list. I feel that if I buy something that isn't written down I don't have to feel guilty about it) but I did see that the shelves seemed to be full. There was plenty of commercial bread to choose from although most folks opt for freshly baked traditional breads rather then the prepackaged sliced types.

I asked some friends what the strike accomplished, like what did the Trucker's get for their efforts and nobody seems to know exactly. One thing is sure to be true though is that whatever they get the general public will be paying for it one way or another. Yes the old Cost-of-Living is soon to be on the rise, again.

It also seems that after more than a little violence, the commercial fishermen's strike is over as well, just in time for summer. Seafood is much more popular here than meat products and much more expensive as well. I can well remember when it was the reverse from now. Most types of fish used to be abundant and cheap compared to beef, lamb, or pork. But that was many years ago when a small glass of Café con Leché could be had for 5 pesetas (in Euros 5 pesetas would be about 3 centimos) and poor folks didn't eat meat very often as fish was so plentiful and cheap.

June 13                    The news in Rota today is the same as in all of Spain. There is a Trucker's strike in progress and this is day 5 of the strike. This afternoon I visited my usual local Super Market (Mercadona) and discovered that there was no milk, bread, fresh fruit, veggies, meat, fish or other seafood, etc. nor was there very much in the way of canned or boxed goods available. The area newspapers are reporting that the chief source of energy for most household, butano, has also been expended in nearly all town, villages, and cities in our area. That's right folks, when your butano runs out there won't be anymore hot water or gas for cooking. No one knows when this strike will be over and the basic cause is all about the very high cost of diesel and gasoline fuel for trucks, tractors, etc. Diesel fuel is actually more expensive that gasoline and gasoline is now more than $7.00 for a measured U.S. gallon, way more. This reminds me of an old store about a person when complaining about the high cost of something stated that it was cheaper down the street and when the shop keeper asked then why don't you go there and buy it. The answer to that question was. . . "Well they are out of it", to which the shopper replied, "When we are out of it, it's cheaper here too."

This Trucker's strike is having another effect here in Rota also and this is the lack of beach goers and weekend visitors from out of town. I guess that when there isn't any gasoline or diesel fuel available folks don't venture too far away from home with the family car!

You can read about the strike in this newspaper, www.diariodecadiz.es. If you don't read Spanish this shouldn't be much of a problem. Just open another internet browser window and load www.google.com; select the Language Tools link at the right-hand side of the rectangular search window, then cut and paste from the Spanish newspaper to the Google Translate Text window, make sure you have Spanish to English selected and <click> on the translate button. It isn't perfect but it'll do until something better comes along and it's FREE.

June 8                        Summer is here folks, along with a transportation strike protesting the extremely high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel. Yesterday there were long lines at all of Rota's gas stations, all two of them, and this morning they were both depleted. That's right there is no gas to be had in Rota today, Sunday the 8th and I expect that this is the same in all towns in this area and maybe all of Spain.  But several people have told me this morning while I was enjoying my usual Sunday breakfast that the government was hard at work fixing the problem. The consensus was that the federal tax would be either removed altogether or seriously reduced. I know that gas prices in the states are high, I talked on the telephone with a friend from Texas yesterday and he said that he is paying $4.00 a gallon for gas. Well I told him that I wish I could pay that little instead of the more that $7.00 I'm paying now. And yes, I do understand that the life style is different here in Europe compared with the average suburban dwelling American. Most small towns and villages here in southern Europe and especially in Spain lend themselves very well to living, if necessary, without a means of private transportation. We here in Spain tend to live very close to all the necessities of life, i.e. bars for Café con Leché and stronger libations, food markets, small shops selling things like newspapers, bread, butchers, etc. so we don't really have to get into the family car to go somewhere else to do the  daily/weekly or whatever shopping.

Also we still have the fisherman strike going on. It's going to be an interesting summer I guess. I'll try not to let it bother me too much as I ride my bicycle around and about town and then to my favorite bench on the paseo overlooking the Bay of Cádiz to enjoy the morning paper or whatever my current book is along with my ever present thermos of green tea.

May 30                    OK, here is something interesting, at least it's interesting if you're in Spain and like seafood. Spain's fisherman are on strike protesting the high cost of fuel. Fuel cost here in Europe are really, really high. Diesel fuel cost more that basic refined gasoline and has already been, or is in about to be, raised 13% with gasoline being raised very nearly 10%. What this means is that folks like me will be paying more than $8.00 for a measured U.S. gallon of gas. Now that will get your attention every time you visit a service station. Europe is much better suited to mass transportation than in most places in the states and many people had started leaving the car at home in favor of buses, trains, subways, etc. wherever these forms of transportation are available. Also most folks drive what would be called a sub-compact in the states so better gas mileage is taken for granted. Spanish people, around here anyway, used to be very reluctant to carpool for the simple reason that having a personal car isn't something that is taken for granted like in the states. As brief a period as 40-50 years in the past having a family car was out of reach for most ordinary families and today nearly every family, where there are two wage earners, has two or sometimes more cars as personal transportation and the freedom to travel whenever and wherever is a cherished  privilege and not to be infringed on by having to be concerned about waiting for members of a carpool. But in today's economic situation where prices seem to be rising higher and higher almost daily, measures taken to save gas is becoming much more import than the inconvenience of having someone else ride along in "your" car. Tomorrow, or next week, you will be a passenger in someone else's car. I see a lot more bicycles being ridden these days as well.

Also in the news is an impending commercial truckers strike. For the same reason, high cost of fuel. Both the coming truckers strike and the fishing industry have items in the Spanish News page should you care to read more.

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May 30                    I haven't forgotten this news page. I've been suffering from a serious case of spring fever, either that or just plain old laziness. I will be editing the news column again. My daily routine is changing somewhat these days and leaves little time for working on this website. I wake, take care of business, feed cats and everything that goes along with their needs, i.e. fresh water in multiple locations, clean litter boxes, etc. and then its 35 minutes of cardio exercise. Clean up of the old bod, hat up and off to the garage to feed a few old reliable street kitties and then I hop (well  I think hop but it's more like slide up to and step up onto the saddle) of my bike of the day (I have two) and I'm off on a very short 3.5 kms. ride to my current favorite morning café for my morning rations of delicious world-class café con leché and a toasted whole-wheat muffin with lots of olive oil. So you see this takes nearly all on my morning and leaves barely enough time for shopping, talking with  friends, more longer distant bike riding, checking out the town and beaches, sitting on a bench by-the-sea looking at the fishing boats and other water craft come and go, reading and sipping my thermos mug of green tea (got to think healthy) and then before I know it, it's time for lunch and a short siesta. However, these days I find that I have absolutely no control on how long this siesta is going to be, but I'm old by some folks standards and retired and have very little time to be concerned about things like . There are some thing I could be writing about, but maybe later.

May 20                    Well the merry month of May has another week and a few days until June and so far it has been relatively quiet here in Rota. Every weekend this month sees the young ladies and lads making their way to the local parish church for First Communion as is usual everywhere in Spain. I know I've written about this plenty of times in the past so I won't bore readers again with these stories.

I have reminded readers of this page many times about the availability of our Bulletin-board but there hasn't been any posting in so long that I suppose it's no longer necessary. Nevertheless I'll keep running it just in case someone decides to give it a try someday. you can't break anything on the Bulletin-board so if you have never posted anything to a Bulletin-board before this one is available for learning on. It's checked almost daily, either by the moderator listed for a particular forum or myself and we try to keep it clean. Every once in awhile someone post a link to a porno site and we delete them as soon as they are seen. So no porno, sales pitches, or overt solicitation to over-throw the government, etc. will be allowed, but other than that, anything goes.

May 19                   I'm back! I wasn't away, just too lazy to write anything on this page. I spend a lot of time bicycling around and sitting in the warm sun  reading or just enjoying the day. The weekend of 10-11 May was El Rocío and there was an informative article published in the Naval Station newspaper, the Coastline. I have made this article available for our readers. To view the article please Rocío Link.

This past week was basically uneventful for me. The feria season is nearly over with only the Manzanilla Feria in Sanlúcar remaining. Many folks, myself included, think that the Manzanilla Feria is the best of the bunch. Also next  the Corpus Christi celebration will be conducted in various towns.

Our spring like weather vacillates between warm and sunny in the afternoons to cloudy and cool, but June is near and very soon the hot weather will be here and the beaches filled.

April 27                Hello folks, April is nearly gone and we're all ready to welcome the the merry month of May. By this time next week Rota will be having its Feria week (Spring fair). You can see the dates for Rota's feria and those of other local towns in our area on the 2008 Holidays page.

Yesterday was the beginning of the month long important event of First Communion for the young persons in our community as in all towns and cities throughout Spain. From now until the end of May on every weekend you will see young boys and girls accompanied by proud parents, relatives and friends making their way to the local parish church, each beautifully dressed according to tradition with the boys dressed in naval mufti (as naval officers) and the girls dress in gowns similar to wedding gowns. After these first communion there is always a party held for the young celebrates with lots of food and drink.

April 15                Last week I goof up the Bulletin-board a bit and those persons who may have noticed their most recent posting had been deleted should know that it was done in error and was entirely my fault. There is a posting on the Bulletin-board explaining the problem. It won't happen again, I hope. If you lost your post, please return to the bulletin-board and post again.

Well it did indeed rain and it rained for 5 days, hurray for us. We now have more water in our reservoirs than any other area in Spain and we're safe from all water restrictions for the coming summer. On another subject there is a link on the home (Index) page for the 2nd Quarter of Cultural and Entertainment events being conducted in Rota provided by our city government for viewing. I have been somewhat promised that the delay in my obtaining this brochure will soon be a thing of the past from now on, we shall see if this come true or not.

I rode my bicycle around a bit this morning looking for some new photos to add to the Rota page but didn't managed to get many. The wind was blowing something fierce and peddling into a stiff breeze isn't my idea of a good fun bike ride. So maybe the photo taking will have to be put off awhile longer as for the next two weeks I will be working at my volunteer job and unavailable to bike freely around and about the streets and by-ways of Rota.

April 9                  Rain, rain, come and stay for awhile is what most of us want. It's been raining off and on since last Sunday the 6th and is very welcome. While it would have been much better to have had more rain in months past instead of getting our winter average all at once, we will at least benefit from all this accumulated rainfall by not having to be concerned about severe water restrictions this coming summer. Well the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament is over and none of my selections were in the championship game. Wait until next year as the saying goes.

The Yankee dollar is still not doing very well, in fact it's doing very poorly in the exchange rate against the mighty Euro. Because the dollar is suffering so much against the Euro these days a measured U.S. gallon of 95 octane gasoline now cost $6.70 at the pump on the economy, so I can't feel too badly for those who have to pay $3 and change for a gallon in the U.S., however I must admit that I drive a tiny car that gets very good gas mileage and when the weather permits (read dry days here) I ride a bicycle around town to do my daily errands and visit friends. 

April 5                  Rain has been forecast for next week and I either missed it, or forgot being so used to seeing nothing but sunny days or partly cloudy days for 10 days in the future. Anyway, I stand corrected and hope we do see some rain. We need these April showers for the May flowers as the saying goes

April 4                 Several years ago a friend and I took a bus trip to Cordova and afterwards I wrote a kind of short story about this event. I have been asked to include this story in this website and so I shall. The event this story depicts was real and a common experience around Spain in that time. As the beginning paragraph of the story states, this was a true and accurate account as I remember it to be and a few days the trip while it was still fresh in my memory I put these words on paper. Although the story was written using Microsoft Word, I have converted the story to a text file so that it can be read by those that might not have that application and I also make available the story in MS Word format. I welcome any comments concerning this literary effort and give the usual disclaimers concerning the identity of other persons depicted herein (although some readers might suspect that they know the culprits involved) and accuracy. Any and all errors or omissions are mine alone.

Cordoba trip June 4, 1993 - (Text file),     Cordoba trip June 4, 1993 - Word Document

A piece of history is departing Rota soon! This week the last remaining A3D Skywarrior on the Naval Station Rota departed from it's home where it had been on display in front of the BOQ across from the hospital was removed as the first step of a journey to it's final resting place in Mobile, Alabama. Here is the story from the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Skywarrior makes final flight from Rota.

So what else is new? It looks like an early summer might be in store for this part of Spain. This afternoon we were experiencing temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit with balmy breezes and lots of lovely ladies (Rota has an abundant supple of Spanish beauties to gawk at) were walking around in summer like dress. There doesn't seem to be any rain in our immediate future, but this is April and widely known in Spanish as the "crazy month."

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March 30            Today, Sunday, is the Spanish round of the European MotoGP. What's this you might say, well it's the world's premiere motorcycle champion and Spain, perhaps, more than any other European country is crazy about most anything on two wheels. This MotoGP happens every year around this time and is held in Jerez de la Frontera, which is a large city very close to Rota. Being so close to Jerez means that we like Puerto de Santa Maria, Chipiona, and just about any place with a bedroom to rent and a camping site within 50 - 100 kilometers from Jerez is over flowing with large, medium, and small motorcycles and custom built three wheel machines. In fact just about anything that has less than 4 wheels and a roof will qualify as a suitable vehicle with which to travel to the MotoGP on. As you might expect when you get this many motorcycles and their riders concentrated in such a small area it can at times seem overwhelming, but everybody takes it all in stride. After all this is the land of TRANQUILO (be cool, relax,, take it easy, etc.).

In other news, well except for the serious lack rainfall there isn't much happening at the moment. Last weekend, Easter weekend, many of our summer residents returned to Rota to check on their vacation homes. How do I know this, well I needed to buy something from a hardware store and it was completely packed with folks buying little things that were needed to make minor repairs to their apartments, villas, etc. to get ready for the coming summer. I returned to this same hardware store yesterday and it was business as usual  with just the locals shopping. Also all my favorite morning places to have café con leché were overflowing with customers, kind of like the summer months.

Oh yes, another favorite subject —Day-light-saving-time. Yes it's come once again to Europe. Last night at zero something or other hour our clocks were all sprung forward in this delightful ritual of trying to play with our daylight. Well it doesn't work with me. I have domestic animals, pets or companions as you will, and they like me usually wake with the beginning of daylight. So I don't particularly care one way or the other what the hour of the day is. I'm retired and go to bed when I'm sleepy, wake when I'm not, and eat whenever I'm hungry (which according to my doctor must be all the time) and don't pay much attention to the clock. I like to know what time it is and I suppose this is life long learned need to know "What time is it" is leftover from my more productive years when I had to be some place at a specific time to do my work because as the song goes I was "Taking the money . . . ."

March 20            Tomorrow is the final day of the Las Fallas festival in Valencia which is a celebration of Saint Joseph's Day, this is the festival with all the floats that will be burned tomorrow night signifying the end of Fallas. Here is a good Website Fallas Festival that you can visit to become informed on this subject.

Rain came to Rota and adjacent areas yesterday and this Thursday morning. We got a lot of rain in a very short time, hopefully it won't all be run-off. Today is Jueves Santos (Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday) and the most important day in the week long Semana Santa celebration. Most towns will have religious processions all-night continuing into Friday to finish at around noon.  You can see lots of Semana Santa in Rota photos from previous years if interested.

March 18            Saint Patrick's day has come and gone and even here in Rota lots of folks claimed Irish antecedents. We have several Irish Pubs in this area. But, this week is all about Semana Santa (Easter Week) about which I have written copiously in previous years. With apologies to those who may have read this material before here is something I wrote a few years ago:

It's Easter week, or Semana Santa here in Spain, and it couldn't be more different here than it is in the United States. There will be no colored Easter eggs, no Easter egg hunts and no chocolate bunnies and the like. In Spain Easter is a very solemn occasion. Semana Santa is celebrated as a deeply religious event everywhere in the country and the passion of the crucifixion  is reenacted by processions through the towns throughout the week, culminating in Jueves Sante (Holy Thursday) processions which begin very late at night and continue until the following day, often finishing near noon on Friday. Jueves Sante corresponds to Good Friday in the states. Every village, town, or city has one to many fraternities or brotherhoods that are associated with the church in their particular neighborhood and these fraternities sponsor Pasos (religious themed floats-for want of a better term) that are carried from their church throughout the town during the Easter week. We could write pages about this event in the Christian calendar but this is after-all a news page. Let us finish by saying that Semana Santa is a special week in Spain and something not to be missed if one has the chance of being here to experience this passionate Easter celebration. 

March 9            Spain goes to the polls today to elect, or reelect,  a new government. So this is the single event of importance in Rota today and I suppose like everywhere most of the bar discussions will center on political discussions, either that or the results of the football (soccer) matches played yesterday and those scheduled for today.

As the Index (Home) page of our Web site says,  our weather is going to be very Spring like for most of next week, excepting this coming Monday which won't be as warm as the rest of the week. Next weekend, the last weekend prior to the beginning of the Easter Passion (Semana Santa), our temperatures are expected to be near 80 degrees Fahrenheit which will bring many people to Rota for the first of many weekend visits before summer to enjoy our fine beaches and lots of folks who own vacation apartments will be coming to inspect their properties.

March 7            Hello folks, it looks like this Web site survived the move to our new platform ok. I have not had any emails from readers informing me of problems so I have think that things are back to normal. There isn't a lot going on in Rota at the moment. In another couple of weeks Spain will be celebrating Semana Santa (Easter week) and after that it will be Spring-time. This weekend Spain has elections for national offices so that's one reason for a lack of scheduled entertainment events. Daylight Saving Time (I hate those words) won't be changing in Europe until March the 30th while in the USA the change happens this coming Sunday the 9th.

Oh, there is one thing happening after all and that is our good old American green-back, aka the dollar, is falling faster than my computer keep track. As of this morning, 0813 local time, the dollar is worth 1.54€ and that isn't real good news for those of us living on a fixed income in dollars, or for those readers planning on a vacation in Europe this year. Six months ago (11 October 2007) the dollar was trading at 1.38, so things aren't looking too good at the moment. I don't know what a cup of coffee cost in the states at a basic coffee place and not one of those designer coffee palaces, but here in Rota a glass of typical Café con Leché, espresso style cost 1€ most places and can be had for .90€ in a few establishments. So on my normal morning rounds in Rota talking with friends, shopping, etc. I generally have 2 glasses of world-class café con leché and half a toasted mollete drizzled with olive oil (2.50€) on my first stop of the day and then another café con leché (0.90€) or a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (1.20€) at my second morning stop, and finally one more glass of café con leché (1€) and at third place where I meet with more friends to help solve world problems. That seems like a lot of coffee to me, but there it is. Anyway these morning rounds brings my daily consumption of libations to just about $7.00. Who would have believe these prices back in the dark ages of 1977 which is when I retired from the Navy. Back then a glass of café typically cost 5 pesetas, pesetas being the coin of the realm before the Euro.

March 1            We're back after a week of problems. As of yesterday afternoon, Rota time, our Web site was back in business with, I believe, everything working as it should. If any visitor should happen to discover something that doesn't seem to be correct I would very much appreciate if they would notify the Webmaster so that the problem can be corrected. On this same theme, if you happen to have an email account at the domain (whoever@rotacrony.com) you will probably not be able to logon to your account. This is due to a problem encountered when the Web site was migrated to the new platform. Please email the Webmaster with your email logon user name and the problem will be corrected. Also, if you have an email account with us and use Microsoft Outlook (any version) as your email client rather that the Web based version, you will need to modify the pop3 and smtp fields in Outlook. Here is the link from our Internet Service Provider that explains in some detail how to accomplish this http://www.ipower.com/info/systemnotice.bml?id=5702.

We're sorry it you happened to visit out Bulletin-board during the past few days and noticed that someone posted links to porno sites in one of the forums. We were unable to edit the forums due to problem encountered in the move to the new platform. These porno has been posting have been removed.

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February 24    Important notice: This website was migrated to a new server system last night and while I have tested nearly all the links from page to page and many other links to be found on various pages within the website, I have not as yet tested every link. Thus far I have not discovered any links that were broken. If any person viewing the website happens to discover an anomaly please be kind enough to inform the Webmaster of the problem.

Additionally, it seems that all email accounts that I have tested, my own account among others, cannot login using the current password. So if you have an email account associated with this website and cannot login to your account please inform the Webmaster of this fact and a new password will be created for your account.

February 23    During the past week we here in Andalucía have had a few good days of sorely needed rain and it's raining now as I write this.  Nobody is complaining about this wet weather, in fact just about everyone is enjoying the break from the never ending warm, sunny days (joke) we've been experiencing. Yes, I know it's a bad joke, but we're very happy to see this rain and hope it continues for at least a few more days. I can remember back in the bad days of drought in the seventies when all of Andalucía was on water hours for a couple of consecutive summers. I would walk home and sit in the living room of my apartment and wait for the water to come on so I could quickly run a sink full of hot water to wash yesterdays dishes, take a hot shower, flush the toilet, and collect a bucket or two to use when the water was shut-off until the following day. Rota and surrounding towns had water for about 2 hours everyday all summer long. But that was then and things are different  now except we now need more water than ever as populations of Rota and surrounding areas have increased significantly along with more golf courses, swimming pools, etc.

Spain will be holding general elections on the 9th of March and it's worth mentioning that the political campaigns of the contesting parties official began at midnight yesterday and the campaign season will last until the day before elections, just 2 weeks in all. How different this is compared to the USA. Can you imagine America allowing only two weeks for a presidential campaign?

February 17    There are some new photos of the 2008 Carnival Parade available on the Rota page for viewing. The biggest news item today is that we have rain finally in Rota and all around us. It isn't very heavy rainfall but it should rain for most of the coming week, so every little bit helps. Already in some parts of Spain there are small isolated villages where water has to be trucked in so the inhabitants can have clean drinking and cooking water and it's probably going to get much worse unless we get a lot more rain before summer arrives.

February 8     I'm back but still not 100%. Well Carnival is nearly over for this year. In Rota tomorrow, Sunday, the official end of the carnival season will conclude with a Gran Cabalgata del Humor (Big Parade with comical floats, marching groups, etc.). This may be the end of the carnival season, but many events are on the schedule in Rota prior to the beginning of the Easter Passion (Semana Santa) season which this year comes in mid March.

I changed the color of the font for the date on this entry as a test to see if it stands out better on a web browser, comments are welcome concerning this change. I was thinking as long as there are so many dated entries on this page this change might make it easier for someone to go backwards in time to search out past entries, but maybe not.

February 3       Yesterday was Groundhog Day in the United States and I don't know if he saw his shadow when he came out of his 'hole' there, but if there are any groundhogs in Andalucía then we're set for six more weeks of winter, because there was nothing but sun and blue sky's to be seen in our area.

We are supposed to be having rain showers today according to the weather gurus on CNN, but even so our warm weather looks to be continuing for the next several days.
Rota, and all Spain, see the beginning of Carnival today. For some weeks now regional TV shows have been featuring bands of "Chirigotas." What exactly is a Chirigota, well it translates to 'as a joke' or 'to take something lightly', and in our usage it means a group, usually all male, of several singers accompanied by drums used for rhythm where the singers wear costumes relating to the theme of their songs of original compositions that make fun of traditional activities or events, political happens or personages, popular persons, situations in the current vogue, well you get the picture here I'm sure. just about everything is grist for the mill if it can be presented in a funny light. Kind of got carried away there for a minute, back to Carnival.  All this coming week carnival related events are scheduled, contest with prizes to be awarded, a golf tournament with participants wearing costumes, contest for children judging for the best carnival costume, etc.

I stopped writing here yesterday (3 Feb.) and didn't manage to get started again. It seems like I might be having one of those 24-48 hour bugs and I'm a bit down and out. So more on Carnival later...

January 27     Today in Rota the celebration of San Antonio de Abad, which is manifested in the traditional "Blessing of the Animals" is being conducted at the Municipal Feria grounds. This is an annual event and although the celebration of San Antonio de Abad is usually held on January 17th, it is on the calendar for today. Our weather continues to be just great and not at all what we usually have for this time of the year. No rain in sight and I guess we'll have to pay for that in the coming months but we're surely enjoying these warm sunny afternoons while we have them.

January 20    Sunday afternoon and the temperature is just below 70 degrees F. and the remaining days in January are forecast to be about the same as today. Lots of sunshine (we do need more rain, but not today please) and warm afternoons with chilly night and early mornings.

I continue to add news items to the Spanish News page. All of these news items can be found by visiting http://www.TypicallySpanish.Com. Also a reminder that our Bulletin-board is still available. If you have never visited a bulletin-board before please check this one out.

Nothing much is new at the moment, or maybe there is and I just don't know what it is. Anyway I haven't anything really to write about so I'll just shut up and say goodbye.

January 17     With thanks to the Community Relations , Spanish Protocol Office, Naval Station, Rota, Spain the 2008 Spanish Holiday Calendar has been published for your information. Also the 1st Quarter Schedule of Events at the Teatro/Auditorio Alcalde Felipe Benítez located on Avda. San Fernando, Rota has been published.

January 13     Hurray, the holidays are completely finished and all the local cronies survived although with some causalities in our financial status. Here, like everywhere I imagine, the after holiday sales begin and one can venture out for shopping in the malls that are located in Puerto de Santa Maria, or Jerez, etc. with the sure expectation of having to contend with large bustling crowds of bargain seekers armed with credit cards in hand and the zeal of the once-in-a lifetime true seeker of a great deal. The situation will return to normal as the month of January comes to a close and once again it will be safe to shop for the necessities for day-to-day living.

Those of you who might be checking the Holidays page hoping to see the schedule for this new year will be disappointed as I'm still waiting for the information to be collected. As soon as I have the dates they will be posted. But in the meantime a general rule to follow is that annual holidays or events usually fall in the same week of the month as in proceeding years. So if you check something like the dates of the Rota Feria you will see that last year the dates were from May 3 - 6 and this year the dates most likely will be April 30 - May 3, but don't quote me on this. I'm also still waiting for the new First Quarter schedule of entertainments  provided By our Ayuntamiento (City Hall) and expect to have it posted by this time next week.

Once again, I remind readers that if you have questions or wish to make a comment please consider using the Bulletin-Board for that purpose. This bulletin-board is checked daily and if there is a new posting that requires commenting on, or answers to questions, please be assured that the web-weenie (me) and/or the administrator of the forum you posted to will try to provide a suitable response. I would be please to create new Forums for the bulletin-board if requested.

January 6     Happy New Year to all cronies wherever you are. Christmas, the New Year, and 3 Kings Day is just about finished. Today is, of course, 3 Kings Day, the traditional day for giving and exchanging gifts between family members and friends. I got my usual bucket of coal less than half filled so there won't be any discussion about me being a person who sees a glass of wine (this being Spain I have to use wine and not water) as half empty or half filled. It's been a long holiday and the truth is that nearly everyone is glad that the coming week will see a return to school and work and to normal routines for everyone.

3 Kings Day is, as I'm sure most people know, celebrates Epiphany, the day when the 3 Kings of biblical times presented the Christ child with gifts and is celebrated in every Latin country around the world. 

Tomorrow, Monday the 7th, will see another wonderful Spanish tradition in effect and this is a day off and occurs whenever a holiday is on a weekend or the feria ends, etc. This gives everyone one more day to wind down and prepare for a change back to their everyday routine.

So Happy There Kings day folks.

December 30    Christmas is over, but this is only phase one in the Holiday Season here in Spain! Tomorrow is New Year's Eve (Noche Viejo) and our Spanish host know how to celebrate the end of the old year and the bringing in of the New Year like no place I've ever been before. This is phase two of the holiday season with phase three the celebration of Epiphany on January 6, 2008; which is also the traditional gift giving day in Spain.

During the past couple of weeks the scenes at markets have been alive with people frantically spending on special items for the holiday feast and while the feast of Christmas Eve ( Noche Buena) is the major dinner of this holiday season, the spread that is available for the New Year's Eve parties will run a close second with emphasis mostly on  special snacks (tapas) of all kinds, i.e. cheeses, meats, shell fish of all types, sweets galore that are special for the season, and of course a well stocked bar. It isn't unusual for these New Year's Parties, whether they are private affairs in the homes of friends and neighbors or catered events in bars, hotels, and restaurants to last until nearly daylight and in some cases until sunrise. Early morning attendees at local coffee bars will not be astounded to see folks still in party dress stopping by for a last copa or two or a café con leché and a few good New Year's wishes for those who didn't attend "their" party before returning home to sleep most of the first day of the year away.

December 23     Well the El Gordo has come and gone for another year and I'm sorry to have to report that although I might be a little richer in spirit having watched with a slight amount of envy the "winners" celebrate their good fortune on Spanish National TV yesterday, I'm definite a little poorer in fiscal ways. I already had my new car model picked out and was going to place the order the first thing this coming Monday morning, oh well maybe next year.

Here are a few facts about the El Gordo lottery: This year there were 185 series of tickets from 00000 to 85000 for a total 15,725,000 numbers that are usually purchased as a fraction of 1/10th (Decimo), the total money paid into the lottery was 3,145,000,000€ and 70% of that amount was disbursed as prizes totaling 2,201,500,000€ ($3,159,152,500.00). Now this is a seriously large amount of cash. Well there are many who buy and many who celebrate their winnings, but I'm not among the latter (again).

Tomorrow the 24th is Noche Buena the "Good Night" in Spain and at the stroke of midnight all hell breaks loose celebrating the birth of the Christ child. Firecrackers and rockets will like up the night sky, bells, drums, horns, and tambourines will sound out the occasion and the parties that all began with a Nativity feast we continue with singing and dancing until the wee hours of the morning of Christmas day. More and more these days our Spanish host have begun to give gifts on Christmas day saving a only a few gifts to be distributed on Epiphany (January the 6th) so their children can have more time to play with their new things prior to returning to school and this year school starts on the 7th of January, so the giving of gifts on Christmas day becomes even more practical in the eyes of young persons.

This will probably be my last entry until after Christmas, so to all who take the time to read these words I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and hope 2008 bring you nothing but good things. Bye-bye...

December 20     Only two more days until El Gordo. Every year on the 22nd of December Spain conducts what is probably to most famous lottery drawing in the world. The Christmas lottery known as the Fat One due to the enormous amount of money that is given away in this drawing. Most people will have a decimo which is one tenth of a number and this year a decimo cost 20€. Now one decimo won't make you rich, but the way this lottery works is to distribute huge amounts of money among a lot of people. I can't remember how many numbers there are in a single set of tickets, I think they go up to about 70,000 or so numbers and each of these is divided into tenths called fractions, hence the term Decimo. Also there are many series of this set on numbers printed and sold so if, for example, number 16363 is the 1st prize there will usually be ten different people with a decimo of that number and maybe 60-70 series of this number printed which makes for 600 to 700 very lucky and happy people who will have won enough money to be able to buy a new apartment, a new car, have a great vacation and money in the bank after that. This year a winning decimo is worth 300,000€ or about $432,000 at today's exchange rates. I have my decimo so wish me good luck.

December 16     It's late so I have to hurry and get this written because before I know it'll be time for American football on TV. Well lots of things are going on this week in Rota as it is in just about every Spanish town and village. Zombomba, yes I think it's spelled right anyway if it isn't, it isn't my fault because I asked a friend and this was what they told me. Zombomba is a musical instrument, of sorts, that is made using a clay jar, and animal skin with a small hole in the center and has a stick that plunges into the jar vertically and this stick plunged up and down into the jar and this creates a sound unlike a bull elephant in heat and has very little musical quality at all. Nevertheless it makes a lot of noise and people parade around in groups clapping their hands and singing with this zombomba making noise along with bells and tambourines working out.  So one night every December is Zombombola night and last Friday the 14th was that night in Rota.

It's still cold in Rota these days. This morning it was 30° F. at the Jerez airport and as I have written about many times it's usually colder indoors that outside in Andalusian homes. They are built to withstand the summer heat and our winters are usually mild. It rarely freezes in Rota.

The links on the Our Links for Naval Station Rota and the Coastline seem to be temporarily broken, but hopefully they will be working very soon, like maybe tomorrow when someone resets their server. The reason I mention this is that there are stories relating to the holiday season being printed weekly and rather than copy them into this page I was going to point out this fact and let readers visit the Coastline to read them, oh well, you can't always have everything

December 12     It's cold outside and my heat pump can barely keep my cats and self warm this morning. The foggy mornings we have been seeing are long gone to be replaced by clear blue sky's with bight sunshine. CNN says Rota temperatures are 34 degrees F. but my thermometer has 40 degrees, either way for Rota this is cold. It's only 10 more days until the El Gordo Christmas Lottery drawing and I hope if you have a decimo this year, that it's a winner.

December 9        Christmas is everywhere you look in Rota these days. I've never seen so many Santa Claus' hanging from balconies as this year. What's a hanging Santa Claus you might ask. Well a few years past I saw my first hanging Santa and what I was looking at was a child size Santa suit that had apparently been stuffed with rags, paper, or whatever to fill it out and then suspended over a balcony to give the appearance of a Santa climbing onto a balcony with a bag filled with presents and every year there were more and more of them. Rota's streets are decorated with pots of poinsettias and other Christmas greenery and with strings of lights everywhere.

This year Rota's municipal Belem (nativity scene) is the largest I've ever seen. I have several pictures on the Christmas in Rota page. I will try to gather more photos of the lights or other Christmas scenes if I can manage to leave the company of my kitty cats while the apartment is so toasty warm to brave the elements.

While it hasn't really been very cold out so far this year, we are experiencing lots of fog, which is very damp and chilly and makes it feel a lot colder than it really is. This fog has mostly been a morning thing, but today we had bright sunshine with blue sky's and then very early this afternoon the fog started rolling in and our sky's turned muddy grey and it definitely got colder.

December 7      Today is a day of remembrance for those who died at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. This was the beginning of  America's active participation in World War Two. America has always had heroes in uniform.

It's foggy outside my window early this morning, but later we will have plenty of sunshine. Christmas is coming really fast it appears. More and more people are  greeting me these days with the phrase "Felice Navidad", which translates to Merry Christmas and there are many Belem's on display around Rota. A Belem is a recreation of the Nativity Scene and every pueblo, town, and city in Spain will have a municipal nativity scene, many to these are very elaborate with lights and various decorations. People from all over town come to admire the Belem as it changes somewhat every year. Belem's can also be seen in banks, public markets and even some communities will sponsor a Belem to be placed at a convenient location.

December 2    Here I sit at the keyboard today wondering what to write about (again). I can say that no one that I know has died, won the lottery, got promoted or demoted, married, divorced, etc. No great (or small) event happened in Rota last week nor is it likely that anything of significance will happen this week, except that possible I might win the lottery, but I'm not spending the money yet (big smile).

Rota still has weather reminiscent of Indian Summer, but only during the afternoons. It's definitely growing colder at night. Thankfully I have an electric blanket to chase away the cold. Last week was mostly dry with a little early morning fog and the coming week looks to be more of the same.

Some readers of this website might have noticed that a Jerez page has been included but presently it remains under construction waiting for photos and for me to stop spending so much of my time watching American football games. I will populate this new page some day, I promise.

November 25    I woke this morning to cold winds and bright sunshine. Well actually the sun didn't shine until a few hours later because I have cats and they let me know when it's their breakfast time, this is not always a mutually agreed upon hour. Anyway it was still dark when I got up and it was cold. It was only later that I saw the bright blue sky and felt that north wind blowing. I have a furry feline friend that goes by the name of, Mr. Gray, and he is nearly always waiting for me to exit my garage because I always have a blow of warm (in the winter I warm his food) cat food for him whether he is there or not and this is when that north wind announced itself to me. Now you and I know that it doesn't really get cold in Rota, except on very rare occasions like a couple of years ago when the temperatures dropped to below freezing during the O'dark thirty hours of the morning. But when you're riding a moped or bicycle into this wind and it's around 48° F. it feels very cold.

I'm not fooling anyone with this babbling am I, but I still "Go nothing" to write about. Thanksgiving is over and everyone I know from Rota had a nice family feast and a generally good day, burp; which includes me. Because I live alone with my cats I made up for that fact by having my Thanksgiving dinner twice, once around 1500 hours and again around 1900 hours. I wonder if my dietician will go for that excuse of having to eat twice to make up for the lack of company. The cats ate more turkey than I did, but they don't like corn, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, etc.

I have been following the news on CNN, CNBC, New York Times, etc. about the Christmas shopping season and let me tell you right now that it's the same crazy shopping season here in Spain. The dollar may not be worth a lot these days, but all my Spanish friends get paid in euro's and boy can they spend it with the opportunity presents itself. The markets and stores are packed. I have about one more shopping trip for cat food mostly and then I won't be going near to one of these places until after the holiday season and the after Christmas sales are over.

November 18    Old man winter came to Rota a few days ago, not that we actually see any real winter here. Our temperatures dropped down into the low forties during the early morning hours but we still had plenty of sunshine during the day. Rain is  forecast for the coming week.

All is quiet here in Rota these days. I think everybody is resting up and preparing for the coming holiday season. Regular readers of this page will know that that the American holidays begin a little before the Spanish ones, which continue until the week after New Year's day so this does create one long holiday period. After reading what I just typed I realize that, "I got nothing to write about, again." I'm going to really have to try harder. Hey, here's something, anyone who was ever in the military and served overseas might remember the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper. Well the good folks at the Stripes have a website where you can read the Stars and Stripes everyday and I have also included this link on the Our Links page.

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving and most of us Americans living in this area will be having our traditional Thanksgiving dinners with plenty of turkey and stuffing and the other trimmings that accompany the meal. So to all you visitors to this website, Happy Thanksgiving from all the cronies in Rota to you wherever you might be.

November 11     Today is Veterans Day and Armistice Day and also known in some parts of the world Remembrance Day. In 1918 on the 11th month, 11th day, 11th hour the adversaries in the conflict known as World War I, or WWI, and known all over the world forever after as, "The War to End All Wars" was declared at an end as an armistice was signed that day by Germany. Veterans Day - Armistice Day is an American Federal Holiday. This day is meant as a day of thanks to all veterans for their service to their country and as an acknowledgement that their service is a contribution to the national security of the United States.

Last Friday, the 9th, on the Rota Naval Station there was a grand opening of the all-new Navy Exchange Commissary complex. This new NEX Mall gathers together all of the NEX retail activities under one roof and has been a very long time in planning. Until last Friday, authorized patrons of the NEX had to drive to various parts of the base to complete their days shopping activities and now it's truly "One-stop shopping." There are a couple of pictures of the new Mall on the Rota page.

Rota continues to enjoy a late "Indian Summer" and we are very thankful for these beautiful fall days of blue sky's and the warm afternoon sunshine. The forecast for the coming week looks to be more of the same albeit with less sunshine than we would like to see. Winter is definitely on the way.

November 4    Sunday and the weather is fabulous. It's bright and sunny with temperatures nearing 80 degrees F. All this coming week we're going to be having great weather according to the weather folks at CNN. It is starting to grow colder at night but this just makes for good sleeping.

Summer is basically over now and the short dark days of our winter are fast approaching (oh how I hate Daylight Saving Time). Rota is still tranquillo after the hectic summer months and the tourist have departed while we wait for the next occasion to get down and rowdy celebrating the forth coming holiday season. These days the Spanish Football league rules the conversation in the bars and cafés as is usual for this time of the year.

For awhile now I have been promised some aerial photographs of Rota showing all the new construction that I have wrote about from time-to-time, but even though I keep asking about them I'm always told that I'll have then soon, maybe next week. Well Spain has truly become a very modern country but some things are still in the land of mañana I guess.  Don't forget about our companion Bulletin-board for your comments and questions or just to read what other are writing about and visit our English language news page for the latest news about Spain.

October 28    Today Europe moved back to standard time from the dreaded (by me) Daylight Saving Time, so it will be daylight an hour earlier this morning and start to get dark around 1900 hours, hurray, I guess. I really think they have the system of changing clocks reversed. I wouldn't mind at all losing an hour of daylight in the summer so it will start getting dark around 2100 hours to gain an extra hours of evening daylight during the short winter months, but that's just me.

I have started editing news items from the Spanish News in English source and added them to the Spanish News page. However readers can still visit http://WWW.TypicallySpanish.Com for late breaking and current news items about Spain and check out all their stories and not just the ones I have selected as general interest stuff.

There isn't much to write about today, Rota, like the rest of Spain is resting up from a vigorous summer season and getting ready for winter. You don't see a lot of folks on the beach these days even though our afternoons are still warm and sunny. I guess the water is starting to get too cold for swimming. Don't forget to take a look at the  Quarterly Schedule of Cultural Events to see what's up in Rota and a reminder that the Crony Bulletin-board is still available for questions and good (hopefully) answers or for general discussion.

October 23      A reader recently informed me that the link to the Rota Coastline was not functioning, I checked and discovered that they were correct, it was kind of broken. I emailed the Coastline and was informed that this was a known problem and they hoped it would be fixed when the Naval Station switches over to their new website in January of 2008. In the meantime clicking on the Coastline link on the Our Links page will take you the the U.S. Naval Station Rota, Spain and there you will find a link to the current issue of the Rota Coastline located in the lower-left corner of this website. When the issue is resolved I will repair the link so that it will point directly to the Rota Coastline once again.

October 21    Well the cataract surgery was successful as you can see because I'm typing these words with no problem. it's a little chilly outside this morning but the day promises to be sunny and warming up in a few hours.

There is a new link on the Home (Index) Page that points to an Adobe PDF document created from a quarterly schedule of Cultural, Artistic, Folkloric, Theater, Opera, etc. events being presented by the Rota Ayuntamiento (City Hall) for the enjoyment of the citizens of Rota. The cost of admission to nearly all of the presentations is 10€ per individual, a very good deal indeed.  We will publish the new quarterly schedule of events as they become available and the link to the current schedule will be on the Home Page.

Well by this time next week we here in Rota and all of Europe will once again be in our standard time as Daylight Saving Time will be over once again until next spring. Personally I feel like we should be in daylight saving time during the winter months so it doesn't start getting dark at 1800 hours. Who need to see the sun still shining in the middle of summer at 2200 hours? Oh well obviously I'm in the minority on this subject or we wouldn't have daylight saving time at all.

October 14     Sunday and it looks like rain. Our morning sky is very dark and heavy looking, but maybe it won't and anyway if it does rain, well we do need some rain, but Sunday is a cruel day for rain as this is the day of choice for most people to dress up and take the family out for a walk about town with to socialize with friends and family, show off the kids, and perhaps to dine out, or take a drive to a neighboring town for the same purpose. A rainy Sunday spoils most of those plans.

Just a reminder folks that our bulletin-board for this website is alive and well, and if in the past you have posted something in the bulletin-board and didn't receive a reply when it was warranted then please be assured that we, myself and trusted forum monitors will be checking, in most cases daily, to make sure that this doesn't happen from now on. As I have mentioned many time before I will be happy to start a new forum in the bulletin-board if requested. Write to the Webmaster with your request if you have a comment concerning our website or bulletin-board.

Folks, I'm having surgery to remove a cataract this coming Sunday so I might not be editing this website next weekend, but then who knows, by next Sunday maybe I'll have my eyesight back to normal except I'll really have to sit far away from the monitor and keyboard until I have some new reading and computer glasses to use. So if I'm not banging on the keys for awhile don't worry I, or someone else, will soon return.

Guess what, it just started raining and looks like it will be doing so for a long time, well this is maybe a very good day to stay home and start making a big kettle of Chili.

October 11    Hello readers, I just checked the Rota Municipal website to see if there was something special to talk about today and guess what? Nada, nothing at all except great weather... the sun is shining, the sky's are blue and there is a gentle breeze blowing and the beaches are ready for sun lovers. It's a return to that special Indian Summer weather we like so much but don't always have.

Not having anything special to write about is a bummer. I guess what we need here is a more dedicated webmaster who is willing to go out and about looking for things to take photos of and stories to document, but we have looked and searched for this person and they aren't to be found. So I suppose we'll just have to get by with what we have and that isn't a whole lot.

Last week there were a few old cronies in town for a few days while we were being rained upon and now that they have returned to the states look at us now. It's a perfect October the kind I used to write about as my favorite month of the year. It's so perfect that maybe we'll hit it big in the Thursday night Primitiva Lottery, maybe.

October 7    Sunday, and it's the final day of Rita's Fiesta Patronales, Nuestra Santisima Virgen del Rosario, Rota's patron Saint's day. The celebrations started on Friday, which was a local holiday in Rota and throughout the whole weekend various events were scheduled in celebration of the event. there was a big parade, a marathon run, etc. If you can read Spanish then here is the complete schedule of events over the three-day weekend http://www.aytorota.es/doc/Fiestas/Fiestas_Patronales_2007/programa_fiestas_patronales_2007.pdf.

In other news... well there isn't much else happening at the moment. Summer has fled to other places and has been replaced by the Fall season. The nights are growing cooler and longer and days shorter as winter approaches. The days are still very warm and the beaches are still inviting sun lovers to come gather and enjoy the quiet season before the water becomes too cold.

September 30    Sunday morning and as usual it's very, very quiet. Even my cats are napping after their early breakfast. Ah yes, a blast for the past...a moment ago there was the sound of yesterday as a propeller driven airplane passed over. I seldom here the sounds of a prop type airplane these days.

This past week we experienced rain showers, thunder storms with lightening, chilly temperatures and a mini-levante which is definitely not our usual September weather pattern. What I expect in the weather for this time of year is temperatures in the high eighties (F.) during the day with lows around 65 F. at night.

I haven't much to write about today, both American and Spanish children are back in school and this means that Monday thru Friday at 1400 hours all hell breaks loose and traffic becomes gridlocked as all schools release their charges for the remainder of the day. All around these many schools, in most towns of any size there are usually several smaller schools rather than one or two large ones so that children attend a school near their home rather than have to travel across town. Parents or trusted friends cluster at the gates waiting for the kids to exit and many people have cars parked everywhere and anywhere close as possible to the school gate making a gridlock condition for about 30 minutes from 1400 hours.

The dollar is falling fasted than my belief in a quick recovery in it's value relative to the euro, but we still manage. A measured U.S. gallon of gasoline cost more than $5.00 at the pump which is the reason most people drive what is known as a sub-compact in the states and a Café con Leché at many bars is 1€, which is at the moment $1.42 and we're not talking Starbucks here folks, just a regular coffee. The same goes for a small glass of draft beer. I say small because some years ago a standard measure of  draft beer used to be one third of a liter and then one day it changed to one quarter of a liter and although most people didn't seem to notice this change, I did.

Enough bitchin' for today, bye-bye for now.

September 23    Sunday morning and all is quiet, the birds are singing outside my window, the sky is bright blue, there is a mild breeze, and it's nice and cool. It's going to be another great Rota day. Summer is waning, but it's still beach weather and like most Sunday's the beaches will be most likely be as crowded as is usual for a Sunday.

September 22     Hello again readers, this week past we have had the return of a long time forum moderator and a new volunteer to moderate a few other forums. These volunteers try to ensure that the forums are responsive to any questions that are posted and require a response. They also act as censors when required by deleting any porno postings, of which there have been a few, and inappropriate hate, or other offensive postings. From time to time people write to the Webmaster to ask questions that, when answered, would possible be of interest to others. So there is a new forum titled "We get mail..." wherein these emails and their replies will be posted. Understand that any such emails will be deperson