Mostly Spain 2023 - Arrival

 I write to you from our home for the next month El Campello, Spain. El Campello is a town just north of the city of Alicante on the Mediterranean Coast halfway between Barcelona and Malaga. This is an area we are exploring specifically as a potential longer-term stay locale. We will get more into that in further posts. 

Getting to our destination was its usual set of challenges.

The actual flight from Albuquerque to Madrid was uneventful. Madrid's International Airport was packed, plus is is quite large. But that is not atypical of any large international destination. Let's just say it was the typical Airport World experience (long-term readers will remember my observation that ALL international airports are pretty much the same and make up their own unique ecosystem.)

We were staying in a Marriott Hotel overnight before picking up a rental car and driving to El Campello. The room was nice with nice soft American style beds. We had a disaster of a meal at the hotel restaurant when the waiter totally failed to put in Wife's order. Then there was a shift change. I get all my food. She goes foodless. She is tired and hungry. Finally they get the food to her. In between there were a few other acts of disrespect. She lost it. Good for her. One should not just be a victim. But we were both in a pretty poor mood so sleeping wasn't that great. Not to mention, we don't do well sleeping together because of my snoring and other sleep habit differences. Let's just say we were both tired and crabby in the morning.

I will say that the breakfast buffet at the Marriott was over the top. I joked with Wife that we should have come at 6am and stayed until it closed at 10:30am so we could gradually try everything. They had all you can eat jamon iberico (super expensive cured ham). They were charging the same price at the restaurant for a small plate of this stuff as we paid for the whole buffet per person.

Then off to the airport to get our rental car. We wait in line for the agent to get off the phone for about 15 minutes. Then she tells us our contract is already and to go out to the parking. Of course the car we are assigned has an electrical issue and won't start. (This determined with the attendant at the lot who only speaks Spanish). We are assigned a new car, a larger version of a Mini-Cooper. This had a really bizarre (to me) control panel. Of course, the language was in Spanish which took us a while to figure out how to change. Plus, I couldn't figure out how to get my phone holding attachment on the windshield so I could see the phone for GPS purposes. And, of course, the audio instructions are still not working with Google Maps off my phone, a problem I've had for some time and have not been able to resolve. So Wife is trying to read off the instructions which is hard because she can't actually see and read the phone screen map too well. 

Nonetheless, we do make it out of Madrid. At our first rest stop, I change the location of the holder so I can see it which helps a lot. We make it to our destination without further problem. The apartment (as you will see below) is really beautiful. Exactly what we were looking for. There are some issues but i will save that for a next post. 

We took a quick drive to a supermarket and experienced the quintessential European underground parking experience. Wife and I are always so upset with ourselves that we don't video these experiences where you are making a 32 point turn to try to get out of the parking space and work your way round and round the narrow road up (or down) to get in and out of the garage. 

On the other hand, we bought a ton of groceries including a lot of alcohol and only paid $130! We had French picnic for dinner and collapsed. 

But this morning, I was up as the light was rising and saw why we have made all this effort.

And the good part of our hotel meal, mine. A nice soup/stew of beans plus vegetables and some off the chart croquettas that were incredibly delicately fried and smooth on the inside.

Welcome to "Mostly Spain 2023"

Eldership series fans rejoice. The latest adventures of Wife and de-I, commander and crew (alternating daily) of the Eldership and its mission to keep traveling despite the aches and pains of increasing age is about to launch its latest chapter. 

We leave this afternoon for Spain. As in our recent trips to Sicily and Malaysia, we are still seeking out a locale to set up as an Eldership colony. This trip we are checking out Alicante, Spain. But in true Eldership fashion, we needed to fit in a jog up to Copenhagen, a return to Spain a bit north of Alicante, and finish with a week in the St. Pete Beach area of Florida (more on all that later).

So prepare for the posts explosion and add memory on your devices for the photo onslaught!

All Hands Report For Duty - The Eldership Prepares For Another Mission

 The word has been passed. 

Leave has been cancelled. 

All hands (all two of them) have been required to report for duty immediately. 

The Eldership must be put in shipshape condition. It must be supplied. The mission must be understood. What will be the rotation between Wife and de-I as to who is Commander and who is Number One. 

How many unwitting people can we recruit to be 'red shirt extras' for certainly there will be times we need someone to be sacrificed?

And where the heck is the Eldership off to this time anyway?

All will be revealed. We are too busy getting the Eldership ready for its scheduled departure on Thursday. 

STAY TUNED.

(And fear not. I suspect strongly, photography and gastronomy will be involved.)

Return Of The Muse - Writing Again

I kind of thought it was gone, as in gone forever. The muse, the undefinable upwelling of creativity that had led to me writing my great epic fantasy series (ha, ha, I mean if I don't think it is 'great' who will?).

It all started in 2014. I had just settled into my transitioned state with us getting into our wild Eldership world travel mode. There was time to do something. I looked at a book I had written in my late 20's when I was big time into sci fi and fantasy. I felt I could do something with it. And them it hit, the muse. Suddenly, the entire framework of a much greater creation came out. Not just came out. It DEMANDED to be written. Between 2014 and 2016, I could barely stop writing. I put down over 1,500 pages in four books during that period. And I completed the cycle of the story. 

But I still felt a desire to write. I had tested the waters on getting published by sending my some of my work to an agent. The response was 'there is potential but you are going to have to make a lot of changes.' I went deep within. This sounded like getting a job. Besides what the agent suggested I needed to change went against the values, emotions, and feelings I wanted to portray. Besides, my real motivation for writing was I wanted a story where IT ALWAYS TURNED OUT THE WAY I WANTED IT! Nothing else I've ever read does. They are always killing off the character I love, or having them not get the woman I want them to, or any of a number of things that piss me off about reading or watching others' stories. 

I made the decision that I was writing for an audience of one - me. I thought through how to extend the story and started on the fifth book. This one came out much slower. There wasn't this almost same coming from another place aspect. Between 2016 and 2019 I finished this fifth book and another 400+ pages of writing. Now I'd written over 2,000 pages, all following the same fantasy world and general story line. 

In 2019, I started Book Six...and creativity came to a screeching halt after about a hundred pages. I suspect my throwing all my creative energies into Theodora had a lot to do with it. Occasionally I would go back and write a some tortuous pages. But the big problem was I couldn't see where the story was going. In many ways I had written myself into a box canyon because of a insidious tendency to have my villains redeem themselves. Well if you keep doing this, you run out of villains. No villains, no tension/conflict and no story. So I put Book Six on hold and didn't really look at it for a number of years.

Then earlier this year, I realized, I had Theodora to a point where it didn't need anywhere near the energy I had had to put into it. So I went back to the book. I figured out a way to create a new villain, and damn it an nonredeemable one! And suddenly the creative juices began to flow. The muse was back. I outlined a massive amount of story in just a few weeks. I don't feel that same pressure to 'get it out of my head' as I had in 2014-16. But each night I am cranking out a couple of pages. 

And it is fun.

Weird

 It is close to 10pm. I am awake. I have energy. I am writing. What is weird about this? Well for one, I am not fighting like a berserker to stay awake. 

My normal sleep pattern is I get up between 4:00 and 4:30 in the morning after about five hours of sleep. During the day I will usually get one or two 20 to 30 minute naps. Then by 9:30pm I am fighting the urge to sleep. I usually fight until I can get to 10:30 to 11:00. If I go to sleep any earlier, I will be up even earlier! Not acceptable.

But things have been different the last few weeks. Upon our return from our driving trip down south, I incurred an incredible pain in my left thigh. It 'literally' was the third worse pain in my life (after the kidney donation aftermath, and my uvulectomy. After five days of trying to soldier through, I sought out my doctor who said, "Agh! it might be a blood clot. That can be life threatening. Get your ass to an Urgent Care now. (Actually she didn't actually say 'Get your ass to...' but that's how I took it..) So at 5:30pm on a Friday night at 5:30pm I arrive at the Urgent Care. At 1:30am they haven't gotten all the tests. I've suffered hypothermia from the frigid hospital like environment. I've gotten my pain ridden sorry ass out of the hospital bed three times to ask "What the hell is going on?" But they have enough information to tell me I don't have a blood clot. YAY. I can still travel. As long as I can walk. 

At my doctor on Monday, she does a bunch of range of motion and strength tests and says with a great deal of authority, "It's not muscular and it is not your hip joint" (We had gotten X-Rays on that while at the Urgent Care.) When all else is eliminated, what is left is a nerve inflammation (which I've had before elsewhere in my body). There are a number of recommended treatments. One is a drug especially formulated for nerve inflammation. It has so many nasty potential side effects you have to ramp up the dosage by a third every three days. I've had no ill effects. Acupuncture is also advised. I have an acupuncture doctor and we've been successful with other nerve pain in the past. Between the two, I am light years better. Not normal, but certainly functional.

That leads us to today. While this has been going on, the nature of the nerve pain made sleeping extremely difficult. It also was debilitating to my leg strength. So I am on the mend now and working on both of these. This afternoon, just before 4pm, I am going to take a nap. I figure it will be the 30 minute normal nap. I don't get up until 5:36! I think there is a lot of healing and catching up to still be done. 

Please stay tuned much good content coming up. A whole new chapter and update on the Theodora Project plus the Eldership has been refitted and brought to the launch pad for another Old Folks Who Don't Know Better Adventure.

NM Ghost Towns - Finale - Pinos Altos & Silver City

 Well we are finally finishing up this epic photographic journey. Hard to believe that only two days could lead to this many posts! But this is what happens when the spirit of Espouses Fotograficus fills you. As I have always believed, "Beware the Newly Converted."

After the long drive back from Hillsboro ( I failed to mention earlier, I think, that we had to drive way more than we thought because the main road between Silver City, our base, and Hillsboro had been washed out and closed) we went to a small Ghost Town right outside of Silver City called Pinos Altos. It was small and like some of the other communities was coming back in a small way with people developing the properties. Then we finally stepped out into the historic center of Silver City where our hotel was located. By then it had been a very long day and we were beat.

In Pinos Altos, I was still using the fish eye lens. No triads here . There are some comparisons of black & white vs. color of the same image, and some just my impression of the best shot. Silver City, I switched back to my regular lens and shot mostly in color because the city is so colorful. Though there were a couple of scenes that seemed appropriate for black and white.

Pinos Altos

 The town had an opera house. It has been converted into rental space for events. They were going to have a band and dancing the evening we were there. We really needed a bathroom. The managers were nice to let us use the facility and then roam around to take pictures.

 Chatting with the proprietors, they told me of a legend of photographer who was supposedly obsessed with the property and whose ghost inhabits the building. I decided to my paranormal filter on my lens to see what would it would catch. 

Would you believe!

Sure enough. The Ghost Photographer. I even got a shot of her when we went into the bar/restaurant next door.

 

 Finishing up Pinos Altos

 

 Finally taking our exhausted bodies out to Silver City itself, there are a ton of historic buildings, well marked with signs describing the history. And all maintained now in a very colorful state.

Then, as we were walking, I saw this old truck and thought using black and white would capture the image of the town of old.

 

 One last whimsical take. There was a huge Ice Cream Emporium with a big ice cream cone sign which we were going to finish our evening. As we approached, its reflection was on the window of a fitness place. The irony had me laughing.

 

NM Ghost Towns - Finishing Up Hillsboro

 I've got two more posts to go! I took more pictures on this two day trip than any other I've been on. But I guess since the whole purpose was photographic that makes sense. This time no triads, just black/white vs color comparisons (for the most part).