Wow – what a difference a week makes!  Oh my God, are they back!  There are strangers’ cars in my parking lot and dozens of motor boats, sailboats, and jet skis going by all day long.  Jet skis in Spanish are called water motorcycles.  Just like motorcycles, they make so much noise!  And taking a walk now, although still relaxing, means greeting a dozen or so fellow walkers instead of one or two.

They say we have to move forward, but do we?  Certainly, I don’t want people to die, but it was so much nicer here when everyone was confined in their places — the good old days of the Pandemic.  It’s not funny, but true.

You’ve probably seen the headlines:  EU May Ban Americans as Borders Reopen

I have purposefully remained apolitical in my posts, because I know some of my friends and readers have views different from mine.  I respect them and I do not wish to jeopardize those friendships.  And politics is not the point of my blog about my adventures here.  But I’m having a hard time right now not attributing my “stuck” situation directly to missteps by the US government.  I believe that if the virus had been taken more seriously sooner, if there had been a strict policy like the one in Spain which was national in scope, but which maintained some leniency based on regional differences in population, and if there had been a clear message of concrete steps to take, reasonable ones, to keep the population safe, it could have made a difference, and I would be coming home this summer.  I don’t know for certain that another administration would have handled the crisis more competently, but I strongly suspect it.  It’s not just the President, there’s more blame to spread around.  But I’m pissed.

I had to get that off my chest.

After reading the article on Wednesday about the EU, I did what I always do when stressed…I shopped online (at Anthropologie UK).  Ha ha.  And then, when I went out and bought a roasted chicken, I did something I never do, I added French fries!  That did the trick, for now…

Morning walk: