Day: May 16, 2025

I haven’t done a very good job of getting sleep. I can go down for a few hours at the beginning of the night, but it doesn’t last. I’m up by 3 and staring into the darkness for the next three or more hours. I wish I could make that time productive. The best I end up doing is sorting through ideas in my head; resolving conflicts in my novel revision to be jotted down later. That is productivity after a fashion, but as the habit continues, I am continuing to be more and more run down. We have an extra-long day today, but we’ve agreed to take the next two off and spend them on the beach, getting up whenever we want, and, hopefully, falling into a routine with the writing and exercise.

That is not to say I am not getting exercise. The ten miles of daily walking is plenty of exercise. It feels good, but the pictures taken of me show me how far I really need to go. It is a bad situation with the weight. It keeps climbing when home, and here I can only hope it is leveling out and, at best, declining. The pictures show a man with an awfully large belly—the worst kind of fat for an older person. I need to get it right as soon as I can.

I’m on a Scrabble losing streak. 5 games and only one was close. It feels like the tiles themselves are out to get me. They’re trying to make me loose, and doing so spectacularly. Even in the close game the tiles were like, “Nah, she’s got this.” And I lost by a point. The others were closer to 100 points, removing all doubt that this goes beyond me just getting beat. I’m getting punked. Obviously, this is a massive ego crush. I consider myself an intelligent person. My tiles consider me a fool. This needs to be resolved soon. The losing streak must come to an end!

Some Thoughts:

1. Tomorrow we tackle Girona.
2. Today we tackled Sagrada Familia and tooled around the city of Barcelona for hours. Lots of beauty in the city. Lots of roaches in the gothic quarter. We went to a seemingly pristine Mango clothing store and there were gigantic roaches on the ground. They were dead by poison or stomping, but they were there for the public behold. The classic rule is that if you see a roach then there are many more you don’t see. What is the rule if you see more than one?
3. Tried wine for the first time since touching down. It was bad.
4. Tried a local vegetarian spot with veggie Paella (sp?). It was very good.
5. Coffeenerdness: Used a Bialetti for the first time since Italy 2024. Quite wonderful. Strong. But wonderful. We used a level 10 espresso blend and added in frothed oat milk and sugar. Solid combo.
6. The coffee proved that my body is recovering from the plane nonsense. Never eat plane food. That stuff will ruin your insides. Add that overprocessed swill to the pressure of the plane itself and your insides are cooked.
7. Tired. It’s 8:45 on a Thursday before a rather long day in Girona. I am afraid to sleep, because I will probably wake up before 1 AM and stare at the wall for hours. Maybe I’ll stare at the lights across the street again. That was a fun night. I haven’t slept right since we landed…
8.