Remember in Spain the metering of water and electricity. Here at home I turn on the tap water or the light switch and it just goes whether I really need it or not. There along the Camino at least the water taps ran for a certain time and then shut down. Ah, including showers! Including the public fountains for valuable drinking water out in the middle of nowhere, which made a lot of sense. Water conservation all around. And similarly the electric lights mostly ran on motion sensors which lead to some interesting moments in water closets and stairways. Electric power conservation all around.

All that took some getting used to but I sort of got in their groove after a time. The intermittent shower was my least favorite though. Here at the ranch we are used to watching our water use during the dry summer season anyway. So back home here I have made some difference in our electrical use by seeing light in a different way. Instead of lighting a whole big space evenly better to light the points where people gather. If there is just one group then bringing the light in just to them makes them special, an ambiance thing.

Bringing this this all back to “Monday Early” like the title of this post, I was up early, 0630, and had made myself breakfast. I was just sitting down at the kitchen table after having just turned off all the extrainous lights. Just the one over the table was burning and I was grooving on the ambiance thing while getting ready to enjoy my breakfast when…

My Rebecca is a substitute teacher in the local school district. She has an old time certification that says she can teach in K through 12 which is the whole thing from youngest to oldest. So, she is the perfect substitute. She is perfect in another way which I will attempt to describe.

So, yea, the phone rings at 0700 and it is Barb the secretary at the Middle School. She is trying to find a substitute to fill in last minute for a sick teacher. I wake My Rebecca and she can make it from a dead sleep, to cold pizza breakfast to the middle school classroom in less than an hour on a Monday morning. Now that’s perfect! I guess I have given her good training putting up with me. Amazing.

Just a description of our morning. Me trying to snuggle into cozy Spanish ambiance and My Rebecca zooming by me in a cloud of dust to ride herd down the road. OK, then, I can finish up this post and do a walk at 0900. The rain has stopped but I will need boots in the wet grass. Good luck getting your week started, love you, Felipe.