A new season

Now that "El Halloween" is over, it's one long commercial slide until Three Kings Day, without Thanksgiving to break the Fall

Update (7 November): I have discovered that the heat in my apartment works perfectly...if you turn on the thermostat.  Good Things to Know.

Due to a misunderstanding with my US bank (eventually cleared up as a software error after half an hour of my free cell phone minutes on the phone with tech support), I had occasion to remember that today is actually the two month anniversary of my arrival in Spain.  In a way it feels like I arrived yesterday, and in a way New York seems vague and unreal.  (I know it's election day there tomorrow, and I even have opinions about the propositions on the ballot, but it all seems far away.)  The here and now is all about taking care of beginning-of-the-month stuff here in Madrid: paying bills, renewing memberships at yoga and the pool, trying to remember when I have to buy another monthly unlimited "multi-tarjeta" for the metro and bus.




Now that I'm beginning my third month here I've done all these things at least once and in some cases twice already, so the novelty is in the context.  As always, it's difficult to remember being hot when you're cold and vice-versa.  While we still need rain (goodness do we need rain), there are rains in the north (and even snow in the Vall D'Aran already I heard on the news), and today finally for the first time I switched to my "light" winter coat (as opposed to my really heavy duty puffy coat, which I probably won't need here but brought just in case).  I'm pretty sure I've also turned on the heat in my room tonight for the first time, and I'm writing this snuggled under an extra quilt that has been folded away in my laundry and ironing room since I arrived.  (I say "pretty sure" I turned on the heat because I know that I have successfully switched the boiler from "hot water only" to "hot water and heating."  I then tried to use the remote control for the "bomba aire acondicionado-calor" and nothing happened, I suspect because the batteries are dead.  So I went to plan B, which was to turn the valve on the heater in m room on.  It looks to me like a standard steam heater, so presumably the boiler is helping it, but it hadn't gotten warm in the five minutes it took to brush my teeth, and it's not making clanging noises like old steam heaters in New York apartments, so I'm not sure it's on.  I'll investigate tomorrow morning, when I come out from under all the quilts.)  This evening when I made dinner the kitchen windows got all steamy the way the shower doors do during a hot shower.

Mind you, it's not actually that cold here.  The high this afternoon was around 17 C (about 60 F) and now it's about 8 (about 46) according to my phone.  That's hardly real winter weather, but I notice the nip in the air because I'm repeating things now that I've done when it was warm.  I was also deeply shocked to see the first TV ad for Christmas shopping discounts.  I feel in decency that Christmas ads shouldn't begin until the end of November, but that's because I'm conditioned by Thanksgiving.  Here, once the little pumpkins and skeletons go away, it's all Christmas until January 6.  Thus far at least there have been no Christmas carols in stores (though I mostly don't shop in places with store music).  There have been fresh hot chestnut sellers on the street, but that's just lovely because I enjoy the smell.  (Honestly, I miss the sugar coated roasted peanuts and other nuts on sale in New York at this time of year, but chestnuts are a nice smell too.)

Now that I'm balancing work at the Complutense, the BNE, and yoga, and swimming, and occasional socializing and other things, I have lost the rhythm of large lunch and siesta of the summer.  Partly that's because siesta is now the time when the weather is nicest instead of unbearable, and partly it's just because I'm working, but I also like cooking in the evening when the weather is cool, so that I warm up the kitchen.  I also think I'm just reverting to home habits, because I'm feeling less like vacation and more like at home.  My TV watching has been somewhat abbreviated of late, since one can only watch so many poorly dubbed series and movies, and the news (which I actually enjoy and find novel and interesting here) has been boringly focused on Catalunya for the last week, and is now going around and around in circles while pundits chase their tails about the upcoming elections.  I watch a little to stay informed, but after a while it's dull.

I don't have any special adventures to report, as today was mostly a doing chores day, and yesterday was a very pleasant but uneventful trip to Tres Cantos for lunch and a movie with friends.  This is just a quiet little contented entry, saluting the true beginning of Fall weather, and vague ominous stormclouds of Christmas merchandising on the horizon.