Happy birthday pop.

It's been about 12 years since my dad died, but I always feel it a bit more on May 14th, his birthday. He would have been 83. It's hard for me to imagine what he would've been like as an 83 year old man, but I'm sure it would have been entertaining.

***

On a whim, I took a selfie of me doing a side plank in the gym:

I like how weird my arm looks.

***

As our time here nears its conclusion, I keep wanting to capture some of the sights I saw every day. This picture of San Jacinto as I walk out of our side street is a view I saw hundreds of times this year:

***

Referring back to my homework assignment from Spanish class yesterday, I found this sign that prohibits public urination on our street:

The graphic is pretty clever.

Galilean Thermometer

This is a Galilean thermometer:

This column of liquid contains a few bubbles of different density. As the temperature drops, the bubbles float to the top. The lowest one at the top is the temperature. In this case, it's somewhat warm and only one bubble is at the top, 26 degrees centigrade.

I only mention this because, when we moved into the flat last July, there was a thermometer like this. Sometime in Feb, I knocked it over and broke it (it was a mess because the liquid inside is some kind of oil, luckily it only splashed on the tile floor). Regardless, I found a replacement today and this is it.

***

Spanish class resumed today. My listening was pretty good. My speaking still sucks. I got to do my presentation on things one should do if they visit Walla Walla. We didn't get to the other exercise where I find pictures around town that prohibit, recommend, or permit various activities. Although I only found one anyway:

***

Juli left around 2pm. She took an uber to the train station and a train to Madrid to spend a week with some other friends before returning to Walla Walla. Laura helped me to move my "office" back into the guest room. It's nice to be back in there--especially now that it's getting hot. The guest room has an air conditioner:

Take me to the river

It was hot and sunny here today going up to 95 degrees. Instead of the gym, I decide to test my foot and go for a brisk walk along the river:

A lot of trees and flowers are in full bloom and the pollen counts are very high. Laura has really struggled with hay fever these past few days. Hopefully it won't last too much longer.

***

I talked to Rachel a bit this afternoon.

***

Juli spent most of the day with her host family from her study abroad time here.

***

Laura tried to avoid pollen. Sadly, that's nearly impossible.

La Feria ha terminado

Today was the last day of La Feria. There will be a lot of worn out and melancholy Sevillanos tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the grounds to revert to the barren, empty space it was several months ago. The preparation of the site seemed to be at least two months. A couple of horseback riders went down our street today, heading for la Feria one last time:

***

Laura and Juli walked around a bit along the river to the north. Later they took the metro across the other branch of the river just to show Juli that side of things. They plan to see the fireworks show that signifies the end of la Feria.

***

I continued reading Algorithms to Live By. It's an interesting premise. The scope of the book is to present ideas from computer science algorithms to everyday decision making. The first chapter is about the problem of choosing an optimal element from a collection of ranked elements. I.e. working through a list of job applicants in the hope of finding the best candidate. They extend the optimal approach to other kinds of situations like selling a house, finding a mate, etc.

***

I talked to Betty a bit on the phone. Also, I went to the gym. It too has been pretty empty this week of feria.

High noon

The sun as the season advances it gets warmer every day here and the sun reaches a little further into the courtyard of our building:

***

Today was not a super productive day. I read a bit more of The New Childhood but also gave up on it. Too much opinion, not enough rigor. I also spent a bit of time with All of Statistics, but am still stuck on a couple of exercises. Concentration wasn't the best today because I didn't sleep too well the previous night. I don't usually suffer from pollen allergies, but I must have a bit more congestion at night that's making a bit tough to sleep well.

***

I ate leftovers for dinner before a Laura got home from class (which is typical for me). However, when Laura and Juli got home, they decided to go out to dinner. I went with them and had a couple of beers while they dined. We went to a small local place near the Mercadona called Meson de Candil. The service was particularly good. As I mentioned I only had beer, but Laura and Juli reported that the food was pretty good:

One highlight was a large group apparently returning from a day at la feria. We all enjoyed observing the "kids' table" here featuring 4 girls in their flamenco dresses.