peter missed his plane today because his train said “no”.

denmark has been locked into some european union restrictions. they had to grant the bid for their much needed new trains to italy. this led to putting their own country’s train manufacturer out of business. tons of jobs were lost. the italian trains showed up several years late. now, out of about 40 trains, only 8 seem to work, and they have problems daily. peter was on one of these. these are trains that deny passage.

so i had to spend a chunk of the day figuring out how to get him to spain in time for the set tomorrow. limited options. eventually i could not ignore the kids anymore with my head stuck in the web. we were headed out for the beach but a massive thunder storm clobbered the city and stuck us around the hotel for awhile. it has poured heavy rain at some part of the day everyday since i shipped my rain coat home.

but the beach eventually worked out well.

we took the long way there through the 2500 year old roman ruins. some of them sent ‘creeps’ up the back of the neck.

the day mopes along.

in the evening amparo shows up with her family to have dinner. she only lives down the road a bit. she has been recording and doing shows with calexico for several years now and even showed up in tucson. ttuned out she was a big giant sand fan. she was so happy to finally meet me there, which happened by accident when my daughter’s boyfriend ran into her back then. the calexico boys would never introduce us. joe is very territorial, which is part of his irony. and john attempts to remain free of extra complex, but just never seems to be that free. anyhow, it was an experience to meet her. she is a force. exuberant and sweet. a tumult needing to display. a southern girl. andalucian. a sparkler.

we do dinner at a basque style restaurant. its all very good. then a cap at la penya. eventually the wobble home ensues. very good grape tonight.

mas riber del duero, temprinillo. muy bien. muy tranquillo.

back at the hotel the kids get planted for sleep. i remember i gotta get peter a ticket still. i tried to buy it before bed and the price had mysteriously gone down. at the moment of buying it, it went back up.

i kept falling asleep trying to figure it out. finally give it up and will let the morrow figure it out. the wife can’t understand what my problem is. the laptop glow is evil.