Today is Monday. We were able to sleep in this morning as we have no guests until Wednesday.
On Saturday, the two rooms that were supposed to check in didn't turn up during waking hours. We called them Saturday evening to ask if they were still coming (as they had pre-paid for the rooms, I thought they would turn up). They said they were in Pujerra, another village here in the valley where there was a chestnut festival and they were with family. They would come a bit later.... yeah, later all right. I went to bed at 2AM after waiting for them to ring the bell. The phone rang at 3.30 AM... "oh we're here now ... can someone open the door?" I was very unimpressed.
Sunday wasn't a bad day... we had 5 tables for lunch and then closed for the remainder of the day, as per usual. We had a quiet evening at home and watched a film.
So, about Antonio and Isabel, the meanest couple in the village. Who can say why people behave the way they do. This couple are older, late sixties, perhaps even early seventies, appear to be in fairly good health (appearances can be deceiving) and had a fairly pleasant disposition toward us when we first arrived in the village 25 months ago. We have not done anything to them in anyway except greet them when we saw them. The first signs that they were going to be a problem for us was the day Isabel beckoned Ivan to the front of her house. Their house is across the road from the hotel but it is also down an incline, so the hotel is higher than their house. She called over to Ivan because she wanted to show him that there was some water run off from the hotel terrace with dirt in it and she could have slipped. This of course all being our fault. The water drain that crosses the road before her house is blocked up and so the water runs passed her house down the street, the public street.
Ivan said this was indicative that they would probably complain at the drop of a hat about anything. Well, the complaint came later and was about the dogs. We brought two dogs with us when we arrived here in Juzcar, Pasky is our German Shepherd and Bandit the French Bulldog, both pups when we first arrived. (We now have three dogs as Bandit had pups in April 2006 and we kept one, Lolita.)
Anyway, Antonio and Isabel have goats and sheep on their finca which is down a track from the hotel off the main road. We sometimes take the dogs for walks on this road. One day Ivan did just that. Antonio was there in the road with his few goats, sheep and his lame sheep dog. Naturally Pasky and Bandit were curious and went to check things out. Neither listened very well to their masters at the time but neither did they do anything to those animals. This is when Antonio's true colors started to come through.... he started yelling at Ivan about the dogs, while grabbing his nether regions (charming!) and shaking a fist. He told Ivan to go back to where he came from! He invited Ivan into a fist fight and he told Ivan to shove the dogs up his *ss (very charming!!)
We were both in a bit of shock at this behavior. Naturally Ivan told me all about it shortly after this occurred. This, after their almost psychotic waving greetings us..."buenas dias, buenas tardes". We were dumbstruck. This was not the last time something like this would occur. Next thing though, the Guardia Civil ("GC") showed up in our bar. Pedro is a sergeant in the GC; he is also the resident GC in Juzcar as he lives here full time. He looks like a GC from the Franco days and that's a look designed to intimidate people. Well he came into the bar with a fairly easy disposition and asked what happened with Antonio. Ivan explained and he told us we had to have the dogs on a lead when they are in the village (they were not in the village when this happened). He seemed to downplay the episode.
Well, word travels fast in this village and everyone knew what had happened. Antonio claimed that because of our dogs, one of his goats had a broken teet. We thought, if that's true, show us as anyone could make an accusation like that. Anyway, as word was traveling, we got the story on these two. The stroy is that they go for anyone and everyone. They've sued their neighbors over the most trivial things. Antonio even slapped the woman across the road in the face once. They've denounced (a Spanish legal process involving official compaint reports to the GC and usually resolved by an appearance in court) several people in the village. Isabel is the aunt of one of our regulars, Willie, who told us that she does not speak to any of her 5 brothers. Their daughter also has a loose reputation and is said to be even meaner than they are.
Now, the most recent thing they've done was complain to the village hall about all the parked cars in the road. We've had a good bit of business of late and naturally people have to park their cars. In front of the hotel on the other side of the road is a railing with a lovely view. There is also enough space there to parrallel park and still have cars pass without a problem. Well, while I was away in NY last month, someone from the village hall showed up and painted a yellow line down the entire front of that railing. We were told that someone complained that they could not pass with their car with all the parked vehicles there.
Little do they know that we don't really care about that. It does not affect our business as there is still plenty of parking. But of course this is the type of people we are dealing with. And of course, Pedro, the GC in Juzcar, is a nephew to them. He has started to give us some indications of possible problems with him as well. This is because he is one of the small minded village people.
Anyway, that's a story about the meanest people in the village. I stay out of their way but can't help calling them nasty names behind their backs. Even Ivan's mother and father have had a run in with them and involving the GC. Fortunately that ended well because Mariano, Ivan's father, knows the head of the GC up in Avila.
Anyway, that's my story for today.
Weather today, cloudy, cool, some patchy fog. Still the chestnut trees here in Juzcar have not really changed the color of their leaves... they are a pale green at this late date. Perhaps they will all just fall off this year without changing color... bummer.
