SNOW ON THE TRACKS?

Bob, the singing fool, named capriciously for Dylan, grabs a few rays in the yard Friday. He will not be outside today as it is grey and cold - nor tomorrow - when snow is due to make a comeback.

I urge you to read Reb´s blog (see on right) about yesterday´s action in the village.

And so I will turn instead to today. Reb was running a temperature and decided to skip Mass, so I went alone. Odd thing for an unbeliever to do, but there you are.
Very small turnout: just twelve of us. Normally there are about twenty. And this despite a bonus offering of Ash. Santiago the priest was unable to get here on Wednesday, the trad Ash day, so today was substituted. I went and got my forehead marked with the other eleven sinners.
Santiago said a few words about the symbolism of it - mortality, penitence, humility etc., although, looking around the tiny church, one might think that few of us needed much reminding of the frailty of life at our collective ages.
Afterward, walking home, it struck me that one of the things I find so pleasing about our town is the total lack of class structure. Maybe it simply is not populous enough, but there is no "Lord of the Manor," no "leaders." My friend Estebanito is the Mayor, but he didn´t want to be, he was more or less forced into the job because nobody else would do it, and that was that.
I don´t know if anyone here is rich. Certainly, nobody is poor. Nobody is cold or hungry. And if any of them are rich, they don´t spend a cent on smart cars or elegant clothes or impressive houses. (They do lash out on some enormous tractors, though.)
We might be the most prosperous people in town or we may be the least. I have no idea.
And I like that.