Traditions

Since becoming unemployed, I've spent a lot of time with my grandparents. I can tell you a million and one stories of the crazy things I've witnessed in the last year. One ritual I absolutely love is having a drink with my grandfather every day at five o'clock. It's almost always rum with him. Over drinks this afternoon, he told me stories about Cuba. According to Pirata (my grandfather's nickname), the prevailing north winds of Havana winters ushered in reading season. "There were no girls in the square who wanted to play," he said in his still-broken English, so he would spend his time in the biblioteca. People weren't allowed to checkout books, so he would start reading a few and then hide the ones he liked in the stacks. Jules Verne was his favorite. "I read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea a long time ago, and good. I loved the books about Malaysian pirates too. Jules Verne was never on a boat, but he knew everything about the sea. He learned it all by spending time in sailor bars."

Then we were off to Hemingway. "Do you know where The Old Man And The Sea came from? An old man in Cojimar had gone out fishing and hooked a huge shark. The shark pulled him four miles from the coast, where an easterly current took the old man away from Cuba. After three days, the old man beat the shark but couldn't pull it into his small boat. Other sharks began circling, and the old man had to cut his prize away. By that time, the Marines and other fisherman had spent days looking for the old man, who had begun to make his way back toward the coast to catch an east-bound current. On the day that the old man arrived home to Cojimar, Hemingway happened to be at the bar on the beach. And Hemingway was smart; right away."

I am too damn nostalgic.

As for today's suggestions regarding the stock market, my picks made a small fortune!