Here Comes the Rain Again

Eric in saragüell and espardeñas

In actuality, this year has been pretty nice, weather-wise.  That was until the one day came for which I was hoping for nice weather, San José.  Mauri's mom had bought him a new pair of espardeñas (shoes) for Eric's borrowed saragüell (fallero suit).  I had bought some new tights for him, and was very excited about being able to parade my cute little fallero around town like we did last year.

I was also looking forward to eating paella outside in the street with the neighbors in Mauri's parents' "grupo," and to seeing Eric's reaction to the mazcletás and the burning of the falla of the barrio.  In the end, though, we missed out on all of it.

Despite the beautiful weather the rest of the week/weekend, we woke up on Monday to a cold, gray, windy day.  I wasn't expecting it, especially with the beautiful warm, sunny weather that we had been having.  Sadly, it was the day that we had most of our activities planned.  I hadn't seen very many fallas yet because I was looking forward to going to see them all with my cute little fallero in his Saragüell.
Once the bad weather hit, though, it it hard.  I went from wearing a short sleeve shirt outside all day Sunday to being cold with my winter jacket when the wind and rain hit on Monday.  I was afraid that we weren't even going to be able to dress Eric in the saragüell, but then I realized that the wind had let up a little, and that I had two pairs of tights for him and two long-sleeved shirts for him to wear underneath the whole outfit.

So, Eric was wearing a long-sleeved onesie underneath a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath the white shirt of the saragüell.  Then we put on both pairs of tights underneath the "pants."  He seemed to be quite happy running around outside, especially once he learned about the little baby "firecrackers," which are actually just kids' throw poppers.  He figured them out right away, after Mauri showed him how they worked by throwing one on the ground himself, and successfully set off the first one that he threw on the ground, provoking a huge mischievous grin.
Once he figured them out, he was rapidly throwing them on the ground and reaching up for more.  Then Mauri showed him how to set off the poppers that didn't go off when first thrown on the ground by stomping on them, and Eric quickly learned to do the same.  Here's a little video showing what I'm talking about:

In the background, I put part of the fallero hymn and part of "Paquíto el Chocolatero" so that you could get a feel for what we've been hearing in the background these last few days, with all of the bands that have been roaming the streets playing these songs.  Unfortunately, it caused my video to be removed from Facebook with a threat to exile me from Facebook if I try again, despite being set so that the only person who could see the video was me at the time!!  So, I doubt I will be using Facebook for sharing any videos anymore, and am on a search for decent way to do it.  YouTube has been letting up a bit, so maybe I will go back to them.  They give you a notice, but usually continue to show the video with ads added.  I think that is a good compromise.  I had stopped using YouTube for most videos when I got a notice for copyright infringement for a private 15 minute video in which one can faintly hear music from a radio in the distant background for about 25-30 seconds!!!  Ridiculous!!  It's not like it was my fault that somebody was playing their radio while I was filming something else.  For now Vimeo will work, but I'm looking for something with better controls on privacy because with Vimeo I either have to have my video open to all the public and search engines, etc., or it has to be protected with a password.  Yes, one could argue that my blog is really open to the public anyway, but I keep an eye on the number of people who look at my videos and blog, and know that my audience is fairly limited to a small group of my closest friends and family.

I'm starting to think that this whole fight online (and offline) is getting a bit out of control.  Even after reading several pages about copyright to try to figure it all out, it seems that it isn't really clear what one can or can't do.  There is a whole undefined "fair use" term in the middle of it all, completely dependent upon a judge's whim at the time in the case of a legal battle.  I can't understand how anybody would think that using excerpts of a song in the background of a family video meant only to be shared with friends and family shouldn't be a fair use.  While I haven't been able to find any place that states that it isn't, there, of course, is no place that states that it is.  The definition of "fair use" seems a bit outdated and was mostly geared at parodies and educational uses in the past before internet was really a new factor.  Some people think that it isn't fair use only if you stand to gain a profit from the use, but that isn't the case either.  Personally, I would be more upset as the copyright holder if one were to parody my music rather than use it in the background of their family video or slideshow.   That said, I will happily and promptly remove the music if I find it is objectionable to the copyright holders (Just let me know in the comment section).

Eric stomps on the poppers that don't pop when thrown

Obviously changes need to be made to the system.  Maybe they should set up an online database for requesting permission to use specific songs and in which one could pay a small fee to use certain songs in certain ways.  Right now it only seems possible for bigger companies to get permission for commercial uses and it is impossible for individuals to get permission for non-commercial uses (maybe because in most cases these uses should fall automatically under "fair use").  Or maybe they just need to better define what "fair use" actually encompasses.  I have no problem paying for music if I can actually use it for something (Lord knows a big percentage of my college earnings went there), but if one can no longer use music to share pictures and videos with friends and family, play music at a party (or wedding), or even to sing "Happy Birthday" at a restaurant without feeling like a criminal, something has gone seriously awry.  Music is supposed to bring happiness and bring people together, not be a weapon in a battle for who knows what.

It seems to me, though, that they are really doing themselves more harm than good.  I personally have found music that I have later bought after hearing it during a friends' wedding slideshow, or at a party...  (Israel Kamaakawiwo'ole's  "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" comes to mind.)  Criminalizing that form of free advertising seems to be a bit counter-productive.

One of the few fallas that I saw this year, sadly not one of the better ones.

Well, I guess I got way off course on my topic today.  There really isn't a lot to tell about the rest of fallas, though.  Like I said, the weather made our activities impossible.  We headed with our little fallero to the main street of Denia to watch part of the ofrenda, a procession in which the falleros bring flowers to the virgin patron saint of Valencia set up in front of one of the town's main churches.

It began to rain, and our little fallero didn't want to sit still to watch any of it.  He wanted to get down and run through the puddles in his natural fiber sandals and white tights, and screamed when we wouldn't let him.  I felt like people were giving us looks like "Wow, that poor little boy must be uncomfortable."  I just wanted to tell them that he would have been crying no matter what he was wearing, and that 5 minutes ago he had been happily prouncing around in his little outfit.  I decided against it, but minutes after arriving there, we turned around and went back to Mauri's parents' house to undress our cute little fallero before heading back home for nap time.  :(

On the main street, trying to watch the ofrenda

The paella in the street was cancelled too, since nobody wanted to try to eat outside in the cold, rainy weather.  (Well, a few crazies actually seem to prefer that weather, but most were against it.)  We ended up going out to a chinese restaurant to eat.  There were so many people because of the fiestas, that all of the restaurants were booked, and our usual chinese restaurant was painfully slow at bringing out our food.  After the first hour and a half, our little ex-fallero didn't want to sit still anymore.  So, once the food actually came, we had to all take turns running around after him in the restaurant while others ate.  Poor Mauri appointed himself to running-around duty for most of the time.

One of the few kids' fallas that I saw.  I usually like them better than the larger, "adult" fallas.

We went home again hours later and Mauri played with his present, an Xbox 360 2011 Formula 1 game.  He had also received a footprint bookmark made at the Escoleta for Father's Day.  In the end, we decided not to head back to town.  So, we didn't really see any fallas very well.   We didn't see any mazceltás, nor did we see any cremás.  This was the first year in which we didn't see any, not even the burning of the falla of Mauri's parents' barrio.

In the end, I heard that they had a hard time burning most of the fallas, and had to drown them in gasoline just to light them up.  I also heard that we hadn't missed much at the ofrenda because most of the fallas districts ended up not even participating in the procession, and those that did were missing many of their participants.  There were supposedly a lot of falleras crying about it all.  They wait all year for this one day that sums up all of their work/time investment, and then it is all ruined by a cold, rainy day!!
The next day wasn't much better for Eric-or weather-wise.  It ended up raining hard all day.  In fact, the weather was so bad that Mauri ended up having another day off and was free to accompany us to Eric's 18 month appointment.

I noticed on the way to the appointment that I was so nervous for the appointment that my stomach ached.  To make matters worse, I was ready with all sorts of lies and excuses as to why I didn't go see Eric's doctor to re-measure Eric's head or height.  Really, going to a simple check-up shouldn't be like that.  I should be more concerned about how my little guy will react to the vaccines rather than my interactions with his doctor.
For some reason, though, whenever Mauri goes with me to our appointments, things go much differently.  We find parking spaces, have only a short wait, and then the appointment goes perfectly.  The doctor proudly states that Eric is growing perfectly along his growth curve, and that he is so very cute.  She is so pleasant, in fact, that I was starting to feel guilty about the note in my pocket that would allow me to change to the new doctor that I talked to the other day.

The appointment went rather quickly.  We undressed Eric, and they measured and weighed him.  Even that went better than usual, and Eric didn't throw his usual fit making the measurements almost impossible.  Then we put his onesie and shirt back on while the nurse got the 4 vaccines ready.  Eric got 2 shots, one in each thigh, and the appointment was pretty much over.  They commented that if I wanted to give Eric the chicken pox vaccine, another optional vaccine that isn't included in the schedule but that you can pay for if you want it, that I should get an appointment sometime after another month goes by.  Otherwise, I don't need to get another appointment until Eric turns 2!!!  Yay!

Mauri questioned if I still really wanted to switch doctors.  "Whenever I go, it all goes really well and she seems very nice."
So true; so true...
But then I remembered the way I was feeling on the way to the appointment, and decided that it was now or never.  So, we headed to the reception, and a few minutes later we left with the name of Eric's new doctor on his card!!!  

Eric liked running around the falla

So, I still feel a bit guilty about it, but I also feel happy and relieved to have finally made the switch.
As for the chicken pox vaccine, we still need to make a decision.  I think I have made it clear that I'm not a big fan of this specific vaccine's global implications because with less cases of chicken pox floating around, adults don't get natural "boosters" from time to time anymore, making it much more likely that they will get the much more severe "shingles" later on in life.  Because of that, they have now had to make yet another vaccine, a shingles vaccine, to compensate for the damage done by making this first vaccine, and now recommend it to anybody over 60 years of age.

On the other hand, since I can't make the vaccine and its repercussions go away, for Eric specifically, I'm guessing that it may have more benefits than harm in a world where the vaccine already exists.   Now that the vaccine has made it so that there are less cases of chicken pox around, it is harder to acquire natural (superior) immunity at the right age.  It's hard to know for sure what is best, though.  In theory the vaccine would give him a 44% chance of avoiding the chicken pox or an 85% chance of either avoiding or at least having a milder form of them if he were to get them.  (Sadly, our nurse seems a bit uninformed because she told us that if he is vaccinated, he won't get it. period.  When Mauri questioned that, she said, well, at least in 99% of all cases!  I have to admit that this misinformation by health professionals who are promoting these vaccines doesn't help my naturally skeptical and cautious nature.)  The vaccine hasn't really been around for long enough to know how it will affect him as he gets older, though.  For example, there seems to be conflicting speculation as to if being vaccinated makes somebody more likely to contract either a stronger form of chicken pox or shingles later on in life because the immunity acquired by vaccination is qualitatively inferior and only temporary.

That said, one of my main goals is to keep Eric as comfortable as possible, so we may still end up vaccinating.  I will be reading more before making the decision, though, because my real main goal is to keep him as safe as possible.  From what I have read, as long as I am breastfeeding, it is unlikely that he will catch it because he is getting natural antibodies from me having had it.  He is now nearing the "ideal" age for catching chicken pox, though: when it is no longer dangerous for a baby, and not as severe as for an older kid.  Maybe that is why a lot of people here opt to wait a year or two (or three...) to vaccinate.  Some, for example, reason that if their child hasn't contracted the chicken pox by age 6, that it will likely be more severe, so they will vaccinate around that time if their child hasn't contracted chicken pox by then.  I may opt to do that, too.

At around age 11, it is officially more likely to be severe, I guess, so at that age it enters into the scheduled calendar for vaccines here, meaning that you can get the vaccine free of cost.  Of course the price of the vaccine isn't entering into my decision making process.  I'm more concerned with doing what is best for Eric.  I do find it interesting after reading up a bit more, though, that it seems like it isn't nationally regulated.  So, in some of the other communities like Madrid and Navarra, for example, more vaccines enter into the calendar and are free of cost than here in the Valencian community.

Once again, I have to state that I don't feel like my decision is going to make a huge difference either way, at least not for now, but that doesn't make my decision any easier. Eric seems to be a pretty healthy little boy, so it seems just as unlikely that he will contract a life-threatening form of the chicken pox as it is for him have a serious reaction (they do exist, too- ) or even die from the vaccine (which has also happened).  I'm not an extremist in my thinking here, or I wouldn't be on the fence with my decisions, but I am a skeptical and cautious person who likes to fully research her decisions.  I'm glad to at least have the choice here to do what I feel is right for us, but I wish there were more information available.  Sigh.