There are quite a few Rio Seco’s (Dry River) in southern Spain, the ‘Land of almost permanent drought’, and they tend to live up to their name.
They do have their uses, though, when the occasional storms occur, usually extremely heavy, as they do manage to channel at least some of the deluge away from homes. For the rest of the time, many are used as impromptu car parks, and others have become part of various walking trails.
When the floods do come, and we’ve had some bad ones this year, there is always a mad scramble to get vehicles out before they get submerged or even washed away.
Granted phones are very useful these days, maybe even essential at times for some, but it never ceases to amaze how people just endlessly doom scroll, even when out walking/shopping/sightseeing, with the screen permanently up to their face. It does have its amusing moments when, for example, someone walks into a lamppost, something which probably happens more than one would imagine.
I have invited a few people over to stare at their phones later if you want to join us
There is one in the house who has a phone almost permanently in front of his face. Walking upstairs, going for shower, going to the toilet…the phone is ever in use. He will even fall asleep on the sofa whilst scrolling and then, a little while later, his thumbs will start twitching and the scrolling starts again, but this time he is still asleep!
One visitor, in his sixties, is one of the living statue types. He will walk into a room, get his phone out and then stand, or sit, motionless for, on occasion, hours! If standing in the middle of the room like a huge rock, it is a question of moving around him for the rest of us.
Another fairly regular visitor is also permanently staring at the phone screen. One day, on a day trip out, I found proceedings amusing, as well as a bit sad of course. There are six steps down from the house to the front patio – this required three stops to retrieve phone from pocket, stare at screen and return phone to pocket. From the stairs to the gate is a mere 4 or 5 metres at this point, but this immense distance necessitated a further three stops to check phone.
It is also sad to see a group of people sitting round a cafe terrace table, having lunch or just drinks, and not a word being spoken, all glued to their phones. A pretty common occurrence these days, unfortunately.