A five-day break?

The last week of September looked as if it would be normal for local municipal workers.

Work Thursday and Friday followed by the weekend and returning to the office on Monday.

It should have been a normal week. Although Arenillas was in the middle of fiestas, there were no planned days off because the biggest days of the celebration fell on Saturday and Sunday.

Instead of a normal week, they put in a half day's work over the five-day period. Let me explain.

Thursday morning was the police strike. Everyone left the office and took the afternoon off.

Friday morning, everyone showed up a little late unsure of what would happen the day after the police strike. After lunch, the city hall was closed because of municipal worker soccer matches between the city council, the municipal workers union, the contracted municipal employees, and the drivers union.

Saturday and Sunday were a weekend.

Monday was a hangover day so that everyone could recover from his or her fiesta rowdiness. All city offices were closed.

That is how one transforms a two-day weekend into a four-and-a-half-day weekend. If you want to take into the account the civil unrest on Thursday and not count that as part of the weekend, you have an unplanned three-and-a-half-day weekend and that half day of work started late and ended early to prepare for the soccer matches.