Top Retirement Blog
Online MBA

The Caretaker (or is that “Caregiver”?)

Posted on October 25th, 2011 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

It has been a rather busy time of late, and I have not been blogging at all. The Queen’s knee had been giving her a lot of problems since last winter. She probably needed a knee replacement back then, but there was always the possible move of classrooms hanging over her head. That threat came true at the end of the spring just as we had arrived in the States for vacation. Her entire middle school was changing buildings to the elementary school to make way for a high school to be established in our community. The high school would occupy the former middle school, where she had been situated for 17 years.

She wasn’t available to assist with the packing, because we were in the US. Professional movers were contracted to pack everyone up and move to the elementary building. When she returned, she had over 150 boxes to unpack, and the  labels only indicated her name and new room number. There was nothing to indicate which file cabinet the files had come from. So each box was a surprise. And this unpacking had to take place during some of the hottest days in recent memory and with no air conditioning.

Finally, she was ready for the surgery. It occurred on October 11th, and from what we can tell, it was a success. But there was a problem looming. The Queen has long had poor circulation in her lower extremities. No, she is not diabetic, and that has been verified over and over. However, she developed a blister on the heel of the leg that had been operated on. This concerned the doctors and nurses. At 10 pm one evening, she was hustled to the emergency room of the hospital to have the blister lanced and drained. The following day, she was taken by ambulance to Wuerzburg (about 25 km from the hospital in Werneck) to have what I think might be called an arteriogram. Maybe that’s the name. Whatever it is called, it was very painful and very stressful for her. The determination was that she does NOT have vascular disease. So the cause of the poor circulation is still a mystery. She also hated the ambulance ride. Lying on a stretcher is not her cup of tea.

Directly across the street from the orthopedic hospital is a smaller hospital which happens to have a cardiologist and an internist on staff. She was sent there for one test, and then had to transfer to that hospital for observation. It was discovered that she had cardiac arrhythmia, and the doctors had to shock her heart with paddles to get it back into normal rhythm. Also just a bit scary.

Meanwhile, her physical therapy is way behind schedule, but she is scheduled to report to a physical therapy clinic in the spa town of Bad Kissingen on this coming Monday. She has quite a plethora of medications to take every day, including injections to prevent thrombosis. Twenty-four of these pre-loaded syringes cost about €300 or $420. Since I have many years experience in giving injections (to myself), I think that I will be the designated shooter. And how I will relish that! Being a care-giver can be a bit stressful.

Someone suggested that I get a bell for her to ring every time that she needs something. Then, when I’ve had enough, I just remove the clapper. It wouldn’t last very long, and I’d probably end up sticking the bell someplace where it would only ring if she were walking somewhere. With her crutches, the rings would probably be intermittent at best.

The important news is that, as I write this, she is getting her hair styled. Nothing else is as important.

And that’s the way it is today.

Retired-Ed

5 Comments

The Food Calendar

Posted on September 8th, 2011 by Retired-Ed in Dining

Well, folks, fall is in the air. And it’s about time. After the summer that we had while in the States, I was ready for some cooler weather. I suppose that the temperature is an indicator of the season. So is the calendar. But I’ve learned that you really don’t need either of those  determiners. All you need to do is shop at a grocery store or eat out at a restaurant. I’m pretty good at both of those activities.

I would imagine that what I am going to say is true back home in the States as well as here in Germany, but it has been 38 years since I spent an entire year in the USA, so I can’t be sure. But I have noticed that the food items sold in the grocery store as well as the items on a restaurant menu pretty much tell you what the season is.

In terms of meat dishes, it’s pretty much the same the year round here in the land of Bratwurst and Schnitzel. (Caution: personal opinion follows!). In my estimation, the Germans do pork exceedingly well. Beef? Not so much. OK with the lamb as well. The queen likes seafood and she has mixed reviews of various fish dishes on the menus of the various restaurants that we frequent. So if meat is pretty much the same all year-long, the differences must occur in the vegetables, appetizers, and side dishes.

Let’s start with spring, one of my favorite seasons anyway. I look forward to April, because that’s when Spargel begins. Spargel is a white asparagus that is grown underground to inhibit photosynthesis. It is considered a delicacy by many, and I’ve even purchased a Spargel pot in which to cook it. But it isn’t a slam-dunk to cook this stuff. You have to peel it first, and that is a tedious process. But it’s worth the time spent. A person steams the stalks standing up. Then it is served with the meat dish and frequently with new potatoes. I don’t especially care for new potatoes, so I usually substitute Bratkartoffeln, a dish much like home fries. Spargel is also made into a delicious soup, and after a long winter, we can’t wait to immerse our spoons into Spargelsuppe. By the way, Retired-Ed, why are you capitalizing those words? I’m glad you asked. Germans capitalize all nouns, and these are German words.

As spring moves into early summer (and we prepare for our trip to America), Spargel season ends and it’s time for Pfifferlingen, a very special type of mushroom. Like Spargel, Pfifferlingen can be served on its own or made into soup. Either way, I like to eat them. The Queen isn’t as fond of them as I am. They are still in season (just barely) when we return from our summer hiatus. After they begin to disappear from menus, a little wait occurs for one of my favorite dishes.

During these “bleak periods” when there is no special soup on a menu, we rely on the old favorites that can be found year round. Favorites such as tomato soup, lentil soup, Hochzeitsuppe (wedding soup)…and I think I may have omitted an “s” in that word…and various ethnic soups that are found in the ethnic restaurants. We like Greek and Italian soups as well.

In the fall, and that time is rapidly approaching, one of the best dishes of the year makes its appearance. OK, again it’s personal opinion, but I’m not alone. It’s time for Kurbiscremesuppe (pumpkin soup). I just love the taste of it, and I really enjoy seeing how various chefs will prepare it. One of my favorites is the one where pumpkin oil is floated on top and the seeds are floated on top of the oil. Beautiful presentation as well as very tasty. Autumn (Herbst in the German language) just doesn’t seem to last long enough. Yesterday I tried a fall dish of my own. I cooked spaghetti squash to go with our ribeye steaks and baked potatoes. It was my first time preparing this squash. In fact, it was the first time I ever ate it. Meh! I think it may have needed some seasoning. It tasted rather bland to me. I did freeze some to see if maybe I can make it into a soup if I can find a recipe. But it is the season! I’m starting to see pumpkins, gourds, and squashes in the produce section of the grocery stores.

And while the next season is winter when not many produce items are “in season”, there are always imports. We can eat broccoli soup almost all year, but not in every restaurant. There is also lobster creme soup, which we get once in a while. The availability of these  dishes mess up my calendar theory of fine German dining, but I’ll eat them anyway.

Tonight’s menu? Well, it’s going to be a diabetic’s nightmare. I’m in a bowling league on Thursday nights, and I’ll eat at the snack bar at the bowling alley. Grease, carbs, and lots of calories. I’ll bring extra insulin! Let’s hope that it helps my bowling. I had had about a 15 year break in my bowling, and it shows. I barely break 100…if I am lucky…and I used to have an average of around 170. What happened?

And Happy Birthday today (September 8th) to my first-born daughter Wendy. She’s 35 today, and boy, do I remember that day 35 years ago. She was born in one of the worst typhoons to hit Okinawa (where we were living at the time) in a decade. A lot of folks thought that we had named her “Windy”, but it was only a coincidence. The name Wendy was picked out long before she was born, but we didn’t know the gender in advance. Had she been a boy, she would have been John.

Keep her in your thoughts. Her pets (two cats, Miles and Simone) are very ill. Miles’ illness is very serious and could have a very bad result if he doesn’t respond to treatment. To make matters even worse, Wendy’s father-in-law, Herb, is in declining health as well. This is not a good way to spend a birthday. Send happy thoughts to her. And read her blog to see the responses to relationship questions posed by her readers.

Happy Birthday, Wendy!

Retired-Ed

5 Comments

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Posted on September 4th, 2011 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

Does the title make me sound like a 7th grader returning to school and having to write an essay for his awful language arts teacher? Well, it’s that time of year, isn’t it. I’ve been away from blogging, and I was shamed into returning to the blog by my blogger friend Sue who is a school principal in Ontario and writes the “Canadian Mother Musings” blog. As a principal, she probably is already aware that “mother” is usually only half a word in a school setting, and she’s probably heard the full version too often. But maybe Canadian schools have more  polite students that I am familiar with.

But I digress. She challenged me to re-start my blog, so here goes. The summer vacation certainly was not MY vacation. After all, I am Retired-Ed, so every day is a vacation day. But the Queen is still teaching, and it was her vacation that we celebrated. If you want to call what we had as a “celebration”. It started off poorly and rebounded only a few times. As we were preparing to leave our home for the Frankfurt airport, I decided to check the United Airlines site for flight information. To my horror, I learned that our flight to Chicago had been cancelled. Well, this was disturbing news. It was 0645, and the airport shuttle van was to pick us up at 0700. What to do? Do we go to the airport and hope to get another flight or stay home and try to sort it out? I tried to re-bo0k online, only to be informed that I’d have to call their 800 number in the States. BTW, 800 numbers are not toll-free when dialed from outside the US.  I got connected to their “customer service” (what a misnomer THAT is) line to be told that the wait would be approximately 45 minutes. WTF??? With the van due in less than 15 minutes, I promptly disconnected and thought I’d try the German number. After all, we are in Germany. Surely I could get help from them. Nope. They don’t even open until later in the morning. So, we took the van. There were other people in the van, and as it turned out, we were all on the same flight, but we were the only ones who knew of the cancellation. After a while, we were able to use my cell phone to contact United in Germany and get re-booked for the following day. We passed the phone around and everyone was able to get another flight. But we were stuck until the following morning.

There are many hotels and motels in the area of the Frankfurt Airport, and most have a shuttle service to and from the airport. That’s a problem for the Queen. She is in dire need of knee replacement surgery and can’t lift herself into the hotel vans. (The airport shuttle service that we take from home usually has a stepstool to assist passengers in boarding). So we looked for lodging at the hotel on site. No problem. For the bargain basement price of about $250 we had a room for one night at the Frankfurt Airport. I hope that we can get reimbursed for that when she files her government travel voucher. We’ll see.

After that, the next day’s flight to the States was uneventful. We had a kitchenette room in a St. Louis hotel for the first week. It was nice, but not close to our relatives. That would come later. After the first week, we turned in our rental car and headed for a flight to Austin, Texas, to visit with our daughter Allison. That was another 12 days in a hotel “suite”. I use that word to differentiate it from a normal hotel room (without the kitchenette, etc.), but it was nothing really special. It was close to Allison’s apartment and some restaurants that we like, so that was good. If you’re keeping track, we’re now at 20 days and nights of staying in a hotel/motel and 19 days of car rentals.

During the first week in St. Louis, there were a few doctor appointments and, naturally, the Queen had to have her hair appointments. Those things and visiting with relatives occupied most of our days. There wasn’t much time to relax; that’s for sure. Even during our Austin stay, I managed to fit in a dermatologist appointment. I had first used him when I stayed in Austin for a few months in 2009. BTW, I still have one scar left over from his “zapping” me with the liquid nitrogen to get rid of a suspicious spot on my forearm. The other spots have already healed, but this one, which was the size of a quarter when he finished, is still healing.

When our Austin stay ended, it was back to St. Louis and more doctor appointments and…of course…the requisite hair appointments. We also had to fit in visits to our house in Springfield, MO, and also to my 99-year old aunt in Canton, IL. On that latter trip, we were able to visit with our friends Willi and Kathi Hofmann. They drove over from their home in Iowa and took us to Willi’s cousin’s winery in central Illinois. It was fun to catch up with them and especially fun to sample the wine!

Oh, there were some good times. Visiting with my in-laws, for example, was nice to do. The Queen’s niece, Amy, was married to her long-time beau (a very nice Air Force officer stationed on Okinawa, so Amy is following in our footsteps by getting married and immediately moving to Okinawa). It was a lovely wedding, held in a chapel on Daniel Boone’s home estate. A nice reception followed in St. Charles, MO. The down side? As it was all summer, the downside was the HEAT! I didn’t keep track, but we were in the States for 49 days, and I’m guessing that at least 40 of those days reached 100 degrees (that’s about 40 C for you, Sue and others who don’t use the Fahrenheit system).

The whole family gathered for the wedding, and a baby shower was scheduled for our daughter Wendy (She has become an internet sensation. Check out her Dear Wendy blog here.). She’s due next month were her first child and our first grandchild. It’s a boy. Wendy and husband Drew arrived on the Wednesday before the wedding. The shower was to be the following day. However, the next morning, the morning of the shower, Drew called to say that Wendy was in distress and needed a doctor ASAP. I picked them up and took them to the ER. I guess it pays to know someone. The Queen’s sister-in-law is a vice-president of a St.Louis hospital, and she really greased the skids for us. Wendy was seen in triage for about 90 minutes and given a prescription for anti-biotics and sent home. It appeared that she wasn’t really getting much better. She was a trouper at the shower, and said and did all the “right” things while opening their presents. But during the other times, she was lying down on her uncle and aunt’s bed (or vomiting in the bathroom). By the next day, things were worse. By this time, her sister Allison had arrived, and she drove them to the hospital. Wendy spent 4 days there. The diagnosis was a kidney infection (both kidneys) and pneumonia. After being discharged, they waited a day before returning to New York. But even then, she ended up in another hospital in New York for yet another four days. There is no indication that Baby Condell suffered any repercussions from Mom’s illness, but we all were worried.

The rest of the summer was constant appointments, running errands, shopping for necessities that we can’t get overseas, and visiting with family. All in all, I think that maybe we had only 0ne or two days in which there were no appointments. I was definitely ready to come home.

But there was a fly in the ointment. After we had already reached the States and were gone from Germany, the Queen’s school system (my former employer, too) decided to establish a high school in our community. The Queen had to decide if she wanted to teach high school English (which she hadn’t done in 17 years) or to stay with the middle school. She decided to stay with the middle school, which required moving from her former building (now the high school) to the elementary school facility. Professional movers were called into to pack her room and transport it to the other school. When she returned, she had over 150 boxes to unpack. Almost all were packed with files, and the only label on the boxes was her name and new room number. Each box opened was a surprise. She worked for 17 straight days, including the last 5 days when she had classes, to get things ready. On some days, she didn’t get home until 11 pm. That could have been avoided if there had been notice given BEFORE the previous school year had ended and teachers could have supervised the packing (and discarding of items no longer needed) of their classroom supplies and materials. She is sleeping-in this weekend.

I think I have bored everyone enough for my first effort after what appears to have been an eight month absence from blogging. I hope that I can find more appropriate (and shorter) subjects for future blogs.

OK, Sue. You got me to do it. You win.

Retired-Ed

2 Comments

It has been quite a winter

Posted on January 11th, 2011 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

It’s been quite a winter so far, and it isn’t even officially one month old. December started with snowfall. And more snow. And then it snowed some more. Several of our nearby military installations received more snow in December than has ever been recorded. I haven’t seen the information for our local installation, but I’m sure we came close to a record. The picture at left shows my backyard after one of those snowfalls. On Christmas morning, we received what I believe to be about 12″ of snow, but that’s my unofficial “eyeballing” of the mess in my driveway. On one day, I had to shovel eight separate times! Why so often? Well, German law requires that you keep a path clear to your door and also that you clear the sidewalk in front of your house. We have a long sidewalk! And in practicality, I need to shovel the entire driveway, and it too is long! Once a car drives over the freshly fallen snow, it packs it down and makes for parallel tracks that become hard to remove and are very slick! So the shoveling has to take place before the Queen leaves for work. That means getting up around 5:30 am to begin shoveling to be ready for her to depart at 7:20. I wouldn’t be such a fanatic about it, but 3 years ago, I fell in front of a neighbor’s house after an overnight freeze. I didn’t even know it was icy out when I began my walk. After surgery and 8 days in the hospital, I wanted to make sure that the same thing wouldn’t happen to someone on my sidewalk. So I do my best to keep things clear. I even made a timely purchase of a snow thrower and a salt cart this season. My timing was excellent on those purchases and I have used them quite a bit.

And did I mention that it was quite cold? The German weather people have reported that December 1st was the coldest on that date in recorded history. I use my balcony to store soda and wine during the fall and winter months to leave more room in the refrigerator. Bad idea! The cans of root beer exploded after they froze leaving quite an interesting mess to clean up. And how cold was it? (Where’s Johnny Carson when I really need him?) Why, it was so cold that my wine froze! And that’s not a story. That’s the truth. Now I store it in our “Wintergarten”, which is like a sunroom, but which we keep unheated. I put it outside for an hour or so before I open the bottle, and that cools my Frankenwein to the proper temperature.

When temps go down, they are likely to rise. And they did. The “mother of all snows” melted and produced the mother of all floods. But first, it rained! And froze! The picture at left was taken in the morning twilight with my iPhone, so the quality isn’t good, but I think you can see my BMW encased in ice. Everything was encased in ice! In fact, the schools on post were cancelled for the first time in our 16+ years here in the Schweinfurt area. It was awful. I could barely move on the ice. I would sprinkle salt (which really isn’t salt but some other melting compound that is allowed here in environmentally-conscious Germany) and wait for it to do its thing. Then I would whack on the ice with the snow shovel and remove the 1″ thick sheet before I could repeat the process further up the driveway. It took about 2 hours to clear the ice from the driveway and another hour to clear the sidewalk. Fortunately, it was a German holiday (Dreikönigstag or “Three Kings Day”), so there wasn’t much pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk. Everyone seemed to have enough sense to stay indoors that day.

But things finally melted, and you can guess what happened. We had quite a flood from our local river, the Wern. Rivers all over Europe have been flooding their banks, and it has made international news. Our little river is normally about 10-12 feet across. The pictures shown here are indicative of just how much they swelled because of the meltoff. Our neighboring town of Niederwerrn (we are in Oberwerrn, which indicates that we are upstream and Niederwerrn is downstream) which is about one kilometer away had a bridge completely swamped by the floodwaters and one entrance to the town had to be closed down. The picture at the left shows this. The days are very short this time of year, so there aren’t many hours of daylight that can be used for suitable photographing. Coupled with the fact that I was using my cell phone as a camera, the pictures just aren’t very good, but you get the idea.

The weather forecast is for warmer weather, but I don’t trust the forecasts that I get on the computer. For example, the high predicted for today is 5 degrees C, with a low of 3 degrees. However, it also says that the current temperature is -1 degree Celsius. Go figure. It is supposed to get up to 10 degrees (that’s 50 degrees F for any metrically challenged reader) by the end of the week, so we might get rid of all of our dirty, very ugly, piles of snow by then. And maybe, just maybe, my bottles of wine won’t freeze.

And February is on the horizon, and that means that spring training will start. And when baseball is just around the corner, all should be right with the world. Go Cardinals! And let’s get Albert Pujols signed to a contract extension. How about it?

Retired-Ed

4 Comments

Merry Christmas from Retired-Ed

Posted on December 24th, 2010 by Retired-Ed in Retirement

So what has Retired-Ed been up to this Christmas season? Working mostly, and for a retired person, that shouldn’t be happening! However, my part-time job is rewarding, and I enjoy doing something to help our servicemen and women. I’ve worked more than I normally would, because one of my colleagues has been on maternity leave. She has returned to work now, so things will slow down for me, and that’s ok too.

I’ve been working…and shoveling snow. And when I’m done with that, I shovel more snow. It’s been that way throughout the month of December; however, I did get a respite of two days in a row without shoveling. That ended today (Christmas Eve), when it started to come down again. This old body has already been outside once to shovel the sidewalk to keep people from falling. I’m sure that I’ll be out there again before Santa arrives later tonight. I certainly wouldn’t want that old guy to get hurt. At least I didn’t have to bother with the driveway as we don’t plan to go anywhere except to dinner on Christmas Day. I’ll get the snow blower out before we head out to dinner. In case we are snowed in, we have provisions for that too.

This year will be rather quiet. It’s just the Queen and I for the holidays. This is the first time since 1975 that we haven’t had at least one of our children with us. So there will be no pitter-patter of little feet. Wait a sec! Our daughters are 27 and 34, respectively, so I guess that there wouldn’t have been any pitter-patter anyway.  Things will be fine, because there will still be presents under the tree and only one other person to have to share them with!

I did make it to four Christmas markets this year, and I’ll share photos of one of them in this blog. Dinkelsbühl is a town of half-timbered buildings about 2 hours from our location. I was to give training in Ansbach last week, so I stopped at Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl on my way there. I believe that I have posted photos of the Rothenburg market on this blog last year. If not, you’re out of luck, because I made a rookie error with the camera. There was a smear on my lens filter, and I didn’t notice it. That’s no excuse, because the camera is an SLR, which means that I am looking through the lens when I sight the picture. I should have seen the smear, but I didn’t until I was reviewing the pictures when I stopped for lunch. Only a few survived, and I will post them on Facebook.

But on to Dinkelsbühl! It was actually my first visit to that charming town. Although I got there right as the market opened at 2:00 pm, that meant that I had fewer fellow customers to deal with. It’s a small Christmas market, but it has most of the amenities that one would find in larger locations. This is the entrance to the market, which is found leading from a thoroughfare which is also decorated for the season as you will see in the photo on the left.

There are certain staples that you will find at every Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas market, no matter how big or small the town. There will be food, and lots of it. There will be Christmas ornaments for sale, and there will be glühwein, or hot mulled wine, to drink to keep you warm. As a diabetic, I try to stay away from the glühwein and also the candy. But there are so many other types of food available: almonds, popcorn, candied apples and other fruits, bratwurst, schnitzel, fish sandwiches, and the list goes on and on. Here are some samples of what I found in Dinkelsbühl:

This picture shows some schnitzels and what appears to be burgers frying up. The Queen likes the fried fish sandwiches that are available at our local Schweinfurt market, but I only saw raw fish sandwiches available at this market. The schnitzels make good sandwiches; I can’t vouch for the burgers…I’ve never tried them, and perhaps for good reason. One never knows just what goes into those patties.

But if you want to kill any germs that you might ingest, the alcohol available will help. This stall sells glühwein. In most locations, these stalls are among the most popular. Many people will be lined up to buy a cup of glühwein and then will stand around at the available tables to drink, keep warm, and socialize with their friends and family. There is normally a Pfand, or deposit, on the cups. That means that one can either turn them back in a specially marked stall for a refund or keep them as souvenirs. I have a few cups from previous Christmas markets, but I didn’t get any this year.

Of course, the fruit smothered in chocolate is always a big hit. It really looks good, but I don’t sample them. There are items in these candied fruit stalls that I have never seen in the States. The candy that is shown on the right is also seemingly different . I imagine that you could get a real sugar high if you ate too much of this stuff.

Personally, I like to eat more substantial items. What Christmas market would be complete without bratwurst, knockwurst, or any other kind of wurst? It would be the “wurst” of markets. Ha Ha. Sometimes I just can’t help myself.

And after you down one or more of these surrounded by a rather dry Brotchen, you need to wash it down with something that dates back to the Middle Ages. Well, the concept dates back to the Middle Ages. This stuff is fresh, and is called mead. The Germans call it Met, and it is served warm out of this particular stall. It is an alcoholic beverage, much like wine, that is made by fermenting honey and water. I’m sure that Sir Lancelot drank his share of it before going off to do battle. We don’t have to do battle; we just have to come up with a few Euros to make the purchase.

But these stalls are not all selling food and drink. There are lots of  ”Christmasy” items to buy, such as these snowmen as shown on the left. Or the tree ornaments shown on the right.

And should you want to spice up your visit to the Christmas market, there are two ways to do it. One is to buy some spice at the stall that sells them from little bags. Another is to put your kids on the carousel, or merry-go-round. I think that there is one of those at every Christmas market in Germany.  At least there has been one at every market that I’ve ever been to.

That’s about all for this year’s Christmas market post. I have lots more pictures, but 1200 words is way too many for a blog of this nature. I’ve learned that the average person reads about 350 words per minute. I’ve also learned that the average hiring official spends only 30 seconds reading an applicant’s resume, so I can’t imagine that you, dear readers, will spend any more time on this blog. I certainly don’t expect it of you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE FROM RETIRED-ED AND THE QUEEN!

Retired-Ed

2 Comments

Retired-Ed Got Un-retired

Posted on November 12th, 2010 by Retired-Ed in Travel

Oh my! It has been months since I posted to this blog. No excuse, but I do have an explanation. I have been working. Yes, the retired guy took a part-time job, and I have been hard at it ever since I returned from the States in August. I work for a company that is under contract to the Department of Labor to provide Transition Assistance Program (TAP) training to military members and recent veterans about how to enter the US job market once they are out of the service. In the current state of our economy, it is a daunting job.

As part of the job, I recently attended a one-week training session myself at the National Veterans’ Training Institute in Denver, Colorado. The training was very valuable and should help my in my own presentations to our soon-to-be separated soldiers. I was off this week, and it took about that long to recover from jet-lag! I’ll be training next week in Ansbach, the location where I worked for two years prior to retiring from my government job.

The Queen and I have also been a little busy with traveling and taking care of problems with our house. Over the Labor Day holiday, we went to Oberammergau, Germany, to attend one of the performances of the Oberammergau Passion Play. If you don’t know about this play, it is given every 10 years to fulfill a promise made by community members in 1634 to give this performance if the town would be spared from the plague. Probably everyone who has grown up in one of the Christian denominations is familiar with the Passion story. It depicts the final 5 days in the life of Jesus Christ. We stayed at a favorite hotel, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In fact, we returned over the Columbus Day weekend to enjoy the town again after the play had ended (and prices returned to normal!)

The town was definitely teeming on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. There was a party atmosphere that, I’m sure, brought extra Euros into the local coffers. We’ve been to O’gau many times previously, and it is a rather sleepy village in ordinary times. Of course, that can be a good thing, and I think we’ll go back a few more times to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery. There is something soothing about sitting on the balcony with a good book and looking at the mountains and watching the cows go out to pasture and then come in at the end of the day.

Oberammergau is a center for woodcarving, and the local craftsmen have set up shop almost…well….everywhere. The photo at right is but one of the many woodcutter shops located in the town. In case you are wondering, their wares are a tad on the expensive side, which denotes the tedious nature of their craft. Some of the carvings are absolutely beautiful. We heard many different languages being spoken while we were visiting the woodcutters’ shops.

In case you are wondering, the only language spoken at the Passion Play is German. No surprise there. One could purchase a script in both German and English in order to follow along. The play is 6 hours long, and is broken into two portions of 3 hours each, with a dinner break of 3 hours separating the two sections. The theater is partially outdoors. The audience sits under a roof, but the stage is open-air. The second part of the performance is in the dark, and we had little flashlights to clip to our script to follow along. I tried to keep up, but the page-turning got to me. And I knew the story anyway, so I just followed along and was able to pretty much keep up with the German story.

The theater itself is relatively new and very impressive, both inside and out. Our tickets required us to enter through a particular door and we were then shown to our seats in a very efficient manner. Over half the townspeople (about 5000 people live in the town) are involved with the production in some manner. Our innkeeper was 73 years old and had been in every production since he was 13. He probably would have been in one more, except that there was no play performances in 1940 due to the World War II getting in the way. In order to be in the play, one must have been born in Oberammergau or have lived there for 20 years. But for that, a higher percentage of the townspeople would be associated with the play.

As you might expect, photography was not permitted during the performance, However, I did get a few shots of the interior of the theater. As you can see, the stage is impressive, and the view behind it is equally so. Also, you can see that there is no center aisle. Unlike riding on an airplane, it isn’t easy to get to an aisle. Normally, on a commercial aircraft, the most people that you’d have to crawl over to get to an aisle is two. However, in this theater, you’d have to inconvenience about 20 people. Ergo, you’d better be prepared to “hold it” for the three hours of the performance. The lines for the rest rooms both before and after the performance were rather long, especially for the ladies.

I think it is fitting to end this particular post with a photo of one of the most famous buildings in Oberammergau. The frescoes in this area of Germany are known as Luftmalerei, which literally means “air paintings”. This photo of the Pilatushaus (or Pilate’s House) shows some of the paintings on its outside walls and the beautifully sculpted garden. The main painting depicts Christ appearing before Pontius Pilate on the evening before His crucifixion. This is one of the most famous scenes in the entire region.

As I said, we returned to O’gau over the Columbus Day weekend, and I will have more photos to share at a later date. Until then, Tchüss.

Retired-Ed

1 Comment

Reflections on America

Posted on August 15th, 2010 by Retired-Ed in Travel

Well, I’m in my house in Germany now. At least for now. I leave tomorrow (Monday) for 3 days for my part-time job. I’m a TAP Trainer. That’s Transition Assistance Program, and I give training to soldiers who are about to enter the civilian job market. Now there’s a scary idea in these times! Anyway, I’ll be in a different part of Bavaria until Thursday evening. After 3 months of not training, it took a bit of study to bring myself back up to speed. I believe firmly in the “5 P principle”. No, that’s not what you do after drinking 2 liters of beer at the local Gasthaus. That stands for “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance”. I’ll be teaching that beginning on Tuesday, and I thought I should model that behavior myself. Ergo, I’ve been going over the material for the past two days.

The Queen and I got back earlier this week after seven weeks in the US of A. It’s always nice to be “home”, but I look at America through the eyes of a visitor most of the time. Here are some of my observations:

America as the land of round door knobs is becoming a myth. Yes, it’s long been a running joke among us ex-pats that America is the land of round door knobs. I think that that used to be the case. I remember growing up in a house with round door knobs. I went to school in a building with round door knobs. I worked in factories and stores with round door knobs. Even my first job as a teacher was in a building with round door knobs. But this time, I noticed that many buildings, including the condo that we rented for the summer, had levers of the catch and rip variety….just like we have in Europe. America is becoming globalized. Well, at least in the area of door knobs. Here’s a question for you: if it’s a lever, is it still called a door knob?

The newspaper classified ad section was full of foreclosure announcements….every damn day. It was depressing. Page after page of announcements of “sheriff’s sales” to sell homes on which  people could no longer afford to pay the mortgage. There are probably some bargains to be had if one has the capital to dabble in the real estate market.

On a related note, I noticed so very many empty storefronts. The malls especially were noteworthy. Where there used to be stores, the doorways were blocked off and there was no business there. One mall in Austin where we visited was in dire straits. The hair salon where the Queen and I get our hair done (well, I get mine cut. She gets hers sculpted) will be moving from Highland Mall to Lakeline Mall by the time that we visit again. There’s just no business for that place in NE Austin. Scary!

One thing was still a constant. Lots of good Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants are still around and apparently making a go of it. Thank goodness for that. We love Papasito’s in Austin and Pueblo Nuevo in Florissant, MO. Or is it in Hazelwood on that part of Lindbergh Blvd.? Not to worry. The food tastes good no matter which town in which it resides.

We ate a lot, and both of us gained weight. Now I’ll have to work hard at taking it off again. Once my 3 days of training are completed this week, I plan to get back on the walking paths every day. The blister that I developed on my foot (and thereby sidelining me) has healed and I think I’m good to go.

Thanks to Facebook, I made contact with several friends from high school (can you believe that we are all in our mid-60s now????) Gosh it seems like only yesterday that we were cruising the streets of Springfield, Ill, and terrorizing our teachers. Now many of us are retired teachers and have many memories to enjoy. I got to my hometown for just one night and had a great time reminiscing with some old friends. Some of then are very old, but don’t tell them I said that.

We visited the house that we own, and the Queen informed me that she hates that house and doesn’t want to live there. Let’s see….the market is down and we won’t be able to sell it for even what we paid for it. Does this sound like a good thing to spring on me now? I thought that she might want to buy a place in Austin, but she hates Austin because of the heat. Our friends want us to move to Tennessee. But I think it gets hot there too. I did enjoy visiting Nashville again. We saw the Country Music Hall of Fame. Got to see Elvis’ gold Cadillac. I think I saw him there, but I’m not certain. I know that I saw him a few weeks before we left, and he was driving an Audi at 150 mph on the Autobahn here in Germany. He looked older.

I’ll save more reflections for a time when I can give full attention to spending time 24/7 with one’s spouse. I go back to work this week. She goes back to work the following week. I’m sure that we’ll both be pleased.

Retired-Ed

3 Comments

Eating My Way Through Mid-America

Posted on August 5th, 2010 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

It’s a good thing that we don’t have a bathroom scales in our rented apartment here in the St. Louis area. Since arriving here, my waistline has grown a bit. When we first arrived, about a month ago, I was getting up early and walking 5-6 miles every day. Unfortunately, that has been curtailed for two reasons. One, we’ve had so many appointments to take care of that I haven’t always had the opportunity to walk. Lame excuse. Two, I got bitten by some type of critter (mosquitoes?) around the 4th of July, and I had a pretty serious reaction to the bites. I counted 13 large welts on my left leg and about a half-dozen on my right leg. There were more on my arms. The reaction was serious enough that I consulted a doctor. The medication was quite expensive. Even with my insurance co-pay, my portion was over $58. I still have some red spots where the welts appeared. Not as lame as the first excuse.

I think that the real reason is that I’ve gotten lazy. We’ve been eating many meals in restaurants lately, and they have been quite good. The best, however, was last weekend in Nashville. We were in the area visiting friends who live in the Fort Campbell area. That meal was a family-style extravaganza at Maggiano’s Little Italy. Normally, I’m not much for Italian food, but this was outstanding. I couldn’t believe how much food was brought to the table. And then there were seconds. I’m also not big on desserts, but the other three had a great time with the two(!) desserts that we got. The Queen wanted profiteroles, and they looked scrumptious. I even took a little taste. (They aren’t exactly at the top of the list for a diabetic’s diet.) The other dessert was a layered chocolate cake. The layers were cake, chocolate mousse, more cake, more mousse, more cake, and a thick chocolate fudge icing. Just looking at it sent my blood sugar soaring. Our friends took it home with them. I could go on and on about the other four courses that we ate. If you have a Maggiano’s in your area, give them a try.

(About 3 weeks have passed since I first started this blog entry, and all I have to show for it is an expanding waistline). We have eaten more Mexican food this summer than I can recall ever doing before. Since we like Mexican, that isn’t a problem. One of our favorite restaurants in the St. Louis area is Pueblo Nuevo in Hazelwood. We have gone there for years, and the food is delicious. Whenever we are in the area, we make it a point to go to Pueblo Nuevo. Of course, all of those tortillas and chips have added more than a few pounds.

We have gone to so many buffets that I have lost count. Each time, I feel my belt getting tighter. I can’t wait to get off this merry-go-round and get back to some serious eating choices and exercise. I now have a good reason to have curtailed my walking. I developed a blister on the sole of my right foot. I didn’t even know it was there, but my daughter (an RN) noticed the dark spot when I took off my sandal the other day. For a diabetic, blisters on the foot are nothing to toy with, so I have tried to stay off my feet as much as possible, but I’m ready to go again, as soon as we get back home to cooler weather. It has been 105° for the past two days. Even with air conditioning, it makes one wilt when you have to step outside. Right away, my sunglasses will fog up when I get out of the car. It makes me recall our first years on Okinawa when our car had no a/c, and the temps and relative humidity were in the 80s and 90s until about November. Those aren’t especially fun memories when I think about driving “up-island” from south of Naha to the big BX at Kadena on the weekends.

My birthday was last weekend, and both of my daughters and our one son-in-law were here to help me celebrate. Of course, food was the defining factor. We celebrated on Friday and Saturday because Allison had to check in to her hotel (she’s been in town for a conference) on Saturday evening. So on Friday, we went to a movie in the Delmar Loop in the St. Louis suburb of University City. After the flick, we went to get some drinks at Blueberry Hill,  because Drew said that he had never been there. It’s a must for any visitor to the area. Local icon Chuck Berry performs there about once a month, and I think I remember hearing that one of the owners is actor John Goodman (both St.Louisans). While we were inside, the area got some torrential rains, so we decided to stay there for dinner instead of following our original plans. If you’ve been there, you’ll be able to guess what we had: Hamburgers! And they were delicious. Made even better when washed down with a good European beer – Bud Light. Ever since our local brewery was bought by a Belgian company, I just can think of any Anheuser-Busch product as being an American beer. After dinner, my kids treated me to an evening of karaoke at an establishment owned by a Korean lady. She was startled when I greeted her in Korean, and that (along with the fact that I told her it was my birthday) got me a free drink.

On Saturday, my official birthday, we had a wonderful brunch at the Ameristar Casino. That was the Queen’s birthday treat for me. I think I waddled away from that meal. The good news is that I more than doubled my money in the casino. Yep, I started with $5 at the slots and ended with $11.30. All in all, a good birthday. Monday was ballpark fare. Allison and I went to a Cardinal game, but the evening was tarnished a bit because the Redbirds played like they didn’t care. The lost 9-4, which was better than the next night when they lost 18-4. Thankfully, they finally beat the Astros on Wednesday evening to salvage one game of the series. They won’t lose today…it’s an off-day before flying to Florida to play the Marlins.

I think you are now up-to-date with my dining experiences, and I gotta say that I’m ready to go back to schnitzel and good Frankenwein. I’ll try to do better at posting to this blog when my routine calms down a bit. I hope everyone is enjoying the dog days of August.

Retired-Ed

Post Comment

So This is a Vacation?

Posted on July 6th, 2010 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

One of my fellow bloggers, Sue, said that she was anxious to read of my exploits while I am on vacation. I’m sorry to report that there are no exploits. My days are mostly spent chauffeuring the Queen around to various hair-sculpting and doctor appointments. Today will be a red -letter day, because her regular hair-sculptress is booked up and a new stylist will get the opportunity to see just how high she can pile the hair. I also will be getting a new person to cut my hair, so gosh, it’s going to be so doggone exciting today.

I’ve been occupying my time mostly with walking. Until yesterday, I was trying to do about 6 miles every morning, and I was getting pretty good at it. I have been walking along the “Katy Trail“, which goes from St. Charles, MO, to Clinton, MO, a distance of about 225 miles. I would absolutely love to walk the entire trail some day. Although my daughter has a close friend named Katy, the trail is named for the railroad which used to occupy that right-of-way. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT or just “KT” for short) donated some of the land and sold the rest of the land to the State to build a trail. The portion that I have been walking, over and over again, is along the Missouri River, the “Mighty Mo”, and it’s gorgeous scenery along the way. The problem that I have is that I can only go so far, and then I need to turn around and come back. Anyway, it’s been fun. Well, it WAS fun until I woke up yesterday morning feeling a bit ill. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the walking or if my problem is a result of watching the fireworks on the evening of the 4th of July, but I am covered with mosquito bites which have swollen into rather large welts that are driving me nuts. Well, more nuts than usual.

I also have a headache, and I almost never get headaches, so this can stop any time! I’m ready. I just haven’t felt like getting out there and walking along the water where the mosquitoes have been breeding.  Sometimes, life just gives you lemons and I don’t know how to make lemonade out of those darn mosquitoes. I also have been wanting to do some volksmarching while I am here. I like to “volksmarch” which normally is done with a large group of people, but there are also “year-round” volksmarch sites, and there are two close to the apartment that we have rented for the summer. So I went to the start point on Sunday, and no one there knew what I was talking about. Hmm. Not good. I will have to go back on a regular business day and see if the regular employee knows how to issue me a start card. The start point is one of the local hospitals, and it should be manned 24/7, but Sunday was not only a weekend but a holiday, so I will try again. I’d like to get credit for my walks, and there are several opportunities in the surrounding area to do that. The walks are normally 10 km, or about 6 miles, which I have been doing before breakfast usually.

I hope to get to my hometown of Springfield, Illinois, this summer to link up with some high school friends. I also need to get to our adopted hometown of Springfield, Missouri, (just a coincidence with the names) in order to check into possible storage locations for some furniture. If all goes according to plan, we will move to that location when the Queen retires. I have about 10 months left on my authorization to ship household goods at government expense, and we’ll need somewhere to ship them to. If the price is not outrageous, we may contract for storage with a local moving and storage company.

Our flight home was uneventful, thank goodness, but the connection in Chicago was full of excitement. We spent 7 hours at Ohare Field waiting for our connecting flight to St. Louis. There was a significant storm in the area, and the plane that we were supposed to take never came in. After about 6 hours of delays, the flight was finally cancelled. The Queen has trouble walking, so she commandeered a wheelchair to take her to another terminal where we had to compete for seats on the last flight out. I ran; she rode. The wheelchair attendant took her right up to the front of the line, and we got the last two seats on the flight. Instead of arriving at 6:30 pm, we arrived at about 1:30 am. The car that we had reserved was already given away, so we got a minivan instead, and it’s very nice. We have decided to try to keep it for our entire stay, even though we’ll have to suck up one week of rental cost while we are renting another car in Austin, TX. That’s life, but we like the car.

So we’ll go to Texas for a week to see daughter Allison. When we return, Wendy and Drew (daughter #1 and son-in-law) will arrive in town while they are finishing up their vacation to the midwest. Allison flies in for a conference on the following day, so we’ll have the whole family here to celebrate my birthday at the end of the month. Following that, Wendy and Drew go back to Brooklyn the next day. Allison will take some vacation time here, and I’m sure I’ll be driving to more doctor appointments and hair appointments. I’m so looking forward to that.

Blissfully, this vacation will end on August 11th, when we fly back to Germany and I can relax a bit. That will be my vacation.

Retired-Ed

5 Comments

WM Fever

Posted on June 22nd, 2010 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life, Travel

In Germany the World Cup is known as the Weltmeisterschaft, or simply abbreviated as WM. Let me tell you, it’s a big deal here. It may be no bigger than the Super Bowl, but that’s arguable. The difference is that the World Cup lasts so much longer than the Super Bowl, even counting the ridiculous hype that goes on for two weeks prior to the Super Bowl. Here, it’s a national team playing (just as it is in every other country in the Cup quest), and one sees evidence of national pride everywhere.

In the US, we are accustomed to seeing American flags flying on many public buildings and even at many people’s homes. While one does see the German flag at some public buildings on a daily basis, it is not as prevalent as in the USA. Except for football Cup quests, such as the current World Cup or the European Cup that was held a couple of years ago. It’s kinda cool to see ordinary people flying German flags from their cars or having the flag hanging from their balcony. The whole country gets excited about it. I wonder how many people “call in sick” on days when the German team is playing. I watched their previous two games, and I can only imagine what happens when the whistle blows for intermission (or what we could call “halftime”). I think that every toilet in Germany flushes in unison. There are no breaks in soccer (or Fussball, as it is known here), so fans have to wait for the only natural break in order to trot off to the bathroom.

The German team plays tomorrow, as does the US team, and I will miss both games. I’ll be flying to the US for vacation. So let me say, “Go Germany! and Go USA!” I’ll root for both teams until they have to play each other. Then I will have to wear my red, white, and blue instead of the black, red, and yellow of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. If both teams advance, and that’s not a certainty for either team, it is possible that they will play each other in their next match.  The Germans have to play without one of their stars in the game tomorrow. Miroslav Klose (yes, he plays on the GERMAN team) will have to sit it out due to getting a red card in the last game. All in all, it should be interesting. The German team won it all in 1990 and we really enjoyed the fireworks when that happened. I am talking about real fireworks, not burning cars and shooting at policemen. I’m sure that there will be plenty of noise from the vuvuzelas tomorrow during the game. I’m talking about here in Germany, not just at the stadium in South Africa. Those damn horns are sold here for about €1.80 and lots of kids have them. As I write this, the neighbor kid is blowing his outside of his house. Hmm, I wonder how stupid he would look with that horn sticking of his …… oh, never mind.

Yes, we board the plane tomorrow if there is no problems with the aircraft, the airline (United), or some volcanic eruption in Iceland. With any luck, we’ll be in St. Louis by Wednesday night and maybe I can catch a Cardinal game on TV. I’m definitely NOT looking forward to the heat and humidity in St. Louis or anywhere in the Midwest. Today, the temperature when I woke up was 6 degrees Celsius, or about 42 F. The gate guard at the base was wearing a heavy jacket and gloves. I said to him, “You know this is summertime, right?” His answer was on the lips of many people right now, “This is crazy weather.” But I’ll take this over the oppressive heat any day.

Well, my next post will be from the United States. Please check back for the story of our flight, and let’s hope that there really is no story to tell!

Retired-Ed

1 Comment