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Random thoughts from a happily retired American living in Germany
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Catching up
Quite honestly, there is nothing that has happened in my life that requires catching up. It’s been rather dull lately. I did accept a new job, and I’m not sure that I have posted about it before. I work for a company that has a contract with the Department of Labor to provide Transition Assistance Program (TAP) training to military members who are about to be discharged or retired. We provide information on how to enter the US job market. The learning curve for me was rather steep, but I think I am getting it. It’s just a part-time job, and I will probably only be asked to provide 1-2 seminars per month. Each one is 2 1/2 days. I’m not scheduled at all in June, but I am the backup for 6 locations starting tomorrow, Tuesday. I doubt if I will have to go to work, so I’m free to get out and enjoy the nice weather, provided that it stays with us.
We had unseasonably cold weather for a few weeks, along with rain. But last weekend, things got nice again. Of course, the Queen is unhappy about it. She likes cold weather, she says. Anything over 70 degrees makes her miserable. Consequently, I’m miserable too, because I feel guilty about enjoying bright sunshine and 74 degrees or whatever. I was over 80 yesterday if I remember correctly, but we had a storm last night and things have cooled off considerably.
Over the Memorial Day holiday, I took a trip to Karlovy Vary. The Queen didn’t want to go anywhere, so I went by myself and had fun. Karlovy Vary is a spa town in the Czech Republic, about 2 1/2 hours away. I took a few pictures. Well, more than a few to tell the truth. When I checked my camera after I got home, I saw that I took 114 pictures despite the torrential downpour that plagued my trip. For your enjoyment, I will post all 114 in this post. OK, just kidding.
The picture at left gives you an idea of the architecture in the town. I call it “post communist” style, meaning that the fronts of the buildings have been restored to what they must have looked like in times past, but the backs of the buildings are crumbling and downright sleazy in some locations. However, if you don’t look at the backs of the buildings, it is impressive.
The picture at right is of a local park that is used for both locals and tourists. Many people come to Karlovy Vary 
(Carlsbad in German) for the so-called healing properties of the mineral water and the hot springs. I saw these people, many of them my age or older, walking through the park and sipping their mineral water that is piped right out of the hot springs. The use commemorative cups to drink from.
This river provides a scenic focal point for the city, and at the other end of town the water spews out of the hot spring. You’ll see a picture of that shortly. Note the pretty architecture on the buildings. This town is also famous for crystal and gemstones. We may go back and make some purchases, but prices have shot up in the 15 years since we were last there. It was always known for good (e.g. cheaper) shopping. Not so much any more.
My hotel is the salmon-colored building on the right. Since it was in the center of town (and we are in Europe,
after all), there was no parking anywhere nearby. The closest lot was .7 miles away. Fortunately, I didn’t bring a suitcase. Everything, except for 
my laptop, was in a backpack. The laptop stayed in the car, because the hotel did not have wi-fi or even an ethernet connection. When I was ready to check out, I hoisted my backpack onto my back and hiked back to the car. When passing the old bathhouse, I saw this artist painting the same scene that I was enjoying for real. Check it out on the left.
At the right is a picture of the steam rising from the hot spring that feeds the river. You could really smell the 
sulfur! Inside a museum, there was a geyser that was erupting constantly. The height varied, but it never seemed to stop. Beyond that area, there were spigots where the people could fill their cups with the sulfurous mineral water. Not my cup of tea….pun intended.
Here is the geyser. It was quite a sight, but probably not as thrilling as Old Faithful.
And finally, the pictures below show someone filling her cup while others are walking by with their cups at the ready. The third picture shows commemorative cups for sale at a kiosk.
Rats! I can’t get all three to line up horizontally in the final product. They look great in draft format. Any WordPress experts out there?
That about does it for this trip. I have many more photos, but you’ve seen the important stuff, except maybe the picture of the breakfast in my hotel. It was quite nice. The Queen and I are headed Stateside later this month. Perhaps I’ll have more photos to share at that time. Meanwhile, I’ll keep my eye open for anything that is blogworthy.
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Is Today an End….or a Beginning?
I wonder which it is. Maybe it is a little of both. You see, today is the day that the Queen went back to work for another school year, and I am at home enjoying retired life for real. Maybe today marks the end of our vacation (and that’s what the past few months have actually been) and also the beginning of my life as a retired person.
The teachers reported today for the first of their three “work days” prior to the kids coming on Monday. I feel a little like the old fire horse who gets excited when the firebell rings and then realizes that he’s not in harness any more. I thought I might go by our schools this morning and poke fun at my friends who have to go to work, but I decided that that would be just mean. Instead, I tried to establish a routine for my life. I’ll have to tweak it a bit. Do I take my walk before the Queen goes to work or afterward? This morning, I resumed my practice that I had established in Austin last spring of taking an early morning walk. It’s a little different here in that the Queen is here making some requests of me. I think that we’ll soon get in sync and I’ll be able to walk when it is most convenient. Today I waited until after she left, and then took my walk. Upon returning to the house, I showered and then got in the car and drove to the post to buy a newspaper (I just can’t get them to do home delivery for us, even though we are so close to the post that we can literally see it from our house) and some coffee. When all of that was finished, it seemed that half the morning was already gone. Before too long, the Queen was calling to see if I wanted to join her for lunch, which was fun. I need to be careful though. I don’t want to turn into one of those pathetic husbands that I’ve seen at schools over the years. Those guys follow their wives around like puppy dogs, and that’s just not me. We’ll figure it out.
This first day for her reminds me of some first days past. For example, I can vaguely recall, with the help of a snapshot, my first day in kindergarten. I was a skinny, somewhat sickly (asthma), kid who had to wear suspenders to hold my pants up. That’s how skinny I was. Maybe most boys wore suspenders back in 1951; I don’t remember. I do remember being ushered by our teacher, Mrs. Dittloff, into the basement of Trinity Lutheran School in Springfield, Illinois, to begin our odyssey through the educational system. Many of the kids in that class stayed together throughout elementary school and even into high school. One kid, believe it or not, was my classmate from kindergarten all through our university career.
The following year, we got to move upstairs into Miss Emily Winker’s classroom. “Knock the “L” out of it,” she’d say when someone tried to call her “Miss Winkler”. She was a nice older lady who taught us to read. She also wielded a mean ruler to smack miscreants on their hands. I don’t remember ever being hit by her; however, now that I have a background in education myself, I recognize that some of my classmates had learning disabilities. Our parochial school teachers were “death” on those kids. They got paddled and shoved around. Not nice, now that I look back on it.
We had Miss Winker for both 1st and 2nd grade. Then, in the third grade, there was some excitement. We got to move to a brand new school, out of the downtown area and into what was then the western part of Springfield. That happened in 1954, and I think that that building is still standing and still in use.
When I “graduated” from the 8th grade, I got to go to the public school and another brand new facility: the U.S. Grant Junior High School. Ours was the first class to attend school in that building. Unfortunately, there weren’t too many more after that. It seems that the building was built upon a dump site and kept settling. Finally, someone decided that it was not safe for kids, but could be used by the Central Office. Somehow, I find some irony in that. My first day there was a real eye-opener. After nine years of attending school with the same kids, year after year, I finally got to mingle with others. “Diversity” was not yet a buzz word in education, but our school was somewhat diverse, although not in terms that would be familiar today. In other words, we were overwhelmingly white, but we also had lots of “trailer trash”. I’ll never forget sitting in my homeroom one day and another ninth-grader came in to talk with our teacher. She was checking out of school to get married! Our teacher was non-plussed and finally just said, “I wish you happiness,” which was probably all that she could say.
The next year was my first year in high school. Again, I was scared and so excited to be there. Attending Springfield High School was a really big deal for us. It’s hard to believe that my class will celebrate its 45th reunion next week, and I can’t be there. At least I’m still around to know that we’re having a reunion. Several of our classmates did not survive Viet Nam. Sad! Many have passed away in the intervening years, including one friend earlier this month.
My first day in college was another huge day in my life. My parents drove me up to Valparaiso, Indiana, so that I could check into the dorm at Valparaiso University. (So THAT’s where Valparaiso University is located!) The day before we left, I was playing volleyball at a Labor Day picnic and fell down. I had a severe sprain to my ankle and started my college career on crutches. Ouch! Those four years were among the best of my life.
I vividly remember my first day as a teacher in a small town in Northwest Indiana. Heck, the school was so small that I comprised the entire science department. After one year, the state came in and decommissioned the school. We then became a middle school, although we called it a junior high back then. I spent 5 years at that place. It was fun, but also it was so small! I think if you counted the cows and the pigs, there might have been 1500 bodies in the town.
After five years, I experienced the summer that literally changed my life. In the summer of 1973, I ended my job as a science teacher in Indiana, finished my masters degree at Purdue University, got married to the Queen, and left for Okinawa and my first job with the Department of Defense. All of the above happened in a three-month period. In fact, we got married on about three weeks notice, because of my pending job offer to go overseas.
That career with the Department of Defense lasted 36 years and should be the subject of another post. I have now concluded that career and started another. All in all, it’s been a great ride. I don’t think I would want to change anything.
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Retired-Ed, Where the Heck Have You Been?
Well, I’ve been retired in Germany, that’s where. Since my last post, things have been interesting. To get to the bottom line first, the Queen and I are back in our home and adjusting to life back in Europe. Well, I’m adjusting. The Queen is having trouble adjusting to the time difference. She goes back to work in the middle of next week, and I’m afraid that it will be quite a shock for her to get up at 5:00 AM instead of going to bed at that time.
My adjustment has been only a little bit better. I go to bed at a reasonable hour, but some mornings I wake up at 5:00 and other mornings, like this morning, I’m in bed until 10:00. I know from experience that things will improve in that department. And I won’t have to go to work. I have already been lording it over my former colleagues (and loving every minute of it).
As far as the trip back goes, things could have been worse. The Queen and I were on different airlines because I wanted some extra leg room that I could get on United. She was placed on American by our on-base travel agency. We took off about 45 minutes apart, but I had to wait a couple of hours for her in Frankfurt. Why? Because we flew out of St. Louis, that’s why. Our hometown used to be a major hub, especially when TWA was still in business (can’t blame that one on Obama or GW either, for that matter). After TWA was absorbed by American, they kept STL has a hub for a few years. You could get to most major American cities via a direct flight. Not so anymore. I had to fly to Chicago, which was not really out of the way in trying to get to Europe. However, the Queen had to fly first to Dallas, which definitely is not on the way to Frankfurt! A few weeks earlier, Child A was flying from STL to Austin. First, she had to go to Chicago! What genius developed that route, I wonder? But I digress.
My flight to Chicago (or ORD in airline speak) was only about 40 minutes and I was even pleased when a pretty young lady got seated next to me. I was only a little bit peeved when I realized that I had to pay extra for that “economy plus” seat, while she was re-seated there for no extra charge. Did I say she was pretty? I guess that makes up for it….almost. She was a recent college grad (business management) and didn’t have a job yet. In this economy, I wish her luck.
My layover at O’Hare was a couple of hours and pretty uneventful. I struck up a conversation with a family on their way to Europe for a trip down the Rhein River. Boy, I wish I could have gone with them. The Rhein is gorgeous. Anyway, the parents were 87 and 83 respectively, and two of their children and one spouse were accompanying them. As it happened, the mother ended up sitting across the aisle from me on the plane.
I wish she had been next to me, because the gentleman who was seated next to me smelled like a rancid billy goat. I almost gagged several times. I came close to asking to be moved until I realized that there were no empty seats, and I had lucked out and got a bulkhead seat so no one in front of me could lean back and put his seat back up against my chest. I stayed in place and did my best to hold my breath for 8 hours. In case you are wondering, you can’t hold your breath for that long.
To make matters worse, as I was getting seated, I placed my laptop in the overhead bin. While reaching down to pick up my briefcase to put that in the bin, the laptop fell out completely down to the floor. This is a good news-bad news situation. The good news is that the laptop still works. The bad news is that the latch releases for the “top” are both broken. I’m sure that it can be fixed, but is it worth the effort? I’m not sure about that, since the life of laptops is probably only about 3 years and I am halfway into that time frame. Does anyone know how to fix Toshiba laptops?
My arrival in Frankfurt was uneventful, and I set out to await the arrival of the Queen. She had much more difficulty than I did. You see, she has some difficulty walking and requested a wheelchair at the jetway. One was there, but there were three customers. One “older lady” (according to the Queen), sat down in the wheelchair and demanded to be wheeled away first. This was after the plane sat for 30 minutes waiting for a gate to open. Then the Queen got her chair, but nobody wheeled her away. She sat there for 30 minutes waiting to be wheeled away by an attendant Meanwhile she’s on the cell phone with me, but I could not help her. My job was to make sure that our airport transport was still waiting for us. He was, and we finally made contact and got in the van.
The ride home and our arrival here was also uneventful, except that it was too hot. The Queen is more sensitive to the temperature than I am (so his her mother, so it must be in the genes) and she has been really uncomfortable. Fortunately, the temps today are in the 70s (around 20 degrees Celsius if you like that better) and we are having thunderstorms. I’m sitting outside on the balcony (it’s covered) and enjoying the weather as I write this.
The big problem at home now is unpacking. Not just from our trip to the States but also from my almost 2 years of maintaining a separate living quarters while I worked in Ansbach. In maintaining two residences, I acquired duplicates of many items, including clothing. Wow, my closets and drawers are full. I am unpacking my suitcases by attrition….when I get dressed in the morning, I take something out of the suitcase. That has worked well…until today. We’re doing laundry today and the chickens are about to come home to roost. I’ll have to make room in the closets and also the drawers. And I thought that that would be a project that I could work on in the coming weeks. Nope. I think I’ll have to start VERY soon. In addition there is paperwork that needs filing. There are old documents that need shredding. There are bills to be paid (wait…maybe I’ve already done that one). In other words, I have work to do.
So that’s where I’ve been and where I’ll be for the forseeable future. As for the moment, we have friends coming in a few minutes and we’ll take a drive to a nearby town and have dinner. I’ll close by just saying that retirement, so far, has been underrated. It’s pretty awesome.
Retired-Ed5 Comments
10 Things I Want to do in Retirement
If you have been reading this blog, you’ll know that I am “officially” retired, but that’s only half of the story. In fact, I haven’t worked since mid-May, but I was on sick leave to help my injured daughter for a few weeks. Then I had completed my required days of work (administrators in DoDDS have to work 222 days) and started what would normally be a summer vacation. At least it has seemed liked summer vacation. All that should come to an end this weekend. The Queen and I will return to Germany on Friday. With the time change, we will arrive on Saturday morning in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Once the Queen goes back to work and I will be staying home, I’ll really feel as if I am retired. There are things I hope to accomplish. Here are ten of them:
- Eat less. I have been eating out every meal and I’m ready to shed some extra pounds that I have picked up.
- Exercise more. See #1.
- Improve my German. I need to get better in order to function in Germany.
- Learn Spanish. I need to function in the United States.
- Travel. I hope to become a travel writer.
- Write an article that sells.
- Sell a photograph.
- Clean out the house. After 15 years in the same house, we have accumulated quite a bit of stuff that could be “recycled”.
- Get better at cooking. The Queen wants me to cook some dinners and it seems like a skill that would be great to acquire.
- Get better at my blogging. What can I say? You have read these. There is room for improvement.
By putting this on the net, I am making myself accountable. Help me stay on task.
Retired-Ed6 Comments
Leave it to the Brits!
In an attempt to increase the readership of my new blog, I asked my daughter (citywendy) for advice. She gave me two good ideas. The first was to lose the “signature” at the end of each post. It always said “retired1″ at the bottom of each post. That is actually a login name given to me by my hosting service. I wasn’t adding that tagline, so I figured it must be in the code of the “theme” that I was using. Sure enough. I just had to become familiar with using php language to figure out how to fix the problem. I thought I had that fixed, but maybe not.
The second piece of advice was to find other blogs that dealt with retirement and link to them. I’m working on that one. In making my initial search, I ran across a site in Britain that is quite good. They call themselves “The Retirement Experts”, and they may be just that. I have added a link to their site, and you can find them here.
The site has an incredible amount of information that will serve those of us who might actually remember the Truman and/or Eisenhower administrations. And in a bow to our British cousins, I’ll say “those of us who can remember the Queen’s coronation”. You will find information on personal safety, dining, traveling, buying a second home, and many, many other topics. You can also register to receive their free monthly newsletter.
You’ll also find daily featured articles. For Thursday, 28 May, I found 10 articles, including kitchen safety, driving tips, home heating information, a kit for your car, and health problems for retirees.
A couple of caveats exist. First, for my North American readers, keep in mind that this site is based in Britain. Although the information provided could be applicable almost anywhere, it is geared (for the most part) to Britons, but don’t let that dissuade you. And the language is familiar. The old saying that America and Britain are two countries divided by a common language really doesn’t apply here. I found the site to be perfectly understandable, even for my Yank state of mind.
The second caveat is for people who might be turned off by Google Ads. The site is peppered with them. On the upside, many of the ads were geared to an American reader (probably because Google recognized that I was viewing the site from the US). I found them to be informative and if I didn’t want to read one, I just didn’t click on it.
So there you have it. A very informative site for the mature reader. Check it out.
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A Chapter Ends — A New Chapter Begins
Wow! This last week has been a blur. After getting back to Ansbach last weekend, I began to pack up my belongings in my apartment. I moved slowly, and I didn’t really finish until Wednesday morning. I went to work Monday and Tuesday. The final day, Tuesday, was spent by accepting emails from friends and co-workers who were wishing me well. It was rather poignant for me. As I left the office for the final time, I happened upon a colleague who was leaving the building at the same time. He asked me if I perhaps had some song that was appropriate for the moment. On a whim, I whipped out my iPhone and played Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It”. Although that didn’t really mirror my sentinments (I had a great career and was a little sorry for it to end), it did lighten the moment and seemed like a very appropriate song to have at hand. I also could have played Todd Rungren’s “Bang the Drum All Day”. You know that one, right? “I don’t wanna work. I just wanna bang on de drum all day….” Also appropriate for me at the time.
Wednesday was spent finishing packing and hauling everything back home, one last time, to Schweinfurt. I spent just one night there with the Queen, and then it was off to Frankfurt on Thursday. Because I had an early flight on Friday, I needed to spend the night in Frankfurt at an airport hotel. Geez, what prices! One glass of wine (Pinot Grigio) cost more than an entire bottle at the local grocery store. In Europe, Pinot Grigio is pretty much commonplace and is ubiquitous no matter what country you are in. In remarking to another guest about the exorbitant prices (and they pretty much “had us”…there was no other nearby establishment to escape to), the remark was made that I should just consider the money spent to be the same as Monopoly money. Don’t think of it as real money! Probably good advice, considering that there was no other option. The meal of cardboard “Rösti” and rubberized mushrooms also was way overpriced. Was there meat with that dish? Maybe, but I think I would be hard-pressed to identify it considering that it had been way overcooked.
Fortunately, the flight on Friday was largely uneventful. Even the guy in front of me kept his seat back out of my lap. The only matter of interest was our arrival in Chicago. Is this a new wrinkle? In order to get off the plane, we had to show our passports. “Have your passports ready and open to the picture page!” What’s that all about? Yep, a uniformed TSA officer met us at the end of the jetway to make sure that we hadn’t morphed into somone else between Frankfurt and Chicago. Of course we still had to show our passports once again at Immigration control. Maybe something was “up”. Who knows. Anyway, it was good to be back in the USA for a while, and I always enjoy hearing the Customs agent say “Welcome Home” as he/she inspects my passport.
The flight to Austin was also uneventful except for the turbulence on landing. That’s probably just a symptom of Texas heat at this time of year. Boy, we were all over the sky, but the pilot got us down unscathed yet again. Austin hasn’t changed much in the month that I was gone. It’s hotter, to be sure, but there’s still a ton of things to do and places to see. I read in the paper of some upcoming events. “Mamma Mia” will be playing here in June. That’s worth seeing again. I saw the performance in London several years ago and it is very uplifting. A real “feel good” musical.
This blog has been inactive for several days because I have been having trouble accessing my site. Other people tell me that they can get in just fine to read it, and the help desk at my web host can also get to my “dashboard”. I don’t know why I can’t. It’s frustrating. One bit of advice was to clear my cache and also to try a different browser. I did both and was able to get in yesterday. Today I tried and couldn’t load the page in 15 minutes. It just shouldn’t take that long for a page to load, no matter what browser one is using. Something is wrong, and I need to find out what it is. Any computer experts out there reading this blog? I’d love to hear your suggestions.
I hope to get started focusing on traveling and other adventures for retirees. Any thoughts on places to visit would be welcomed.
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Mixed Emotions
It’s a little past 4 AM and I have been awake since midnight. It’s no wonder, considering all that is going on at the moment. For almost two years, ever since my office moved to another city, I have been living in a small suite in a hotel. I go home on weekends. Yesterday, I left my home for my hotel for the last time. After almost thirty-six years of working for the same agency, I will retire soon. I certainly didn’t intend for retirement to happen this way and during the school year. However, things don’t always go the way that you expect. Our younger daughter is recovering from some rather serious injuries that she suffered more than three months ago. She has progressed to the point where the doctor has released her to return to work full-time and to walk and even drive. Well, the latter two tasks will require some work and some help from dad. So, at the end of this week, I head back to Austin to be of some use to Child A.
Thinking about leaving my apartment, as I have come to call it, is certainly an exercise in mixed emotions. Although I miss living with my wife during the week, this place has become “home”. It is my sanctuary and the place that provides solitude. Sometimes that solitude became my enemy; yet, at other times, it was very welcome. I really “moved in”, and now I have to move out. What I’m saying is that I have a lot of stuff to cram into my car for that final trip. I don’t know if I can fit everything in or not, and I have already made trips home with stuff from the apartment on the last two weekends. I will be sad to leave this place.
Thinking about leaving my job is even more difficult. I have worked in the same district for fifteen years. Although I have had several different offices, the ambience is pretty much the same no matter where we are located. I had to pack up all of the “stuff” that I had accumulated over the years, although much went into the trash container. I’ll have to return my beloved Blackberry, but the effect of that loss has been pretty much eliminated by my retirment present from my wife: a new iPhone. Boy, those things are really something! For the record, I am not writing this on the iPhone, but I could if I wanted to. Using a full keyboard is much easier!
So I will leave my job and go on sick leave until my official retirement date, which comes in the summer. I’ll be back in Austin, which is a place that deserves its own blog post. More on that later. I was there for more than two months immediately following my daughter’s injuries, and I look forward to spending more time in that wonderful city. But there is so much else to consider. My wife will continue to work at her job (teaching) until the end of the school year and then she’ll return to the States for a vacation and the usual round of doctor appointments and other visits that have become a part of our annual routine. However, this summer has some added thrills to concern ourselves with.
As soon as she returns, I’ll join her in St. Louis, as will the entire family. My mother-in-law will celebrate her 80th birthday AND she and my father-in-law will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. A big party is planned, so that is also on the horizon. Not long after that, we’ll both make a trip back to Austin so that Child A can get reacquainted with her mom whom she hasn’t seen since Christmas. Will that be the end of the summer for us?
Oh heck no. Child Number 1, the blogger of some note, CityWendy, is getting married in July. Central Park will be the venue, and this gives the mother of the bride something to obsess about. What’s the worst thing about being the father of the bride? It’s having to concern yourself with what the mother of the bride is going to wear and how can she possibly get her hair done correctly by someone in a strange city. Oh yes, I am really looking forward to this summer. But wait! It isn’t over yet.
About a week after the wedding, we are hosting a reception in St. Louis for our relatives and friends who couldn’t make it to NYC to see the real thing. Fortunately, the mother of the bride has taken care of all of those arrangements and my only job was to nod my head and agree that the venue chosen was an excellent choice. But it’s something that we need to worry about and obsess over. Right?
And then there’s that return flight. I don’t like flying any more. It used to be exciting, but then the airlines spoiled everything. On my last flight back to Germany, I sat in what United Airlines refers to as “Economy Plus”. It’s supposed to have more leg room than the rest of the cattle car. Perhaps, but I have to wonder about that. I paid a bunch of money to get that seat and then discovered that people get upgraded to that section for free. Does that piss me off? You bet, and to compound things, the guy in front of me pushed his seat back so far back into my lap that I couldn’t eat my wonderful meal without having the fork take a circuitous route from the tray to my mouth. Really an exciting 8 hours. The only good thing about that is that the trip eastbound over the Atlantic is about an hour shorter than the westbound trip due to the prevailing winds. Small consolation!
So now I have ranted about all that is keeping me awake and it’s too late to try to get back to sleep. Will I miss my job? Oh yes. Will I miss the people that I work with? Absolutely, but at least I’ll still be in the same country and I can maybe see them once in a while. Am I nervous about the future? Yes, but I also look forward to having time to just do whatever I want to do. Travel. Write. Take pictures. Maybe learn how to cook better than I do now. I guess I should stop dwelling on the past and embrace the future. It’s going to be exciting.
Retired-Ed
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Tom and his Music
My friend Tom now works in my office in the area of educational technology. I have known him for years and for most of those years he was the band director and music teacher at Wuerzburg High School. My daughter (“Child A” as she says I can call her) was once one of his students. Music teachers don’t come any better than Tom. He is an amazing musician, playing trumpet, piano, electronic keyboard and I don’t know how many other instruments with ease. I once saw him playing the pre-service music for a memorial service to honor a dear friend and colleague who passed away much too young. Tom was playing the piano for perhaps 30 minutes prior to the service. At the appointed time, he switched from the piano to his trumpet, and with no warmup, he flawlessly played “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” as the service began. As I said, he is a truly amazing musician.
Tom will retire from his position just a few weeks after I leave my post. His new career will be composing and selling music for beginning bands on the internet. I know that my readership includes some educators, and I want to pass along the link to his site. Please check it out here. I think that you’ll find new compositions there that will be a welcome addition to beginning band programs everywhere.
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A Sendoff with Style
Burg Colmberg
dsc_0312
The food was excellent. My wife and I both had the pork. It seems to me that German chefs really know how to prepare pork in so many different varieties. Our meal was wonderful. Two of my talented colleagues provided music throughout the evening, and then I was “roasted” by the group. Finally I got a chance to speak and took full advantage of it! I had a lot on my mind, but most of all, I wanted people to know what a wonderful career I have had. Our two children both were born and grew up overseas, and I think that the experience has broadened their horizons immensely. Our daughter, citywendy.com, has often written of her experiences. And there’s nothing quite like springtime in Bavaria. Our evening was magical.
I went back the following morning and took some pictures. I have included two of them here. One is of the castle. Pretty nifty for a retirement party venue, huh? The other photo is of a view of the surrounding countryside from the castle. It was a moving experience for me to be feted by my friends and colleagues.
Tomorrow, May 5th, is a holiday in many countries. In Japan, the birthplace of both of our daughters, the day is called Kodomo-no-hi, or Children’s Day. It is a much loved holiday in that country. In Mexico, and even in many locations in the US, the day is Cinco de Mayo, and even if you aren’t aware of the origin of the holiday, you have found a good reason to drink Margaritas. Oddly enough, our local Mexican restaurant in our German town is closed because they always close on a Tuesday. That one I simply don’t understand.
But there is another reason to celebrate on May 5th. It is Mrs. Atterberry’s birthday! Happy Birthday to the Queen! We have been separated geographically for the past two years because of my job, but I will drive home on that day in order to have dinner with her at one of her favorite restaurants. It looks like 5/5 will amount to a 10.
Retired-Ed
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