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Random thoughts from a happily retired American living in Germany
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An Author to Check Out
I like to read. My daughters even gave me a Kindle for Father’s Day, so now I can take my books with me in a smaller container! There is an author that I like and I’d like for you to check out her writing. She writes under the name of T. Lynn Ocean, and the T. stands for Tracy, which happens to be her real name. I learned of her through her sister who used to be a colleague of mine.
Tracy writes in the same vein as Sue Grafton or Janet Evanovich in that she has a recurring female protagonist. In this case, the heroine is Jersey Barnes, a former Marine who now works in security. Jersey gets herself right in the middle of the action. A new book in the series came out last month. I invite you to read Southern Peril by T. Lynn Ocean. You even have a chance to win a free copy.
With Tracy’s permission, I am reprinting her most recent newsletter below. It has the information about winning a free signed copy. Please check it out. I like her work. Maybe you will too. Here is the the link to the newsletter if you can’t read the copy below for some reason:
Find it here. I had to modify her header somewhat to make space. Sorry, Tracy.
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City Wendy Got Married!
Well, it was a wonderfully exciting weekend in New York City for the Queen and me. Our elder daughter, Wendy, (aka CityWendy) married the man of her dreams on Friday in the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. I know that virtually all of my readers also are aware of Wendy’s blog, and most of you were reading her writing long before I even started this Retired-Ed blog, so I’ll suggest that you check out her blog (link is above) for a detailed description of the wedding weekend from the bride’s perspective.
The Queen and I arrived on Wednesday evening and quickly changed clothes (well, I did. The Queen traveled in her go-to-dinner finery) in order to meet up with the bridal couple for dinner in an Upper West Side seafood restaurant where we met Drew’s father, brother, and sister-in-law for the first time. They are wonderful people, and Wendy is fortunate to become a member of such a nice family. That evening was a big success, but all eyes were on the weather. When you plan an outdoor wedding, you have to have a Plan B. Wendy and Drew DID have a Plan B, but it was not going to be as exciting as the Plan A, which was to get married in Central Park. The skies were threatening on Wednesday, and the forecast was for a chance of showers on Friday. The wedding was planned for Friday in order to honor the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday. Thursday proved to be even more threatening weather-wise. Wendy’s younger sister (Child A in this blog) was to fly in from Texas as were Wendy’s friends who were flying in from Chicago and other points around the country.
We had had a phone call from our younger dauther earlier in the day when she told us that her connecting flight from Dallas was delayed. The Queen and I went to dinner at a nice Cajun restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen (near our hotel). The food was excellent, by the way. The restaurant is called “Delta” if you ever find yourself on 9th Avenue in NYC. When we returned, I checked the website for American Airlines to see if her plane had landed. Oh NO! The flight was cancelled! Now what? The sister of the bride was in transportation limbo. Evidently, the problem was the weather in NY that was backing up air traffic. We all got lucky, and she arrived around 10:00 pm the night before the wedding.
When I awoke on Friday, the first thing I did was to look out the window and saw that the taxis did not have their windshield wipers going. That was good news. Wendy and I took a taxi to the Park around 10:30 and the skies appeared to be clearing. As the wedding began, and I walked her down the “aisle”, which was really a garden path, the sun actually found its way through the clouds to make for a wonderful day. As I said above, read Wendy’s blog for a complete description. A couple of side notes might be of interest.
Drew remembered the marriage license, but he forgot the permit to hold the wedding in the park. The ranger on duty said to me that the wedding could continue anyway because their names were “on the list”. But I’ll throw this out to Wendy, because I know that she reads my blog (at least someone does!). If you didn’t have the park permit, is the wedding still valid? You may have to do it again this weekend in St. Louis. OK, inside joke. We are holding another reception in St. Louis this weekend for family and friends who could not make it to New York for the real wedding.
Another note is that the wedding got the attention of several passers-by. Wendy had gotten dressed in her sister’s hotel room, so she and I left the hotel together. Many people said, “Oh, she’s getting married!” That wasn’t much of a leap, since she was wearing a wedding dress, carrying a bouquet, and with a gray-haired man in a suit. In the park, many visitors stopped to take pictures. It was all rather exciting. What got me amused was that someone (was it the ranger? I forgot who asked me this) asked me if I was the groom. Ha Ha.
I will shamelessly plagiarize Wendy’s site right now and post one picture. Since she also doesn’t own the picture, we can go to copyright jail together. As you can see, from my totally unbiased view, they were (and are) a stunning couple.
By the way, that’s the sunlight shining on Wendy’s right shoulder creating a “strap effect”.
There’s not much more that I can say about this. I was one happy Father of the Bride. I didn’t think I would like New York, but it’s a great city. There is so much to do, and maybe 15% of the people speak English, which is a little better than our town in Germany. Oh, we also got to be in the studio audience for the Late Show with David Letterman. That was a hoot. Really enjoyable. Did you see us in the audience on Thursday night? (Friday night if you are in Germany). By the way, the CBS orchestra is every bit as good as Dave says on his show. They are fantastic.
We’re back in St. Louis now, and the summer is winding down. I’ll definitely be glad to get back home to Germany and sleep in my own bed. This has been the week that was.
Retired-Ed5 Comments
I would have preferred LESS excitement
Well, last week started off calm enough. And it ended calm enough, but midweek had its moments. The Queen and I started the week as we had done the week before. We were in Austin, Texas, visiting our daughter. If I remember correctly, we went to the Texas History Museum on Sunday. On Monday, we did some sightseeing in the direction of the Hill Country to look at some of the gorgeous mansions. There was also some shopping. I don’t even remember what we did on Tuesday, but it probably included something rather bland. Wednesday was departure for St. Louis day. Our flight was scheduled for 2:50, and I ordered a cab for 12:15 at our hotel. At the exact time, I received a phone call telling me that my cab had arrived. Nope! I was sitting in the lobby, looking at the driveway. No cab. About 5 minutes later, I received a call from the cab driver herself, telling me that she was in front. Not really. After a brief conversation, we learned that she was sent to the wrong hotel. OK, problem solved and we get to the airport only to learn that our flight was delayed and we would miss our connecting flight in Dallas. The check-in desk at American Airlines got us on a direct flight that was to leave at 5:50 and get in at 7:45 PM. There really was not another option, so we waited at the airport for several hours. I used the time in the lobby to work on email until the laptop battery ran low. We went through security and got to the gate, where I was planning to plug into a wall plug to charge the battery. Whoa! Half of my power cord was missing. (I later figured out that I had left that half plugged into the wall at our hotel. Real smart. The hotel did recover it for me, and with any luck, our daughter picked it up for me).
So further computer work was out, but the flight was on time and we got boarded quickly and on our way to St. Louis. As we were getting ready to land, our pilot (a young lady named Lindsey, but I never caught her last name) got on the loudspeaker to tell us that she had received a call from Air Traffic Control after leaving Austin to tell her that they had found tire debris on the runway after we had taken off. Wonderful! But there were several planes which had used the runway, so there was still some hope. She got permission to do a low pass over the runway at Lambert Field in St. Louis so that the tower personnel could get a look at our landing gear. They saw “nothing abnormal”, so we got permission to land.
In almost 40 years of flying all over the world, I had never been in an aircraft that had the crash crew meet it upon landing. There were fire trucks at almost every intersection along the runway. After our pilot turned off the active runway (runway 30L, if you are interested in such trivia), we taxied to a spot near, but not at, our gate. Several fire trucks pulled up next to us, and I watched one firefighter get out and use binoculars to examine our landing gear from near the wingtip. Hmm. He pointed to a spot under our plane and got back into his truck. Not a good sign!
An even more ominous sign was when the pilot came out of the cockpit and was wearing her cap (they do that to look “official” when the situation calls for it). The cabin door was opened, and she peered out. Moments later, she got back on the speaker to say, “It was us, and we will now be towed to our gate so that we can stay off the brakes as much as possible.” But wait, we are already down safely. It’s time to exhale. She landed flawlessly with a blown tire on the landing gear. I wish I had caught her last name; I would send some kudos along to her. It was a marvelous job, and she looked like she was just a college kid. I’m sure she was older than that, but she looked mighty young. She did a great job. The airline was a subsidiary of American Airlines called Chataqua Airlines. I’d fly with her again, but without the drama, please.
After gathering our bags and getting the rental car (somehow, we scored a Cadillac!), we got to the Queen’s sister’s house. The Princess has just moved into a new place in the St. Louis suburbs and we are staying with her for a few days. She didn’t know the security code for her wifi, and I had no way to use my laptop anyway, so I have been away from the computer for a while.
However, even “eventful” weeks have an ending. I have now figured out her security code and have figured out a way to jury-rig my iPhone charger plug to my laptop power adaptor and VOILA, I’m back.
This week promises to be very eventful. Our daughter, Wendy is getting married on Friday! More about that as it happens. Stay tuned. And, yes, even retired life can have its moments!
Retired-Ed3 Comments
Getaway
Today is getaway day for us. We are leaving Austin and bound for St. Louis. For me, this ends almost 5 months in Austin. I came in February to help our daughter who had been injured. After she was sufficiently recovered, I returned to Germany, cleared out my office, moved out of my hotel, retired from my job, and moved back to our home in northern Bavaria. That was for one night! I got on a plane and returned to Austin because Daughter A was now able to work full-time, but driving and climbing stairs was a problem. After a month of assisting her, she was ready to move back to her apartment, and I went to St. Louis to meet up with the Queen. She and I have spent the last 12 days in Austin visiting with our daughter. We’ve had a great time, but OMG is it hot! Today will be the 10th consecutive day of triple digit temperatures and the 28th this summer. St. Louis is only predicted for 86, so it will seem like winter. Well, probably not, but it should be cooler. I think I need a vacation from this vacation.
And I know just the way to do it….but I can’t partake right now. We have a wedding to attend next week. Yep, Wendy is getting married, and it’s scheduled for Central Park in just 9 days. She tells us that thunderstorms are predicted, so keep your fingers crossed for good weather. If I could, I’d take an ocean cruise. Do you like to travel? Do you like bargains? Well, I have a great website for you to visit. Alan Fox of vacationstogo has established a wonderful program to save up to 75% on cruises. There are some tremendous bargains. I’m not kidding….check it out. I just looked at his site this morning, and he has listed a daily special of a 7-night Mexico/Central America cruise starting at $399 per person. You will be amazed at the quantity of offerings that you’ll find on his site. There are also discounts for people over 55 (ahem!), teachers (again, ahem!), firefighters, military, police, EMTs, past guests, and left-handed Norwegians who don’t eat fish. OK, the last one was made up, but you’ll find a category for yourself if you look hard enough.
I emailed Mr. Fox a few weeks ago to ask permission to link to his site and to write this blurb about it. He didn’t answer right away because he was on a cruise himself….to Tahiti. Yes, you’ll find cruises like that on his site. Also European river cruises (now you’re talking!), Caribbean cruises, ocean voyages, trans-Atlantic crossings, Alaska cruises, and many more. And all are heavily discounted. You see, cruise lines would rather discount their offerings than to sail with empty staterooms. Ergo, vacationstogo gets the opportunity to offer these cruises to the public at deep discounts. If you sign up for his newsletter, you’ll get a weekly listing of current offerings as well as some valuable information about the various cruise lines and their various opportunities. I’m sure that Mr.Fox would appreciate your business. Hey, tell him that Retired-Ed sent you. Maybe he’ll give me a bonus cruise!
By the way, there are some ads that appear on my website. Currently, you’ll find them above the logo for the site. These ads help pay the bills for operating the retired-ed website. You can help out by clicking on the ads. Perhaps you’ll find something that interests you. I would appreciate it if you’d check out the advertisers. Thanks.
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Why Do They Do That?
Well, I’m still in Texas and trying to adapt my daily schedule to everyone else’s, like staying in bed beyond 6 AM. Just not my lifestyle, but I am learning. On the other hand, it will be nice to get back to Germany and not be living out of a suitcase. Anyway, I have discovered some phenomena that make me wonder “Why do they do that?”
For example, the Queen and I, and sometimes accompanied by our younger daughter, have attended several movies here in Austin. All but one have been at the same theater. I have noticed many times upon visiting the men’s room that the theater staff fills the urinals with ice cubes. I have thought and thought on that one, and I can’t think of a plausible explanation. I need help, readers. Guys, you can’t write your name in ice cubes like you can in snow, so that’s out. (I wonder if that is a strictly American phenomenon or if guys do that in other countries. I would imagine that German boys would find that the umlauts are really hell to make!) Anyway, I’m stumped and am looking for possible explanations.
And from the “Your tax dollars at work” section (well, not yours if you are not in the US), I offer you this and wonder “why do they do that?”. The National Institutes of Health has given a grant of over $400,000 to Indiana University to study why men don’t like to wear condoms. Having earned my masters degree from IU’s archrival, Purdue University, I am not at all surprised that Indiana Universty doesn’t already know the answer. However, why would our government spend that kind of money on such an endeavor? Readers?
And finally, I am really at a loss about why many people, both men and women (I thought this was only a male phenomenon), like to crank up the bass in their car speakers until the walls vibrate in buildings a block away. This penchant for making one’s ears bleed is lost on me. Most of these cowboys (and cowgirls) have blown out their speakers so it sounds as if someone is humming into a comb covered with tissue paper. The other day (yes, here in Texas), I saw a guy who had attached a 12-inch speaker to the roof of his car, right behind the driver’s right ear. I could hear and feel this guy’s bass about a block away. When he finally drove past, it felt like a 5.5 earthquake. What’s the attraction, and why do people do this?
I have many more questions, but I’ll wait to see if my readers can help me out with these. How about it, folks? Do you have the answers?
Retired-Ed9 Comments
The Heat is ON!!!
Here I am with the Queen in Austin, Texas, once again. We’ve been here for about 5 days now, visiting Child A. There have been some surprising events, namely that the Queen has actually enjoyed some of the places that I have taken her. She loves the chips and salsa at Pappasito’s. She liked the barbecue and the ambience at Salt Lick as well as County Line. She has also enjoyed the ride around Lake Travis to look at some of the mansions in the area, and I do mean mansions! These are multi-million dollar dwellings, something that is absolutely mind-boggling when you see them. She has also enjoyed the movies that we have seen, but to be fair, she took me to the movies, not the other way around.
But what doesn’t she like about this place? It’s the heat! Today’s predicted high is 104 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 40 C for my non-US readers, if I still have any). Tomorrow is predicted for 106 degrees. In contrast, the high predicted for today at our home in Germany is 64 degrees Fahrenheit. Yep, it’s really hot, and it isn’t likely to change until much later. It’s also very dry here. Austin is having one of the worst droughts of the past quarter-century. Lake Travis is well below its normal levels. In contrast, I see that my daughter Wendy is suffering through too much rain in New York City. Let’s hope for good weather for her outdoor wedding in a little more than two weeks. (I remember my own wedding to the Queen almost 36 years ago. It was so hot that the sweat running down my back was very annoying).
I don’t know what’s going on in the world today. That’s not a general statement…I’m talking specifically about today. Radio and television has been All Michael, All the Time. I actually heard an announcer on HLN (when did CNN Headline News become simply HLN? I must have missed that.) apologize for having to report on other news yesterday morning. It’s always sad when someone dies, but this got more coverage than the Kennedy assassination, and I’m not kidding. I watched the Kennedy coverage back in 1963, and Michael got more coverage.
I did do an internet search for news this morning and found that North Korea is suspected of having messed with US government computers back on July 4th. Venusian aliens landed in California; and Sarah Palin has been tapped to sit in for Rush Limbaugh during his next vacation. Well, maybe those last two were made up, but the Palin story could come true some day.
Have you figured out that not much is going on with me at the moment? This is more like vacation than retirement. This business of not working is wearing me out. I’m looking forward to getting out of a motel and back into my own house. Then I’ll be able to really write about retired life and travel. Until then, I am simply “Tired-Ed”.
Retired-Ed2 Comments
It’s Official
Yep, it’s official now. Yesterday, Independence Day in the United States, was my first official day of retirement. I went off the rolls as of July 3rd. I don’t know how I feel about that. I just haven’t had the time to think about it. The past two weeks have been a blur. The Queen flew into St. Louis from Germany on June 23rd. I flew in from Austin on the same day. Of course, my flight was delayed by 2 hours and the Queen had to wait for me in the St. Louis airport for four hours. There wasn’t much we could do about it, I suppose.
Daughter A flew in from Austin on that Friday, and CityWendy and Drew flew in from New York City a few minutes earlier. So we had the entire family together. In addition, the Queen’s siblings and their families (minus one niece’s husband who couldn’t get any vacation time from his job) were also there for the big celebration of the Queen’s parent’s (The Queen Mother and the Jack of Diamonds) 60th wedding anniversary and the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday. It was a big bash which was held in a restaurant in what seemed like the outskirts of Kansas City. If you’re not familiar with the geography of Missouri, KC is on the opposite end of the state. In reality, it was just in a different part of St. Louis, but it seemed farther when searching for the place. It was a wonderful party, and my in-laws were pleased, which is what the whole thing was about in the first place.
Since then, Child A flew back the following morning, and we had some time to socialize with CityWendy and Drew until they left on Monday. There has also been time to visit with my in-laws, both of whom are in questionable health, but still fun to have dinner with and talk. You’d think that I would have had plenty of time to post to this blog, but somehow, it has been run, run, run for the past few days. The Queen and I flew to Austin this past Friday to visit with Kid A and to see the sights (with the Queen in tow) of this great city once again. She has also fallen in love with Pappasito’s after just one visit. She had me take her back there for a second night yesterday evening. She has promised to go back with me for a Happy Hour later this week, so there’s one thing that we have in common. Hooray!
I have accumulated lots of odds and ends over the past two weeks when I didn’t have time to post. For example, while visiting Home Depot the other night, I ran across this sign on a the door to the men’s room. Thank goodness that Apple provided a camera with the iPhone. What do you 
suppose this sign means? I shudder to imagine.
More odds and ends: Did you know that Gold’s Gym has declared July to be “Cankle Awareness Month”? According to Rush Limbaugh, (and don’t we all believe everything that we hear on the radio?), that is the case. So, Madame Secretary of State, if you are reading this blog post, you know how to spend your month. Ooh, that’s uncalled for.
And isn’t it interesting how the press was so wrapped up in the mystery surrounding Michael Jackson’s death? That is, until Sarah Palin decided to resign as governor of Alaska. I think that the summers must be slow news months for everyone and incidents such as these take on greater proportion when there is nothing else happening….not that either one of these stories isn’t big news. They are, but I didn’t hear much of anything else while those stories were playing of every media outlet.
And I told myself when I started blogging to steer clear of politics and family stories. My daughter, CityWendy, can tell you about the hate mail that she receives on some of her stories (and, in my totally unbiased opinion, it’s not deserved, but that’s another story). Anyway, here goes with my first political rant: In Missouri, there is a group of church members that protest at military funerals. Are they protesting the war? Nope, they are protesting because of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military. I will keep my thoughts about the law and also about the war to myself. However, this misguided group protesting at military funerals is disgusting to me. Having worked on US military bases for the past 36 years, I have a pretty good idea of the stress that is involved with having a loved one who is sent into harm’s way. Unfortunately, I have also had way too much experience in being close to people who get that dreaded knock at the door to be greeted by two military members in Class A uniforms. Please, let these people bury their dead with dignity. If you don’t like the law, tell your member of congress. Write letters to the editor. Gather petitions. Do whatever is legal and proper, but please, please, don’t disturb the dignity of the final ceremonies to honor these fallen warriors. Yes, I know that the Supreme Court has said that they can continue, but I don’t care about that. How about doing what is right?
And, with that, I’ll go back to being Retired-Ed. But before I end this particular post, I have a plea. If any of my three or four loyal readers (one of whom is not even a family member) know anything about the iPhone, I have a problem with mine. I have downloaded a program and my iTunes program does not recognize this program as being for the iPhone. Ergo, I can’t “restore” this program to my phone. Any ideas?
Retired-Ed6 Comments
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