Posted on August 29th, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Why do they...?

All right. The question is rhetorical, because, in most cases, we already know the answer to the questions that I will be posing. I’m calling this “Part I” because I just KNOW that there will be a few more mysteries out there. The first target of my rhetorical rage is going to the the world’s airlines. As one who flies infrequently, but for long distances when I do, I’m rather irritated with the airlines. The previous sentence may qualify for the greatest understatement of the year.

For example, why do they try to cram so many seats into the plane that any semblance of leg room is lost? Why do they charge for your baggage? This is the one that really just plain gets my dander up. Good grief, people are already trying to bring “carry on luggage” that is the size of Rhode Island onto the airplane. (Note for my Canadian reader: Rhode Island is our smallest state. It is “slightly” smaller than Ontario (the second biggest understatement of the year). Have you ever heard of Rhode Island, Sue?) Anyway, if they can’t cram that behemoth into the overhead bin, the gate crew will issue them a special tag and will check their bag for them into the hold of the airplane and then have the bag waiting for them at the gate when the aircraft gets to its destination. Say WHAT? You mean that some fools, like me, pay up to $50 to check their bags but others get the airline to do it for them and then have it hand delivered to them at the door of the airplane? Yep. Go figure. Who’s the dummy here?

What about, “Blankets may be obtained for $5.00. Pillows are $3.00. Headsets are $5.00,” etc.? What a load of crap! As I said, we already know why they do this. It’s the almighty Dollar. Or Euro. Or Shekel. Or Dinar. Or Pound. Or whatever. But why, oh why, don’t they just add everything in to the cost of the ticket? They used to do that. Hell, I’m so old that I can remember when meals were provided on flights. OK, some still are, but in the olden days they didn’t always taste like cardboard. And you got peanuts with your soft drink (served with the captain’s compliments). I know, some people have peanut allergies. But wait a minute, I’m diabetic, and it doesn’t bother me if the guy next to me is eating a banana split.

The airline industry is just out of control. Pretty soon we’ll be buying a “personal license” which will then give us the right to purchase a ticket on the flight. Think I’m exaggerating? Think again. Pro sports teams are doing it right now. It’s called “Personal Seat Licenses” or PSLs. I envision buying a license to have the right to purchase a ticket only to learn that there will be an extra charge to have a seat on the airplane.

Is anyone else fed up with the airline industry? Let’s start a campaign by voting with our wallets (or our pocketbooks). Do you know of any airline that does not charge for checked baggage? How about airlines that offer other “free” amenities, especially those that have been traditionally cost-free until recently? I think that we are being ripped off. The prices were raised a few years ago because (supposedly) of the high cost of fuel. Well, guess what, fuel prices are down now….at least for the time being. Have the additional costs been deleted? I don’t think so.

Even though I’m not in favor of big government, sometimes I think that flying was easier when the airlines were regulated.

Comments?

Retired-Ed

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An Unsung Hero

Posted on August 28th, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Travel

I admit it. I was expecting some misfortune when I was in New York City this July for my daughter Wendy‘s wedding. I had made only one trip to NYC since 1960 (not counting airport connections at JFK and/or LaGuardia). That one trip since my early teens was two years ago when I had the misfortune of losing my briefcase, including my passport, money, electronic gear, and a spare set of underwear, to an unscrupulous bus driver. There’s so much crime in NYC that is depicted on television and movies that one almost expects something bad to happen. Okay, you didn’t really need to know about the spare underwear, did you? The funny thing is that the briefcase was subsequently turned in to lost and found, minus the money of course, and minus the electronic gear of course, but also minus my undershirt. We think that the crook used the undershirt to wrap up the other goodies when he made his exit. But I digress.

Wendy was married on July 24th, and you can read about it in some detail in both her blog and earlier posts in mine. Following the wedding in the park, my daughter and new son-in-law held a luncheon at Becco’s, a truly great restaurant near Hell’s Kitchen. Following the luncheon, we all made our various exits. The Queen and I, along with our younger daughter, caught a cab back to our hotel. We were in our wedding finery, complete with corsages and boutonniere. The driver was obviously foreign born and probably had not been a Boy Scout in his younger days, but anything is possible. He certainly did his “good turn” that day.

He said, “Congratulations!” to us, and we all responded with our thanks. Then he asked if our younger daughter was the one who had gotten married. Well, no, there was no groom in the car, and she wasn’t wearing anything that resembled a wedding dress. But it was a nice gesture on his part. Even greater was the fact that he reached up and turned off the meter. He said that it was his gift to us to commemorate our daughter’s wedding. Now it was only about 5 blocks to the hotel, so the fare would not have been all that much, but I was stunned that he gave us a free ride because we were parents and sister of the bride.

When we got to the hotel, I pulled out my wallet to give him a tip, and he would have nothing of the kind! He refused even a tip from us and again said it was his present to us. My kind of guy! Our daughter got his cab number, but I won’t publish it anyway for fear of getting him in some kind of trouble with the Taxi and Limousine Commission. After doing us a “good turn”, I’d hate to get him disciplined for it.

There are lots of people like him out there, and I guess I should keep a very open mind the next time I find myself in the Big Apple. (And he says behind cupped hands, “I actually really enjoyed our visit to the City.”)

Retired-Ed

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Is Today an End….or a Beginning?

Posted on August 26th, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Retirement

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.

Retired-Ed

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Retired-Ed Words of Wisdom, Part II

Posted on August 24th, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Words of Wisdom

If you took all the cars in the world, and lined them up end-to-end, some German guy in an Audi would try to pass them all at once.

Retired-Ed

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I Guess I Should Feel Honored

Posted on August 23rd, 2009 by Retired-Ed in politics

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I asked my readers if they thought that I should include political posts in the blog, make a separate site for them, or not do them at all. Results were mixed. CityWendy, my lovely first-born daughter and first-rate blogger herself, said that I should put them on a separate site so she could choose not to read them. Other readers responded all over the board. One of the most useful comments came from my younger daughter who told me that some of the links at the bottom of my post are in German and could I fix that. Not yet. I still haven’t figured that one out, but she also commented about something I once said about Rush Limbaugh. She goes on to say, “And someone once told me he was an intelligent man.” Hmmm, would that be Rush or me? Maybe she meant me, because the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, or did it?

Anyway, I said that I wasn’t sure if this blog would be the proper place to comment on the proposed health care plan that is causing so much turmoil across the “fruited plain”, to borrow an expression from Rush. I have decided to press on and give some thoughts on this because I have noted in my site statistics that I was visited by the very site that I said I was worried about. That would be the site where the Obama administration is asking people to snitch on folks who make comments about their health care proposal. I also had a visit from the United States House of Representatives. Okay, folks, since you are reading my blog (and bless you for that), I offer some words of advice from afar.

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I tend to lean toward the conservative side. I’m not in favor of big government and I am not a fan of socialism. But, on the other hand, I agree that our health care system needs some fixing. Costs are out of whack and too much red tape is involved in getting some procedures. The health insurance situation has hit home recently. I have two daughters whom I am rather fond of. One is a free-lancer who doesn’t qualify for group health insurance; the other does qualify for group insurance at her work, but recently changed jobs. Upon applying for benefits for a lab test that she had done, she was informed that it was a pre-existing condition and the company would not reimburse. Say what? She went from one covered position to another with no break in coverage. Does that mean that no one can ever change jobs for fear of losing health care coverage? As you see, I’m not saying that reform is not needed. I tend to think that tort reform is also needed. Doctors would not prescribe so many procedures and tests if they didn’t have to fully cover their backsides for fear of a malpractice suit, but that’s another blog post for another time.

Right now, this is for you folks in Washington. Perception is everything! I didn’t invent that phrase, but I believe that it’s true. When you set up a website and ask people to rat on their friends, regardless of your intent, it gives the impression that Big Brother is keeping tabs on the citizenry. C’mon guys, give us some credit.

Another bit of advice for our leaders: Come on and tell us what’s in the plan. We’re having these town hall meetings around the country. Some of them in Missouri, from which I recently departed, turned ugly. Arrests were made. The Democrat House members had to have a “talking point” note card with them to explain the plan. Why not just put the plan up on a PowerPoint presentation and explain what’s in it. Oh, there’s 1017 pages? Could that be the problem? Maybe you could boil it down to the main points. The main points usually are these:

1. How will it affect me?

2. How much is it going to cost?

3. Who will be responsible for my care?

4. How will it change from what I have now?

I realize that there are many, many more concerns attached to this issue, but the bottom line is that you haven’t fully explained the plan. From what I gather, there isn’t just one plan, but multiple versions wending their way through Congress. If the President has his own plan, how about spelling it out to the citizenry? Heck, maybe I could support it if I only knew exactly what was in it.

And then there’s the so-called “Death Panels”. A lot of people made a lot of noise about them. For me, I never really thought that there would be something as overt as a “Death Panel”. I am concerned about whether or not there will be a sort of “triage” system to determine who gets care and who doesn’t. I’ve heard horror stories (are they true?) about people in other countries who are denied certain procedures because they are too old to enjoy the benefits for very long. True? Is that in the plan? Maybe I should read it to find out.

After reading some of the House Bill, I think that it is largely incomprehensible to the average citizen. I am in my 60s and have had a career of over 40 years in education, including 36 with the very government that is proposing this plan. I have two college degrees and many more semester hours beyond my masters degree. Dear Representatives, I can’t understand what is in the bill. I read the famous Section 1233, and my eyes glossed over. For the last 20 years or so of my career, it was my job to be somewhat of an expert in federal regulations, and even with that experience, I had trouble reading that gobbledygook. Please tell us in plain, easy to understand, English what it is that you are proposing. Perhaps some of the hate and disconent would melt away. Maybe…maybe not, but please give it a shot.

Oh, and dear Congressman and White House staffers, while you are visiting my site, please click on the ads and see what my advertisers are offering. You might find something you like….and it helps pay for the blog. Thanks.

Retired-Ed

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Retired-Ed Words of Wisdom

Posted on August 22nd, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Words of Wisdom

This is a new feature of the blog that will appear from time to time. It will consist of “retired-ed” words of wisdom. Here is the first installment:

Blogging is 90% mental. The other half is typing.

What can I say? Being retired-ed, I have some time on my hands. Stay tuned for more.

Retired-Ed

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Retired-Ed, Where the Heck Have You Been?

Posted on August 21st, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Retirement

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-Ed

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Heading Home

Posted on August 13th, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Travel

The time is almost here. With the exception of a few weeks in May, I have been in the US since late February. I think that I counted only 8 days since then that I have slept in my own bed. I’m ready. Tomorrow, God willing, the Queen and I will board separate airplanes for our respective flights back to Germany. She’s on American, and I am flying on United in order to get their Economy Plus seating. Somehow, and perhaps for good reason, I always dread flying. To that end, I just signed up for a newsletter from a group that is lobbying Congress to establish rights for air travelers. I will add their link to this site. You can find them here. Their leader was trapped on an airplane on the tarmac for 13 hours. That’s just hideous. I hate to even contemplate that. I have my own air travel horror stories. How about you, dear readers? What can you tell us about your own experiences?

I heard a radio personality share his horror story last week. I like to listen to KMOX radio (the Voice of St. Louis and the winner of two national Edward R. Murrow awards). The regular afternoon host (Mark Reardon) was on vacation and another radio personality was taking his place. This guy had just returned himself from a trip to Colorado with his family. As they were getting seated on their flight from Denver to St. Louis, a cabin attendant made the announcement that the plane was overweight and 4 passengers would have to get off. No hands. Again, the request was made with the promise of overnight accommodations, dinner paid for, and a free flight anywhere in the US that United flies. Yes, it was the same airline that I will be boarding tomorrow! One couple volunteered, leaving two to go. No volunteers. The cabin attendant made her way down the aisle. The announcer said that you could almost hear the audible exhale as she passed each seat. When she got to his wife, she said, “Mrs. X (name withheld), you have been selected to be disembarked.” Her husband said that they couldn’t do that, because the were a family of four and didn’t want to be split up. Nope, they can be split up, and they were. After deliberating with himself whether he wanted to make a scene in front of his 15-year old daughter and 12-year old son, he decided to be a good citizen and do what they were being told to do. So he and one of his children got off the plane and said good-bye to his wife and other child. But the story doesn’t end here. After being told that their bags would be coming down the chute in about 15 minutes, there was a wait of over an hour for their bags. The motel shuttle that was promised didn’t come for over 30 minutes and then was full! He said that he stood in front of the shuttle and said that it would either leave with him or over his dead body. The driver said that if he and his child could squeeze into one jump seat, they were welcome tocome aboard. They did so. But the story doesn’t end there. When they got to the motel, it had no restaurant, and they had no transportation. They were told that their voucher from United was “sometimes honored” by the restaurant across the busy highway. They had no choice but to dodge traffic across a busy highway to eat at the only restaurant in the area. When he go back to the hotel, he realized that his overnight kit had been re-packed into another suitcase that was now in St. Louis so that his bag would meet the weight restriction of the airline. (I think it’s stupid that you can’t combine the weight of your bags if you are flying together). So his toiletry kit was in St. Louis and he was in Denver. He called the front desk to see if they had any complimentary toiletries. You guessed it; they did not. He arrived home the next day as one pissed off passenger, and I don’t blame him.

I’m excited to be going home, but I’m definitely not excited about the prospect of flying.

And speaking of going home, one of my high school friends was called home last week. He and I became friends in the 9th grade and remained so throughout high school. We weren’t all that close after high school, but I enjoyed reading about him on our class website. He recently married (within the last year) one of our classmates. Their love story later in life after raising their own families was one that warmed my heart. They had reconnected at our class 40th reunion. Our 45th is coming up next month and Roland will not be there. He suffered an apparent cardiac event while out jogging. My heart goes out to Connie and their extended families. Rest in peace, Roland.

Retired-Ed

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Headline in St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Posted on August 9th, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

From the Sunday, August 9th, edition:

“Medical goofs cost lives, study finds”.

Gee, ya think?

The story cites a 1999 study that showed that errors by medical providers can cause people to die. Wow, that’s big news. I’m surprised that it took 10 years to get that in print here in St. Louis, which actually is pretty famous for its fine hospitals.

And no, this is not a part of my campaign to bash Obamacare. I just thought that it was a funny headline.

Retired-Ed

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10 Things I Want to do in Retirement

Posted on August 8th, 2009 by Retired-Ed 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-Ed

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Random thoughts from a happily retired American living in Germany

Why Do They Do That? Part I