Weather

This week a Colonel who's been here for two winters stated that they've only had one big snowstorm, in those two years, I can deal with that.  This morning when I woke up, I looked out the window and saw nothing, just white.  The city was socked in with really heavy fog.  This is a picture out my 10th floor window to the highway below.  Additionally it was only 46° F out, quite chilly for mid-August.

After letting it warm up a little, I went to what is apparently the only English language bookstore in town, called Tom's Books, he sells each book for €1, which is expensive given that most of his stock are pocket paper-backs.  He will also trade 2 for 1 (I bring in 2, get one free) and be buys for €0.25.  His little shop is a tad musty, and good grief did he like to talk.  When I got there he was talking with a couple of German girls, then he started in with me.  While I was there, this Army Colonel and her husband came in, asked a couple questions and started browsing.  I managed to get out as they were leaving.  We talked along the street and they joked that they wanted to get out of there before I left, otherwise they would be the victims of chat.

I then went downtown to try and get a month long tram pass, but the office wasn't open.  I then headed out to the mall I had been to two weeks ago to get cell phone service (the place on base won't deal with iPhones).  I got a prepaid SIM card but it's not working in my phone.  I'm suspecting that something went wrong and my unlock didn't complete.  So now I'll have to spend another evening doing it all over again.

The cats are starting to try my patience.  They are pretty good most of the time.  The other afternoon, I got home a little early (before housekeeping had done the room) so after I dropped my bag, I opened the door to hang the "Do not disturb" sign and Spooky got out.  I chased her and grabbed her pretty quick, but not before the door closed and I realized I had left my key in the room.  The other thing the girls will do is wake early and start chasing each other around.  This may have been fine in a house with multiple rooms, but in a one room hotel room, the chase involves around, over and through the bed on which I am trying to sleep.

Trains, Stations and Slugs

Hey all,

I thought I would throw up a couple of train stuff.  The first is one of the trams, also known as the U-Bahn (oo-bahn), it is the local system, although there are some of the national trains that serve as commuter lines.  The system also hooks into the bus system.  For example, today, I walked off the base to the auto dealership (I ordered a Mini, should be here in 4-5 weeks).  As I was finishing up, I saw the base shuttle getting onto the autobahn.  Do I walk 15 minutes back onto base, wait 40 minutes to catch the shuttle (and then another 15 minute walk from that base to the hotel), or walk to the city bus stop.  I walked to they city bus stop, as I rounded the corner, the bus was leaving, so I had to wait 20 minutes for the next one, then hop on the train to the hotel.  All in all it was a better deal, I got to the hotel about the same time I would have been getting onto the military shuttle.  I had a ticket for 4 trips in my wallet, so all I had to do was stamp it on the bus.

The second picture is of an historic train station (Möhringen Bahnhof), not sure what it is used for now.  A little further on is the historic cargo building.  There is a bit of construction going on in the vicinity, putting more people in proximity to the train station.  

Today was more of the European Command conference on how they do business.  I learned a lot and came up with a lot of questions.  Tomorrow, I am on stand-by for a series of classes and then I can get my permanent badge.  Friday I'm going to spend the day with the European Command folks again, in their office, learning everything they do.

Finally, a picture of a slug, it seemed to have come out because of all the rain the last two days.  It was ugly, and big, I would say 3-4 inches in length.  I have to say, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a slug before; I'm not sure if I care to ever see one before.  I'm just glad I saw it before I stepped on it, that would have been a lot of gooo...

The Weekend and the Job

So this weekend I did get a chance to explore the downtown, Friday I went down there, but then it started raining and I had neglected to bring the bumbershoot and I headed back to the hotel.  Sat was a pretty decent day, so I went down, explored the flea market (mostly junk in my opinion, if I ever buy anything it will either be something to hang on the wall or a textile, they looked to be pretty nice.  After that I ran into a farmer's market, I bought a jar of Rhubarb jelly (kompote) and on the day's I remember to grab an extra roll at breakfast, it is pretty good.  After that I went through an art museum that was pretty much all modern stuff, although the architecture of the building was rather magnificent.  A quick tour of the big bookstore down town, with their 100 titles in English.  Then finally walking through a mall and on to the Sommerfest, which in this case was a music/food/drink festival on the main square and park downtown.

Sunday was a bit more pedestrian, I loaded up all my dirty laundry (filling my backpack and then a net bag, enough for two loads) and walked to base to do laundry.  When I finished with that, I camped out in a restaurant in the basement with some of their home brewed beer and spent several hours writing up my turn-over document for Minneapolis.

Monday I spent half the day doing paperwork to get reimbursed for the hotel expense.  I also signed up for a class on the Politics and Government in Africa.  It should be an interesting class, hopefully give me some background for the job, although my real job is just to get Reservists to the command, especially the money.

Today I attended, and will attend tomorrow, a European Command Intel Reserve conference and I've been learning all the intricacies to the reserves and intelligence.  It is a world unto itself, and I'm not even talking about the work they do.  There is such a multitude of three letter agencies, all with different pots of money and all with something to contribute.  It will be interesting to dig into the job, and I'm started to get an idea where I have to start.

Two final things, I'm getting tired of coins.  On base they use Dollars, so I have to carry both US and EU coins.  The smallest EU bank note is a €5.00 note, so everything smaller is coins.  The €.01 (euro penny) coin is even smaller than the US penny, it is incredibly annoying.  The one nice thing on base is that they don't use pennies, the just round up and down, how convenient.  The other thing is that I have been having these dreams about the house I grew up in in Edina, sort of weird.  I'm just wondering if it has to being "dislocated" and my mind is referencing the most enduring "home" I've ever had.