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Wine stand in the dark… and Arran burns some rubber in the house!

Last week, we changed the clocks in Germany. That means that when the wine stands start at 6:00pm, it’s already dark outside. For the past two years, the wine stands weren’t happening, anyway, due to COVID-19. In 2019, I seem to remember that the stands ended at the end of October. Since the weather is milder these days, I guess they decided to keep them going.

Bill and I went last night, noticing that there weren’t as many people attending. There was also rain yesterday afternoon, so most of the benches and tables were wet. Still, it wasn’t super cold outside, and going to the wine stand gave me the chance to wear my new NOVICA alpaca sweater. It’s a lovely dark greenish blue, and it fits very well, but it’s not the kind of thing I can comfortably wear when there isn’t a chill in the air. I didn’t even need a jacket last night, because the sweater was plenty warm!

We had a few glasses of local wine and enjoyed seeing some people. We even ate at the wine stand… Currywurst for Bill, and Brat with Brotchen for me. I didn’t like the mustard, though. It was a little too strong and bitter. Fortunately, it wasn’t as strong as Russian mustard, which will clean out your sinuses. I had neighbors in Armenia who took great delight in watching me react to Russian mustard. That stuff is nuclear!

Below are a few photos from last night, as well as a video of Arran and Noyzi, who were VERY happy to see us come home afterwards. Y’all can see how Arran is handling his chemo… basically, like a champion. He was loving Bill like old times last night. The first two photos of the first gallery are from a walk I took with the dogs the other day. I was enchanted by the bright purple berries and our own Klingenbach, which is full of water now. It’s crazy how fast droughts improve once summer ends. My hair matches the berries. Bill and I took advantage of the festive ambiance to get new photos. I’m not wearing makeup. The older I get, the more I look like a fat blonde version of my sister, Becky.

Arran was feeling fine last night! He’s such a scrapper!

Noyzi was very happy to see Bill. They’re finally buddies!

I’m not sure what we’ll do today. There’s an art exhibition going on in our neighborhood featuring art by local artists. We might visit that, especially since it’s free and close to home. Maybe we’ll go out to dinner, too, since we haven’t done that in ages… Bill is still recovering a bit from COVID– just annoying gunk and coughing. I, on the other hand, got a reminder last night that I’m not yet menopausal. SIGH…

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holidays, housekeeping tips

The last day of 2021… (cross post)

This post also appears on the main blog, since I have different readers there. The featured photo are cookies brought by our landlord.

I’m getting a late post up today. I was actually thinking of taking off the last day of 2021. I didn’t have anything earth shattering on my mind that I felt compelled to write about. Bill had the day off, and we were both kind of tired. Bill was especially tired, since he never gets a full night’s sleep. So I worked on reading my book, and he took a nap. Later, he’ll fire up the fondue/raclette grill set I got him for Christmas, and we’ll try it out. He’s already used the new hot tea pot I got him. He’s drinking tea as I write this.

Bill and Arran, preparing for tonight.

Arran took a nap with us, while Noyzi tried to steal my brand new fuzzy slippers. I think he thinks they’re small animals. I might let him take them, but he’s already eaten a couple of toys. The emergency vet is the last place we want to go tonight.

I managed to accomplish a couple of other chores, too. After I worked on trying to rid the toilet of limescale and calcium stains, I went on Amazon.de and bought some citric acid, as well as cleaning soda and salt. Today, I tried the acid on a really terrible hard water stain in the shower that I’ve never been able to get rid of. I poured the acid on the stain and, wouldn’t you know it? That stain was gone in minutes! There’s no trace of it. I think it’s a wonder drug. It’s hard to believe it’s taken seven years to figure this out. Vinegar is good, but citric acid is the bomb! And it’s cheap, too!

I also climbed up on a stepladder in the shower and knocked the calcium off the shower head jets, so the nice rainfall spray won’t squirt all over the place anymore. Now, the new shower head is as nice as it was in September, when it was installed.

I heard that fireworks weren’t supposed to be sold in German stores again this year. Like last year, the government wants to discourage people from setting off fireworks, because they don’t want people getting hurt and needing to go to the hospital, thanks to COVID. I suspect there will be fireworks, anyway… Germans are law abiding people, but they love fireworks on New Year’s Eve. I think that’s pretty much the only day they are allowed to be set off, at least by the regular rank and file folks. I seem to remember that there were fireworks last year, despite the ban on them.

Our New Year’s celebrations are usually pretty boring affairs. We spend them much the same way we spend any night at home… listening to music, drinking wine, and talking.

I’m hoping 2022 will be a better year for everyone… although 2021 wasn’t, for me, a particularly bad year. I’ve had worse. But this COVID-19 shit needs to be fixed. Hopefully, 2022 will bring us some breakthroughs.

In any case… I want to offer sincere thanks to everyone who’s been reading my blogs. This main site, in particular, has really taken off this year! In the past month or so, I’ve had an explosion in traffic. That really does my heart good, and makes writing this blog worth the time and effort.

The travel blog has been somewhat less trafficked this year, but I can understand why. I haven’t been traveling as much… nor have many other people! I’m sure the traveling we have done may even be a downer for some folks. I know some people suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), and it can be depressing to look at other people’s travel posts when travel is so potentially risky and definitely stressful. I am very grateful, though, that we finally managed to go to Croatia. I hope we can visit again. There are more places I want to see. And with any luck and maybe God’s grace, if you’re into God, that is– maybe COVID-19 will be more under control by this time next year.

I’m still making music, too… Been getting better with my guitar skills and can even play some songs. There are some times when I find myself playing things completely spontaneously. I still have plenty of learning to do, which is a good thing. And I’ve also found someone to collaborate with on YouTube, too, which is very rewarding. Maybe I’ll put up a new song or two, now that I have new gear. Maybe I’ll try to learn bass guitar and banjo, too… if the virus continues to spread, I might have to do something else to pass the time.

Well… I don’t have much else to say, except…

I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year’s Eve, and a very fortuitous New Year’s Day… and 2022!

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