Tag Archives: gadgets

German lifestyle, Hessen, markets

A rare weekly market rendezvous…

Bill took the day off of work today. Our dog, Noyzi, needed some blood work done, and it was going to take a few hours. So, rather than come and go at work, or task me with the job of taking him, Bill stayed home. We did some boring housework, which you can read about on my main blog.

While Bill was at the vet’s, he ran into our neighbor, the veterinarian who owns the practice where we take our dogs. He immediately recognized Noyzi and gave him a pat. Sadly, Bill happened to be there as a family was saying goodbye to a much beloved family member. We lost our dogs, Zane and Arran, here. In fact, Zane’s anniversary is coming up on the 31st. 🕯️ I’m sending warm thoughts to that family. It’s so hard to say goodbye.

It was hard for Charlie to say goodbye to Bill and Noyzi; that’s for sure! He was really upset at being left home with me. He cried, barked, and stayed in the foyer, waiting for them to come back. However, unlike Noyzi, Charlie doesn’t like car rides, and he hates the vet. I think he got the better end of the deal. Noyzi wasn’t thrilled to be at the vet’s today! But he did get a treat.

One unexpected thing that happened today is that I ended up ordering a new steam mop. The one I bought in late 2018, when we were fixing to move from Baden-Württemberg, seems to have bit the dust. It started to heat up, as usual, and then just kind of died. It didn’t die all of the way, mind you. The little green power light was on, and I could feel the electrics trying to heat up. But it just never got there.

I got tired of waiting for our old mop to try to heat up, and broke out the Tineco wet vacuum I bought a few years ago. I cleaned the floors with that. It does do a good job. But I still like having a lighter, less cumbersome steam mop for upstairs. So I ordered one from Paris that will probably get to me in a few days.

Then, after all of that stuff was done, we decided to go to the weekly market in our village. It just started up again after a brief summer pause.

I love the weekly market. One can purchase deli meats and cheeses, fresh breads, fresh vegetables, Middle Eastern goodies, and wine… The ice cream man also comes with his goodies. He has a good sense of humor, speaks English, and offers delicious ice creams. I think he gets a kick out of us, because when we first met him several weeks ago, we said we were hiding out in Germany.

Bill bought some cold cuts and cheeses from a Tyrolean farmer’s market seller. They had a nice conversation in English and German. An older gent asked us if we were British. We told them we’re American. I was flattered that it wasn’t obvious, in spite of my profane t-shirt…

Look carefully. I should probably buy another one.

We also bought a kilo of plums from the fruits and vegetables vendor. We would have bought bread, but the guy was busy, and Bill has an appointment with his Jungian analyst today. So we had some wine and ice cream from the friendly vendor…

As we were enjoying the low key weekly market, which the city manager attended, I was thinking about how lucky we are to live here. People around here mostly know us, but even the ones who don’t are very nice.

The Metzgerei vendor asked if we were new, because he’d never seen us before. I think he’s different from the folks who used to come. We said we weren’t. He kind of good-naturedly ribbed Bill for his attempts at German, then sang “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, when he heard that I’m from Virginia. Of course, Virginia is NOT West Virginia… but that’s okay. It’s a great song. Besides, Bill Danoff, who mostly wrote that song, had not been to West Virginia when he wrote it. The song was actually inspired by drives in Maryland. Germans love it, though. Who wouldn’t love Germanic John Denver’s beautiful tenor voice?

Another elderly gent asked if we were Brits. We said no, we’re American. Bill told him where we live, and he said, “Please come back.”

I did notice that the weekly market seemed a bit sparse… but that might be because it’s August, and people tend to vacation in August. Also, they host it during working hours. It’s hard to go to the market when one doesn’t leave work until an hour before the market closes. But I guess the people who run it sell their wares at bigger markets on weekends, and no one wants to be hanging out on a town square during the dinner hour.

We also saw our old neighbor, Daniel, who stopped to pick up some vegetables. Daniel moved to a smaller, cheaper place following his divorce. He’s a very nice guy. We miss having him near, but it was nice to see him today.

Anyway… I do love our little village, and I’m grateful that we get to live here. We were very lucky, because this was the last house we toured when we were looking, and it popped up the day before we were heading back to Jettingen, back in November 2018, having come up here to look for a place to live. I suspect we were the only ones to tour it when it came up, and you’re damned right we snapped it up quickly. It’s been a GREAT place to live… both in terms of the house, and the town.

Below are a few photos from today.

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gadgets

Making our German house “smarter”…

While we wait for the weather to get less yucky, I’ve been focusing a bit on making our house more comfortable. I mentioned on my main blog yesterday that I’ve been investing in some new technology. In the past few weeks, I’ve acquired two new Alexa Echo Dot devices. One is in my office, and the other is in my bedroom. I have an Alexa Studio in the living room. I don’t use it very much. I bought it mainly because sometimes Siri on my HomePod goes kerfluey and it makes a good backup.

I have some Amazon music purchases that I can’t play on the HomePod, and some Apple purchases that won’t play on Alexa. I don’t want to subscribe to a streaming service, so I have two “assistants”. For years, I’ve managed to avoid succumbing to temptation regarding the Dots, but finally gave in when I realized that Alexa does more than music. But then, so does Siri.

Anyway, after Bill gave me a Dot for my office, I got one for the bedroom… then I realized it might be interesting to be able to control our lights from my phone. I bought three new smart power strips, some smart outlet plugs, and smart light bulbs.

All of these items can be connected via a phone app to the Internet. Then, I can make them do things I never thought I’d be able to get them to do. 😉

Last night after dinner, we tried out the new smart bulbs. I bought four of them, so we put them on the four lamps they fit. Then we connected them to the Internet via the app. Now, I can adjust the color, intensity, and even set them to music. I can program them to turn on and off on a schedule. I didn’t have to plug the lamp into a smart outlet, either. All we had to do was change the light bulb and pair it with the phone and/or tablet.

I remember when we first moved to Germany in 2007, we quickly learned that using US made lamps in Germany is pretty simple. All you have to do is use a plug converter and a German bulb and you’re good to go. That’s not the case with other electronics. I once fried a computer because I forgot to change the voltage switch from North America to Europe. The voltage in North America is 110 volts; here, it’s 220. So, when you don’t change the voltage settings or use a transformer, you can end up blowing up your device.

Our former landlady, who accused us of “dumping” an American fridge in her house, obviously didn’t know that we have different voltages in the USA. That crappy fridge, which was there the day we moved in, was plugging into the wall. If it were an American appliance, we wouldn’t be able to do that. The plug itself is different, so it wouldn’t have fit the outlet. And the voltage is different, so we’d need a transformer, which would not be worth it. High voltage transformers are very expensive and, in my experience, don’t work very well. They tend to trip the circuit breakers.

This is less of a problem with computers. Nowadays, they are built to automatically detect electric current and adjust accordingly. That wasn’t always the case, though, and it’s still not true for a lot of electric devices. That’s why most of our American small appliances are in storage.

We need to do some more study and find out all of the things we can do with our gadgets now. Today, I have a new HomePod Mini coming to me. I’ll use it in my office for now, for when my computer gets overwhelmed and music stalls out. Then, I’ll probably move it when I get a new desktop computer, which will probably be pretty soon. I also ordered a new HomePod, which was recently “souped up”. That will get to us in March, when it’s available in Europe. I will move the old HomePod to our entertainment room and hook it up to the TV, so we can get better sound.

I still wish we had a couch for in there. First world problems…

Anyway, if people are reading this blog looking for information about actually living in Germany, I can reassure you that many of the techie comforts of home are easily found here. Sometimes you have to wait a little longer and pay a little more, but you can still get most of that cool stuff here. A bonus is, some homes have some pretty awesome features you won’t find in a lot of US homes, like heated floors, saunas, and indoor pools. But, most of them don’t have closets, which is a real bummer.

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gadgets, housekeeping tips

Operation Mr. Sandman: Bill tries the “Kokoon NightBuds” sleep device…

Well, it’s another dismal weekend weather and pandemic wise, here in Germany. Since COVID-19 numbers are so high, and it’s cold and drizzly outside, I’m sitting here watching dog grooming videos on YouTube, giving Arran and Noyzi a thrill.

Bill has had trouble sleeping for as long as we’ve known each other, and he is chronically exhausted once the sun goes down. He is not willing to use drugs for sleep purposes, but he’d done everything from getting a sleep study done (resulting in a diagnosis of “poor sleep hygiene”) to putting weird holographic stickers on his temple and forehead. I am constantly picking up ear plugs that he puts in his ears, I guess to drown out my snoring. He says I don’t keep him awake, but I know I snore sometimes. So does he!

The ear plugs always fall out of his ears when he tosses and turns, and wind up being sucked up by my vacuum. He’s also used white noise machines, and every night, we run a fan so he can zone out.

A few days ago, Bill got a package he had been eagerly anticipating. It’s a sleep aid device called Kokoon NightBuds, which he discovered from a Facebook ad. With a 30 percent discount, Bill paid 179 euros for this innovative gadget with ear buds. The Kokoon ear bud/headphone devices come from a manufacturer in London, and were developed with the help of sleep scientists. He did not have to pay any customs fees when it arrived. There’s a handy app that works with Bluetooth technology to help improve sleep quality. Prior to his receiving the ear buds, the company sent Bill a questionnaire to assess his sleep style and give him some tips on getting better sleep. According to the Kokoon folks, Bill is a “morning lark”. I could have told them that without a questionnaire!

The Kokoon NightBuds strap around the back of Bill’s head and play soothing background noise to help him sleep, as it also monitors how long he sleeps and judges his sleep quality. He’s been using the NightBuds for a few days now, and is enjoying checking out the evolving data they collect every day. My husband is a real gadget geek, so the NightBuds are right up his alley. Below are some photos that show how this cool invention works. I have also made a very short YouTube video that shows a little bit more about what’s in the box and how it all works.

The buds plug in his ears.
And wrap around the back.
The infrared sensor monitors…
It can tell when Bill drifts off.
The next morning, he can see how long he slept.
One of several backgrounds and sounds to choose from.
Over the ear headphones are also available.
It has a case.
The packaging is biodegradable.
Some of the pictures look the same, but there are differences.

So far, Bill says the Kokoon NightBuds have helped him sleep better. As a bonafide geek, he also enjoys getting the sleep data every day. The buds come in different sizes, which are included. Bill uses the mediums, which were pre-loaded on the gadget.

Pretty nifty!

I notice that the Kokoon over the ear noise canceling headphones are available on Amazon, and it looks like it gets mixed reviews there. I didn’t consult Amazon before I wrote this post, so I have only reported what Bill has said about using this device.

For the record, Bill is using the NightBuds, which he says are not capable of noise canceling. However, he says they can be used for audiobooks, watching YouTube, or even answering the phone. And if you set your phone with an alarm, you will hear it through the buds. The Kokoon itself doesn’t have an alarm on it.

Personally, I don’t have trouble sleeping, so I haven’t tried them myself. I also don’t like to wear ear buds because I have small ears and I usually find them uncomfortable. But Bill says the NightBuds are comfortable for him, and they do come with a variety of included sizes for best fit.

I’m not being sponsored for this post… I just think this is an interesting gadget and wanted to share Bill’s experience. And since it looks like it might snow today, I don’t have any big plans for an outing. Maybe soon, the sun will come out, and we can go dine outside after we show our vaccination proof…

Sheesh, COVID-19 really sucks. I really hope we can enjoy some normalcy soon. But in the meantime, maybe we can help Bill sleep better. The featured photo is one rare instance in which Bill took a nap with Arran, device free.

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