Tag Archives: little America

Multiple overlapping blurred Snellen eye charts with various letters decreasing in size
Military, Rheinland-Pfalz, United States

I really needed a drink after yesterday’s eye exam ordeal…

Bear with me, folks. It’s a surprisingly long story… The featured photo is AI, but it kind of looks like the eye test from yesterday, only it’s not as blurry.

Bill and I were greeted with beautiful sunny skies yesterday morning. The temperature was perfectly comfortable. It would have been a great day to drive my Mini Cooper convertible, which really could use the “exercise”. We decided to drive the Volvo, instead, and made our way to Ramstein Air Force Base, so I could take care of my vision test for my driver’s license renewal.

Ramstein is about a 90 minute drive from where we live. It’s not far from the French border– maybe 45 minutes or so. The area around the base is really beautiful, although it’s pretty much a mini America. Ramstein has many facilities and is a convenient perq for those of us with military privileges, living in Germany. Although part of the usual route we take is currently closed for renovation, we made it to the base with plenty of time before the optometry clinic would be closing (3:30 ish).

I didn’t think the test would be a huge deal. We already had the passable results of the eye test I had struggled to take in Wiesbaden last month. However, the optical shop in Wiesbaden couldn’t do the apparently newly required peripheral vision test, so I had to get a new exam done at Ramstein. At least the test in Wiesbaden was free of charge.

The Texas driver’s license officials had indicated that they only needed proof that my peripheral vision was passable, since my vision test results from Wiesbaden were passing. I thought our visit would be brief and uncomplicated. We definitely hadn’t planned on spending so much time with the optometry technician in Ramstein, a tiny white woman who appeared to be about Bill’s age. She immediately made an impression as we approached.

The lights in the optometry clinic were turned off, and she was sitting behind the desk, barely noticeable from outside. At first, I was afraid the office was closed. But then we saw her, and the hours posted on the door. The lady behind the desk– I’ll call her “Mary” (likely not her real name)– was very friendly, but as soon as we started trying to explain what we needed, she broke in and told us that the clinic was going to be shut down in July. Then she started ranting about the driver’s license exams, and how they would not be able to do them, because the two optometrists at the clinic are leaving and there are not any plans to replace them.

I started to worry that she was going to tell us she wouldn’t be able to help us, but then she said the magic words.

“I’m going to take care of you today. We’ll get you squared away.”

She addressed me directly, which I appreciated. After a few moments listening to Mary, I definitely got the sense that I was one of the lucky ones coming in under the wire for services at Ramstein. Unless, of course, something happens, and they get new optometrists to work in lovely Germany, so that people like us can be taken care of by Americans with American credentials, and still be able to renew our driver’s licenses, so we’ll be legal to drive.

I listened to Mary talk about how the requirements for the exams could not be met once the doctors left, because the driver’s license offices in the United States required stamps from licensed US based optometrists. I was thinking about all of the times I’ve renewed my driver’s licenses in person. Never on any of those occasions have I had to submit paperwork from a licensed eye doctor. I just did a very basic test involving looking into a machine with both eyes, conducted by the government flunky handling my request.

I guess things have changed. To hear Mary explain it, officials in the States are getting a lot stricter about eye tests for driver’s licenses. I gather it’s because officials don’t want anyone getting a driver’s license who isn’t “legal”. 🙄 But maybe it really is about public safety. Who knows?

I explained to Mary that I’d already (barely) passed the eye test in Wiesbaden, and the Texas officials had only requested a peripheral vision test. Mary told us she had to charge us $34, whether we did the whole thing or just a part. She seemed to think I needed a new test, and scoffed at what they’d done in Wiesbaden. She even said we should get our money back, and laughed when we said the test had been done for free. I didn’t really care about the $34, I just wanted to get this over with… but Mary seemed intent on doing her job, so I did the whole thing over again.

Thank GOD I brought my glasses with me, because if I hadn’t, I would not have passed. I certainly CAN see well enough to drive, but I am in need of a new prescription. I have astigmatism that isn’t currently corrected by my multifocal lenses. I can see better if I wear toric lenses, but I can’t read with the toric lenses. I can read with multifocal lenses, but my vision isn’t as sharp. My prescription is way off anyway, because it’s been years since I last went to the eye doctor. In Germany, you can just buy your lenses without a prescription. I’m pretty sure I need bifocals.

Mary was very nice, but she was really stressing me out during the exam. She exuded the slight shaming and judging one gets from medical professionals when patients don’t do things exactly as they should or haven’t been “living properly”.

I didn’t use the eye cover exactly right, and she corrected me for that. She was a little disapproving because I had dusty glasses, as I only wear them to watch TV at night, and then only for a few minutes. She chastised me when she did the peripheral test for turning my head as she talked to me. I hate it when medical people act that way. I have authority issues as it is, but it’s especially annoying when you have to pay for that treatment.

Another example of that kind of behavior…

My husband, Bill, has had to take blood pressure meds for almost as long as I’ve known him. He gets nervous when he goes to the doctor, so his blood pressure goes up. One time, he went to see the doctor, and the nurse who took his blood pressure gave him a disapproving look, implying that he wasn’t taking his medication. Bill is an excellent patient. He takes his medications religiously. But the nurse wasn’t convinced, because his pressure was high during that visit. Her castigating was making things worse. She was stressing him out with her disapproval, making his blood pressure rise even higher.

Bill later got diagnosed with white coat hypertension. I, too, was diagnosed with that, back in 2007. But now, I’m pretty sure I have high blood pressure and need to be on meds… and that will require a doctor’s visit, which really freaks me out.

Moving on…

I really wanted to pass the test, even though I almost never drive, because I just wanted to get this pesky chore done. I don’t want my driver’s license to expire, in case there’s an emergency. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t pass, but it would be a huge pain in my ass. Mary said that US officials won’t take German doctors’ signatures on the forms (which seems rather preposterous to me, especially if the optometrists are going away). I can’t stand dealing with medical people, and find addressing healthcare issues a huge hassle. I didn’t want to have to come back, or find somewhere else to go.

Mary warned that if I let my license expire, I would end up having to take the driver’s tests again. This was precisely why I have been bugging Bill for a year about completing this particular bureaucratic chore. I knew I’d probably have to furnish a lot of documents and official signatures, thanks to Trump’s micromanaging style of “leading”. I still have six weeks or so until my license expires. Mary was making it all seem so catastrophic and difficult, and this was the last hurdle I needed to clear before I’d be done with this process.

The last thing I want to do is retake the driver’s tests in the US, or have to take them in Germany (although I believe Texas has an agreement that would allow me to just trade in my license). I wasn’t going to argue with Mary, though, because she seemed to think she was 100 percent right about all of the current policies in the USA and Germany. Perhaps she is… but I got the sense she was making much more of a big deal of this than was actually required. All I wanted to do is pass the fucking eye test so I can stay legal to drive, in case I need to in an emergency.

As time passed during my exam, Mary could see I was getting progressively more upset, so as she was chastising and disapproving, she was also reassuring me. She kept saying, “You’re going to pass! Don’t worry!” she chirped, as she made me read off numbers to prove I’m not color blind. (good LORD!). When it came time to do the peripheral vision test, she had me do it without my lenses in. I could see her hands and fuzzy outlines of her fingers as she moved behind me. Thankfully, I did pass that part of the test with no issues. That was what I had come in to do.

So finally, at the end of the exam, as many medical professionals have before her, Mary “passed” me, with a stern warning that I need a new prescription (no shit). She warned that if we tried to call them tomorrow, it would be total bedlam. There are very few appointments left until July, when the office will be closed. I got the sense that maybe a main part of the reason Mary was so angsty is because people were going to be losing their jobs. Bill paid her the $34, and she set me up with an hour long appointment for June 13th, a week before my birthday, and before my license will be officially expired.

At some point, Mary told us that she’s a nurse. AHA! That explains her authoritative, but friendly, demeanor. She also said she’d worked in ICUs. I got the sense that maybe she missed the action of the ICU, given the relative drama of this appointment. Good thing no one else was waiting!

As Mary was signing me up to see the doctor– a man she says is a “talker”– she warned us to show up on time or face a $40 no show fee. And she reiterated that I needed a very thorough exam, which will involve dilating my eyes. I’m sure that will come with a lecture about my blood pressure, which probably does need correcting…

The question is, though… am I strong enough to deal with either authoritative military doctors at Landstuhl, or another German doctor who treats me like dog shit scraped off of their shoes? Time will tell. But I do look forward to getting a new prescription, at least. I do need one.

After my time with Mary, Bill and I decided to have lunch. Ramstein has a huge food court, and a Macaroni Grill. There’s also a Five Guys in the place where a Burger King once stood (and later burned to the ground). We decided to go to the German restaurant, which was set up to look like an indoor Biergarten. They had brews on tap, and I really felt like I needed one. As for lunch, I had a Munich Burger, while Bill had Schnitzel. Neither came with sides, which was a good thing, as the items were huge and messy. I could barely finish the dripping burger, but it did taste pretty good.

It’s not that convincing as a Biergarten, but they did give it a good try at authenticity.
Come to mama…
The burger was good, but it was hard to finish. It also gave me pretty serious indigestion later.

After lunch, we stopped in an Italian gourmet shop in the mall. The lady running it was an absolutely adorable and friendly Italian, who was very helpful and spoke with a delightfully thick accent! She was impressed as she watched us loading up on products, and asked us if we were PCSing back to the States. I wanted to get some olive oil and balsamic vinegar for Bill’s younger daughter, who has never had any of the “good” stuff from Italy. I threw in a bag of pasta, too. We also got some stuff for home, including Orangello.

About 160 euros worth of stuff!

Then I heard music coming from the food court. It looked like a band consisting mostly of high schoolers were playing jazz. They were quite good. The young lady who was singing was very impressive. She had a lovely voice! If I hadn’t been so stressed out by the eye test, I might have stayed to listen for a bit longer, but we needed to get back to the dogs. I wanted to slip into something more comfortable and take a nice deep breath as I recovered from re-entering the “little America” of Ramstein Air Force Base.

Hopefully, the people in Texas will accept this last bit of proof of my worthiness for a Texas driver’s license. Mary said we were lucky. She had to fly back to Mississippi for hers. I guess Mississippi doesn’t make exceptions for people who live on different continents, but vote in Mississippi. I thought I’d have to go back to Texas, too… which, frankly, I would barely prefer over going to Mississippi. No offense to my Mississippi based friends. 🥰

I do appreciate Mary’s help. All in all, she was very kind to me, and I do need to get this taken care of. But it really was a lot more stressful and involved than I was expecting. I pray yesterday’s visit will be the end of the saga, at least in terms of getting my license renewed.

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Military, Rheinland-Pfalz

A visit to little America– Ramstein Air Force Base…

Bill and I have now lived in our house for almost seven weeks.  We’re mostly settled, although until today, there were still a few things that needed to find homes.  Bill had some text books from his latest master’s degree program that had nowhere to go, and the small collection of actual books I have in Germany had taken up all of the space on the one bookshelf I had allotted to our shared office.

I always buy cookbooks at Christmas, but only a few of them get much action in the kitchen.  The matching bookshelf to the one in our office was, until today, located in our dining room.  It was holding all of the cookbooks we never use.  This past year, because I bought a couple of extra books, there were a few cookbooks that needed a home.  Also, we had some kitchen gadgets that needed storage.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been looking for a nice bookshelf for the downstairs.  What I found on the local Amazon site wasn’t thrilling me, and I found nothing at all at the Wiesbaden AAFES.  German mod style doesn’t excite me, either.

Then I realized that Bill’s desk chair would probably scratch the brand new flooring in our office if I didn’t find him a rug.  Our Wiesbaden AAFES does not have a Turkish rug guy like Stuttgart has (and I’m actually pretty happy with the rugs we bought in Stuttgart in November– they’re much nicer than the ones I bought a few years ago).  I thought maybe Ramstein would have a permanent rug guy at their PX, the way Heidelberg used to and Stuttgart still does.

Finally, I realized that my skin is no longer taking makeup like it used to.  I have dry skin and when I apply makeup, it collects in my pores and makes me look even freakier than ever.  I need to start using primer under foundation so it doesn’t get all cakey and gross looking.  That meant a trip to the Lancome counter was in order.

Chili’s was also on the agenda…

With all of these items on my list, plus the prospect of getting some Southwestern Egg Rolls at Chili’s, I told Bill maybe we should go to Ramstein to see what was at the huge PX/BX there.  We now live about 80 minutes from Ramstein, quite a bit closer than we did when we were in Stuttgart.  Bill hates going there, but conceded that maybe it would be a good idea to see what the largest AAFES in Europe has to offer.

Ramstein’s Exchange is absolutely humongous.  It was opened on September 23, 2009, which was just one week after we left Germany the first time we lived here.  At the time it was opened, it was the largest AAFES in the world.  I would not be surprised if it still is.  It’s enormous, especially compared to every other AAFES I’ve ever seen.

By the way, we never did visit Ramstein during our first Stuttgart tour.  Our first time visiting Ramstein was in 2012, when we took our very first Space A hop from Baltimore.  We flew in and out of Ramstein on that trip, as well as the Space A trip we took in 2014 to Germany and France.  I remember sitting at the bar in the now defunct Chili’s Too at the AAFES mall, talking to a soldier who had basically been forced to move from England to Germany due to mental health issues.  It was an interesting and disturbing conversation.  I wonder how that guy is doing and hope he’s okay.

During our 2014 visit, I recall being sad to be leaving Germany to go back to Texas, where Bill would then retire.  I was worried about what would come next.  We didn’t know at the time that we’d be moving back to Germany just weeks after that trip; we’d taken our vacation thinking it might be our last chance to enjoy Europe before Bill left the Army.  Little did we know…

I remember visiting the PX during one or both of those Space A trips, but we didn’t buy anything there, since we were not stationed in Europe at the time.  Back then, I noticed that half of the shops were vacant.

The next time we visited Ramstein was in June 2017, on our way to Belgium.  We stopped by to gas up the car and had horrible burgers from Johnny Rocket’s.  I didn’t go inside the mall because we had our dogs with us.

The vast food court at Ramstein.  It’s probably got twice as many vendors as other AAFES food courts have.  They had Chinese food and even Anthony’s Pizza, which used to have a location at Patch Barracks when we lived in Germany the first time.  Anthony’s is long gone from Stuttgart, but Ramstein still has one, along with a Pizza Hut Express.  There’s also a Ramstein “Hofbrau” restaurant that looked somewhat lame, but probably has good food.

I had to take a picture of the tiny sewing/knitting area.  When I was growing up, AAFES had a decent sized sewing section, but not so much anymore.  I don’t sew or do needle crafts, but my mom owned her own business selling knitting and needlepoint supplies.  She taught many people how to knit.  I was not among them.

Spotted at the Birkenstock Outlet…  I think they’re pretty tacky, but I’m sure someone else loves them.  My dad, rest his soul, would probably wear these.  I noticed all of the store space was taken at Ramstein.  I don’t think I saw a single vacant space yesterday.  

Bill makes it a point to avoid Ramstein when he can help it.  He says it’s too much like being back in the States.  After today’s visit, I’m inclined to agree.  It’s a shock to go to that base and see just how much American stuff is there.  It really does feel like “home”.  As crowded as our local AAFES can get on the weekends, the one at Ramstein kind of puts it to shame.  It’s just huge– it looks like a legitimate American style mall.  And besides the Exchange, there’s also a Birkenstock Outlet, a spa, a Swarovski store, and several fast food joints in the food court I’ve not seen in other places.

So… today, we went to AAFES at Ramstein, braving the nasty January rainy weather.  I found the primer for my face.  Then, we located a bookshelf for the cookbooks.  I looked at the rugs offered by the Turkish rug guy, who appeared to have a temporary station under the escalators, but he didn’t have what I needed.  The rugs were either the wrong color or size, or they were way too expensive.  I found one really nice looking rug that would have worked for the area next to our bed that needs protection from our dogs’ toenails (they take flying leaps onto the bed, and that can cause scratches).  It was priced at 1149 euros, which is way more than I wanted to spend on a rug that shares living space with dogs.

Bill’s area sporting AAFES’ finest…  I probably wouldn’t have bought it under normal circumstances, but it works for now.

I did, however, find a rather psychedelic looking tie-dyed looking rug that would do the trick for Bill’s office chair.  It was tucked away among a pile of cheap rugs at the Exchange and came a bit closer to matching the colors in the much nicer Oriental rug on my side of the office.  Next time we visit Stuttgart, we’ll hit up the rug guy on Panzer.  Hopefully, he’ll still be there.

After we shopped– and Bill traded gossip with a former co-worker he ran into who now works at Ramstein– we went to Chili’s.  The Chili’s Too we visited at the PX in 2014 is now a Macaroni Grill.  It’s just as well that the Chili’s Too was closed, since I don’t remember liking it much when we visited in 2014.  The bartender had pissed me off for some reason.  Fortunately, my memory fails me now.  Also, I recall that location only had a limited menu.

The Chili’s we went to today offers the whole menu.  To get to Chili’s, we had to drive to the Enlisted Club on Lawn Road.  It’s right next to the bowling alley.  When we arrived at the restaurant, which is in a building that also hosts a P.F. Chang’s, we were confronted by a crowd of people waiting to be seated.

I noticed a rather strange, sour aroma in the air that made me wonder if we should abandon our plans to get Southwestern Eggrolls and go somewhere else.  But the hostess said the wait was only ten minutes, so we stuck it out.

Bill checks out the well-used menu.  I found a piece of a straw wrapper in mine. 

The noise level in the Chili’s was really high.  I felt a little like I was having lunch in an elementary school cafeteria.  Babies were shrieking; toddlers were crying; kids were yelling; and adults were talking very loudly.  I had forgotten how loud Americans can be in groups.  I don’t say this to be disparaging.  It’s just that I’ve noticed that since we’ve lived in Germany, Bill and I find ourselves speaking in lower voices when we’re in public.  I think it’s partly because we don’t want to be too obviously American.  I guess I paid close attention to all of those AFN OPSEC PSAs I used to see when I was in the Peace Corps in Armenia.

Anyway, it was extremely loud in there and very busy.  I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be a quiet lunch, but there was definitely a lot more noise than I’m used to or had anticipated.  But then, we were there in the afternoon, which is probably prime nap time for a lot of young kids.  Some of them really sounded like it was time to nap.

I took this message to heart…

 

Although the ear splitting din in the restaurant sorely tempted me to get a Margarita, I decided to have a beer.  Good thing I did, too, because our food got to us before our beers did.  And when they arrived, they had, as my Irish friend Chris would say, “shitty wee heads” on them.  Quite disappointing.

We decided to split the “Ultimate Dipper”, which is a platter of fried stuff… but it includes Southwestern Eggrolls, which is really all I wanted, anyway.  Besides the eggrolls, you get Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers, Crispy Cheddar Bites, Signature Wings, and (Regular) Chicken Crispers.  You also get six “dips”– basically different salad dressings like honey mustard, blue cheese, avocado ranch, and ancho chili ranch.  Oh, and there are also a few celery stalks for all you health nuts out there.  The two kinds of Chicken Crispers, by the way, weren’t really like each other.  One was like beer battered chicken and the other was like crispy chicken drenched in sweet, spicy maple syrup.  It wasn’t unlike General Tsao’s Chicken.

I’m glad we shared this.  We didn’t finish it.  Chili’s also offers fajitas, burgers, ribs, soups, and Tex Mex stuff, as well as steaks, salads, and at least one pasta dish.  I mainly go there for eggrolls.

I think the waitress was surprised to see we didn’t need any refills on the “dips”.  Neither of us likes to use a lot of condiments.  A little dab’ll do ya.

Our waitress was very friendly.  I have no complaints at all about her service, especially since the place was a bit of a zoo.  For some reason, it took awhile to get our beers, so she brought us water in the meantime, which I appreciated.  It was even still tap water, like you get in the States (although I like mine fizzy).  However, I was kind of disappointed in the appetizer.  The Cheddar Bites tasted like they’d been sitting awhile, and didn’t taste that good.  Actually, the whole thing looked a little wilted and tired, like it wasn’t quite as fresh as it should have been.  It reminded me of something I might extract from a box that came from the frozen food aisle at the commissary.

Also, I was a bit grossed out by the ladies room.  At least one of the bathroom stalls had a broken lock, and another had the remnants of someone’s dump on the toilet seat.  It didn’t exactly make me feel better after eating all that fried stuff.

Still, I did get my Southwestern Eggroll fix, which was really all I wanted.  It was also a pretty cheap lunch.  I think we paid about $26 and still had leftovers.  And after that trip to Ramstein, I feel pretty certain I won’t need to visit again for awhile.  In fact, it was kind of like a vaccine against visiting the States.  It’s been four years since I last set foot in America.  I don’t know when I’ll be going back, but I think I’m definitely content to stay in Germany for now.

I’m sort of kidding.  There are certainly good restaurants in the States, and I do still have many friends and loved ones there.  But every once in awhile, it’s good to be reminded why one should savor their time abroad.  I remember missing Germany something terrible when we moved in 2009.  I pined for it for five years, even though some good things happened during those five years away.  I know not everyone feels this way.  Some people cannot wait to move back to the States.  Me?  I think I love Europe.  It really suits me.  And while Chili’s is okay for the occasional Southwestern Eggroll, I think I’ll stick to European restaurants for now…  There will surely come a day when I’ll be missing them again, too.

And now, perhaps it’s time for a Margarita in my nice, quiet, dining room.

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