Hi everybody. This is going to be a very quick update, because I don’t have much of anything to report this week. Bill has gone to Spain. He left this past Thursday, and will be spending Memorial Day working… and then he will come back Saturday.

I’m rather irritated, because his work also ruined Labor Day weekend last year. This is something he says his co-worker does, possibly for his own benefit. The guy, who is from the US, plans conferences, often around US holidays. He likes to do frequent TDYs. It’s annoying.

On the other hand, at least Bill has a job… It pays pretty well. I also know he’ll make it up to me eventually. And at least with this guy he’s now working with, they’re going to interesting places rather than the same post in Germany, over and over again.

Anyway, the upshot is, I’m stuck here at home alone. The temperature has finally become seasonal, so I dragged out the air conditioner yesterday. I’m so glad we bought it last summer, even though our old AC crapped out at the end of the summer of ’25, as it was cooling off.

It was hot yesterday, and the neighbors were playing loud music that would have made me choose between their noise, but some air flow in the room, or being hot, but not hearing as much noise. Never mind the bass thudding until late into the evening.

I know I sound a bit crabby. The fact is, I am a bit crabby… and for a lot of reasons, actually. I kind of don’t feel all that well… That’s a big part of the reason for my crabbiness. There are other reasons, of course, but I’m not going to go into them in this post.

I did manage to go to the grocery store yesterday. I dropped off a crate of plastic bottles, but was not aware that the REWE in our neighborhood no longer lets people use the Pfand for money off of their food. I had a receipt worth 4,25 euros, and was unaware that they changed their policy. I could only use the pfand receipt for money off of drinks. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I was a bit annoyed about it.

I don’t know what the reason behind this policy is, but it’s irritating. Bill told me about it last night, after his day of work, when I told him what happened. The new policy must have been implemented within the past few months.

While I was at the store, I took today’s photo, which is of the gay pride flag at REWE. I don’t have a problem with it, myself, but I did catch myself thinking about how such a flag would go over in my homeland. What’s going on over there is another reason for my crabbiness.

At least the sun is out. Maybe I’ll go outside and enjoy it. I usually don’t drink when Bill is out of town, but this week, I think I’m just gonna say “fuck it.” I might as well enjoy myself. (Edited to add: I cooked some pasta, instead, and skipped the beer.)

Sometimes, this life sucks a bit… but at least we have nice dogs to keep me company. And at least I’m in Europe.