Celebrating my veteran in Germany…

Featured photo was taken last night, after I lit the holiday season’s first fire.

Happy Veterans Day, y’all. Bill is home today, and we slept in, which was easy to do. We are experiencing good sleeping weather. It’s cool, damp, and foggy today.

Today, I did something I’ve never done before. I “bled” the heaters. Our house is heated by oil that comes from tanks that have to be filled every year. Our previous house was also heated that way. The first house we lived in here in Germany was heated by gas. Our landlord has said he wants to install a heat pump in this house, but that will entail a lot of messy construction. So, for that reason, he seems to be holding off on that plan.

I noticed my office was chilly, so I asked Bill to bleed the heater for me. He brought up the key, and opened the valve. I decided to try it on a few of the other radiators in the house. It’s kind of interesting to hear the hiss of steam as the air is let out of the radiators.

*This is kind of what they look like… The one I broke looks a little different. Fortunately, they’re cheap.*

Unfortunately, the key broke, so I just ordered a new one, along with a rubber O ring for the drain in our downstairs bathroom. The one it currently has dry-rotted some time ago, and is no longer effective. Hopefully, the little odds and ends I ordered will work and make the house function better.

We’re still waiting on the art we brought in to be framed. Maybe we’ll get an update on the status of that sometime before the weekend.

Bill has gone to pick up some food and other non-edible stuff we need. When he gets back, I expect we’ll enjoy a quiet afternoon and a peaceful dinner. Then, tomorrow, he’ll go back to work. Monday, he’s off to Istanbul for the work week. He found out yesterday that next month, he’s got to go to Slovenia. 🤨

I actually wouldn’t mind going with him to Slovenia. It’s a very beautiful country. But, he’s going to be very busy working, so it’s probably just as well that I stay home and do my usual Christmas shopping and such.

It’s crazy how fast 2026 has flown by… it seems like the time has passed even faster than usual!

*A wedding day pic of me and my veteran… and our wedding anniversary happens to be in five days! Of course, Bill will be traveling that day.*

Anyway… if there’s a veteran in your house, or you are one, yourself, I wish you a very happy and healthy Veterans Day. I am truly blessed to have mine in my life.

Uncategorized

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…

Uncategorized

November snow…

Yet again, we stayed cooped up yesterday because the weather was kind of yucky. But we were rewarded this morning with some pretty snow. I have taken a few photos for your perusal.

Just as the snow was starting yesterday at about 2:00pm.

The sky was pretty angry. One thing I like about where we live is that it’s easy to watch the weather.

An hour or so later, the sun came out… It looks like it’s literally chasing the clouds away in this photo.

Another view. Looks like a totally different day.

One more shot of the crazy sun/clouds…

By about 11:00pm, we had a good covering of the white stuff. This morning, we had about two or three inches. Although we got rare snow during our Thanksgiving visit to Virginia last year, where I come from, snow in November is almost unheard of.