It's literally gray outside. For the first time since our June arrival, I cannot see the mountains just a few hundred yards from my living room window. The steep, pointed, red-tiled roofs of the houses across the street are still visible, and there are some very chilly-looking blackbirds perched on a power line above them, but other than that, all I see is grayness....actually pretty appropriate surroundings for how things have been feeling lately.
However, in the Blessings Counting Department, there's a very tall mug of hot chocolate beside me, I'm wrapped in a warm sweater, and besides running up and down to do laundry in the basement, I don't have to go anywhere today! Add to that we got our weekly dose of 1-day-late American tv last night and were able to watch NCIS and NCIS LA; I've gotten to talk to my parents every day this week; and the laptop is keeping my legs warm because when in the world are they going to turn on the heat in this building?? Wait, I'm counting blessings. Sorry. They fixed the dryers after our entire building had to go without them for a week and a half; Facebook is a lifeline; I made a really good beef stew in my awesome LeCreuset dutch oven; Sir is the neatest roommate anyone could ever ask for - really, he cleans the bathroom sink every day. He never leaves his shoes around all over the floor like I do.
It appears I've taken a week's vacation from blogging. It wasn't intentional - the days kept going quickly by. Sir had a 4-day weekend, and we had all big plans to go to Switzerland or France to sightsee, but they evaporated in the busy-ness of running errands. I do miss having a car - I know Sir does not get the thrill I do from grocery shopping; but the roads around here intimidate me too much to venture out. The autobahn isn't nearly as scary as the local roads - they are impossibly narrow, people park on both sides and then one pretty much has to play chicken to get around the parked cars, there are trolley tracks all over the roads and the trolleys come fast and often, there are pedestrians and bicyclists whizzing everywhere one tries to drive. There are approximately a million and six different traffic laws and signs, all different from the US. So, we spent the long weekend trying still unsuccessfully to get Deutschland Telekom to actually hook up the internet service we have been paying for since July, ordering ridiculously overpriced snow tires for the car, and generally missing how easy it is to do things in America!
There WAS some fun, which I shall parcel out to you over the next few days. (Because heaven forbid I use up all my fun in one post. And this gives me yet another chance to try and figure out what I'm doing wrong uploading the photos.) An afternoon trip to Ladenberg, the huge Holiday Bazaar here on the army post, and a truly international dinner - stay tuned!~
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