October 10, 2010
Written October 10-12
Friends and Families ,
This diary was going to just be a note to Marianne saying what all I have been doing since she left for California a few week ago. Like all good intentions, I have struggled with the timing problem -- never enough time. So, now I am up at 5:40, sitting in my hotel room, trying to finish.
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This was the scene
we were walking through on the day we learned that Marianne would
need to get back to California ASAP. Just a reminder of what she
left so she doesn't think it is only California that has nice weather.
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One of the unforeseen consequences of M's quick
escape was that "our" house guests, John and Mary Bowen,
became "my" house guests. They had come to Germany to
see Berlin and to see us, but they had to make do with Berlin and
just me. Great house guests though, and I enjoyed yet one more day
of touring Bamberg, perhaps our favorite Franconian city. It was
a fun few days! |
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weekend ended than I had to get back to working in Offenbach. The
trip up allowed me to drop John and Mary at the airport and wish
them well. |
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My Offenbach office is in "The Omega Building" and AREVA occupies a quarter of the omega-shaped building -- enough that we get our name on it. David is my office mate and, in the German fashion, our desks face each other. This is my normal view. He has been on assignment more than a year and is looking forward to moving back home to his wife and three daughters in another month or two. |
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At the end of the work week, I headed back home to see what needed to be done. The fine weather was still holding, so our back yard looked great. I also managed to harvest our ginger crop. This is a strange plant, kind of a combination of underground plant like potatoes with a tall stalk, like corn. |
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My other home requirements included a session per day (mostly) of my German lesson on the computer. I use the Rosetta Stone series and find it useful, but pretty time consuming. Then it was more yard work (darn moles!) and, that ever-present chore, laundry. Yet one more reason to miss my partner. After all that hard work, I relaxed in my reading chair (next to the liquor cabinet) or sat out on the porch, sipping wine and reading my latest book (paper, not an eBook).: "Nuremberg Interviews". John Bowen had left it with me and it is a compilation of an American psychiatrist's notes from his conversations with witnesses and defendants from the Nuremberg trials. A fascinating collection of the ordinary insights into not-at-all ordinary people. |
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On one of my Sundays, I took advantage of still-wonderful weather and walked a bit in the village. I walked through the palace to the bakery on the other side, of course. Nice bit of color. |
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Later in the day, I "had" to take Marianne's car out for exercise. It is always a treat to take the top down and zoom around our little valley. |
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I ended the drive with a stop at the Kellerhaus Kafe for apple pie and coffee. The view of the Weissenstein Palace is the best in the valley. |
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So, maybe I haven't been exactly suffering while Marianne has been gone, but I looked forward to next weekend when I would join her -- in California!
John