Tuesday, 3/31

Two things this time around, the first being that today may be the day we find out if our trip is canceled.

As you may recall, despite everything going on Loraine and I are still scheduled to go to Germany four weeks from today. Sure; we know that it's not going to happen, but there hasn't been anything announced yet that would officially cancel it. The flight's still going, as of today Europe's still accepting visitors on the 30^th, and as of today the soccer match scheduled for May 4^th hasn't been postponed.

So technically—technically--our trip's still a go.

However, today's the day the DFB—the German Football Federation—meets to decide what the next month holds for the Bundesliga. Believe it or not, the league has games scheduled for this weekend, even though everyone knows they won't be played. So during the meeting today they're set to decide on not only those days but the matches for (at least) the rest of April. A board has recommended that they all be postponed, and that any subsequent games, if they're played at all, be played in front of empty stadiums.

So if they make that decision, that would give us an indication if our trip in four weeks would be officially canceled or not.

One thing the DFB may also decide today is pushing back the season, to play games in June and July, when the teams usually have their off-season. If they were to do that, that could present us with another option—heading over there in the middle of summer to see a match. That would give us a different set of things for us to consider, the least of which would be the fact that we're still scheduled to go to France at the beginning of September. But it would provide us with another option to consider.

We'll just have to see how the meeting turns out today.

The other thing to mention? I kinda like how the “Hearts of Hope” project going around Marquette these days inspired the people who run the dance studio above the station--

Businesses and homes all around the city look like that these days. Even in the middle of all the crap going on, it's nice to see that there's still hope out there!

(jim@wmqt.com)