While Jim's in Germany

 To follow along with Jim & Loraine as they (hopefully) make it to Germany & back, just click here.  Or if that doesn't work, head to www.jimkoski.org.

Friday, 9/23

It looks like all systems are go.

With three days left before we (hopefully) hop on a plane and blow this Popsicle stand, it looks as if everything I need to get done is either done or will be finished today. It's something upon which I always cast a wary eye; after all, I've been working ahead on certain things for almost three months now, and it would not be cool if something (a dead computer, a mental breakdown, and/or the like) got in the way of all that work.

But thankfully, it appears as if fate has once again cast a loving aura upon everything. So thanks, fate!

Here's what's going on. There won't be a blog here Monday or (probably) Tuesday, and starting Wednesday afternoon (your time) I'll start posting on our trip blog. You can just keep coming back here to get to it; I'll make sure I leave a link right above this blog so all you need to do is click one extra time. Hopefully, it won't be too much. And if it is, you have my sincere apologies.

Really, you do!

As always, I plan on posting every day we're there, and based on past experience, I should have no problem. However, you never know if a new hotel we're staying at will have bad wi-fi, or if I'll have some kind of technical problem with the equipment I bring along, or if—like I've joking all along—we get stuck in the middle of somewhere because a flight's been canceled or the world's falling apart. It hasn't happened yet, and I hope it will this time, but it IS now the 33^rd month of 2020 and I wanna put that out there just in case. I'm also hoping on sending back radio reports each weekday, so you can listen for those, as well.

Well, I think that's it. The next time we speak I'll be a quarter of the world away spending a night in a city that perhaps has more history than any other of the past century. And that's just one stop on this whirlwind of a getaway.

See you then. And keep your fingers crossed. We're counting on every bit of luck possible!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 9/22

Four days left to go, and everything seems to be set, including the hotels at which we'll be staying in both Berlin and Leipzig.

Whenever we're in Germany we usually stay at a Motel One. It's a European chain that's kind of like a budget hotel but not really. The hotels don't have things like phones in the rooms, and the rooms themselves aren't suite sized, but the locations are great, the staff amazing, the bars and breakfast rooms funky, and the look of the hotels are stellar, if only because just about everywhere you look you see this color blue--

It's a trademark of the chain. The staff wears that color; the sugar packets you see at breakfast are that color; and if you go more than 3 meters without seeing that blue, you know you've left the hotel (or, at the very least, this plane of reality). They take pride in the way their hotels look—in fact, their slogan is “Like The Price, Love the Design”--and that blue is the centerpiece of it.

It would be like McDonald's without the red, or the Detroit Lions without losing. I mean the Detroit Lions without silver and blue. That's how central it is to the chain.

The other reason we like Motel One so much? Loraine's fish.

It's actually not Loraine's personal fish, so much as a fish she likes to see. You see, each Motel One room has a loop of a fish aquarium on their TV system that you can play in the background. It's actually quite relaxing, and we've gotten into the habit of just leaving it on when we're doing other stuff. Loraine's favorite fish is the blue & yellow one in the bottom center (the one that looks like Dory from “Finding Nemo”) We've gotten pretty good at knowing when in the loop her fish will show up, so we'll make sure we say “hey” to it when we first get in.

Now, not all Motel Ones play the same fish loop, sad to say. But we're spending five nights at the Motel One Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, where we first saw Loraine's fish (and where I took the above picture), so with any luck we'll see it there again. And since we haven't been to the Motel One Haupbahnhoff in Berlin yet, our stop the night before we (hopefully) come back home we'll just have to see if we can say “hey” to her fish there, as well.

Yes, apparently we're easily amused.

So if you ever find yourself in a city with a Motel One I highly recommend trying it out. Like I said, the rooms aren't huge, but they have fish. And a blue that will soon sear itself into your brain.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 9/24

Is it weird that I've only been on a train outside of the United States? Or is that one of those things that makes me uniquely American?

I can't quite decide.

In (hopefully) a few days I'll be riding on only the second passenger train of my life, first heading from Berlin to Leipzig and then a few days later the trip the other way.. And while passenger train ridership is nothing out of the ordinary for Europeans—in fact, it's part of their everyday life—for Americans train ridership is something very unique, something so extraordinary that people look at you the same way they'd look as if you told them you came from another planet.

You know, the kind of looks I get a lot.

Of course, part of that has to do with the way we live vs. the way Germans (in this case) live. They have a well-funded train system that runs on time, and gets them where they need to go almost as quickly (and in some cases quicker) than an airline would. We have a woefully underfunded train system that only goes certain places at certain times, and even then only has something like a 40% shot of getting there when it's supposed to. Just because of that I can see why Germans ride trains and why Americans avoid them like black flies at a summer beach.

But it wasn't always that way.

Study enough history and you know that for a big chunk of America's lifetime trains were the only way to get from here to there. In fact, up until the 1960s passenger trains even pulled into and out of Marquette several times a day. But with the advent of both the interstate highway system and commonplace air travel train ridership plummeted, and in the case of a place like here, totally disappeared. Traveling by train is now about as common as sending a telegram to someone...assuming, of course, you can still send telegrams.

That might be a blog for another day.

Germans embrace mass transit as a way to cut down on air pollution, while Americans don't seem to give a rip about that. But cities in Germany are a lot closer together than they are in the US (the distance between Berlin & Leipzig, for example, is about the same as the distance between Marquette & Green Bay), and unless you have the high speed trains available in the rest of the world train travel between any major US cities just takes too long. I can see why flying or driving makes more sense.

It's just too bad we've given up on things like trains.

Anyway, it should be a fun time, and like last time a very unique experience. I'm looking forward to hopping aboard Deutsche Bahn again. Assuming, of course, we actually make it to Germany as scheduled next week.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 9/20

Wow. I was actually funny once?

With six days left to go before we (hopefully) leave for Germany, I've been spending a lot of time putting together the things that need to air while I'm gone. And because the program director in me refuses to allow my afternoon personality to be off the air for a week and three days, we usually air “best of”s that I've recorded and saved throughout the years. The previous trips they've been phone calls with listeners; after all, that's mostly what we do around here. But this year, I've dig really deep to see what I could find.

And I found some comedy bits.

The bits are what are know in the biz as “blackout bits”; just little 20 or 30 second items to run going into or out of a commercial break. And what with humor being a VERY subjective thing, I'm sure that there are many people out there who would take exception with my referring to them as “comedy” bits. But I've found nine or ten “comedy” bits that I put together somewhere between 10 and 15 years ago, back when I was doing “comedy” bits, and you know what?

I, at least, don't think they're half bad!

I was in my phase of doing “comedy” bits while I was also in my phase of listening to a lot of old-time radio. A lot of the radio I was listening to at the time were the master comedians, people like Jack Benny and Fred Allen and Jim Jordan in his character of Fibber McGee. The one thing all of these master comedians had was impeccable timing. They knew how to tell a joke, and they REALLY knew how to sell a joke. And while I've always thought my sense of comedic timing was a little better than the average person, it was nowhere near that of Benny or Allen or Jordan. So while I was listening to all of these classic comedians, I was also trying to see if I could preach what they were practicing.

Hence, the “comedy” bits.

Most (but not all) of them revolved around the fictional “Yooper TV Network”, and some of the, well, Yooper-centric shows the network might air. The shows might be Yooper reality shows, or Yooper dramas, but it was a way to make fun of what was going on in pop culture at the time while still making it relatable to people who live up here.

At least, that's what I tried.

As with everything in life, I kind of got away from doing the “comedy” bits as the years went by. I don't know if they were too much work or if I just had a limited amount of ideas and used them up, but from what I can tell the last one was put together in 2007. So it was interesting to dig them out and listen to them again, a reflection of where my mind was over a decade ago. For some, I remembered them like they were yesterday. For others, I'd totally forgotten about them. And one of them, in particular, actually made me laugh when I listened to it again.

Wanna hear it?

As I've written in here many times before, humor is a very subjective thing. All I know is that it made me laugh when I listened to it. Your results may vary.

So for the week-plus that I'm gone you may be hearing things like that on the air. And even if you don't make you laugh, think of it this way—it'll at least be a window into my brain, at least they way it was a decade ago.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 9/19

Okay...my eyes can stop watering any day now.

When I was young I used to suffer from rather severe hay fever twice a year (spring & fall). But one of the few good things about getting older, I've discovered, is that allergy problems, at least for me, have fallen way off. I no longer have any sort of problems each Spring, and for the past few Autumns I haven't noticed much of anything happening at all.

And then there's this Fall. For the past week or so, my eyes have been watering like a fire hydrant left on during a hot Summer's day. And also for the past week or so, I've had a non-stop low-grade headache centered right behind my eyeballs. My nose hasn't in any way been stuffy, but over the past few days I've noticed you could actually hear all kinds of roughness in my voice. In total it's not quite as bad as what I suffered through as a younger person, but it's not that far off, either.

I have no idea why it's hit me with a vengeance this year. I don't know if it's the fact that climate change has changed the way things go around here. I have no idea if all the Covid and flu vaccines I've been getting recently triggered my immune system on some strange way. And I have no idea if, for some strange reason it's psychosomatic, what with us leaving for Germany a week from today and hoping against all hope the trip actually comes off as planned. All I can say is...

IT CAN STOP NOW!

I really hope that it's just an anomaly brought on by upcoming travel. I really hope that our increasingly screwed up climate hasn't caused my annual bouts of hay fever to return. But when we did travel (you know, n the Before Times) I never seemed to have the allergy problems that I do right now. So if the problems HAVE been caused by the weather, let's hope they've just been caused by our weird weather year, and not by our increasingly weird weather patterns.

After all, I suffered enough when I was young. I'd really dislike having to do it again. So if you see me walking down the street in the next few days with tears running down my face, realize that I'm not weeping in joy at seeing you (although I probably AM weeping in joy, at least inside). It's just my stupid sinuses getting their revenge for some inexplicable reason.

*****

By the way, I suppose I should mention that the two people who passed their genes—the hay fever-causing ones included—on to me are celebrating another big day today. So if you happen to see my mom & dad—Dar & Chicky-poo—wish them a happy anniversary. I know I will when I take them out to lunch in a little bit!

(jim@wmqt.com) 

Friday, 9/15

I guess I can now finally spill the beans.

As those of you who've been reading these the past few months may recall, I have a new TV gig on the horizon. I said yes to doing it in early summer but because of waiting for the station at which I'll be doing it to actually announce it, I've had to refer to it here in very measured, very oblique tones.

But now I can shout it out to the rooftops.

I will be what as known as a "contributor" to the News 19 newscast on Marquette's new CBS station, WZMQ. They launch a local newscast on Monday, October 3rd, and each Monday night during the 6pm newscast I will be doing a segment called "Life in the 906". It'll basically be a TV version of these things--me writing and delivering a little weekly essay on what I deem important, interesting, and/or strange around the central UP.

To put it in a little perspective, I'll kind of be like Andy Rooney, except for the bushy white eyebrows.

I think it should be an interesting gig. When plans were being formulated by station management for their newscasts, several people with whom they spoke thought that i would make an interesting addition to it. I'm not quite sure WHY they thought that, but they conveyed their feelings to the people running the station, we chatted a bit, and viola--here I am with a weekly gig on a TV newscast.

I know I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but my life is weird. It really, really is.

Now, the eagle-eyed among you may notice that the first "Life in the 906" is supposed to be delivered on October 3rd, when I'm (hopefully) in Germany. And I'd reply that you're 100% correct about that. So the first segment--on the very first night of the station's new newscast--will be recorded. The rest, though, will be delivered live on the air, giving me a chance to interact with the anchors and/or make a complete fool of myself by screwing up on live TV.

So you have that to look forward to.

When I had mentioned a little while ago that I'd be on TV waaaaay too much for the average human, I wasn't kidding. Between "High School Bowl" on Saturday nights and "Life in the 906" on Mondays I shall be on TV a LOT. But that's okay. You have my permission to either run screaming from the room when I appear on screen or to just pull an Elvis and shoot your TV screen out.

I know I'd probably do one of the two myself.

So that's the TV gig abut which I've been hinting. I'm glad I could finally spill the beans and, if you have the chance to watch it either live or on the web, you'll check it out.

And that's another slice...of "Life in the 906".

(jim@wmqt.com), who'll be wrapping up each segment with that corny phrase.

Thursday, 9/15

They really are two smells that I can live without.

But before I get into that, last night's North Marquette walking tour was a success, despite September-like temperatures. Wanna see just part of the group?

Thanks, everyone, for showing up!

Now, back to the smells.

There are very few things that wake me up in the middle of the night. One is when our upstairs neighbor, whose kitchen is right above our bedroom, decides that 2 am is a good time to cook a three course dinner. The other occurs every so often, and happened the other night.

That would be when a skunk decides to let loose somewhere nearby.

I don't know what it is about the scent of skunks and why I'm instantly awaken by it when I can usually sleep through anything. It just does that to me. At the first whiff I'll bolt out of bed and try to shut all the windows, but by then it's usually too late, and the smell has taken up residence in our apartment for the night, rendering any further attempt at sleep moot.

It's always so much fun. And I have no idea why skunks seem to like our neighborhood. As I've mentioned before we live in one of the most densely packed sections of the city, a place where I don't even think there's enough room for a skunk to live. Yet they do, and they sure enjoy letting the world know they're part of the neighborhood, as well.

Trust me. It's wonderful having neighbors like that.

The other smell without which I can live? Well, after heading to work post-skunk my office soon started to smell like the inside of a fast food restaurant, which it does on occasion. Why, you ask? Well, I answer, it's because Marquette's Elks Club is next door, and for some reason every so often fish fry whiff seeps into our building, despite the fact that the two buildings aren't physically connected. I'm thinking they must have a kitchen vent that, when the wind is just right, sends the whiff in the direction of our AC/Heating air intake.

And that's what it did yesterday, just a little while after the skunk acted as my very own personal alarm clock.

So imagine that. Skunk and fried food whiff, all within the span of a few hours. Can a guy get any luckier in life?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

(ps—I get to spill the beans about my new TV gig tomorrow!)

Wednesday, 9/14

The tickets have been purchased. I guess that's one less thing to worry about.

Our tickets to the main reason for our trip to Germany in two weeks--the match between RB Leipzig and Bochum--have now been purchased, and are awaiting download into the RB ticket app I had to stick on my phone. Germans being Germans, you have to follow their rules completely and to the letter, and that means that we can't have paper tickets. We can only show them the digital ones and get into the game that way.

So digital it is.

When we went to buy the tickets we were a little surprised that many of them had already sold; you see, Bochum is the absolute worst team in the Bundesliga--zero points taken from six matches so far--and they just fired their coach. So we were kind of wondering if anyone would actually WANT to go to this match. As it turns out, a LOT of people want to go.

Like us, they're probably hoping for an easy win for the home team. But I can just imagine the reaction RB Leipzig would get if they were to lose to a team that hasn't won yet and just fired their coach.

It would be like they were the Detroit Lions of the Bundesliga. And THAT would not be a good way to spend the day.

8-)

With that, we now have everything that we can control taken care of for our little dip back into international travel. Oh, sure, we're still at the mercy of the airlines, of weather, of new Covid breakouts, and of the fact that there's a war a thousand kilometers or so from where we're staying. But we're being hopefully optimistic that maybe, just maybe, we'll actually get something out of all this.

So keep your fingers crossed.

(jim@wmqt.com)

*****

If you're in Marquette tonight don't forget that you can join me and several hundred of my closest friends as we take the North Marquette walking tour for the History Center. It gets underway at 630 at the PEIF parking lot, and while it might be slightly chillier than most walking tours we're promised not a cloud in the sky. So if you feeling like taking a leisurely stroll, we'd love to have you join us!

Tuesday, 9/13

You know, it would be one less thing to worry about.

At T minus 13 days before we (hopefully) leave for Germany things are starting to kick into high gear. I've started working as far ahead as I can at work, after the North Marquette walk tomorrow night I won't have any History Center stuff for a few weeks, and I've already started to try and decide what goes where in luggage, backpacks, and carry-ons.

Plus I'm wondering about the blogs.

Here's the deal—as you may recall, every time (at least in the Before Times) we went to Europe I'd write a blog on a nightly basis about what we did that day. People seemed to enjoy it, even if it did seem (at least to me) to be a little humble-bragging about what we were doing. But seeing as how it's been three and a half years since anything like that I'm starting to wonder--

Do I need to do it any more?

There are several points behind my pondering the question, not least of which is the fact that we have no idea whether or not this trip is either going to come off as planned or even come off at all. We could find ourselves stuck at Heathrow Airport for four days or find ourselves stranded in Berlin or Chicago the entire time. We just don't know.

Not only that, but we're not actually doing much this time around, other than flying, going to a soccer game, and hanging around an (admittedly cool) city for the rest of the time. Would that really interest people? Of course, without a lot of concrete plans for the days we're there I would have the extra hour or two it takes to put one of the blogs together, so...

See why I can't decide anything yet?

Thankfully, I still have a couple of weeks left to make that decision, as I probably wouldn't be able to write anything until we get to Leipzig on that Wednesday anyway (especially because, the night before, we now don't get into Berlin until very VERY late). If you have an opinion on the matter, please let me know, as I don't write them for me, I write them for anyone who wants to read them.

So vote early, and vote often. Your voice is the one of the most important as I ponder whether to do these again or not. Thanks!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 9/12

Well, that lasted one whole week. I'm impressed.

You may recall a few weeks ago when I wrote about doing the final “On The Town” for TV-6, and how I would, for the first time since 2014, have a couple of weeks without being on TV. The week after I wrote that I shot promos for “High School Bowl”, so the streak continued. Then last week—the week of Labor Day—I actually didn't have any TV for an entire seven-day period.

And now it doesn't look as if that streak will extend more than a week.

In a few minutes I have to go shoot promos (and get head shots) for my new TV gig, and then next week I'll shoot the first segment of it. So it now appears as if I'll have spend an entire week out of the past eight and a half years NOT on TV.

My life's weird, you know that?

The good thing about all this is that by the end of the week I can actually talk about my new TV gig, as all the details will be announced by the people for whom I'm doing it in the next few days. It's been an interesting process the past few weeks—signing deals, providing biographical details, sketching out the first set of ideas, and, now, parading in front of several different kinds of cameras to provide material for on-air promos and websites.

For a (very) part-time gig it's been quite the run-up.

So I'm off to be photographed, recorded, and taped. Like I said, in the next few days I can actually talk about the WHY of it all.

And about that I'm kind of excited.

(jim@wmqt.com) 

Friday, 9/9

Did you take advantage of it?

The “it” to which I'm referring was, of course, the spectacular day we had here yesterday in Marquette, a day filled with sunshine and temperatures in the 80s. Did I take advantage of it myself?

You'd better believe it.

As Laura and I were discussing on the air Wednesday yesterday was the kind of day that people really should take advantage of; after all, when's the next time it might be sunny & in the 80s? Next May? Next June? Next July? We hoped people would get out and enjoy it, and while I was out enjoying it myself I was glad to see that so were a lot of other people.

So hopefully the advice we gave we followed by a few.

Of course, the way things are going these days we may have a bunch of additional days when it's sunny & in the 80s. But more likely, it'll be next spring (or summer) before we have another day like we did yesterday. So—hopefully--you were able to take advantage of it. Hopefully, you were able to get one last day in the sun in. Hopefully, you got enough of whatever “it” is that it'll carrying you through the dark and cold months to come.

On that cheery note, have a great weekend. While we're living through the chilly rain of the forecast, just remember what yesterday was like!

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 9/8

Oh, look—I get to repurpose something today!

In one way, I'm taking the lazy way out. In another, I'm doing a community service, because I know not everyone reads the Mining Journal and therefore would miss out on the scintillating article I wrote about next week's North Marquette walking tour that appeared in yesterday's newspaper.

So when you look at it that way, by posting the article I'm doing everyone a favor, and NOT taking the lazy way out, right?

Right?

(jim@wmqt.com)

*****

THE COMPANY HOUSES

By: Jim Koski

Marquette Regional History Center

There are some things about the old Cliff-Dow plant in north Marquette that people still remember decades after it closed--the smell, the tar ditch, the toxic chemicals oozing from the ground, and, not to put too fine of a point on it, the smell. But one thing that people may have forgotten about the area around the plant were...

The company houses.

Officially called “The Furnace Location” by the city of Marquette, the company houses were a series of duplexes located on a dirt road just to the south of the Cliff-Dow facilities between Norwood & Wright Streets. Workers at the plant could rent one of the homes from the company for 10 dollars a month, a price that was raised to $11 a month when wooden sidewalks were installed throughout the neighborhood during the 1930s.

People who remember growing up in the company houses in the 30s and 40s say that the neighborhood was a melting pot of many different nationalities. Going down the street you could run into English, Finnish, French Canadian, Native American, and even a Yugoslav family or two. The kids from the families all played together, and since their fathers worked at one of the many buildings in the Cliff-Dow complex just a couple of hundred feet away, their family lives were centered around the location.

Much like all families who lived anywhere in North Marquette, those living in the Furnace Location had problems doing fairly mundane tasks, such as putting freshly washed laundry out on the line. Before the laundry could dry, whatever was hung outdoors would turn dirty again because of soot floating through the air from the plant. In fact, it's been said that some of the kids who grew up in the Furnace Location didn't even know snow was naturally white until they moved away from the Cliff-Dow plant.

That's how much pollution was released into the air by the complex.

And you recall how rents in the Furnace Location went up when the wooden sidewalks were installed? Well, the sidewalks had an added benefit of providing a major source of amusement for people who lived in the company houses. Rats burrowed in underneath the newly constructed sidewalks, and each and every evening residents would entertain themselves by listening for the “pop” of guns as their neighbors tried to take the rats out.

The houses were torn down in the 1960s, just a few years before the plant itself closed, and after sitting empty for several decades the land itself was put to a new use by Northern Michigan University So the next time you're at the Superior Dome, either parking in one of the north for an event, enjoying an outdoor concert, or making use of one of their practice fields, be aware that you're actually using a space that once housed a long-forgotten Marquette neighborhood.

The Furnace Location. Or, as the people who lived in North Marquette referred to it, the Cliff-Dow company houses.

*****

Stories of life in North Marquette, and the businesses and industries that called the area home, will be told during the “North Marquette” walking tour put on by the Marquette Regional History Center. It takes place Wednesday, September 14 at 630, beginning at the PEIF parking lot. There's a suggested $5 donation for the walk, and those attending can bring a phone or other mobile internet-capable device to look at pictures while on the walk.

For more information, call the History Center at (906) 226-3571 or visit wwww.marquettehistory.org.

PHOTO CREDIT: Shot of Furnace Location courtesy Superior View Studio

Wednesday, 9/7

I totally forgot about it.

Yesterday was the anniversary of a big day in my life, although probably not as big as it used to be. You see yesterday, September 6^th, was my workiversary, the anniversary of my starting to work at Q107-WMQT.

And I kinda sorta didn't even realize it until I was almost done for the day.

I have no idea why I didn't realize it, although I do have an idea. When I worked for Taconite Broadcasting, my workiversary would mean that I got another whole new batch of vacation days and, as we all know, that's kind of important. But now that I'm employed by the KBIC and get my vacation days on an ongoing basis September 6^th is no longer quite as important as it once was.

But still, yesterday was my workiversary. You think I would have actually realized that.

When I started this job waaaaay back in the 20^th century I had no idea I'd still be doing it almost a quarter of the way through the 21^st century. I always figured it would be a fun thing to do until my “real job” came along. Little did I realize that it actually WOULD become my real job, a position that has not only been a blast but has also been a springboard to all these other things I've been able to do and all the other “Jims”(aside from Radio Jim) that I've been able to become.

And that's rather cool.

Whenever someone asks me how long I've been at my job (which is actually quite often, believe it or not) I tell them and then add that I'm “just too lazy to get a real job”. But why get a “real” job when the one I have has led to so much? If I had found a “real” job all those years ago I'd probably be stuck in an office or on the road and wouldn't have had the opportunities I've had over the past couple of decades. So while I haven't become materially rich, I have become rich in the sense that I'm happy, I have a fulfilling life, and I get to do all these neat things that most people never get the chance to do.

And that's so much better than having a real job.

So even though it's a bit belated, happy workiversary to me. And a big thanks to everyone reading this, as well, because you've been part of the journey. It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 9/6

 Lists.  There are lists everywhere.

First of all, hope you had a great Labor Day weekend.  Despite the fact that the temperatures were more fall-like than summer-like (we'll be getting the summer-like temperatures during the week, when we're at work, naturally) we made the most out of the three-day weekend.  And with just a mere 20 days before we (hopefully) go to Germany, one of the many things I did was make a bunch of lists of everything that needs to get done before we go, or what we need to bring with us, or what we need to do should the (and this is quite possible) unforeseen happen when we're on the road.

So that's why there are so many lists.

There's a list of what I have to do at work to get everything ready.  There's a list of what I have to do at work when I get done getting everything ready because, as you may recall, we're on the eve of a new computer system.  There's a list of a few things we need to buy, because not quite everything we thought was in our suitcases was in there when we brought them up Saturday.  There are several lists of clothing to bring, because we'll be in Germany at the beginning of October, and we're not quite sure what the weather will be like.  There's a list of electronics to bring, a list of exactly how we need to store and present the tickets for the match, and a list of chocolate or tea I'd like to buy over there.  And there's the list of phone numbers and web addresses that we may need should a flight get cancelled, delayed, or just plain disappear, leaving us in limbo in some strange airport.

Like I said.  Lots of lists.

I put them together because, unlike past times we've traveled, so much is up in the air.  That's just the way the world is these days.  Normally, when we're 20 days out from departure, we're pretty much set.  We just need to gather everything together, pack, and go.  But with everything the way it is these days, you can't be 100% certain you're ready to go.  And the closer we get to departure, the more we're discovering we need to "list"

For instance, I had mentioned the weather in Germany while we're there.  Long-term temperature averages really don't tell us what kind of clothing to bring, especially because in the past few years Europe as a whole has seen its temperatures shoot up because of climate change.  So will it be in the 60s, as historical averages dictate, or in the 70s, as recent years say it will?   And will I need to bring one phone, my older phone with a new French phone number that works in Europe, or two phones, because the ticket app for RB Leipzig will only work on my new (American) phone, and the team doesn't accept tickets not on that app?

Of course, they haven't even started to sell tickets for the match we hope to attend yet, so everything we need to do for getting those tickets (a strange process in and of itself) is on another list.

As I've mentioned before, this will be a trip unlike any other we've ever taken, not only because we still have no idea if it'll actually happen, but because the world has changed so much since the last time we visited.  So if you're wondering why there are lots & lots of lists, it's because there are lots & lots of things to do, and lots & lots of things that could (or could not) happen.

We just want to be prepared.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 9/2

The suitcases come out this weekend.

It's shaping up to be a busy weekend around here, even though it is a three-day holiday weekend. But perhaps the most important thing to happen this weekend will be the (once) annual voyage of our trip suitcases from the recesses of our basement to the welcoming light of our living room.

It'll be glorious.

We hopefully leave three weeks from Monday, so I'm guessing it's time. For the next 21 days the suitcases will sit in our living room, where we’ll stumble into them many times, and they’ll slowly be filled with everything needed for a week plus in Leipzig (or stuck in an airport somewhere between here and there). If this year is like all the others, when I open my suitcase I'll be amazed by the stuff I've left in there from the last trip three and a half years ago. There should be several plastic containers (used to safely transport chocolate and cereal), half a roll of bubble wrap (to safely wrap the chocolate before it gets put into the aforementioned plastic containers), various other non-plastic containers, a roll of duct tape, two unused washcloths, and an unopened package of socks, if I remember correctly.

Throw in a few shirts, some shorts, and a toothbrush, and I’m already packed a month before we leave!

Well, okay, maybe not TOTALLY packed, but with the stuff we're picking up at Target this weekend I think we're on schedule. We usually go to Target a few weeks before we leave and raid their section of travel-sized items. We pick up whatever toiletries, medicines, and personal care items we need and pack them in the plastic containers. Then the last night of the trip we toss whatever we haven’t used and/or won’t need, clean out the containers, and repack them with chocolate and other goodies. That way, we don’t go over our suitcase weight limit and have to pay a zillion dollars, and we get all of our stuff safely home.

Of course, that’s actually worked too well on several occasions. More than once I’ve emptied my suitcase so much that I've had to buy several rolls of paper towels to fill out the empty space.  The paper towel serves a couple of purposes, though--the paper towels act as a great, lightweight filler, and once we get home, we have the joy of being perhaps the only people in the U.S. who are using strangely sized rolls of French or German paper towels.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be tossing pieces of clothing and other items we’ll be needing into the suitcases in our living room. A day or two before the trip, we’ll rearrange everything, pack it all neatly, and then put our TSA approved locks on them, where the suitcases then won’t be opened until we get to Berlin (unless, of course, US or EU security gets bored and feels the need to go through them, or we end up somewhere entirely unexpected). And that, of course, is optimistically believing our luggage gets to Europe the same time we do. Unlike, say, two of our previous trips.

So now when we look at our checklist of things to do, “bring suitcases up from the basement” can now be checked off. That only leaves, what....28 or 29 things left to go?

That is still, of course, assuming we get to go in the first place. Keep your fingers crossed.

On that note, have yourself a great weekend. I'll be back Tuesday!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 9/1

Oh, those Germans and their wacky, wacky language.

It's now September, which means we're within the calendar month that Loraine and I (hopefully) get to head back to Germany. That means two things--one, I'm not allowed to injure myself or do anything so stupid as to preclude us from going. That's fairly easy. The other? That our designated "language person" brush up in his or her slight knowledge of the language of the country wee'll be visiting. I do French, Loraine does German.

So it's her turn to study up. And boy, has she been.

She'll be the first to tell you she's not fluent in the language or has grasped all of its nuances, but she's been immersing herself in some of the...peculiarities of German. And many of those peculiarities don't make much sense to a native English speaker, even though English is an offshoot of German (with a whole bunch of French rebelliousness thrown in for good measure). One of those peculiarities would be that of a compound word, the German tendency to combine parts of smaller words to form a bigger word.

For instance, we might say "I have to catch the train", while in German you combine all of those into one big multi-syllabic masterpiece. Believe it or not, that even happens with smaller phrases, as exemplified when Loraine discovered how the Germans say "speed limit". You'd figure that it would be fairly straightforward, right? In English, it's two short words, yet if you want to say "speed limit" in German, here's what comes out of your mouth--

erlaubte Höchstgeschwindigkeit

I've said before, and I'll say it again--oh, those Germans and their wacky, wacky language.

I don't know much German, so I couldn't actually tell you what all those syllables actually say. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a compound word meaning, and I'm guessing here, something like "the speed which you can not exceed or you will be punished for it", but I would probably be incorrect. I'm sure there's a fine and simply elegant explanation for it--it IS German, after all--but just staring at it makes an English speaker's jaw drop to the floor in wonder and amazement.

That's just one example of what Loraine's trying to figure out in the next month. Thankfully, almost everyone in Germany speaks a little English (in some cases better than people in the US, believe it or not) so this immersion is more for her own edification than anything. But still, the more she comes across words like "erlaubte Höchstgeschwindigkeit", the more I'm amazed that English and German are in any way related.

After all, German IS a wacky, wacky language.

(jim@wmqt.com)