Life in a nutshell

I've been gone from the airwaves for way too long. Or at least it might seem like it. However, my mere month long absence should not be taken personally. My attention has been on the ground, on the establishment of roots, to the things that will make my family (and me) stronger, healthier, happier. Laying the foundation for a solid future. Furnishing a home. And fighting the flu.

We have made significant strides. A house and two cars purchased. Several rooms painted. The introduction of DaBella (Willows new Kitty) to our household. School started. Ski lessons begun for Connor. A gym membership started. Many Drs. appointments made including Therapists, Naturopath, Chiropractor, Neurologist. New glasses and contacts (I can see! Bifocals already?!) The swift arrival of our household goods from Germany (in excellent condition) less than a week ago. The complete unpacking of said shipment.... Ok maybe not yet "complete", but I only have about three boxes left to open and most everything else has found its place.

Meanwhile, Greg has been attending to the business of wrapping things up. Working on his second to last MBA class. Closing a plant. The complete and thorough cleaning of the house and lastly to the scheduling and preparation of his own return to the states. I look forward to welcoming him to his new home on Feb 2. He is looking forward to it as well!

I expect that within another month, we will be very much settled and I will be spreading my wings a lot more. I am looking forward to soaring! But for now.. back to work.. or more immediately, sleep. Since it is rather late.

Giving props where props are due

Greg earned a 101.97% overall grade in his last (Insert retching sound) Accounting class. Apparently the teacher was impressed. Below are his comments on Greg's final paper. 

Good Morning America. How are you?

Willie Nelson's seems a good place to kick this blog off.  I have been on a bit of a country kick since landing Stateside. The rental cars radio didn't change for 5 days straight and amazingly no song repeated the entire time. Perhaps my sticking to the country channel  had to do with the feel of Vermont or perhaps it has to do with those "Windshield Wipers slappin out a tempo" as I finally find myself back behind the wheel (What a pleasure that is!!)  

We have been here for a week now. Its been a rather busy one. We landed late on Sunday in Montreal. There where some issues with getting a rental car. The one I had lined up was to small to hold our luggage.  They swapped it out for a car with a van that started screaming warnings at me the minute I put it in drive and after an hour long wait we were lined up with a Chrysler Town and Country which fit the bill. We left Montreal and arrived in Burlington in time to order room service and go to sleep. Jet lag and time adjustment took about 4 days to get through the worst of. I had wanted to stay up on the night of the 21st to welcome the Sun as I usually do on the Solstice but being in a hotel in the dark with kids passed out at 7 pm  made that just a little bit to difficult. Anyway,..

Monday I met with my home loan lender at the IRS. In order to secure my loan, they needed confirmation that our 2015 taxes had been submitted to the IRS. Don't get me started on the process of taxes and dual country filing and ... well... long story short ... we were down to the wire as the house closed on Tuesday. Needless to say that the IRS had changed its procedure (In the last few weeks) and it was not as easy an experience as we were expecting but we got it done and we were able to close as anticipated on Tuesday. Whew!

That doesn't mean we moved in on Tuesday.  On Wednesday our air shipment containing some dishes. towels,  lawn chairs and sleeping bags/cots arrived and were unpacked. Thursday was spent checking out the schools and getting the kids registered as well as doing some shopping and we started painting the rooms that needed it (Two of the bedrooms really needed to be toned down otherwise I love the existing color schemes of the home.) Friday our internet was installed and our mattresses arrived. We fought the holiday crowds as we ran some much needed errands to Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, and the grocery store (all just down the road and easy to get to). Saturday we checked out of the hotel and began to settle in and make ourselves at home. Sunday was spent mostly painting. We had a fantastic feast of Mountain Home (camping .. add water and waalaa) and there were a couple "surprise" gifts on the mantel for the kiddies. Today I went to the Toyota dealership and bought a Tacoma and the last of the painting was finished.

Whew. It has been a very productive week to say the least. The work is by no means done but the bulk of it for now has been seen to and the next few days will be spent attending to smaller details... Like lining up Eye Dr. appointments. Willow keeps laughing at me because I have to take off my glasses and bring things right up to my face to read... could it be time for bi-focals?

The wind is whipping outside and more snow is on the way. It snowed 2 inches on Thursday. I bought a snow shovel on Friday to take care of the driveway and the woman at the registered said, "So you are gearing up for the season." I guess that means we can expect a lot more to come.

It is beautiful here. We are in the middle of a valley with a giant lake not more than 20 minutes away. Already it feels like home. The kids are doing well with the change. Connor is going to do great at his school. And although Willow is a bit overwhelmed by the size the the high school she is happier than I have seen her in a long time.

Meanwhile in Germany,...  The house was packed up on Tuesday and loaded on Wednesday (Hopefully the delivery will be around Jan 20th). Some rental furniture was delivered that afternoon so Greg has a place to sleep and work.  Thursday and Friday he took a Holiday with some friends and  toured a mine and enjoyed some beer and a statue of Karl Marx. Over Christmas he stayed at home and just relaxed. His school course wrapped up. He has two more classes to go before graduating with his MBA in May. He also came in first in the world wide "manufacturing simulation game" that he took part in. He is quite the strategist. In not so happy news, he learned today that the plant has been sold and that things are officially shutting down later this week after he makes the announcement to his team and immediately lets them all go. It is not an easy position to be in and I am hoping that it goes as smooth as can be for him.

With this news, it is pretty certain that he will be on a flight out here at the end of January. We will be waiting..... Unless I devour the children first.

It sure is good to be back! I can't wait to start exploring. As always, more to come soon.

Quick hello before I go

It has been a crazy sort of month filled with the details  and challenges of buying a house in Vermont while living abroad, and managing the process of contract cancellations here. Germans don't move often and their system reflects that. For instance my cell phone.. I can't just go in and cancel it with the payment an early termination fee. I have to submit documents proving my citizenship has been cancelled and then, after three more months, they will disconnect the service. The same goes for Cable, internet and landline services.  Regardless, all the pieces are falling into place and our transition will go rather smoothly. At least this time around we know what to expect at the other end.... apparently Snow and lots of it. I have not driven a car in a year and a half.. it should be interesting.  Anyway.. so it goes. The kids and I leave on the 18th and (it is now official) we close on our house on the 20th. A right and proper way to celebrate the Solstice eh?! Here comes the sun and all that. You know .. making it memorable.  Greg will be out to join us in a few months. We are taking it in stride.

Connor has been busy lately with a new project. He has started a Youtube Channel. Its fun to see how much his editing skills have improved. Check him out at Creed Games.

I could probably go on .. but I wont. I have chores and calls and preparations that demand my attention. I probably won't pop up here again until I am stateside. Despite the insanity there, It will be good to be "home".

Inked

I got a tattoo. And like with everything I do.. well.. Go big or Go Home.  Its healing now. Still sore from the needle and I know that soon it will be itching like a son of gun. But everything comes with a price and I am most willing to pay it.

There are some key elements to the art work that now adorns my left forearm. For starters it has a bird. 

The bird is a skylark.. sort of a totem animal for me. 

Some have described this bird as a "Punk Thrush" because it has a little mohawk. After the artist got done with the outline I realized that the placement of some feathers made it look as though the bird had a ginormous set of balls. Quite fitting in my mind. When I went in for the coloring I asked him to leave it as it was. I explained that it added character. He didn't understand.. But being German this was to be expected but he left it alone anyway.

Another element of the design is the rainbow radiating out of the lighthouse. The rainbow is styled in the Bauhaus tradition of Herbert Bayer's Chromatic Twist (1970).

As Weimar is the home of the Bauhaus movement, I thought it a fitting symbol of our time in Germany. It is also a symbol of "Hope"  and of dreams that carry me through life and feed my soul. 

Some day we'll find it. The rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me. La da da di da da dum da duh da da dum di da ohhh 

The words "Chasing Rainbows all my days" are lyrics from the Iron Maiden song, Ghost of the Navigator.  This song speaks of Homers Odyssey.  It is a personal anthem of sorts. Paying tribute to the epic adventure that has so far been my life. 

And now for the big colorful reveal:

Now that it is done, I set my sails for new lands and new adventures. Come what may. 

Do you do accents?

Not really. I do my own voice. Sometime I do it funny. Here is one way I have decided to expand my range:

*This is a link*

Its a YouTube Channel. It My YouTube Channel. 

All it takes is a smile

My dear Friend and old Neighbor from the Monterey area, Karen,  has been one of my loyal and dedicated readers for a very long time and she often responds to my posts and encourages my writing. In regards to the last few posts, she sent me a message and indicated that she would love to hear the backstory of my mom and Dunkle.

Since I didn't have a chance to sit down with her and have a true visit while we were in the states, I thought I would sit down with a cup of tea and tell her that tale just as I might have.  So Karen (and whom ever else wishes to sit in) grab a cup of joe, have a seat and I will tell you the tale.

I don't have many pictures with me. For the most part, they are in storage in the States. My mom did send me this one and so here is where I will start.

Flashback ... 1979 ... a year in which -57 degrees was recorded in New York and snow was seen in the Sahara Desert. The year Saddam Hussein assumed power. The year the Iatola Komani  declared the US "The Great Satan" The year walkman's were introduced. But this tale is not about the world stage. This tale, more than anything, is about family.

During the late 70's my immediate family lived in Washington state. We were surrounded by my dads parents, his siblings and their families. Together we celebrated and dined often. Such as in the photo, which I think is of my brothers 4th birthday. (In addition to my brother, my Mom, Dunkle and the back of two of my cousins heads are in the picture. Do you see the arm snaking its way around my mom in an attempt to get some cake? That is me!) Anyway, we were a very close family.  And then in the early 1980's, our course change and we relocated to a small town in Northern Nevada. Population 200. Long distance calls were few and far between. It was super expensive to call and our connection to our family in Washington was stretched thin. Fortunate, in Nevada, We had my moms family nearby and they helped fill the void.

Anyway, life goes on and when I was 18 my parents split up. The reasons why are far to complicated to address in a short blog, however, it wasn't due to lack of love. Perhaps the best way to explain is that wounds of childhood traumas where ignored and festered resulting in poor choices and a little neurosis. Regardless, things between them ended just as I went off to college.

And life goes on...  Until it ends. My dad passed away almost 15 years ago while sitting at home in Washington with my Dunkle who he lived with at the time.

Dunkle then went on to remarry an old childhood sweetheart who turned out to be not so sweet. They took in my elderly grandpa and my dads other brother Don who was severely crippled. When my grandpa died I make the trip North. I noticed at the funeral that his wife choose not to attend. Also, Don told me that I could not come visit at the house. Dunkles wife did not want anyone there...ever. It was left at that but it was odd and I knew that things were not right. Attempts to get in/stay in touch with Dunkle were left unanswered and Don wasn't discussing it.

Then, about a year and a half ago, Don died. Dan was away at business and returned home to find Don on the floor in his room where he had been for three days. I learned much later that, when the police came to investigate, his wife said she had heard a crash but didn't care to check on him. Nor did she care that she didn't see him for three days. Anyway,  Dons ashes were placed next to his parents about three weeks before we moved to Germany and at the funeral, I learned from cousins that I was not alone in my impression that Dunkle was miserable.

Meanwhile my mom remarried. It lasted 18 years. She divorced about 5 years ago and was content being a single woman. She had made attempts to step out into the dating world and found the prospects laughable. Better to be single she said. Little did she know..

Soooo... after Dons funeral (We already had all of our things shipped and were making our rounds to say goodbye) we made our way to my moms. While there I said.. "Hey Mom, Dan is very depressed and is struggling. He has lost most of his family and he could really use a smile. Lets send him one!" So we took a selfie and I sent it to him along with moms contact info.

A few months goes by and mom Skypes me to tell me that she is spending New Years with Dan and they are taking a road trip to the town they grew up in. Apparently they laughed and laughed the whole time. She reminded him he didn't have to be miserable.

The next skype brought news of his pending divorce and retirement.

The next one brought news that he had asked my moms parents for her hand. He took my grandma slippers and chocolate and passed on an heirloom rifle to my grandpa. It was a done deal. They were getting married.