Call me Cassandra

March 14/11.....6:24 p.m.

I suppose you are familiar with that character out of the Greek mythology, the lady who used to predict bad tidings. Well, to tell you, I start feeling like her. Sliding into the year of 2011 I told Herr Husband that I had a weird feeling about the oncoming year in a way that it would not have much good in stock. Up to now, unfortunately I have been right. Herr Husband had been in hospital twice, 2nd time with a heart attack.  The day he had his shunt-OP I had the looniest car accident on the final way home at nite. A guy bumped my car from behind, approaching me while honking his horn wildly, claiming that I had been coming from the right, while I had been driving in the left lane for already at least for 500 meters. The amazing thing,no scratch whatsoever on my car, but his car pretty beat up,which I took pics of right away, they all seemed pretty old marks to me. And the craziest thing, the police which he called and who arrived pretty darn fast, came up to me without even listening to my part of the story,telling me that I had caused the accident. But on the phone had ordered the cars to be moved to the curb.Gave me a fine,which I did not pay and  handed the thing over to my lawer. I have not heard a stich since, neither has my insurance company. The guy phoned me 2 days after the accident and wanted to kow if I had paid. Told him he can talk to my lawer, thats it. The matter stinks!-
By now I am down with a pretty bad cold, started out with no voice for 2 days (could not even fight with Herr H ) and an enoying cough which keeps me waking up about 20 times during the night. Daughter No. 1 caught the same thing, fortunately we had not been in touch. For her it is even worse, since she is normally already suffering from breathing problems.  And then my nephew had a  skiing accident in Austria, with having been unconcious with bad head injuries. Fortunately he is recovering but it will take time.

And the situation in Japan is nothing to rejoice about either - These reactor breakdowns are not finished yet.
Last sunday I met a former riding friend and by telling him my stories he backed away and tod me he was getting depressions. He should have asked me what I had been getting lately.

Good for a Laugh!

March 1/11.....11:00 a.m.

Believe me, in these times, where we have not  so much to laugh about, sometimes something refreshing crosses our path! - (freely translated it says - tip or shut up)

Sunday, Sunday

February 20/11........9:20 a.m.

To put it straight, sunday is not my favoured day of the week. It might have something to do with childhood memories, somehow sunday had been such a day of boredom on one side and  obligations on the other side.  Only thing, one could stay in bed a little longer, but then it started, had to help mother to prepare breakfast, had to help do the dishes, had to go to church during my formative years and then, after a long lunchtime meal, where usually my brothers got to fight over desert who had gotten the bigger portion, had to help with the dishes again. Then, after the afternoon sunday coffee- cake time , the whole family took a long boring walk. Anyway, till my father got his first car. Then it had been long drives into the countryside, sometimes surprising my aunt, who lived about 100 kms away and usually broke out in tears when we showed up, because she hated surprise visits.  I do not blame her. So I got to know the radius of about 100 kms around my parent's home pretty well and by the time we got home from our drive , my parents were in the no talking state, because my mother, who had no driver's license, always knew better and had been giving my father instructions till he blew his top and then my mother sulked.  Well, after sandwich time in the evening, there came the worst part, the whole family assembled around the radio,  later on it had been television, to listen to resp. watch a show and my mother presented a basket of socks full of holes, belonging to my dad and brothers and mom and daughter had to mend the holes. This had been the moment when I wished I had been one of my brothers!  Mind you, dad produced holes big as potatoes and I could have broken out into a screaming fit having to mend them. 

I never repair a sock now-a-days, off into the garbage they go. This is my revenge.

Later on, when I had my own life, sundays could be very pleasant days, only bad thing had been,that the next day had to be monday. But somehow memory of those childhood sundays sticks and they do not brighten up with time.                                                                     

A Touch of Creativity

February 14/11....7:27 p.m.



little Miss Sunshine




a friend





horse of an American friend

  I just love to paint but lately Landfrau has been a bit lame in exercising her creativity. Maybe it is just that our house is too small, all walls are plastered with pictures and paintings somehow and I have taken myself out of the "selling" business. I am just too lazy to paint on comission. But once a while I am intrigued and then I get going and my room is a mess, with all the painting material scattered everywhere.  I hate cleaning up afterwards but sometimes I think the result has been worth it and before I explode in selfpraise, here are some of my latest accomplishments.

Timmendorfer Strand

February 4/11.....11:45 p.m.

Once upon a time...well this is no fairy tale, so let me begin again - a very long time ago we spent a vacation at eastertime with a crowd of riding friends at the kind of "vacation home stable" located at Timmendorfer Strand belonging to the owners of our riding club. What makes me suddenly think of this time? I watched a tv-movie and the setting had been Timmendorfer Strand. So this brought back memories and hilarious ones at such!  We really had been such a great bunch of riding buddies and we outdid ourselves in creating mischief much to the dismay of our hosts. One night we visited a local bar, a pretty funny place, from the bar you could slide into a pool if you had enough to drink and wanted to "sober up" . The mother of one of our friends spent a holiday in Florida at that time and from the bar he called her and she agreed to foot the bill. So you can imagine, we all ended up in the pool. A couple of days before easter we coloured eggs at night and since Herr Husband, having had a few drinks too much , had fallen asleep on a bench in the community room, we decided to paint his face green. The problem had been, that he had a business appointment (at that time he still had been a hard working guy) in the morning in Hamburg and he had a hard time to get the paint of his face and had been very much in panic, that he would not get it off completely -he did not!  - But in the morning, hangover or not, we showed up in time at the stables for cleaning and saddling the horses and we had those great gallopes along the beach to sober up.  One morning I got kicked in the ass by the horse next to mine , fortunately it had no shoes, but for the rest of the time I had been limping around, which however did not keep me from riding. I have been a tough cookie all my life, it helps me now-a-days.

And by the way, the tough cookie is the knight on the white horse!

Vanity contra Stinginess

February 4/11......4:15 p.m.

Here I sit, chewing my nails. - Landfrau discovered an application which enables you to have your blog printed as a book. Of course first I tried in several ways to have the preview saved, but of course they outsmart the "smarties" who want to do that. so PDF is out. Now there I am and I have two souls in my breast. The vanity-soul whispers have it printed but the stinginess-soul shouts: ARE YOU INSANE SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY FOR YOUR SCRIBBLINGS! - Hard decision - what do you think?

I knew it!

January 26/11......1:30 p.m.

I had a hunch what was in store for me when I made that dentist's appointment for inspection and cleaning and bingo, my problem tooth has to go and since I am a person of fast decisions I told my dentist lady lets do it then right away.  So out it went, but unfortunately had to leave a root part in - nasty- which had to be dug out and then I was sitting in that chair bleeding like a slaughtered pig and it would not stop. So finally the hole had to be filled up and mended with a thread and now I am sitting here and dreading the wear off of the anesthetic shots. Up to now I have half a numb face, my nose feels like a snout from a pig and my eye twitches.
I shall be running around for 3 months with a gap in my mouth, so no more smiling let alone laughing before some proper work can be done.
Sob,sob sob.....I FEEL SORRY FOR MYSELF!

Lazy Sunday...

January 23/11.....5:22 p.m.

...is forever better than GLOOMY SUNDAY.  - Herr Husband is home from hospital and is getting adjusted to his nurse (Landfrau) without uniform. Up to now the patient behaves!
Daughter No. 2 dropped in for a short visit and we had latte macchiato and tea for the patient, his favoured, Earl Grey. And Landfrau must admit that she had a sip of champagne, believe me, she deserves it.

I could have gone Places

January 13/11.......4:50 p.m.

The amount of driven kms today could have taken me away to some better places, that's for sure. Started out this morning before 9 a.m. to drive to the doctors place to pick up the papers which one needs to be admitted to hospital. Yeah, it has been time for "beloved" Krefeld again, actually Herr Husband had an appointment tomorrow for a  kidney check-up as day patient, but during the last weeks his lack of breath had been immensely increasing, so we decided to check in already today, to have his lungs and heart taken care off in advance. I loathe the clinic compound, no parking facilities and today pouring rain to boot. So I dropped off the patient at the main entrance including his bag, which he could drag on wheels and the second piece, his heavy breathing machine, I hauled from the far off parking space - and a tow away one at that - which considering my still nasty leg in it's goal keeper wrap had been no piece of cake. I found the patient pantiently waiting in a hallway, aside from having no beds available, the were no sheets etc, the delivery truck got stuck in traffic. Well, we were assured that there would be a bed for him and with that knowledge I rushed off, already about an hour late for my own doctor's appointment at the other side of the river Rhine - needed desperately some shots for my lumbago, which I had supplied myself with last weekend thinking I could clean up our messy gardens and driveway. Not so happy for additional pain in my already damaged leg!
 The whole damn drive around action took me about 5 hours and now I am home, trying to simmer down.  I hope they put Herr Husband insofar into shape again, that he can have some joy out of life. The last few weeks have not been so bright. 
This is where the fun starts with 2011!

While searching for old"Krefeld" posts I got stuck memorizing a lot about Herr Hund, which makes nicer reading matter anyway.

I love Lazy Mornings

January 9/11 ....9:20 a.m.

Above all I love sunday mornings, waking  up, peeking at the weather, listening to the radio for a while , slowly separating myself from my beloved bed  and then it starts to be unpleasant, because my scale is eying me and I know that as soon as I have stepped onto it, I am not so cheerful any more. Did garden work like a maniac yesterday, the grounds really looked poor after the snow had melted and today muscles ache where I did not know I had them. But I can not trick my scale so I will punish it by having a delicious breakfast and that first cup of nespresso is just bliss! - so is blogging about nothing.

No New Years's Resolutions

January 2/11...1:43 p.m.

......None whatsoever. After having limped into 2011 Landfrau can only hope for the better.  Right now I  start to ask myself if  my leg will ever get back to  into shape and painless again and will I ever be able to wear normal shoes  except rubber boots. Otherwise the beginning of a new year only makes me contemplate about things I will never have and do again. There is quite a list. Anyways - useless to cry over spilled milk.
Today for once there is a little bit of sunshine and some blue sky - nice day for a walk - or bike ride, which I hope is one of the things I will be able to do again in the near future. My muscles are turning into fat, slowly but surely.  Aside from hating myself I hate doctors, hospitals, graveyards and people who do not treat their dogs nicely.
So this has been my New Years's speech - I think it beats Angela Merkel's.

Happy New Year!

December 31/10

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,   

and never thought upon;

The flames of Love extinguished,

and fully past and gone:

Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,

that loving Breast of thine;

That thou canst never once reflect

on Old long syne.



CHORUS:

On Old long syne my Jo,

in Old long syne,

That thou canst never once reflect,

on Old long syne.

My Heart is ravisht with delight,

when thee I think upon;

All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,

and speedily is gone;

The bright resemblance of thy Face,

so fills this, Heart of mine;

That Force nor Fate can me displease,

for Old long syne.



CHORUS

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,

when from thee I am gone;

will not thy presence yield relief,

to this sad Heart of mine:

Why doth thy presence me defeat,

with excellence divine?

Especially when I reflect

on Old long syne

TO ALL MY FRIENDS!

December 24/10

TODAY IS THE DAY TO WISH YOU ALL

..and Herr Hund, who just adored X-mas and his plate under the tree is sending you  a little piece of memory!

               

Baking X-mas Cookies

December 14/10......7:05 p.m.

To begin with, I hate baking X-mas cookies and above all those work intensive ones, I think I can not stop talking about in a post around X-mas time. Fortunately I am done with for this year and I vividly remember one time, when like in those cute tv series, mom bakes cookies together with the kids, oh, how darling! Daugther no.2, about 10 at that time, invited a friend and after they started to mess around terribly they decided that they rather would like to watch tv and guest kid out of no reason bit my ass and out of reflex (that really hurt, you know) I slapped her face. Fortunately her mother had been in agreement with me. Well, that had been the end of the baking session.
 And another year we had a refugee (the time there had been the war trouble in the Balkan countries) business friend from Montenegro of Herr Husband as a guest around  X-mas time and since that guy was bored sitting around our place, Herr Husband being off to work, he trailed me about everywhere I went - except the bathroom - and he got me so confused talking me up while I had been mixing the dough, that only after the cookies sat in the oven, I noticed that I had forgotten to put in the ground almonds.
There are other stories if I dig around in my memory. Never mind, this year miracolously my Vanille Kipferl turned into flat cookies in the oven, I watched them facinated though the window. That never happened before and, thief's honour, I stuck to the recipe like a siamese twin.

Simply Enjoy!

And, by the Way...

December 8/10.....6:10 p.m.

The above header scene  you should look at with regret, it is a thing of the past. Where this peaceful country view had been, now sits the big,fat ugly new levee and we hope that it keeps its promise of keeping our feet dry.

Come on Leg!

December 7/10......7:05 p.m.

I am getting impatient! Every morning I inspect my effn leg and I think, yipee...improvement but as soon as I start walking around there it goes again, remembering that it should rather stick to the elephant look. The dilema is, that for the knee I should do a lot of walking around, to build up the muscles, but for the ankle it is rest and icepads. I have not yet found the proper way to combine both.
 At least our water leak in the kitchen,which according to our plumber had been a broken pipe, and he only could look after earliest next year, and till then, don't use the water in the kitchen, turned out to be simply a loose sealing gaiter, found out by the second plumber we called. - Climbing on ladders and/or chairs is still out, so no trimming of the X-mas tree. We have to look at the one at daughter's place. Have not baked a single cookie yet and since I can not drive a car, have not gotten one misely X-mas present. There are still two more weeks left, so no panic,or?
I am trying to think positive, the emphasis is on trying.

Not a Must before X-mas......

November 24/10......12:13 p.m.

....nor at any other time. Landfrau is talking about hitting a lamppost with the pedal of her bike and turning a summersault - achievement: sprained ligaments - right knee. Have been supplied with two crutches  by the emergency ward located in the hospital at our nextdoor little town.
Now, thinking herself a toughie Landfrau visited a small X-mas- market nearby next day(sunday) with daughter. Everything went fine, till daugther opened car and smart Landfrau put in crutches first and then tried to get into car with healthy leg first and whoom...there I was again - flat on my back next to the car and this time it had been the ankle which sat at an obviously not right angle and startet to swell up in a jiffy. So I begged daughter to take off my boot, in case it might be stuck later on , did not want my beloved Durangos to be cut open! And then we tested the emercency ward at the Helios Clinics in Krefeld , well known from Herr Husband's visits, since they have more facilities, like CT etc.  So there we sat for hours among other unfortunates and finaly X-ray showed, that nothing had been broken - fortunately. 
So this had been a hell of a weekend and now I am stuck with two crutches and a gadget called Orthese. My household and everything else is going down the drain and above all things I can not drive a car.  So it will get a bit thight for X-mas preparations and shopping, but the planned goose cooking on weekend I will not forgo - darn! Will try to manage whirling around with my rolling kitchen chair.
There  is a first time to everything!

A Cat's Point of View ?

November 15/10....6:59 p.m.

Landfrau stayed overnite at daugther' s  place to keep company of grandson, who dislikes staying all by himself , since both parents had been absent . It is also the home of mad Max, buddy from Herr Hund who now watches over us from dog's heaven and a cat named Maunz. Maunz and Herr Hund always had been fascinated by each other und this time had been the first time I had been visiting without Herr Hund. Maunz is a roamer and when  I came back from the morning walk with Max, the cat appeared coming home from his nightly adventures. So he came into the house with us, seated himself in the hallway and kept staring at me as if he tried to figure out if Herr Hund also was around, since he must have placed him belonging to me. And when I bent down to stroke his head, he raised himself on his hind legs, as if to say that without my dog I could be his friend. Up to this day he had been ignoring me. - Smart little fellow! 

Herr Hund, mad Max and Maunz

Another Kind of St. Martin's Day

November 11/10....11:21 a.m.

This really had been a scream! Now, friends, to learn something about the proper procedure, you have to trouble yourselves to look into my  p o s t  of a previous year. otherwise the following makes little sense.
The other day we had a phonecall from a cousin, whom we had not been seeing for quite some time. They live on the other side of the Rhein (rhine) so we do not run across each other so often. We decided to have a panacake feast in a restraurant in an old part of Düsseldorf, our (left) rhineside and since parking space is very rare in that district, we took my small car, so I could drop off Herr Husband,who is not able to walk distances any more. We were quite surprised that at 6 p.m. the streets were parked tight already, lots of traffic too, cars circling to find parking space, anyway, dropped Herr Husband off at the restaurant, not after a little quibble from Herr Husband's side, that it was the wrong place (it was not) and circling around to find a lot. After surrounding the block about 3 times I was lucky, could squeeze my car into a little spot and when I got out it dawned on me seeing out of the dark three guys leading a white horse without saddle and St. Martin - there had been the parade just finished and now the kids were swarming out to get their treats, and there they were dozens and dozens, all equipped with their little lanterns and singing. Pretty nice to see. I had quite a ways to walk to the restaurant, and from afar I spotted Herr H., cousin and wife, standing in front of the place. Of course, on account of the festivity in the quarter all restaurants had been  booked out for private parties and us four were in a jam. So, while walking to cousin's car, the nearest one, we passed a little place a bit off the side and I had the brilliant idea to walk in and ask if they would happen to have a table for us. It is an italien place and had opened up new fairly recently. And imagine, we were lucky and had excellent food and good wine. But we felt so sorry for the poor owner , sporadically the door opened and crowds of kids with their lanterns walked in and started singing and obviously no one had told the man that there was this custom of handing out treats. He had been so embarrassed, first he gave them money, but then he must have run out of change so he obviously wanted to sink into the ground. We then informed him about this kind of festivity and at least now he knows for the next year. He had been so grateful he filled us up with grappa and limocello after the meal for free. So I told HerrH. that I could not drive any more on accout of my alcohol level.  He drove home  (actually he hates driving my car, always claiming it is for midgets) . Being safely in the house, we reconstructed, that he had been drinking just as much as Landfrau, and he normally never drinks, except for a beer once a while. 
Ouch...and it had been my car - but his driver's licence!