MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

Unfair! (she cries)

Okay, so maybe nobody would ever call a speeding ticket "fair." But this particular speeding ticket I got yesterday seemed particularly unfair. And particularly expensive-- $142 for going 16 miles over the speed limit. I should put that 16 miles in quotation marks, because that is the unfair part.

You see, I was crossing the Lake Street bridge here in Minneapolis, going east. This bridge is a long hill, and you of course accelerate to climb a hill. As you are climbing this particular hill, you can't see the other end of the bridge, so as you crest the hill, you are at the peak of acceleration, and then, as usual, you gradually slow down as you are approaching the interesection at the end of the bridge. The police care was waiting at the intersection, and I was truly surprised when he flashed his lights at me and pulled me over. I hadn't felt like I was speeding-- people usually know when they are. I was so surprised when he said I was going 46 mph. The speed limit on the bridge is 30 (I thought it was 35, but the speed limit sign is posted more than half-way across the bridge, just after you crest that hill, which means you are looking ahead to the intersection you couldn't see until the crest, not looking for speed limit signs). Nobody goes 30 on the bridge... so there's the whole "driving with the traffic" principle in here too.

Anyway, the reason why I think this is a mean and unfair speeding ticket is because he radared me just after I'd crested the hill, which I'd naturally accelerated to climb. I had just started down the hill and he must've got me just before I started to slow down--- that point at which you're now going down hill and your speed appears faster. I wasn't going 46 mph on a flat road. I was coming down a hill.

I also have, as part of my excuse, the fact that anti-war protesters were all over the bridge yesterday. These protesters are on the bridge every Wednesday evening, but they are doing a special 3 day fasting protest, so they have been on the bridge during the day as well. So that was very distracting.

What bugs me is that we all see people who are truly driving recklessly all over the place-- dangerous speeding, abrupt lane changing, tail gaters-- and these people are rarely stopped by the police, even though they are endangering others. But someone who is accelerating up a bridge and going with the traffic gets "caught" "speeding"-- not really doing anything reckless or dangerous at all.

And of course this police officer had found his gold mine for the day, because after I got the ticket, I went home and got our camera, so I could take pictures of the protesters and the hill you have to climb going over the bridge. I wanted to fight this ticket downtown, at least get it cut in half ($142 is ridiculous!). And there was my officer, sitting there and catching all these speeders as they crested the hill.

It is so nice to know that are city is safe from all these reckless speeders on the Lake Street bridge. And how about that rising murder rate for Minneapolis?

A New School Year

And so it begins. This morning we all got up extra early and got to the respective schools pretty early. The high schoolers, having missed the open house last week where they handed out schedules, needed to pick up their schedules, and then see if they were adequate-- otherwise, they'd have to meet with school counselors to try and make any changes. It's also picture day for them, which seem odd and chaotic. Then I dropped D off at his school, where he has now moved to the middle school wing (he's entering 6th grade). We missed his open house too, so I walked him in to help him find his room, since he wanted me to. He is not yet to the stage of not wanting to be seen with me.

In any event, I am sure they are having a great time getting to see their friends again. I'm eager to hear about the first day when they come home!

And then it was back to my routine at the gym. Last spring, after having knee problems that sent me in for physical therapy, I got serious about exercise and started going to the YWCA every weekday, if possible. I would drop the kids at school, and since the high school is right by the Y, I would go straight there. It really works for me, and it felt good to be back on the machines. I did get lots of exercise on the trip, with all that walking around. I even lost weight on the trip-- 8 lbs, not bad! Despite bread and sausages!

It also helped that I have now entered the 21st century as regards music technology. I have an MP3 player! I have been using an old CD Walkman for the last 10 years whenever I go workout. I can remember Walkmans with cassete tapes! In the last year, the CD Walkman had been losing some of its features, like the digital display not working anymore. But it still played CDs and I didn't have any reason to buy something new. It looked so big and clunky compared to these little MP3s, and sometimes it skipped, and I had to listen to one CD at a time. But just before we went to Germany, I dropped it at the gym and that was it. I could still play CDs but it skipped all the time. So I decided I'd have to try out one of those new fangled MP3 thingies... that have been around for, well, ages now.

Anyway, I don't have a fancy one, but it suits my purpose and it is so nice and light! And I can put all sorts of music in it. Wee!

And now, back to routines. I'm eager to get back to writing. I haven't done much besides blog and journal for the last month, so now it is time. It does feel like a new year!

(And weird to think a week ago we were in Neumarkt eating lunch with the Burgermeister! It seems like such a faraway time now...)

Home Exchange 2006

Well, Bob just drove off with the G family in our van to take them to the airport. We arrived home in Minneapolis at 5:30 pm, which according to our body clocks on German time, was more like 12:30 am. It was a long boring flight with a crying baby; we got to watch two somewhat entertaining films-- Ice Age 2 and Take the Lead, a movie starring Antonio Banderas playing a high school teacher who turns detention time into ballroom dance lessons for tough innercity kids. Not too bad, and it used up about 3 1/2 hours of a 8 hour flight.

Then the Gs picked up at the airport, and we had a fun night talking about our respective vacations and the differences between America and Europe. The kids played and we got some pizza. Then this morning, we had a small birthday cake because it was their daughter L's 8th birthday today. She opened some presents and we had cake for breakfast.

And now they are off, for their long day of flying--they go from Minneapolis to Detroit, then from there to Frankfurt, where T's father will pick them up for the 3 hour drive home. They will probably be home by 11 am on Saturday. They get to lose 7 hours this time, whereas we picked our up again on the way home.

Our last few days in Germany were pretty low key. We hung out at the house, relaxing after Leipzig, started cleaning the house and restocking their pantry. We were invited to lunch at the Burgermeister's house (K's mom and dad, and were joined by K's sister and BIL and two kids). They fixed us a traditional Bavarian meal, which was bratwurst, sauerkraut, potatoes, and some thick chunks of what seemed like bacon. It was the first time, believe it or not, that I'd been offered sauerkraut in Germany, and while I haven't cared for it much the few times I've had it at home, here it was "gut." They also had dessert-- ice cream with a splash of amaretto, cookies, coffee. They were all so friendly and kind, and we all had a lot of fun.

Bob ate his last pretzel (called breze) just as we were boarding the plane in Nurnberg. Of course you can't really get good, fresh, chewy pretzels like that here in America, unless there"s a street cart somewehere in New York City that has them.

It is odd being home after being gone for 5 weeks. At first, it was hard to remember where some stuff was, or how to turn on my computer! But it's all coming back to me. I'm trying to relearn the American keyboard, though-- my fingers still want to hit the wrong keys for z, y, ?, -, @, " All these keys and a few more are in different places on German keyboards, and my fingers had kinda gotten used to it.

All in all, our first time doing a home exchange was a great success, an experience that I highly recommend. We stayed in a great house in a small town in Germany for free, essentially ($80 for the Home-link website membership), we met a really wonderful and friendly family who stayed in our house, we got to meet neighbors and family members of theirs in Germany who were ever so kind to us, and we had an amazing vacation, getting to see some great cities in Europe. Our kids got to experience life outside the US and get a great education about life in many ways.

It was bittersweet leaving Neumarkt yesterday morning. We felt like we had lived there, even if just for a short time. We were getting to know the area and how things worked, and we enjoyed staying in their house so much. We were eager to go home, but sad to leave.

But now I'm going to go and look at my own house again. I want to let it sink in that I'm really home....