September 2nd: Altona, Germany
Bob: Monika had to tie up some financial loose ends, so after breakfast we took the bus over to the local bank and settled her affairs there, but that all took well over an hour and pretty much killed off the morning. We returned home and walked a bit on our normal path around Bramfelder See to get some exercise, after which Heinke prepared a nice lunch and we fooled around doing computer things (and updating the journal in my case), until it was time to take off to visit Mammi's grave in Altona. At Mammi's grave, Heinke and Monika weeded and trimmed the plants that had been growing rather well that summer, and then we watered the plants just to make sure all the plants would continue to thrive. |
Monika: I had made an appointment with the guy in charge of the bank office, where I had a bit of money and Heinke and Bob came with me. I wanted it set up, so that I could handle everything over the internet without having to involve Heinke. Herr Witt was a young man who was extremely well prepared for this meeting. He laid everything out and we settled everything to my satisfaction. Discussing general economic issues such as recent German bank mergers extended our visit, and Herr Witt devoted an hour to us, which is clearly more than I had expected. We returned home to walk a bit before Mittagessen. |
Bob: From the cemetery we walked back into Altona to have dinner with Kim, Monika's niece who now permanently resides in Germany. We found her at the "Little Gallery" where she displays and sells her artwork and took her over for some pizza at a nearby restaurant. While we ate we caught up with what had been happening in her life for the last few years and told her about what had been happening with our boys. We returned home late enough that we just had a drink and went to bed. |
Monika: Heinke and Gustl found some plates they liked, so they were happy. We slowly wound our way to the Little Gallery and surprised Kimi. We saw her latest works and then all went to a nice little restaurant that had very good pizza. Catching up on what everyone was doing made for a nice meal. Afterwards we just headed home and to bed. |
Bob:
I was still suffering from jet lag, however, and around 3 a.m. I awoke and was tossing and turning for about an hour. In the meantime, apparently, my worry center was awake while the critical judgment part of my brain was still fast asleep. I worried about Bush's lazy and lackadaisical performance as President in the peaceful era prior to the events of 9/11, his poor execution of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as Commander-In-Chief after 9/11, and his record-low performance ratings by the American people during much of his second term. Then all of a sudden my sense of humor woke up and told me that President Bush was just like the ubiquitous sausages that we have seen for sale everywhere in Germany, because he was, to paraphrase the immortal words that Lighthorse Harry Lee used to characterize the very first George W., "Wurst in war, Wurst in peace, and Wurst in the heart of his countrymen!" Can you imagine what it's like to live with a sense of humor like that? I was silently groaning after such a bad joke, which made it really hard to get to sleep. I finally had to use deep meditation techniques to shut up my sense of humor, after which I managed to get back to sleep.
Copyright 2009 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt| Index |
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