another trip...

 Today a friend and I took a bus trip with a church group to Turkeyville, Michigan (yes, it is a real place).  Turkeyville, north of Coldwater, is the site of Cornwell's Dinner Theater, a welcoming place with a bakery, gift shop, candy shop, restaurant, and, of course, the dinner theater.  At the dinner theater the dinner is always turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and all the fixings.  It was a good dinner, but really couldn't compete with the food on the Amadeus, although the coconut cream pie was quite tasty.  

The play was lots of fun.  It was "Church Basement Ladies" by Jim Stowell, Jessica Zuehike, and Drew Jansen.  The entire play took place in the basement kitchen of 'East Cornucopia Lutheran Church of the Prairie' somewhere in northern Minnesota.  As it happens, I was raised Lutheran and this play brought back some memories.  For instance, the kindly know it all boss of the kitchen, the fact/warning to the young woman that if you marry a Catholic you will have to sign your babies over to the pope.  I don't remember how this was supposed to be done but I do remember the warning.  I grew up in a small town, and until I went to college my only concept of a mixed marriage was a Catholic and a Lutheran.  All of this Lutheranism was set to some lively musical numbers.  My favorites were "The Pale Food Polka" and "This is Most Certainly True."  Anyone who ever studied Luther's Small Catechism will remember that phrase.  All in all a fun play that I recommend.  

It wasn't all perfect....

 Aboard our cruise ship, the MS Amadeus Imperial, life was generally very, very good.  I quickly got used to being waited on at every meal, having our bedroom and bathroom cleaned daily, bed turned down at night, lovely hot drinks when we returned from tours, and glasses of champagne being passed around from time to time (it would have been impolite to refuse). You get the idea.  But alas, all was not perfect in paradise.  

I couldn't learn to adjust the shower.  My roommate didn't seem to have any trouble with this so it was obviously operator error, but no matter what I did, I had to wait for a very long time for hot water, then, of course it was too hot.  All very frustrating.  I must admit I was happy to get home to my shower, with simple on/off controls and no extra buttons to push.  

But enough about that.  Here's a cute puppy picture I took on one of our walking tours.

Sorry it's blurry, but this is a wire-haired Dachshund. Our miniature Dachshund Remington was half wire-haired.  This could have been his cousin.  This dog doesn't seem to be thrilled about walking in the rain.  Remington did not like rain either.  I thoroughly sympathized.  

and speaking of wine

 

The view from the castle ruins.

One of my favorite stops was the ruin of an amazing castle in Heidelberg.  Our guide kept insisting that this was a ruin, not a castle, although it certainly started life as a castle with a very romantic story. Girl loves boy (royalty style) but she must marry an old man (young boy's uncle I think) for political reasons. But, just before the wedding, the old man dies, so girl is allowed to marry her young love.  He builds her a lavish castle and they evidently live happily ever after, if 12 children are any indication.  

One feature of the ruin was, deep in a basement, a huge wine barrel, believed to be the largest in the world.  Evidently the peasants paid their annual taxes in wine, all of which was poured into the large wine barrel.  We were told that the resultant mixture didn't taste very good and, because I have a nasty suspicious mind, I found myself wondering if the peasants, not thrilled by the lavish lifestyle of the loving couple, may have contributed some bodily fluids to the mix. 

Cheers!!

 We took a little side trip on our journey and cruised for a while on the Mosel River.  It's a beautiful area of vineyards and, of course, castles and cathedrals.  We toured the old city of Cochem, and were treated to a wine tasting.  I was delighted to learn that this area of the Rhine and Mosel specializes in white wines, especially Riesling.  I am partial to white wine and the samples we tasted were very good, but I must admit, I've tasted equally good wine from various areas in the US, including Indiana.  This may be a reflection of my lack of discrimination or it may simply mean that US wines (often from the same roots) are also very good.  In addition to the wine tasting, we were treated to wine with dinner every evening.  Since, in my ordinary life, I average one glass of wine every month or so, I've had my quota for 2022 and beyond.  

Some of the vineyards were so steep, running up and down on the hillsides, that it was hard to imagine anyone being able to harvest the grapes.  In fact one wine's name was "Dangerous" (or the German equivalent) not because it was unsafe to drink, but because the grapes are so difficult to work with.  Still, the hillside vineyards were a beautiful sight.  

the list

 I said I would be writing about features of my trip in no particular order, but people keep asking me which cities we went to so I thought I should at least list the cities.  We flew into Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, took a tour of the canals of this Venice of the North, and eventually cruised onto the Rhine.  Cologne was our first stop in Germany, then Cochem, on the Moselle River, Koblenz and Rudesheim, Mannheim and Speyer. After Germany we dipped our toe into France to visit Strasbourg, then ended our trip in Switzerland with time in Lucerne before flying home from Zurich.  In each city we visited the old historic sites, castles, cathedrals and streets of lovely old buildings.  We were frequently reminded that buildings aren't considered old in Europe unless they are at least 500 years old. 

This is a street in Cologne.  If you look carefully at the white building to the left of the yellow one, you will see the             numbers 1 6 8 5 above the windows.  This isn't the address, it's the year it was built.

tick tock

I plan to comment on highlights of my trip in no particular order in the next few blogs. Today's topic is a very special clock.

This clock is located inside the cathedral of Notre Dame in Strasbourg, France.  It's at least 30 feet tall, maybe 40, first installed in the 1500s.  We arrived in time to see the little boy at the top of the clock run past the skeleton.  This section of the clock depicts the death of time and humans.  In the course of an hour, four figures move in a circular path around the skeleton, first a little boy, then a young man, then a mature person and finally an old person.  Just under that is a sphere that depicts the phases of the moon.  It was a crescent when we saw it.  Next is a depiction of the solar system.  Interestingly, this originally showed the earth at the center.  When it was discovered that the sun was the center of the universe they changed it.  Just under that is an actual clock face where you can check the time.  There are many, many more features like cupids and little figures striking gongs.  It is the most entertaining clock I have ever seen; a perfect marriage of accuracy and artistry.

I'm back....

 It was a lovely cruise.  The castles along the Rhine were as picturesque as promised, the old towns we explored were fascinating, if a bit rainy at times, and the food on the Amadeus Imperial, our river cruise ship, was incredible.  I gained five pounds, but they promised the pounds would come off quickly.  They are probably right since I don't generally eat four course meals three times a day.  This was a first cruise since the pandemic for the ship as well as most of the passengers, 80 of us to 45 crew members.  Needless to say we got lots of excellent attention.  I highly recommend a river cruise.  

Here's one of those castles.  Lucky?? for you I have lots more pictures and they all seem to have magically loaded onto my laptop from my phone/camera.  Perhaps thanks to the mysterious 'cloud?'

a tough fight...

 I'm almost finished packing.  I really admire people who can travel for months with only a tiny carry-on, but that's not me.  I have probably over packed but I still have only one largish suitcase and one carry-on. Thank goodness for suitcases on wheels. The carry-on is larger than my usual, but I've heard so many stories about lost luggage that I decided I really should carry one change of clothes with me.  Hopefully I won't end up as one of those travelers with just a carry-on.  The packing process has gone fairly smoothly except for one little glitch.  Last week I made a rushed trip to Walmart and did the self checkout to save time.  Today I realized that I should have removed the plastic security case from the SanDisk card I bought for my camera.  Let me tell you, those plastic cases are tough.  They ought to wrap that stuff around cars.  After attacking that case with a hammer, pry bar, wrench, table knife and church key, I finally admitted defeat and took a quick trip back to Walmart.  The nice lady at the customer service counter couldn't get the case open either.  I just might have damaged the unlocking mechanism in my efforts to open it.  But they very nicely replaced it with a new package, removed the plastic case on that one, and sent me on my way.  Now all I need to do is break into the blister pack so I can load the card into my camera.  So long for now.  I'll send my next blog on the 24th.

getting close

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is "I'm on Top of It Day." Well, I'm not on top of it, at least not quite yet.  I was 'on top of it' as far as the reunion was concerned.  Everything happened as planned.  I even mailed out the directories to those who weren't able to attend, so my job there is done.  Now all my attention is on my quickly upcoming trip.  A friend and I are leaving Wednesday for a cruise on the Rhine River.  I finished all my laundry today, made sure I had the luggage I needed, by buying a new carry-on bag at Vera Bradley, filled out a card to have my mail held, delivered the necessary contact information to my son and daughter and made sure my daughter will water my plant.  I know, I know, the new VB bag wasn't absolutely necessary, but a friend gave me a gift card so I felt compelled to use it.  I'm sure you understand.  I wouldn't want to seem ungrateful. And it's a good bag with lots of outside pockets.  So here it is, almost tomorrow and I still need to pack everything and make sure my big bag doesn't weigh more than 50 pounds (it never does).  Maybe I'll be on top of it tomorrow.  

pass the apples

 The Johnny Appleseed Festival (JAF) is almost upon us.  For the first time in several years I won't be able to help bake cookies, because I will be traveling. I am not too upset about this.  It is hard work.  Members of our church bake cookies to sell at the JAF every year.  It is the major fundraiser to support our day school.  First Pres bakes cookies and one of our neighboring churches, St. John's Lutheran, bakes pies, apple of course.  Today I stopped by the pie church to pick up my order of two frozen pies.  Pre-sales are done in both churches.  There were several people working away in their kitchen when I walked in; peeling apples, slicing apples and generally working away like little elves assembling pies.  My friend, a member there, from whom I had ordered my pies, introduced me and explained that I was from the church that baked the cookies.  One of the gentlemen piped up and said that pies were much harder to bake than cookies.  But when I informed him that we bake 14,000 cookies he allowed that that was probably almost as hard as the 1500 pies they bake.  Their pies are delicious but our cookies, especially the molasses ones in my opinion, are sublime.  Nothing like a little church rivalry to produce amazing results.

reunion wrap-up

 Well, the planned for, worked for, fretted over reunion is in the books.  And I am happy to say it was a big success.  The food was very good, There were lots of laughs, memories shared, and plenty of good conversations.  And there was sadness; classmates who couldn't be there because of cancer, dementia, or other illnesses.  But one great joy for me was a friend who came to the first reunion she had ever attended.  It turned out she wasn't mad at us all those years, just busy taking care of a very ill husband.  

In conversation it came out that there really was a goat running loose in the school one day, although there was some debate as to whether it ever actually made it all the way to the roof.  Some people seemed skeptical about the story until one lady spoke up and said she knew for a fact that the goat had been let loose in the school (it was a senior prank -you know this was a country school) because she rode to school with the boy who had the goat in the back seat of his car.  

One last thought, when I was in high school I really hated being the tallest girl in the whole school, even taller than most of the boys, but today, being the tallest person in the room didn't bother me at all.  It just meant that I had shrunk less than anyone else.  Let's hear it for tall genes.

pre-reunion prep

The brunch, mani/pedi and hair cut went well.  Everything I need to take along is loaded in my car.  We plan to have a table of old pictures and other stuff for classmates to marvel over at the reunion tomorrow.  One of our classmates has told me that he has copies of the obituaries of each of our classmates who has died.  Not much fun but interesting.  I spent part of the evening gathering up my yearbooks and other pictures from that era.  We all looked so young and so confident, especially in our senior pictures, as if we really knew what we were getting into.  Ha ha ha ha ha.  I was pleased that I could still name almost everyone.  Not at all sure if I will be able to tomorrow.  

it's almost time...

 The big day is almost upon us.  In two days we will be celebrating our 60 year high school reunion.  One of my out of town classmates arrived today and is staying with me.  Tomorrow we will be having brunch with five classmates (kind of a mini pre-reunion).  Then I will spend a big part of the afternoon having a manicure and pedicure and haircut.  Of course, none of these procedures will make me look one day younger, but hope springs eternal.  My only consolation is that everyone in my class is about my age so they probably won't look much younger.  If they do, I will want to know their secret, or meet their plastic surgeon.  Happily for all of us, we have had reunions regularly every five years, so we're only looking at five more years of aging here, not the full 60 years, unless of course, you're one of the very few who are coming back this year for the first time in 60 years.  What a shock to their system this will be.  My real puzzle though is how I ended up accidental treasurer and secretary of this group.  I was never a class officer, I was never one of the cool kids, I had a few friends but I was never 'popular.'  And I was shy and geeky. I have had a committee of four others helping me this year, but I wrote and mailed the invitations, I've deposited all their checks, I hired the caterer, another committee member and I bought the decorations.  I rented the community center, and have the secret code to get in.  Saturday morning I will be one of a few coming early to set up tables and decorate.  A couple of the ladies have volunteered their strong husbands to help set up the tables.  But when 11am comes around and people start arriving for our lunch time reunion (none of us wants to drive after dark) it will all have been worth it, I think.  Of course, if anything goes wrong, I'll blame it on the other committee members.  They were the cheerleaders and popular ones.  

too much stuff...

 A friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous, has the unenviable job, with the help of his wife and others, of cleaning out a large old house lived in for the last several years by his parents-in-law.  Sadly, both of them died within two months of each other, earlier this year.  My friend was named executor of the estate, which in this case means he has to deal with the financial aspects of the estate and also all of the accumulated stuff of two champion hoarders or one hoarder and one enabler.  I don't think any of the remaining family members realized quite how bad conditions had become, but today my friend texted me to tell me how things were going, and mentioned that today alone they had hauled away six dump truck loads, and that was just from one floor of the house.  I found it quite a challenge to clean out my house when I downsized, but my late husband's hoarding tendencies were nothing compared to this.  I have offered them my deepest sympathy.  I have not offered to help with the clean up.  I would probably slow things down when I got sidetracked looking for hidden treasures.  I'm still hung up on Antiques Roadshow.

a tough choice...

 Today is 'Fight Procrastination Day' but it's also 'Read a Book Day.' Now I ask you, what kind of a mixed message is that?  I do my very best procrastination (and I am a world class procrastinator) when I have a good book to read.  When I was about twelve years old, and reading whenever I could, my mother said to me "You can't read your life away."  Maybe not, but I've certainly done a lot of reading along the way.  Which reminds me, I have a really good book waiting on my bedside table.  I'll blog tomorrow.

a rare find...

 I really shouldn't watch Antiques Roadshow.  Don't get me wrong.  I love the show, but it always gets me wondering if any of the old stuff in my apartment is worth big bucks.  Alas, there is a difference between rare antiques and old stuff.  I especially like the stories of rare, valuable paintings or other art objects found tucked away in an attic somewhere.  The closest my husband and I ever came to finding something valuable was when he explored the crawl space built off the basement of the wonderful old house on Lexington, built in 1917, that we owned for a few years.  The basement was light and bright and partly finished, but the crawl space was dark and spooky.  I don't do dark and spooky but my husband was curious enough to do some exploring.  The only find was a bushel basket full of canning jars and other dusty glassware, jumbled in the basket and covered with a piece of newspaper.  The newspaper was great, a page of Sunday colored comics from 1935 (the year my husband was born).  That was my husband's favorite discovery.  My favorite were the eight BALL Ideal green glass canning jars; the kind with the glass lids held on with wire fasteners.  Since I'm a Ball State graduate, I have a special fondness for those jars, the family who produced them, and the big bucks they donated to Ball State.  In case you're wondering, I've given away some over the years, but I still have four which I use as tea canisters.  There you have it, my story of hidden treasure.

my kind of pet...

 My west coast brother informs me that today is "Pet Rock Day."  Do you remember Pet Rocks?  I don't think I never had one but, as I recall, they could be bought with accessories.  It was a craze that made a nice amount of money for somebody, according to Google $15,000,000.  Also according to Google, genuine pet rocks are smooth stones from Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico, sold in their own boxes, with straw and air holes.  The fad only lasted for about six months in 1975 ending at Christmas time.  Maybe they ran out of rocks?  From time to time I think I might like to have a pet.  I do see a lot of cute dogs during my elevator rides, and even an occasional cat.  But then I think cats and dogs are a lot of work; maybe a gerbil or parrot or some fish?  No, never fish, but that's a different story.  A pet rock is an appealing idea.  No mess, no fuss, no noise.  Originally they sold for $3.95 but now I might have to spend $45 for one plus $50 for a can of pet rock food.  I think I shall continue to be petless, at least for now.  

very interesting...

As part of my recent negotiations to get a better price on my automobile insurance, I agreed to be part of a plan called "Know Your Drive."  Ultimately, if I prove that I'm a consistently good driver, I'll get an additional 10% deduction on my rate.  I followed Instructions and installed the app on my phone, then forgot to turn it on the first time I went driving.  Imagine my surprise when I checked later and discovered the app had automatically started tracking my drives.  On the first day, it tracked my two drives, to and from a store, and also my two rides to and from lunch with a friend.  I was intrigued to see that the app could tell when I was driving and when I was just riding along.  It also shows me little maps of where I've been.  So far, all of my drives have been rated "distraction free" which is good.  Of course when almost all of my drives are within five miles of down town Fort Wayne, it's pretty easy to drive safely, and I can't really speed.  I must admit though, I think it's just a little creepy to know I'm being tracked.  Although, who knows what other apps are tracking me all the time?  I wonder if it will track my trip when I fly to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks?

hand me a pencil...

 Today is National Doodle Day.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the goat on the roof, but I want to re-hear the whole story about it at the reunion before I write about it.  In the meantime, about doodling.  I have always loved to doodle.  Sometimes little pictures, sometimes swirls and scribbles, sometimes little 3D boxes.  As a matter of fact, when I took a mental acuity test last year, one challenge was drawing a 3D transparent cube.  I drew that picture with no problem.  My doctor was quite impressed.  He said a lot of people can't do that.  I was a little surprised since I've been doing it for years.  So many years, in fact, that I got in big trouble for it in eighth grade.  Not just boxes, all kinds of doodles.  In eighth grade, in Lutheran school, we were getting ready for Confirmation which means we spent a great deal of time studying Luther's Small Catechism. We students listened, in varying states of inattentiveness, while our teacher (who I really did like very much) went on and on explaining what every line of every question and answer meant.  Our ultimate goal was to memorize the entire book before Confirmation so we could sit in front of the congregation on Palm Sunday and answer all the questions.  But one day in class, my teacher happened to glance down at my book and realized that I was doodling as I listened, and that, in fact, I had doodled in all of the margins on many many pages of that little book as we reviewed it.  I didn't understand what the fuss was about.  After all, I owned the book.  It was my own personal copy, but you would have thought I had desecrated the Bible.  I'm pretty sure that's the word he used.  By the way, I do not doodle in my Bible, but I have learned, over the years, that it is ok (lightening will not strike) to underline, and even highlight things in a Bible.  But I didn't try it in 1958. I'm sure you understand.