Friday, August 3, 2012

A Few Minor Setbacks

Friends, I'm writing to you from an unexpected location today. I'm not sipping wine by the shores of the Mediterranean. I'm also not sitting in a pub in Scotland or touring a vineyard in Italy. I'm at the local library. Yesterday my loyal laptop of over six years decided it was time to call it a life. It crashed and burned in the middle of a Skype session with my mom.

What else has happened since our return from Ireland? Well, my bicycle was stolen. Poor Arline was snatched from a train station. A new bike is on order. It should have been here at the beginning of the week but it's now Friday and I'm still waiting. I feel truly enculturated into Dutch society now that I've experienced the loss of a bicycle. I suppose it was only a matter of time.

In spite of recent setbacks, the German "summer" days are passing along and I can't believe it's already August. Sometimes the weather is nice and sunny; we've even had several UV index warnings. But after getting a sunburn on Monday it's possible to wake up to dreary skies and a 15-degree temperature drop on Wednesday. I remember how nice and somewhat constant the weather was when we arrived in October and I'm hoping for the same when it comes around again.

In the meantime I'm preparing for visits from some friends and my brother in the next two months. It's very exciting to have people to show around and it will be fun to see everything anew from fresh sets of eyes.

So RIP to my laptop and Arline. Hopefully nothing else is stolen or breaks for a while!

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