Homeward Bound

I am leaving Germany. 

I am excited to be heading home to be closer to my family but.... oh how I will miss this place. 

I am so comfortable here.

But, it is time to go - for so many reasons. 

A new chapter in my life is going to be written.

Politics, an ugly business

I listen to these current batch of candidates vying for their party approval, verbally waving their own banner "I can beat the current sitting president!!! " So, I listen to the media sound bites that are broadcast and depending on the media outlet to which one listens, you get a confusing view of their political agenda. More like a pack of dogs confined in a ring trying to scare each other without really drawing blood. 

"We the people" must make a decision based on this rhetoric?  Sound bites do not get to the meat of the subject, what are your ideas for making policy and how will you implement them? How will you get these ideas through the barrage of hurdles which are named CONGRESS and SENATE? Certainly history shows that these two bodies have the power to destroy any promise of a plan made during the campaign process. 

Not one of these current candidates have been able to speak on how their plans will make it through those legislative bodies. I am listening......  

Comfort

What a woman loves best is ... when she takes off that bra at the end of a long day and sets her puppies free. Ahhhhhhhhh. Damn that feels good!

Do you want to live forever?

I have spent nearly 10 years here in Germany and with one man whom I met on line. We biked through Europe together which was our main connection. He's not an easy person to stay with and over the years I have gotten much information about him and his personality, from family members and from my own experience. Ours is the longest relationship he has had in his life. He bullies and controls with big brash bluffs of angry outbursts, some of which have nearly driven me away.  But I am the type of person that can 'make lemonade out of lemons'. I stayed because I wanted this European experience. I stayed because I wanted to learn about this culture and I stayed because I didn't have much of anything for which to go home. 

Don't get this statement wrong. I have certainly family, whom I love and love me. No question about that. But I had closed up many things when I left the USA. Technically I still 'live' at my father's home in Florida. It is my state-side address. But everyone in the USA has their own lives to live and I need to be autonomous too. Dad married 4 years ago and has had a wonderful life with her. It is their home now and I am the daughter that visits once a year, welcomed to be sure, for that time I am there. I don't live there anymore. Returning would mean intruding on their lives in some way which might be long term, given the state of the job market. My sons also have their own lives. So here I stay, with a job and a man to whom I am a friend and now a caretaker. 

How long will I be here, how much longer? His health is questionable and his illness is not under control. He is not good at maintaining the right combination of all his drugs and does not follow 'doctor's orders'. Perhaps more is the question, how long will he be here. Cause once he is 'gone' I will leave. 

Then my next step will be to return to the USA, but where? Close to my sons? Close to my 85 year old dad and his wife? Or strike out on my own and start up in a new place. Why I am thinking about all this? No, the man I am with is not about to expire but my thoughts do drift to this subject from time to time. 

It's a rainy night in Heidelberg and this helps to lay my brain waves out on the pavement like this.

Fine day for thankfulness

We attended the military Thanksgiving Day dinner at Patrick Henry Village in Heidelberg yesterday. It was so elegant. The food was beautiful to see and perfectly laid out on white linen. The food of course was done to perfection and tasted fine.

However the best part of this fine feast was the company of people I was in. These were also my friends, having been here for over 6 years, I knew most of with whom we dined and for that I was very Thankful.

Cross-section of life where I work

Another day at work. Yesterday was another rats nest of some kind of problem or other. All repaired, all fixed but time consuming and stress creating.

I must say, working on an American military complex, you do get an interesting cross section of people working for and with you. We have Germans, Philippians, Kenyans, Nigerians, one Korean and a few Americans working there. Fascinating. 

Room with a view please?

I think I will get a room at the Hotel California.

Another day... another week....

As 8:30am approaches I am ready for the day of tasks ahead. Most of what I do involves efficiency of movement, muliti-tasking and a constant thought of what needs to be done next. I supervise the setting up of a store for the days' operations which involves trouble-shooting the inevitable variables that come with that.

Nothing ever runs smoothly. 

Dealing with inanimate object is one thing ... then I must also deal with the animate... those people with whom I work,  inevitably they have 'issues' that prevent them from performing the tasks for which they are assigned and will then fall back upon others (like me!) I am the problem-solver!

Onward!