Saturday, December 27, 2008

Dear Santa,

I have been a really, really good girl this year... ok, I'm officially a WOMAN... but, you know what I mean... and I only want one thing.. ok, two things..

My GERMAN INTERNET CONNECTION to be working again.. so, I can post photos, and have time to think of witty blog entries...

oh, yeah... and WORLD PEACE... that would be good too.

and maybe a way for right sized plastic lids to float in the air and land on the counter.. when you are looking for the 'right lid' for a particular plastic container.

Signed,

iwouldratherbeknitting... who likes to add photos to her blog entries...

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Snow and more snow is on its way

Actually, make that 4 days in a row of snow that has been predicted. So far, they have been right everytime that they have said it was going to snow. I now have new SNOW TIRES on my vehicle... and I never thought that I'd utter that statement- or have the need to purchase SNOW TIRES!

We still have snow on the ground the last time that it snowed. Last Friday, we had about 5-6 inches of snow during the night and the ROADS HAD NOT BEEN PAVED!!! Yikes! I was a slipping and a sliding all over the road... even with front wheel drive! The snow was packed and slick! It had snowed that fine mist type of snow and you know what that means? SLICK SNOW

I was so scared... and here I was the FIRST TIME that I had ever driven on snow and it was on snow packed roads for 14 miles!

On other weather news... about 10 days ago- I checked the weather report for that weekend's weather predictions to see if we'd have good weather for a proposed drive to see a German Christmas Market... and I had to laugh out loud when I saw the following day's weather prediction:

DULL and DREARY

It honestly said those words-- all other days had regular weather words: rain mixed with snow, cloudy, fog, windy/etc...

I could also argue that many days have already been dull and dreary... in the land of sunsets happening at 4:12pm... and total darkness by 4:30pm.

I'm hoping for no snow for this Saturday-- I want to go on the train to a Christmas Market and to see the city of Nuremberg all decked out for the holidays... and also to celebrate the first day of two weeks of FREEDOM... or school vacation!!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Freak Blizzard hits...

I have always said that my school location has its own weather system. I will drive to work on fog free roads until I get one mile from the school and sure enough you look up ahead and there is a heavy fog enclosing the school cloaking it from view. Often it will be raining only at the school and this 'unusual weather zone' was once again proven yesterday morning.

I was going to meet some friends to car-pool at 7:30 Saturday morning, to carpool to a Christmas Market about 2 1/2 hours away. I needed to stop by the school to pick something up prior to meeting my friends at the base. I was almost 3 miles from the school and the gentle rain started turning into that rain/snow mixture. No problem.. the tiny amount of snow that was there- melts as soon as it hits my windshield and the temperature gauge indicates that the temperature is above freezing.

Well, in less than 2 minutes and only about a mile and half from the school, I drove into what could only be described as a suddenly forming blizzard. The roads become completely covered and all visual landmarks disappeared in the heavy snow. I can see nothing and it is 7am! I can't tell if I'm on the road or not- which is not a good thing.. because, there are no shoulders on the local roads here. I actually stopped my vehicle on the road and as I was wondered what I should do... all past news reports, movie and TV images, about motorists stranded in blinding blizzard conditions rush into my mind. I could just see the headlines: "School teacher becomes stranded in a blinding blizzard only one mile from the safety of the school."

I finally decided that even if I tried to turn around and go back the way that I had just driven... that in these conditions- I wouldn't be able to backtrack, much less find a road entrance to turn around in or on anyway... so, I keep slowly creeping along driving carefully- knowing that somewhere up ahead the school is only about 2 miles away. The snow was falling so fast- that it was piling up on my windshield along the windshield wiper edges.

I finally found the 'off ramp' exit, for the school, and took it... going as slow as possible since it is a very sharp turn and downhill during normal road conditions- I finally see the school and all the street lights that are standing guard along the family housing area that is next to the school. At this point, I decided that I no longer need to stop at the school and instead needed to get back to the base and lower ground to meet my friends.

I creep along in the blizzard for another 2 1/2 miles to the base and when I am one mile away... there is only rain falling gently on my windshield and no evidence of snow on the ground or road. The only evidence that I had just driven through a blizzard was the snow quickly melting along the sides of my car and on the car hood.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

If this is Tuesday, snow must be falling 'again' in Germany

I now think that the word: SOUTHERN is an oxymoron...

After all, I'm in SOUTHERN GERMANY and there is nothing warm and southern about this place. It did snow and snow some more the weekend that I was refering to in my last posting. It proceeded to snow again everyday for the next few days. It snowed some last night and right now there is a snow/rain mix out there.

It is only December 2 and I'm tired of it already.

On the good news-- I went by train to my first Christmas Market in Germany last Friday. After all, I was just keeping that American tradition alive... SHOPPING the day after THANKSGIVING!

I did buy a few ornaments including a couple for myself. I went back to the yarn shop and looked around. I had taken a skein of yarn with me- so, that I could get another one to go with my friend's Christmas gift (I had knitted her a hat and fingerless mittens and had planned to send the extra yarn so that she could knit her own scarf to match.) WELL, I looked and looked last night for this yarn so that I could package up her gift...

and... that extra skein was nowhere to be found. Guess what I finally figured what had happened to the missing skein? My non-knitting friend was helping me look for that particular brand/color/etc... and one of us accidently kept it in the pile of yarn, that was stored on the table, that I was purchasing instead of putting it back in my BAG that I had brought with me into the store... so, yes... I bought the same skein of yarn twice (the first time on Veteran's Day) so... I ended up still ONE SKEIN SHORT and with one skein that cost double the cost.
SIGH...