A NEW REALITY - CORONA

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Well, as with the rest of the world, the last few weeks have really implanted some different realities into my world. No way to hide from it. The Corona Virus (COVID-19) has really affected everyone, and I'm just hoping that it's not going to stay around forever.

Kind of a crazy time for a worldwide pandemic to hit, just as I was kinda getting settled in to my new world. But, you can't control the craziness of the world or people, so that's just all how it plays out! With that, here's what's been going on since I last checked in.

Also, towards the end, the timeline kinda jumps around a bit. If it doesn't make sense, sorry, but I tried to match things up as best as possible. Anywho, enjoy!

Housing

Shortly after my last post, the movers came and I got all my stuff! It only took a couple hours to get everything in and roughly unboxed. Then the real process began (and is still ongoing) of getting the place set up and cozy. First things first, and the most important thing, my chair made it safely. :-)

It's been SOOOOO nice to have a place. No joke, I probably would have flown home if I didn't have a place to live amidst this pandemic. Quarantine in a hotel? No way.

First things first, I set up everything I had. That took a bit, but was enjoyable. Seeing all my stuff make it across the world was a good sign, and being able to then put some color into the sterile white rooms was comforting. The biggest part of it though - being able to finally sleep on my own bed. Oh yes. Second part, my shoe rack made it intact.

After that, then the most important things to do were to get my bikes back up and running! Two months without my two wheels of fury is way too long. But they both arrived safe and sound, and all my tools were on hand to get them up and running. BOOM BABY!!!

I barely had time to get all that initial work done before the next adventure began.

Erster Besucher - First Visitor

That night I headed down to the train station to welcome my old friend Lutz! He had a week off of work and his last stop on the trip was to come down and hang out with me! Good timing with the apartment and such, but he came in late at night and we headed back to my place to chat for a bit before hitting the sack.

With a little rest we woke up and did what we did together back in Hamburg - made a nice, comfy breakfast. With that, we had to figure out what to do for the day. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't all that hot. But we weren't going to stay cooped up inside all day. The solution? A little walk around town.

The walk was nice, easy, showing some parks and cool parts of Karlsruhe. But soon enough we found ourselves back home and itching to get out on the bikes. Despite the rain, we jumped out on the bikes and headed towards the Rhein.

Well, it turned out to be WAY wetter than we anticipated. We made it under the Rhein Bridge and paused for a bit trying to decide what to do next. Wet and soaked, but we had to somehow make it back to town. Nothing we couldn't manage.

After a wet ride back, we made it home and quickly got to drying off and warming up. Didn't take too long, and it felt really good to be back out of the rain. That night for dinner, I started my process of feeling at home and made my typical bachelor dish - rice, meat, and veggies. All cooked up and mixed together. It's simple as all get out, but suuuuuper delicious. Another laid back night full of good conversation and hanging out, then off to bed.

The next day, the rain abated a bit, so we decided to try our luck again with walking around town. Despite the cold, we ventured out and saw some cool stuff. First we made our way over to the Schloss Park. Upon walking in, we splurged and paid for entry into the botanical gardens. I had no idea there was one in Karlsruhe, but it was a really nice place to slow down and enjoy the greenery inside!

Back out in the cold, we wandered a bit more around the castle grounds. Slowly the cold started to get to us, so we hunted for a cafe to try out. Me still being new to Karlsruhe, I hunted around for a place that was more a Portland Cafe kinda place, and found one over in the east side of the city. Made sense, that's where the university is.

So we wandered over and were surprised at the cool little spot. Big open space with tons of artwork on the wall, we posted up, got some coffee, and started to chill. Luckily, Lutz was interested in learning to play backgammon, so I brought my little travel board (thanks Zack!!!) with and we played in the cafe. Hardly a better way to spend the day!

Rested up and ready to venture back out, our walk around town continued. This time it was a bit aimless, so we just kinda journeyed around and saw what came. Slowly we headed to the southwest part of the city. I thought there was something cool to see down there, but it started to just turn into industrial apartments and kinda barren streets.

At some point we were walking along another big building and I said fuck it and we went in. As luck would have it, we stumbled into the Center for Art and Media. Sweet find!!! Not sure if it's an ongoing exhibit or not, but they had a big space dedicated to the evolution of media. The entrance was kinda cool, with a bunch of various AI setups, and one that tries to classify you. Two beefs - I am not 35 and my beard is totally a 1.

Cool exhibit to peruse through though, with a bunch of stuff on print media, TVs, and eventually getting into what it'll look like down the road.

From there, we walked through another park, saw some more of the southwest part of town, but then eventually looped back home to hang out for a bit. More conversation, more food, then we headed out for a night on the town.

First stop was Heilige Sophie, a quaint little bar right around the corner from my place. Lutz and I grabbed a spot to sit and some drinks, and shortly thereafter my buddy Christoph joined the party. Good times, hanging out, talking about a lot of Christoph's studies and the evolution of childhood development. Definitely some interesting stuff.

Lutz had a hankering to go to a club, so off we went. Stadtmitte, I think, is where we headed. It was dead when we got there, but don't worry. We brought the party. Not gonna lie, it'd been a long time since I'd been to a club, but had a good time. It's nice once you stop giving a fuck and just have some fun!!!

Pan au Chocolat

The initial plan for Sunday was to go for a nice long bike ride. Thankfully, the weather looked like it would play along, so all was on. First idea was to ride down to Baden-Baden, check out one of the richest areas in Germany, then ride back.

I think it was when we were talking to Christoph, but somehow the topic of France came up, and with it the realization that Karlsruhe is mere kilometers away from the border of France. With that knowledge, plans immediately changed. We had to ride to France and go get some Pan au Chocolat from a Boulangerie. Sounds good to me!

A semi-early rise with a light snack to hold us off until the golden prize, and we were off! A couple bike fixes along the way, but we made our way out of the city and on to the bike paths outside of town. To add to the fun, I found us a route that would have us take a ferry over the Rhein to get to France. Dope sauce.

The way slowly got more and more rural and more into the sticks. An enjoyable ride, we were taking our time and getting a good bit of fresh air along the way.

Through farms and forests and streams and dams, we made our way down to Neuburgsweier ready to jump on a boat and ford the river! Well, that dream was quashed pretty quickly. The high water levels and the offseason times were a bad combination for us as we realized that this ferry was not currently in service. HUGE bummer.

Now we had to reevaluate. My typical weak mind was kinda ready to change plans. But Lutz was gung-ho. No stopping us now. Thankfully, another stretch up the river was another ferry. We sure hoped this one was up and running, but we motored on down there anyways. Another hour on the pedals and we'd made it.

Thankfully, we also arrived to good tidings - the ferry was running! A short wait before we could get on, but we saw it slowly chugging across the river to come pick us up. It's a tiny little rig, with space enough for 6 cars and a bunch of bikes. But no matter, we were all aboard and ready to set sail!

It was all of 5 minutes before we'd crossed the treacherous waters and ended up in another land. Hey France! We'd made it! From the dock, it was just a few kilometers over to the next town of Seltz to go find our floury chocolatey goodness!

Not sure what I was thinking, but the place felt dead. It was a tiny little village, Seltz, but there seemed to be nothing going on. Maybe we just had our summer expectations on, hoping for bakeries and cafes all over the place. But we rolled into town and were struggling to find a place to go.

It was unfortunately around this time as well that I started to get a little hangry. That never helps a situation, and it didn't here either. Lutz was super eager to find the perfect place, but I was just ready to find some place. It didn't help that everywhere we found was going to close in about 20 minutes. Not cool. But, eventually we found a little bakery, went in and ordered some food and coffee, and everything turned towards perfect.

We both got some coffee, and of course, our end prize - Pan au Chocolat. Oh man, so flakey, perfectly baked, but unfortunately not a ton of chocolate. Despite that, oh sooooo good. I also got some kinda sandwich that had some killer cheese on it. No idea what kind, but it was so good I got a second sandwich to go. Twas a nice little break we had, with some really good food, but soon enough they'd closed down and we were back on our way.

Rather than loitering around in Seltz with all of the restaurants and cafes and such closed, we decided it was best to jump back over the river and find something to do in Germany. On the way out, we perused through town. If things weren't so closed, or likely if it was more towards the summer, this would've been a cool little spot to explore!

Back on the German side of the Rhein, we decided to pedal our way over to Rastatt. It wasn't too far out, so it was a nice little ride through some farm fields and little villages. Before we knew it, we were back to civilization and in the middle of town. Kind of surprising how it just kinda popped up out of nowhere.

In town, we wandered through the castle park, and eventually made it over to the main square. The weekend market was still going, so we stocked up on some snacks and food for dinner and then eventually found a cafe to hang out at. Backgammon came back out with some tea and snacks and such. We were both a little pooped, so it was nice to take a break.

From there, I was a little too pooped to ride the whole way back to Karlsruhe. So we decided to take the train, but only part of the way. At the last stop before town we jumped out and pedaled the last little bit. This was a great choice. A little more fresh air in the lungs, plus the chance to explore some other parts of Karlsruhe on the way back in.

Once we got closer to the main part of town, we came across the Günter-Klotz-Anlage, this big stretch of green space going right along the little river that flows through town. In that park is Mount Klotz, so we pedaled up for a good view of the park, town, and the whole region. A great little last stop on a fun day.

That night was pretty low key. Lutz practiced some guitar, I went to the hardware store to get some food, then we reconvened for some food and a nice little dinner. Unfortunately, he was off that next morning to head back north, but the few days we got to share were a great time to catch up, have a ton of good conversations, and discuss all the stuff that's going on in each others' lives!

Work Work Work (at the Office) - Week 1

That coming Monday was nothing special - back to work. But, this time, I got to ride my own bike all the way there and back! No car, but no waiting on the S-Bahn to take me out in that general area. Twas quite the slog to start, but it turned out to be a good time for some podcasts in the morning, and listening to a workshop in the US on the way home!

Towards the end of the week, I was definitely wishing the commute was a little shorter, especially when I had things to do after work. Kinda added up like so - 45 minutes there, 15 minutes shower and change, (work), 45 minutes home, 5 minutes rinse off and off to whatever was that night. That much time kinda adds up, and was making me wish I had four wheels to mix in with the two.

Work-wise, things were going ok. Due to the workshop, there was some stuff that came up that is making me work with the US truck we've got over here, which is kinda nice. But slowly I'm starting to get acquainted with what I'm doing, and figuring out it's going to be a pretty varied load. That's a good thing, as it'll keep me busy and give me a chance to diversify my tasks. But now it's just a matter of getting ramped up and going.

Good thing this whole Corona Virus and lock down is now in place... More to come on that later.

Mental Clarity = Apartment Setup

A Place to Hang My (Clothes)

Not gonna lie, even though I now had a place, I was very clearly pretty unsettled mentally knowing that I didn't have enough of a baseline of things set up and in order. I don't think it's OCD, but more so my stubbornness, desire for organization and clarity, and impatience, all combining to get the best of me.

To counteract that, and work towards getting things acquired, acquainted, and making my place a little more cozy, I set to work. First things first was a closet/armoire. German apartments (from what I've seen) almost never have built in closets. My hunch is that it's a question of space constraints, but that doesn't fly with my tastes. I like to hang my clothes, so that's what I set out to find.

Thankfully, Facebook Marketplace and Ebay Kleinanzeigen take the place of Craigslist over here, so I had a bunch to check out. The good thing was, I found a number that fit my tastes. The hard part was figuring out how to get them picked up. Thankfully, my buddy Christoph is a total All-Star and offered to help by renting a van.

First item on the list - the closet. We had to head a bit out of town to go pick it up, but the lady selling it was eager to help out. She was in a rough patch with a husband that just up and left her, but was super helpful and easy to deal with, and Christoph was even able to help her get set up with selling some other stuff online. Easy getting it all torn down and loaded up.

Next, a table. I'd checked out a different wardrobe a week or so from a super friendly lady, and although I didn't think her wardrobe was what I was going for, she had an awesome dining table with matching chairs she was getting rid of. While we had the van, I coordinated with her to swing by and pick up the table on the way home. What a steal!

Got back to my place and we slogged to get it all unloaded and up the three flights of stairs into my apartment. It was a bit of an effort, and I can't thank Christoph enough for his help. After he left, I had something to eat, then set to getting the wardrobe built and filled. Tiring, but oh so worth it. One step closer to feeling really at home and being a little more mentally clear.

Corkboard = Community

One weird thing about being new to this apartment is just how sterile it feels with nothing on the walls. I've never lived in a completely white-walled place, and it's just too clean and museum-like. Not my vibe. So of course I had to start changing that. That also led to my second (first was cross-bracing some cheap shelf units) project in the house - a way to hang my massive cork board.

For those that visited my apartment in Portland, you would have recognized the gigantic cork board that I had hung next to my dining table. I got it for free from work, saving it from the garbage dump, and it's something I love. Well, of course it came with me to Germany, so I had to make sure it had a place to hang.

Unfortunately, due to the differences in construction styles between the US (wood, drywall, and spackle) and Germany (concrete, builders foam, and wallpaper), and the lack of order/sense with the electrical lines behind the walls, I am not allowed to drill into the walls of my apartment. As you would guess, that makes things really annoying. For most things I've got a work around. But not being able to drill or tap in some J-hooks for the cork board makes things difficult.

To get around that, I decided to use the building style to my advantage. A concrete ceiling and tile flooring, two hard and stable surfaces. Time to go to work.

You know how your curtain rod spans between the walls of your shower to hang the rod? Well, that's the idea I was working with. Using the two solid surfaces top and bottom, I could make a tension rod to span the two and be strong enough to then hang the corkboard. That's what I went with.

A couple long steel rods, plastic furniture feet with some long screws, and a bunch of nuts and washers. That's all I needed. I cut the rods to length, installed the screw/washer/nut setups into each end, and used the nuts to push the feet outward. Who'd a thunk, it worked! Then with a couple of pipe clamps and modified drywall hooks, I was all set! One big thing on the walls to make the place a little more like home. :-) Even matches my new dining table. Love it!

And let it come as no surprise to anyone anywhere that the best mommy in the whole world was the first one to make it up on the board! :-)

Pictures, Finally Some Color

If you'd like to take a trip back in time, rewind on back to the Spring of 2017, and the crazy event that led me to living on my own for the very first time! That feels like a whole world away, but one commonality there is the aspect I was super excited for - putting pictures up on the wall.

Before leaving Portland, I printed out a bunch of new pictures and got a bunch more frames to give me the chance to expand my personal photo gallery. Good call, because I've got a ton of space on the walls now. Next up was to figure out how I wanted to display them... A lot of choices to make.

Considering I put a couple in the kitchen to remind me of the PNW, I had a smaller number of frames to play with. No worries, I'd find a way. Have I mentioned how bad I am at coming up with ideas, making decisions, and being creative? Well this project showcased that pretty well.

• What pictures should go where?
• How should I split them into groups?
• How should I arrange them geometrically?
• Where on the walls should they go relative to each other? The other walls? etc. etc. etc.

Thanks to a bunch of peanut galleries and some super helpful friends and family, I got things squared away. Broken down into three groups, and some cool formations, I took to putting them up and turning my living room into a beautiful place to be.

Now it feels more like a living room. :-)

Also, shoutout to my gang, and thanks for the pic Zack! :-)

Food Things

Unfortunately, the apartment came with a small mini-fridge as the only fridge. With how much I love to eat, that was not going to cut it. With all the Corona Virus stuff though, I was a little hesitant to push forward with getting one in case I got pulled over and questioned. But the need to store foods in a good environment outweighed it all.

Once again, my buddy Christoph came in big in the clutch and came with me to pick up the one I liked. It was an easy pick up, but a complicated fit into the car. It just barely fit, and Christoph was a little squeezed in on the way back, but we got it home and put in nice and neatly. Again, huge thanks to Christoph!

I've still got a number of things that I want to get set up to really make this place my own.

• A sofa for the living room
• Something on the balcony, i.e. a table and chairs
• Maybe a garden of sorts for the balcony (we'll see how quickly I kill the plants)
• Some vertical bike stands
• Get my workshop more fully set up
• A bar table and chairs for the kitchen

It may seem like I still feel a little unsettled. But, for now, I'm doing great, living in a wonderful place, and have everything I need for this ongoing lockdown. Perfect timing too, because I'd be going insane if I was still in a hotel. There are definitely some quirks to the place, building, neighbors, etc., but I am blessed to have a great place to live. Cheers to that!!!

Thank You - Once is Enough

In getting some help from Christoph, I couldn't stop thanking him for how generous and helpful he was to me! Seriously, renting a big van, moving big pieces of furniture, taking time out of his busy life to do all this, I was constantly saying thank you.

To him though, the Thank You's eventually got pretty annoying. To me, that made no sense. I was just super thankful for his help, and from my upbringing, I thought people enjoyed hearing that.

Well, on the way back from picking up the fridge I said Thanks yet again and he repeated that I could stop saying that. So I talked to him about it.

My background - for me, I am extremely thankful for people's help! In the fear of that thankfulness being seen as their help/support being taken for granted, I continually show my appreciation for people's help. Nothing wrong with telling people once again, how great they are and helpful they're being!

His point of view - for him, if he offers his help and support, that is meaning enough that he's willing to be there for support. A thank you should be said once and is then understood. No need to repeat it continually or go over kill.

While I can understand his point of view (why offer up your help if you're not willing to give it?), it still confuses me that there's a defiant wish to stop being thanked. Maybe a cultural difference, maybe I'm just weird and annoying. Both are equally likely.

Work Work Work (from Home) - Week 2

During the week of being crazy busy and starting to set up the apartment, we got the word that the following week we were being directed to work from home as much as possible. Thankfully, I had some things to do that needed to be done during the day, and enough stuff to do to keep me busy at work too.

Unfortunately though, my job is mostly related to vehicle testing. And to add on to that, it's kinda hard to drive a semi-truck into my apartment courtyard. That said, I still had to go to the office a couple of days. No worries though, means I got some more stuff done, and some long days ensued. At least I got a beautiful sunset on the way home one of the days.

The Wheels Keep on Turning

As the week of Work at the Office progressed, the spread of the Corona Virus was really starting to be felt. And with that, the realization that I didn't have a car and a real means to be able to transport anything of significance (i.e. groceries and project stuff). That was a bit worrying, so I ramped up my search for a car.

That Friday I jumped on the train to head down to a village south of town to take a look at one. It seemed nice enough, was well maintained, had not too many miles on it, and seemed like a decent deal. Talked with the guy selling it (Ilir, a super nice guy from Albania), took it for a test drive, and seemed like a good setup. Negotiated with Ilir about the price and the deal, and before I left to catch the train back to Karlsruhe, I'd bought myself a car!!!

Unfortunately, I couldn't take it home that day. That's not how things work in Germany. Instead, I had to go through a bit of a process to get all the documents, registrations, etc. in order before it was really mine. Thankfully, I had all the necessary documentation in hand to do so.

Step 1 - Insurance. Before you can walk into the registration office (Zulassungsstelle) to tell the government that this car is yours, first you have to get it some insurance. Thankfully there's this awesome comparison website, check24.de, that compares a ton of stuff. That's where I searched for my internet and electricity contracts, so I set to work getting car insurance. I had to type in a ton of info on the thing, including the key type and some other super specific stuff, but after a few minutes, I had car insurance! Immediately, they give you a number to reference that you've got insurance, and that's what you take to the Zulassungsstelle to get registered.

Step 2 - Registration. As the week of Work From Home started, and with the whole Corona stuff going on, I was worried the office was going to be closed. That paired with the inability to book a timely appointment I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get an appointment. But, Monday morning, first thing, I rode down to the office and they hadn't technically opened up yet, but they sat me straight down with someone to work through all the details! Hot damn!

I gave them the Vehicle Letter (Fahrzeugbrief) that has all the nitty gritty details of the vehicle, along with my passport and proof of sale, and the lady went to work behind the counter with the registration, and I went to work filling out the payment information. No joke, the process was pretty quick. So quick, before I knew it, she asked me what I wanted for a license plate number.

I wasn't even thinking about it, as I assumed it was like the US where it costs a couple hundred dollars per year to have special plates. But it turns out it was a one-time fee of about $13, so hell yeah I was gonna jump on that train! Unfortunately, it wasn't completely custom.

The first section is reserved for the location (Landkreis, analogous to a County in the US) for where the vehicle is registered. Since I live in Karlsruhe, that section is 'KA'. The last part though, that was up to me. Had to be split up into two further sections though, where the first was two letters, and the second could be either three or four digits. The letters I had down pat. Easy. The numbers I had to dig around for, but most of the combinations were already taken. Bummer. But, end of they day I was all squared away.

Step 3 - License Plates. With all the registration stuff pretty much done, I had to go run over to a different office in the building to pick up the plates. The registration lady wrote down my license plate numbers and I took the scratch paper to the office. The lady there greeted me, took my paper, stamped my plates, and after I paid the plate fee, I was out of that office in less than 5 minutes. Damn.

Step 4 - Stickers. Back to the registration lady with the plates. She then took one of them and put the necessary stickers on them, and I was all done! Had to go pay for the fees, but in less than a half an hour, I was in, out, registered, and ready to go!!!

I would have really liked to just have two digits there at the end, but I went for NT12 showing up together to make it look good. Happy with my selection :-)

Fast forward to Wednesday of the week of Work From Home, and I had a plan to work in the morning, and then head south of town to go pick up my new ride! With all the necessary documentation in place, I was all set to go. A forty minute train ride, and I was back in Gernsbach with Ilir to do the handover. How cool!

Ladies and Gentlemen, my new ride! A 2014 Volkswagen Golf Wagon, 1.6TDI. Got enough features to keep me happy, but not souped up enough to get me in trouble - the perfect combination!

Two important things left to do to christen the four wheels of fury:

1. It needs a name (suggestions are welcome!)
2. There's a certain bumper sticker that needs to be put on

Despite that, I'm SUPER pumped to have wheels again! Hasn't quite set in yet, because in my mind Marvin is still my rig, but I'm stoked to break this little Volkswagen in and get used to what it'll enable me to get out and go do!

Adding to that, it was a pleasure to work with Ilir. Turns out he also works for Daimler at the Rastatt plant, and was a really easy, honest, open car salesman. Didn't think those types existed, but he broke the stereotype. To put a cherry on top of it all, he handed me a celebratory bottle of champagne to enjoy and celebrate the new rig. What a gentleman. :-)

Americans? Seen in a positive light?

As I mentioned, the guy that sold me the car, Ilir, is Albanian. Well when I first went down there to take a look at the thing we started talking. Eventually he asked where I was from, and as soon as I said America, he lit up. That's definitely not the reaction I'm used to, but I was intrigued.

Ilir was quick to explain how much he loved America and Americans. Why is that the case? Well, as he put it, the Americans came in and saved the day in the late '90s, and from his point of view, without American intervention in the Kosovo War, he probably wouldn't be here today.

I did some reading on the fact, including this opinion piece from CNN a few years back, and it's still surprising to see a country and people so thankful for my country. For one, I've grown to have a different opinion about my own country since living over here the first time. I'm proud to be American, but am nothing but disappointed in a ton of things going on in America.

But to see a country that still holds our (at least former) democracy in such high regard, contributed by such gratitude for support in multiple eras of their country's history, it's really cool to see. Cool to see, but also cool to realize that there are still things in our country's history that have had an everlasting positive impact on other people of the world. Those things often get clouded out of our view, but it's awesome to see how we've done something good in the world.

Did I really Need a car?

Before jumping out and buying the silver rig, I had a few discussions with some folks about my transportation situation. My initial reaction was that yeah, I needed a car. I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have a car.

But some people wanted me to reevaluate, and rightfully so. I've got bikes. For closer-in stuff, those are perfect and would allow me to do pretty much everything. For other ways of getting around town, the public transportation here (as you would expect) is pretty damn good. I can go anywhere in town and in the surrounding areas pretty quickly. Then, if I needed to go somewhere specific or a little further out, there is both a good train network to use, and something like Car2Go, but Stadtmobil is based all over the place and gives you great access to ways to get places (that's what Christoph used to rent the van for moving the wardrobe).

However, having a car is something I've pretty much always had. In High School, I had my van. I loved that rust bucket. It got me everywhere, and it was a trusty old machine that gave me freedom in my adolescence. In college, I got lucky and had four wheels that my parents sent out to me to use. I could've gotten by without it, but having that car enabled me to do a ton. Then most recently, Marvin was my little adventure mobile. Giving me the opportunity to get out and go mountain biking, backpacking, travel up to see my sister, drive over and hang out with my mommy, go get groceries, go to work, everything.

Despite it being perfectly feasible to lean on my bikes and public transportation over here, having that automatic source of freedom was something I would struggle to get used to. Now that I've got it, I'm super thankful for my new rig. It gives me the ability to get out and go (at least once the Corona stuff is gone) at the drop of a hat. Really looking forward to all that it enables me to do!

(DON'T) Work Work Work - Weeks 3 and 4

As we all know, Corona Virus has spread quickly and in a deadly fashion all throughout the world. It sucks and is a terrible situation, something I've considered to be a phase outside of real life but something everyone is going through. But it's permeated nearly every corner of the world and is something we HAVE to fight against, and hard.

Towards the end of the Work From Home week, we were all kinda feeling something was coming down from the big wigs at work, and sure enough it was. Towards the end of that week we got the word that all of Daimler Germany (something around 160,000 people or so) was going on two weeks of forced time off to try and help the prevention efforts. All production, all sales, all development, everything, it was all getting put on ice for a couple weeks (at minimum) to help stem the tide.

This was a pretty big decision, as it didn't just mean work from home, it meant we were technically forced to take time off. How? How would that even work? Well, Germany has much better working conditions than the US, so the forced time off would come from people's accounts in the following order:

1. Leftover vacation days from 2019
2. Overtime accumulated from work
3. Vacation days for 2020

Daimler in Germany (not sure what German federal law covers) provides 30 days of vacation per year. Compared to the standard American level of 10, this buffers this two week shutdown a lot quicker and easier. In addition, in Germany, there's a thing called Gleitzeit. Think of this as overtime. If your contract is a 40-hour contract (oh yeah, German work contracts state how many hours you're contracted to work per week...), that means that every hour over 40 hours worked in a week gets added to your Gleitzeit account. From that account, you can use that overtime for vacation later on. Or as less time to work in other weeks, essentially a buffer of time to your advantage.

So with those two pieces of infrastructure in place, the company could essentially say, "Hey, we have to take the next two weeks off. But rather than telling you to leave and not pay you, we can still pay you and have you use your vacation/overtime to help us get through this." Quite the impressive setup.

That being the case, the start of Week 3 was still at home, but this time I was technically not supposed to work. The US wasn't on this kind of a shutdown, so I stayed available a bit to help them out if they needed it and to get some other stuff done. Definitely not a full work week, but at home, amidst all my other projects, I still had some hours I could put towards making some progress at work despite the shutdown.

Keep Not Working - Weeks 5 & 6 (coming up)

At the end of Week 3, not even half way through the initial planned shutdown, we got word that after Week 4, Weeks 5 and 6 would be what's known in Germany as Kurzarbeit. This is another unique bit of infrastructure available to German companies to help stem hard times.

What it involves is a company goes to the government and says, "Hey, we don't have enough work to keep going. We don't want to fire everyone, but we need help." As my boss clarified to me, there are different levels of it, but the government then steps in and provides a majority of people's partial salaries, and the company the rest.

This allows the company to close up shop, but still provide for their workers at a reduced (not full salary) rate. That is exactly what we're doing for the two weeks after the initial shutdown. Still no work, still a stay-at-home situation, just a different form of how things are set up.

VERY crazy knowing this is the situation over here, and comparing that to the situation back home. People don't have any of these luxuries (just talking about workers rights, not even touching on healthcare) in the states, which (going political) contributes to my tendency towards negative opinions of what's currently going on and where things are headed back at home.

Expats - A Special Case

***DISCLAIMER***

This clarification is NOT to boast, and is NOT meant to show arrogance, elitism, or exclusivity. It is merely an explanation of my current situation, something I am confused about but grateful for.

***DISCLAIMER***

With all of this craziness going on, and the situation at work, I'm learning that I'm a bit of a special case. Well, me and all the other expats in Germany.

For Weeks 3 and 4, we are subject to the same rules. We got confirmation of this from expat coordinator in writing too. But with the variation thrown into the mix with Weeks 5 & 6, that could leave things a bit in question.

But, like before, we got written confirmation of our situation. Although Kurzarbeit provides workers with a partial salary, we are not on fully-German contracts, and the company said our salary and benefits would be 100% covered in this situation.

On the one side, I find this kind of unfair. For a super rich company to treat most employees to a reduced pay, but then a special few to get everything under the sun (considering what all is included in an Expat contract), it's kinda crazy.

On the other side, I am EXTREMELY grateful that I work somewhere where I am not going to lose my job, not going to lose a paycheck, and am still fully covered despite the difficult situation that is currently all around us. I am very lucky to be where I am. VERY lucky.

Bike Stuff

BACK IN THE SADDLE

Having a place to live and especially with my bikes back in full working order, you know what that means. TIME TO HIT THE TRAILS.

I was really itching to get on my Patrol and hit the trails. So bad. Thankfully, the biking buddy I met through the build days was ready to show me the local beat. So after the Work at the Office week, we took Saturday afternoon to head out to what Karlsruhe has right at its doorstep.

No joke. I got geared up and pedaled out of my place on my bike, rode over to my buddy Franz's house, and we rode to the trails from town. That was NOT something I could've done from my apartment in Portland, so being able to do it over here is nuts!!!

It was a short half-hour pedal over to near Ettlingen where the two legal trails are located. We got there, and started pedaling uphill. Gah, I forgot about that part. Boy am I out of shape. The pedal up was a struggle, but I got through it.

Our first lap down was on a bit of familiar dirt. Those three work days in February were on the second official legal trail in town - that's the one we hit first. I got all geared up at the top - yes Mommy, still wearing my knee pads and full face helmet :-) - then we headed down!

This trail was both a good bit muddy, and a bit of a workout. Still fun though. And so great to finally be back on the trails!!! Down at the bottom, we headed back uphill and this time hit the SMDH (StromMasten DownHill), which was the first legal MTB trail in Karlsruhe.

This is one trail, but with a good number of offshoots and variations to throw in it. It was really nice having Franz to point out the various features and trail fun bits coming up so I knew what to expect. There are a good few jumps, drops, rocks and other features on this trail, and it was good to cycle through this a couple times to see a couple of the variations.

Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty pooped after our three runs, so we called it and made our way back. Right at the bottom of the hill is a farm, and Franz seems to know the folks there pretty well (taco night a couple weeks ago featured some wild boar that the farmer shot). Well something cool about the place - they've got a vending machine out there with some of the farm's products! Eggs, cheese, butter, some meats, all of its in there and able for you to get in a jiffy. How cool is that!?!?

But done for the ride, we pedaled back through the fields and town and made it back home. How DOPE to be able to just pedal away from home and be at the trails in a quick half hour? Gotta say, that is a thing of beauty.

Take 2 - Week 3 Ride

Not being one able to stay cooped up for too long, I made sure to find time during the first Don't Work week to get out for another ride. I waited til the afternoon and let the world warm up for a good bit, then geared up and hit the road.

Again, a quick ride over and I was at the trails. Was feeling pretty good and didn't feel as worn down by the up. By the time I got to the trails it was still fresh outside, the sun was shining and I was ready to ride.

In all I managed four runs up and down, and was feeling pretty good throughout. Again, there's not a ton of variation in the trails, but there are a good few fun little features to keep things interesting and exciting! I had one crash over a rock drop (one that Franz warned me about the previous time riding), but hit the jumps, hit the drops, maneuvered the rock sections, and had a damn good time.

The ride back home was kinda eerie. To get back to town the path goes over the Autobahn. As I was going over, there were almost zero cars out. Middle of the week, with good weather, there'd normally be tons of cars passing by. But it looked like the zombie apocalypse. Crazy.

An Unexpected Rebuild

I was supposed to get out and show my buddy Christoph the mountain biking ropes at the end of Week 3. From the last two rides I realized I needed to put in some more sealant into my tires, and the night before I set out to do so. Took off the rear tire, injected some sealant, and was working the sealant all around in the tire when the cassette popped off. Goddamnit.

This had happened before, so I knew what to do to fix it. But rather than just throw it back in, I got curious and wanted to check to see how the bearings were doing. As luck would have it, the freehub bearings were all kinds of sticky. In hindsight, shoulda just dealt with it. But no. I had to go and do something. Well, in the process of taking the cassette off the freehub, I chipped one of the pawl housings. Again, I could live with that, but now needing new bearings and having a defect on the freehub, I had to splurge on a new one.

Buying bike parts in Europe is going to be expensive. For the same part that I got, I could've gotten it for $30 cheaper in the states. Bummer. But, now the part's on order and I've got some time to kill...

And, since I'm already kinda torn down, I had the great idea that I might as well tear it all the way down and do a big check up. That could take some time, but guess what I've got an abundance of right now :-) So that's on my to-do list, to do a tear down, check the suspension bearings (and potentially replace), swap brake sets between my bikes, and give everything a good once-over. That'll be fun.

Waiting on some workshop stuff to come in before I do that, but that'll be require a good few wrench days to get my Patrol back up and running. Here we go.

Life in Quarantine

So what's been going on lately being cooped up at home? I'm trying to make the most of this time, as it's a weird phase of time and opportunity to do something different. That said, I initially came into it saying I'd work a bit each day and then get some personal projects done on the side. That faded away quickly after Day 1. I've honestly got a ton of personal projects that I could use all of these originally two, now four, weeks to get all those done.

But then comes in the question of discipline and motivation. Both of those can be struggles for me. That's made me write out a more detailed list of things I should be getting done. Now it's a matter of sticking to it.

Food

One thing I've been subconsciously trying to work on (haven't written it down on my to-do list yet) is actually take the time to cook things. I love food, and I love cooking, but sometimes the fact that I'm always just cooking for one person can become daunting and annoying. In the spirit of trying to kick that mindset, I've started easy and deliciously.

First up, mashed potatoes. Yes, this dish is cheap, quick, and easy. But I can't remember making them before. I do remember that I like them garlicy though, so I threw in a few cloves and DAYYYYUUUUUM they turned out fantastic. Go me.

Next up, I had a plan for all those mashed potatoes. I've loved gnocchi since the first time I ate it, but had never made it myself. Well, decided to change that.

Again, another easy, cheap dish, and since I'd already had the mashed potatoes ready all I had to do was mix a few things together and roll them up into little gnocchis. That part took a while, but I got it done with a little help from RadioLab to listen to.

Once the potato lil' smokies were made, all it took was a big pot of boiling water and throwing them all in. No joke, once they're done they all just float to the top, so that made it easy.

The times I've liked gnocchi the most is when the outside of them are a little crusty with the firm-ish texture inside. I threw them on the cast iron after boiling them, but the end product wasn't quite what I anticipated. The dish was delish, but again, something to work on for next time.

Cast Iron

Not sure if it was during the move, but I think it was because of a bad reseasoning job before I left Portland, but my two big cast-irons are proving to be a bit of a nuisance. Both are a bit sticky right in the center, and thanks to my cast-iron guru Ryan, I think it's because I did a bad reseasoning job.

Well, as luck would have it, I DON'T have a self-cleaning cycle on my oven, so I can't easily strip the seasoning off of them. Fuck. There are apparently some ways I can do it without, but nothing ever is easy. Sucks when you don't have the right tools for the job. Damnit.

Band Name

In eating some pickles, I discovered what I'd name my band if I ever had one:

Sneaky Peaches and the Party Pickles

(Trademark, Copyright, 2020 Nial Tilson)

WTF? Where did that come from???

Sneaky Peaches - In Russia, Zack and I were drinking at a brewery in Moscow. I looked at the tap list on the wall and immediately started laughing at the imagery of one of the beers' names. The Sneaky Peaches APA. Ever since then, that's my go-to codename.

Party Pickles - I love hot, spicy pickles. In Portland I could get some devilishly hot and spicy pickles from Famous Daves, and I loved them. Well, Germany sucks at anything spicy, so I decided to try some pickles I found at Kaufland. Spoiler alert, they're not that great, but their name is - Party Gurken = Party Pickles.

Exercise

It kinda came about that time, but one of the days in Week 3 I went for what seems to be my bi-annual run. I kinda hate running, but felt like I needed to get some exercise in, so I did. The town was pretty empty, so I went up and around the north part of town on the big ring road. Did a little loop in the woods, and then headed back home.

Crazy how empty the town was. Good that that's the case, but doesn't make it any less unusual.

Then on Saturday the weather was PERFECT. Christoph and I were initially planning on going for a bike ride, but after the bike troubles we audibled to a run. He led the way to the "Trimm-Dich-Pfad", aka the "Tune Yourself Path". It's a jogging course/trail in the woods with a bunch of stations riddled in where you can do some bodyweight exercises alongside your run.

Gotta say, that was a killer workout! I'm definitely not in shape and almost never do any actual lifting-like exercises. But some squats, pushups, knee-ups, gymnast rings, push ups, and the like, are definitely a good thing that I need to keep going at to get in shape!

Projects

As I mentioned earlier, I've come up with a more detailed to-do list to hopefully keep me busy, focused, and productive during this time I'm now at home. Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish and achieve over the next couple of weeks:

• Vertical Bike Stands - unfortunately, I'm not able to drill into the walls. Right now, my bikes are just standing on the ground and occupying a good bit of space. To counteract that, I've designed a vertical bike stand that I'm looking forward to making to reduce the space needed to store them, and give myself another wood-working project to focus on!


• Bike Rebuild - as mentioned above, it could be almost a full rebuild of my Transition Patrol. I love working on bikes, so this should hopefully be a fun project!


• Workshop Setup - Along with the bike stands, I'm still working on getting my shop set up how I'd like. I've got a new tool chest coming that will allow me to store ALL my tools in one spot and help me organize things on a good level. I'm also debating buying a section of carpet to put down on the workshop end of things to give me a more work-friendly surface for dirt and grease and such over the tile floor. We'll see. Looking forward to getting my little workshop setup and ready for work!


• Picture Labeling - in digging around in my computer and cleaning up space, I found I've got over 600GB of pictures. That's a shitton! Well, one of my projects is going back through almost all of them and tagging them with Keywords. I use Adobe Bridge to organize them, and have two rating systems. One is with stars to show the ones I like on a subjective level. 5-stars are the all-time best, 4-stars the super good ones, 3-stars are the good, standard pictures, 2-stars are blurry or sub-optimal copies, and 1-stars get deleted. The other system is more objective. Which pictures have mountains? Waterfalls? Sunrise/sunsets? All about tagging those things in the pictures. It's a slow process, and I've got a long way to go, but this'll help my organization, and give me a chance to walk down memory lane!


• Trek Mileage Markers - After our backpacking trip in the North Cascades this past summer, I'd christened my new backpack. Sam had an awesome idea to sew on tally marks for the mileage that the pack has put on. Well, I'm finally going to get to it. I've got my trek in the North Cascades (80 miles) and my trek in Nepal (200 miles) to sew on, and am looking forward to throw in a bit of character to my little pack!


• My Website - Last year I took a Nanodegree through Audacity regarding programming. Part of that course was HTML and CSS and related to website design. That inspired me to come up with my own website, a place that I can showcase my blogs, projects, pictures, and stuff about me. I've started it and tinkered with my design, but have a long way to go. Now, I've got nothing but time to work on this, and I hope to make some good progress and who knows, maybe you'll see my work in a new place sometime soon!


• The Last of Us - I splurged and got myself a PS4 before Christmas, pretty much for the sole purpose to be able to play God of War. No joke, greatest game of all time. Well I finished that game (sadly), but started up The Last of Us during the shutdown. Weirdly fitting for our current situation, it's a post-apocalypse zombie game, and really intriguing. The storyline is pretty cool, graphics are great, and it's a fun play. I'm having to force myself to get other things done though, because time flies when you're playing it!

All those are the big ones, and there are a few smaller ones that I'm trying to tackle now that I've got all this time I can focus on some of the lesser-visible things.

In all, I'm kinda enjoying this time to focus on me, focus on what I want to get done, and actually make some progress on things. I hope it doesn't last too long though. I'm looking forward to the nice weather and the chance to get out and explore and see people. But for now, considering the situation, I'm doing what I can to take advantage of it and come out the other side a better person.

Going Forward

These next weeks and months are not going to be normal. It's going to be a while before things turn back to what we used to know. And for that matter, things may not go back to what we knew as normal. That could be a good thing as we adjust our habits and work to prevent something like this from happening. Or that could be a bad thing where the virus has such a broadly negative impact on our societies that we can't go back to what we know.

Only time will tell. All we can do (and ALL OF US need to do this) is stay home, stay healthy, wash your hands a shit ton, cough into your elbow or shoulder, if you're sick take care of yourself, if you're healthy stay that way, look out for one another, stay in communication with each other, and do everything you can to prevent this virus from spreading.

I'm shitty at reaching out to others. Unraveling that would take a while. But if you ever want someone to talk to, hit me up. I'm here, focused on my own little world, but I've always got time for the people in my life.

I miss you all and hope you are all doing well. Take care, stay healthy, and I'll talk to you soon!

Original Publish Date: March 29th, 2020