WRAPPING UP AND GETTING RID OF 2020

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To be honest, I don't really know what to write about. The world right now is getting more fucked up by the day, and life has been very abnormal. Not just for me, but for everyone.

In thinking about this, and what has been weighing heavy on my heart and mind and psyche lately, I've got a feeling I'm just speaking into the crowd. Whatever I may have to say is likely going to be forgotten or passed over, or just as likely either fully backed up or totally torn to pieces. Regarding the latter possibilities, it sucks to think how people are so goddamn divided now.

There's some stuff I want to talk about, but as I get into writing this post, and as things twirl further down the toilet bowl, I'll filter out what would be worth it. Anyway, here's what I've been up to the last few weeks and months following my trip to Slovakia.

The Saga ENDS

Way back in April my dear, lovely Mommy sent off a package through the black labyrinth that is the postal service in the hopes that it would make it to me here in Germany. Well, as I recounted a couple posts back, that was a fucking joke.

Not to be disheartened, my mom tried again, sending the package out with a more detailed clarification of what's inside, getting my help along the way, and sent it off sometime later. After yet ANOTHER period of dealing with fuckwit incompetence at the German Customs department, I got a package from my Mommy!!!

Despite it being multiple months delayed from its original arrival timeframe, it was quite the heartfelt delivery. Got to read some birthday notes from my Mommy, sister, nephew, get some cookies and M&Ms, and just some generally amazing things from some amazing people. :-)

Also, a little time capsule between 1994 to 2009. Quite amazing how much change can get packed into 15 years!

Table Time - I Made another Thing

Not one to sit around idle (at least not all of the time...), I put that energy to use over the last couple months towards construction of a new table! My kitchen is a bit of a weird setup, and because of it's elongated shape, I was looking for a table that was thin enough not to prevent easy traversing of the room, but with space to be functional and useful.

Putting the cart before the horse, sometime this summer I bought some barstools, and then afterwards made the table to fit them. As some motivation for me, I'll hold off on the details here so it'll hopefully give me some reason to write up a Project page for this table. But, here are a couple pictures of the finished product!

Biking the Burgenstraße

Not long after my trip to Slovakia with Yann, I was back out the door for a quick weekend trip with my old roommate Lutz! For this adventure, he threw out an idea that I'd never done before, and I rolled with it. The plan - a 2-ish day bike tour through South-Central Germany!

I only learned this later, but the route he chose took us along the Burgenstraße, which, when ridden all the way from start to finish, weaves its way from Mannheim all the way through to Bayreuth going through the beautiful rolling hills of the region and passing by a bunch of castles (hence Burg=Castle in the name).

As much as I love riding the beautiful world on two wheels, I'd never done a bike tour before. Much to the chagrin of my best bud Zack. But, with the plan in place, a train ticket from Karlsruhe to Öhringen booked, and my trusty steed greased and ready to roll, I was off to meet Lutz!

Rolled into Öhringen and pedaled over to the main square to wait for Lutz. Not long after, he rolled in from Heilbronn, we enjoyed a quaint few minutes on the park bench there, but then we were off!

The trip was quick (Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday til early afternoon), but was an absolute blast. As I said, I'd never bike toured (aka rode my bike for multiple days between waypoints as a means of transportation for a trip), and it was quite truly an enjoyable way to go!

Adding to the mystique and enjoyment of it all was the landscape of where we were riding through. South-Central Germany is a really mellow but gorgeous area filled with rolling hills, small valleys, rivers, and beautiful landscapes. The Burgenstraße weaved its way through all of it, and it was truly a gorgeous couple days rolling on two wheels through the countryside.

That first night we rolled into Schwäbisch Hall and were welcomed into the home of Annette, who Lutz connected with through Warm Showers. She was an absolutely amazing host, who cooked us some hearty spaghetti, quenched our thirst with some delicious wine, had nothing but cool things to share and a welcoming spirit to share with us, and gave us a great spot to crash for the night. Truly an awesome host!

That next morning, we all got up lazily and were welcomed to an extremely brisk way to start the day. For breakfast, we all rode over to the market downtown, got to enjoy the view riding into the beautiful town of Schwäbisch Hall, grabbed a bunch of stuff at the market, and dined on a bench together. From there, Annette bid us adieu, and Lutz and I were back on the trail.

Through the brisk morning, along the creek, we enjoyed the beautiful sunlight and the green grass and the everything. Really an awesome morning to be out on a bike. We cruised through some small villages, and got a wonderful view of the valley with a perfectly placed park bench.

Then, after a good bit more riding, we ended up in Lutz's old home of Kirchberg an der Jagst. First stop was the bakery to pick up a (not as delicious as they used to be) chocolate croissant. Then, we pedaled over to the castle where Lutz used to live! Crazy stuff, but it's a living community with a hotel and stores and a bunch of stuff in it. Luckily enough some of his old friends were there with their ice cream store, so we snagged some and chatted a bunch with them before Lutz showed me around the castle. Really quite the cool spot, with some cool people, was a pleasure to meet everyone there!

From Kirchberg, our goal for the night was Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The path there was really gorgeous, floating along a farm-land plateau with sunlight and blue skies the whole way. We stopped every now and then to enjoy the weather, and for a few patches became windshields on the highway with how many bugs were wrapped up in our arms. But, right before golden hour decided to roll in, we ripped down the valley to the Tauber, then had to pedal our way back up to the town on the hill for the evening.

That night, we found a nice pension with a super friendly proprietor. Got cleaned up a little bit, and got a recommendation from the guy for dinner. Thankfully, we got lucky and snagged a table outside at the right time for some delicious bavarian food (steak with blue cheese, fuck yeah). We ended up deciding not to call it a night quite yet, and got another drink at a street bar after wandering around the town a bit. After that though, it was time to hit the sack.

That next morning we had a delightful breakfast, then rather than hitting the trail right away, we biked around Rothenburg for a bit to get a taste of this historic town. And let me tell you, it's quite the gorgeous place.

Everything above this paragraph was written in October. Everything below this paragraph was written in December. It's amazing how unmotivated, forgetful, and lazy I am when it comes to writing..........

From our jaunt around town, it was back on the trail as we started the last day of our weekend trip. It was another b-e-a-utiful fall day in the Schwäbisch Alb, and we took advantage of it. Up hill and downhill, through farm fields and along the road, passing through tiny towns, and enjoying every pedal along the way.

I was planning on heading back home that night, and Lutz had to get back to Nürnberg, so we kept our eye on the clock and on the map to see how it would all play out. We kept cruising along, and at some point found a delightful little ridge overlooking a small town. So we rode across the farm field, found a bench next to some trees, and took a nice little break with the sunlight and the great view.

From our break spot, it was a short meander through towns and fields (and getting turned around by some very shitty signage in the woods), but we wound our way over to Ansbach. I got lucky on the one hand as there was a straight shot back to Karlsruhe. Unlucky on the other hand as I had to buy my ticket in the train and it cost an extra 15% or so.

With that though, so came an excellent weekend with my buddy Lutz to an end. Another great adventure with a great person, and an awesome first time using my bike as a means of extended travel! Zack's been trying to get me to join some of his bike trips, and although my knees likely couldn't take a really long one, I'm definitely looking forward to the next time I can pedal from town to town with some good people!!!

Getting Caught Up

So, as I said earlier, there's a big gap right in the middle of writing this post. Again, mostly due to laziness, but there's been some other things that have been on my plate that has taken my focus away from getting this bad boy wrapped up. I'll add in a few quick hits here to fill you in on all that's gone on over the last two months.

Biking

As has been the theme this year (and one of the few things keeping me sane), I've been able to get out on my trusty Mountain Bike quite a bit. Unfortunately, I'm realizing the trails here are not nearly as abundant and amazing as they are back home in Portland, but that's just a fact I'm learning to live with.

Karlsruhe has two legal trails. One is a great downhill trail. It's a fairly short trail, but steep, exciting, jumpy and rocky, and good stuff. The second one is way more of a pedal than it should be, and weirdly has really good jumps on really flat sections, and not a ton of features on the downhill section. There's talk of a third trail being built sometime soon, but the overall level of riding right from home is just ok.

Because of that, Heidelberg and Freiburg are my two main haunts. Both have great trails, with Heidelberg having a great amount of variety, and Freiburg slaying it on trail awesomeness and the grueling climb required to get to the awesomeness. Here's Heidelberg from an awesomely rainy day in November.

And here's some from Freiburg on a gorgeous sunny day in November.

Before they closed for the season, I was able to head back down to Lac Blanc in France for a day (drove down Friday night and slept in my car) and ride with some buddies I'd met the first time I was there. It was an awesomely muddy day, and we made it all count. Pretty lucky too that there were some hoses to wash everything down before hitting the road back home! Lac Blanc is definitely one of the better riding options here in the area, but I gotta balance how much I'm there so I keep earning my turns!

I also was able to try out another bike park in the area in Beerfelden. This place was a lot smaller, and only had a tow lift, but the day we went was a gorgeous fall day with the colors just exploding. Gorgeous place.

Beerfelden had some good variety on the trails, and towards the end of the day I'd found my favorite and was LOVING it. Just like Earth Circus in Whistler (though a lot shorter), the berms were huge, packed, and flowy as all get out. I crushed that one a good few times, and really enjoyed the rest of what Beerfelden had to offer, including some great gaps, roots, jumps, and the rest of it.

Biking to work has been a much more sporadic occurence of late. It's cold out, which is not a valid excuse, but I've just been lazy in doing it. The whole fact that I can't shower once I get there to warm back up is a bummer. But, despite all of that, I need to get off my ass and do it more. Bonus points if I do, because that'll likely mean more frozen beard when I show up!

One reason I haven't been biking much lately (moreso MTB'ing, but also biking to work), is because I've been staying sane through another method...

Woodworking

In addition to the table I mentioned above, parallel to that project, I made a little platform I can put over my bathtub. I haven't used it much, but the few times I have it's been awesome to sit in the tub and have something to watch with a drink. I filled up an ice bath after I got back from Lac Blanc, and it really helped the 'ole tree trunks revitalize.

The next project after all of that was a little more expansive and at the end of the day functional. I needed a place where I can work. A work surface that was functional, sturdy, and not the same as my desk. So, I set out to make me a nice ole workbench.

Due to the size and the ever-decreasing space in my work shop (I seriously debated swapping my workshop and bedroom so I could have more space, it's not off the table yet either), I had some space constraints to work with. That, and having to make a few other things fit into the picture, I had my constraints.

Similar to the table above, I'll save the rest of the details for it's future project page. But Voila!!! Check it out!!!

And just to give myself something else to work on and to have a sturdy surface to use on the balcony, I made a brother for the first workbench! A slightly different design, a little smaller, and essentially an idea that sprouted due to the leftover plank I had from the first workbench. I've still got to sand it down and stain it so it's weather resitant, but check it out! They're twins! Fraternal, of course...

Again, I could expand upon this, but I'm going to use my lack of clarification on these project(s) on this page as self-motivation to get my projects page up and running. Gonna come up with a format and hopefully whip up a template that I can utilize for all my projects going forward!

Wandering Around - Schwarzwald

In the midst of all the fall colors, I took a couple random days to just go drive around. I wasn't in the mood then to hunt and find a great hiking trail, but was really wanting to get out and see the gorgeous colors that lasted for months here in the area. So that's what I did.

One Saturday, after crashing at some friends' house near Stuttgart, I took Rupert and we headed south down into the Black Forest. It was a gorgeous blue-sky day, and we took a slow drive headed into the hills of the Schwarzwald. It was a gorgeous day, so I stopped a good number of times at some good view spots to take pictures and soak in the sun and fall colors.

I kept cruising along, and eventually rolled into Freundenstadt. I found a place to park to take a break, and posted up in the main square. The colors were just gorgeous, and the sunlight was really refreshing. I wandered around the square, then jumped back on the road. Before getting home, I jumped into the woods for a bit on a very short hike, then rolled back into Karlsruhe.

Wandering Around - Pfälzerwald

After my jaunt down to Freiburg to bike, I took the next day and just drove around, but this time west of home in Rheinland-Pfalz. Karlsruhe is right in the middle of the Rhein Valley. On the east is the Schwarzwald, which winds its way down to the Alps. On the west, however, is another little hilly area, called the Pfalz Forest (Pfälzischer Wald). Not quite as well known, but I jumped over there to enjoy another beautiful drive.

The first stop was over to Landau, a smaller town about a half-hour outside of Karlsruhe. Here, I was on a mission. Zack had shared one of his history projects/essays from his degree with me about Bismarck towers, and how they are a little misunderstood, as they were developed as a stand against the bourgouise, but people misconstrue their meaning.

Well, Landau HAS a Bismarck tower!!! I hadn't seen it or been over to check it out yet, so that was first on the list. I rolled up and parked in a quiet little neighborhood, and took the short walk into the very foresty park right in town where the tower was at. Soon enough, I'd made it.

It was quite indescript, not run down but definitely not something direct in the public eye, but altogether a cool thing to see. Nothign inside it except for beer cans and bottles and stuff, but a definite thing to check out!

After checking out the sandstone of the Bismarck Tower, I took a stroll through the park it was in. Turned out to be a pretty cool park too, with huge historic fortress walls tucked under the fall leaves and amidst the trees. I walked around the old walls, cruised around, and enjoyed the colors. Then after a while, headed back to the car to continue the adventure.

Rupert and I were back on the road, and headed into the hills. I was up for a good lookout, so I found a parking spot somewhere along a ridge and was able to make a short hike out of the search for a view. Long story short, I'd already been to this place before (Kalmit) on a hike with Christoph, Sofia, and Aimee, two-ish years ago on one of my trips over to Germany for work. This time though, I didn't start all the way down in the valley, and made short work of getting to the two peaks right next to each other.

On both peaks, I found a nice spot to take in the views of both the valley to the West and the Pfälzische Hills to the West. Gorgeous fall colors, a heavy mist over the valley, and just a gorgeous day to be out and about.

I enjoyed my time at each of the peaks, and then worked my way through the leaves and back down to Rupert. From there, it was back on the road and headed into the hills.

The road got really windy, and a little wet, but it was a gorgeous day anyways. I didn't have any kind of target or idea of what I wanted to do, so I just kinda drove. Through small towns with mills, along valleys with colorful trees and streams, and just cruised along.

Eventually, I found myself on the far side of the forest, so I decided to pop over to Trippstadt and check out the bike park that I'd been meaning to head to through the summer. I showed up, and turned out that it was cordoned off because of the Coronavirus. Because of that, I couldn't even walk through and see what kind of jumps and stuff they had. Oh well. Despite the disappointment, I ended up hanging in the parking lot just so I could take a nap. Turned out to be a great decision.

Woke up and essentially just started my long, slow, scenic route back home. More beautiful fall colors and one-lane roads cruising through the forest. It was a great day for an adventure, and the fresh air and rusty colors done my body some good.

Thanksgiving

Going back a bit to Thanksgiving, I initially wasn't planning on doing anything. But, thanks to some great friends over in Stuttgart in Eli and Jen, I ended up going over to their place to celebrate! My responsibilities - Pumpkin Pie and Green Bean Casserole, and Clam Dip for good measure. Those first two are firsts, but let's do this!

HUUUUUGE Thanks to my boy Zack for sending me the pumpkin pie cans, as they turned out to be useful and perfect!!! I'd never made a pie crust before, but thankfully I had some time that Friday to make it happen. So I made it happen. Not quite as hard as I anticipated, but not all that easy either. But lookie! And Safety First :-)

I learned that it's smart to toast the crust before filling it, so Jen helped me out with that. Clam dip wasn't a huge hit, but I was pumped to eat it again. That night, we ate a shitton of food. So delicious too. I stuffed myself, as you're supposed to do on Thanksgiving.

I wasn't with my family home in the states, but being with the Hollowells it sure felt like family. We ate like royalty, and thankfully they have a fireplace!!! We bopped around after dessert, I got the fire started, and didn't leave it. We hung out, chatted, and I ended up passing out on the floor until about 3am when I woke up and moved on over to the couch. Again, an extremely successful Thanksgiving :-)

Work Stuff

I could talk about some of the boring stuff at work, but no. I'll talk about something awesome. Two of the guys in the workshop celebrated their 25th anniversaries at Daimler this year. Because of COVID, they weren't able to celebrate as they would have liked to. But, that doesn't mean they didn't celebrate!

How did they celebrate? In a delicious manner. Well, to back up, every morning the workshop has a breakfast break from 08:30-08:50. Waiting for us the Friday before most people took their holiday break was a big box of stuff wrapped in aluminum foil. And not just anything, but a full rack of ribs!!!

As you would expect, I polished mine off and it was deeeeelicious.

Engage Lockdown

Despite what I'd initially thought, Christmas Markets were still allowed and somewhat operational this year! Thanks to my good buddy Christoph, we'd set out and went to go try and enjoy something as quasi-normal for this unbelievably abnormal year. How so? GLÜHWEIN!!!

That day was a little crazy. I got off work a little early (at home), and was bouncing around cleaning up and stuff and kinda zoned out. While I was zoned out, Christoph shared some breaking news from Baden-Württemburg (the Bundesland aka State that I'm living in).

I was hurried in getting ready but headed down to the street to a ready-to-drink Christoph. Why so ready to drink? Well, since he's the informed one out of the two of us, he learned not an hour beforehand that Baden-Württemburg was going to be enforcing a curfew starting that Sunday (it was Friday). Bwuh. Not cool.

So to the Weihnachtsmarkt we went! First things first - Glühwein. The most important thing related to Christmas in Germany. No joke. Of course I spilt it on my gloves and pants almost as soon as I got it. Kinda comes with the territory.

As Christoph noted in comparison to previous years, this was really quite the enjoyable Christmas Market. The lines were short, there weren't huge masses and huddles of people everywhere, and it was pretty low-key. Honestly, it was great. Also, I learned how various Glühwein can taste, from very sweet to very spiced, and everything in between.

We bopped around to the various stands, wandered around town, and got some Döner at my new favorite Döner place. Delicious. In all, we had a good bit of Glühwein, but were bummed as most of the stands closed down a good half hour before we thought they were supposed to. So that left us wandering around til we found an Italian Restaurant that was still selling. So we waited in line and got treated to the first dip out of a fresh pot of the holiday drink.

Drink in hand, we continued wandering around town, and ended up crossing paths with Sofia and Gergana! We talked and walked around with them, had some good conversations, and found the last place that was open for our last round. A successful, enjoyable, and festive night with some friends. All as preparation for...

Curfew

Our Christmas Market visit was on Friday night. That afternoon, we learned of the curfew which was enforced two days later on Sunday. To be honest, it hasn't changed all too much for me, but the whole fact of having to ensure that I am home by 20:00 is definitely a weird thing to always have in the back of your mind, and has impacted plans and my actions since I've had off from work for the break.

But wait, there's more!

Lockdown

Adding to the curfew, that Monday, the German Government laid down the cards of a nationwide lockdown, from December 16th to January 10th, 2021 (three weeks). Essentially the only things not affected are grocery stores and pharmacies and such. So adding to the curfew, I now had two days to get everything done with normal stores that I would need to get done to last me three weeks (and as we're all feeling right now, likely a lot longer than that).

First things first - I needed a haircut. Thankfully, I was able to get one scheduled for that night and into the seat pretty quick. The guy did a good job on the hair. But, this was the first time I allowed someone to work on my beard. Long story short, kinda pissed at how he did it. Didn't follow my directions and butchered it, so I ended up chopping it all down three days later to start anew. Lesson learned on that one...

There was really only two other things I needed to make sure I went and did before all the shops closed down for three weeks - get more lumber, and get more tools. So, that Tuesday I took the morning off to make sure I visited those two important stores. Got all the tools I needed at Hornbach (my not-quite-as-good version of Lowe's over here), and Hirsch & Sohn (my lumber yard). Stoked to get those done, as that was really all I needed before the impending closures set in.

Snow in the Schwarzwald

That next weekend, as the we were all getting used to the curfew and lockdown, I went out for a hike with a friend over in the Schwarzwald! It'd honestly been too many weeks since I'd done anything sporty, and I was in strong need of some fresh air and neature. As you'd expect, that's exactly what we got!

Not sure why it was called the 'Ice Age' Trail in Baiersbronn, but it ended up being very pretty. It was a foggy/misty, wet day, and it turned out to make it beautiful, and quite people-free. SO AWESOME!!! Parked in some little dorf, figured out what trail signs we needed to follow, and we were off!

Surprisingly, I felt pretty fit throughout, and that was good, cause the first half was the up half. Gradual, but enjoyable, it slowly took us up the valley and into some snow!!! It was initially a light dusting, but it grew to where we had a good few cms / couple inches, once we got up to the top. So much so, we even made ourselves a friend. :-)

At the top of the ridge we were headed was a little shelter. It was closed (obviously, I guess...), but we posted up on its porch for some lunch. I brought my little camp stove and heated up some water to rehydrate the Paella pack that I brought with. Nummy. Had some coffee and tea, and we were all juiced and warmed up to continue on the trail from there.

The trail took us along the ridge and over to the neighboring valley, where we then descended and worked our way on out of there. It took us past a beautiful mountain lake, and by a bunch of logged trees and such.

As I'm always reminded whenever I do, it was great to get out back into the woods. Nature is something I can never get enough of, and it always sucks whenever I go anywhere outdoors to get a taste of the amazing fresh air waiting for me there.

The 2020 Holiday Season

Well, to wrap up this crazy, subpar, calamitous year, I'm doing it alone in a quasi-quarantine. Not how I initially envisioned my holiday season to go, but that's how things have played out. Coronavirus has been ramping up quite a bit here in Germany and Europe, and with it being even more insane and completely out of control in the US, travel home was unfortunately not on the table for long.

I wrapped up work on the 19th. Due to my company's financial situation and it being the end of the year, we are required to utilize all 2020 Vacation days and any over-hours earned over the year before December 31st. Because of that, I've got two weeks off that are company-required. Awesome, for sure. Downside is it's all taking place at home.

Thankfully, I've got some awesome friends and people here in the area. My buddy Richard, an awesome Australian guy, invited me over to his place on Christmas knowing I couldn't go home to my family, him being in the same boat. Then my friends Jen and Eli invited me over to their house for Christmas. Then my landlords invited me over for Christmas Even. And then my friend Sofia invited me to her house across the street for Christmas to say. This just reinforces the fact that I've got some amazing, welcoming, and loving people in my life.

But, because of COVID, I had to make a decision. If I was super social and saw everyone, I'd be interacting with at least 4 different households. Granted, we've all been doing our part to wear masks and socially distance and such, but there's still a risk that someone has it and spreads it and then I spread it through meeting other groups of people. On the other end, I could select one or two invitations to accept, but I felt like that would be unfair to the other lovely people who invited me over (in hindsight, probably not the worst choice, as people would probably be understanding of this situation).

My choice though has been to stay at home and have a very socially distanced Christmas. Low-key, working on projects and playing video games and eating, it's been just me.

Despite that plan, I've been able to see everyone mentioned above and then some throughout the break, which kinda goes against my initial plan, but was refreshing and nice to see and catch up with everyone, despite it being a different manner than initially anticipated.

Well, all that is a long-winded way to say I'm having a very unusual holiday season over here on the Sophienstraße. Definitely being overly cautious, and probably a little too defensive on my choice, but I'm not trying to let anyone of the poeple I know be put in harms way because of me. This fucking virus has decimated our lives, and the sooner we all just buckle down, suck up the annoying aspects of the negative impacts, and work together to prevent this damn thing from spreading, the better off we'll all be.

Merry Christmas in Quarantine

Despite the planned quarantine and quasi-isolation, I spur-of-the-moment decided to do more than I anticipated to enjoy it. I went grocery shopping christmas eve to prepare for the three days where absolutely everything would be closed, and while I was there I spontaneously snagged a discounted pork roast. Christmas Dinner was set.

The day itself was quite enjoyable. Woke up to a video chat with my buddy Zack, studied a bit for my drive test (long story), played some video games, took an awesome nap, and then headed to the kitchen. You know those naps where you don't set an alarm, you fall right asleep, and wake up absolutely refreshed and not groggy and just perfect? Well that nap was one of those naps. I love it :-)

Kitchen time began, putting a little seasoning on the roast and getting everything ready. On the menu - Pork roast, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, and self-made gravy. Game time.

Thanks to the beauties of technology, I wasn't cooking alone. Alicia and her family were all opening presents, so I jumped on and got to watch a good bit of that. Then, my buddy Zach from OSU called, so I got to chat with him, wish him and Michelle a Merry Christmas, and then jumped back on the family call. By that time, Mommy and Peewee were on, so the whole gang was together! At some point Alicia and crew jumped off, so it was me cooking and food-prepping, and Mom and Peewee sipping mimosas sitting on the couch with some coffee cake. Not a bad crew!

On the food side of life, things were chugging along. This was the first time I'd cooked myself a multi-item meal. Most of the times, when I gather the energy to cook for myself, it's something easy. So I splurged and went big for this one.

Eventually, it all came together. I was really impatient at the end, but it all turned out GREAT! The roast was well cooked, the veggies were yummy, the potatoes were only a bit garlicy, and the gravy was scrumptious! Paired all of that with an Orkadian Ale from Scotland (thank god I forgot about an actual good beer in the fridge until then!), and it turned out to be fantastic.

Now's that time of the game where it's all just...

Commentary from the Peanut Gallery

Every time I'm in between writing up my blog posts, there's a ton of stuff that goes through my mind that I'd like to talk about. Most of it I forget, because I have a TERRIBLE memory. But as a tribute to those hardenend warriors of thoughts that make it through, this section is for them.

Static Friction / Stiction

Way back in my younger years of slogging through Engineering school, I had to take a bunch of classes, one of which was Dynamics. One topic/phenomenon that comes up in my life that I always remember learning about in college is Static Friction. For those that do not know what this is, here ya go.

Now you may be asking yourself, why in the world do I think about this? Well, it's because I personally have a lot of stiction.

I live alone, and have done so for the last four-five years or so. I live in a foreign country, where because of Covid (I feel like) I'm still kinda getting settled in and finding my groove. I am an introvert, which allows me to enjoy some time to myself, maybe sometimes too much so. Adding to those points, I've got a comfy place to live.

What does all of that mean? Well, once I get home or am already home, it takes a lot of momentum, motivation, energy, discipline, coersion, and more to get me up and out and doing something.

This may be surprising to you, and it is very surprising and downright annoying to me. Why? Because every time I do get off my ass and do something, whether it be a walk around the block or some fun adventure, I always realize how worth it it is, and how much I enjoy it. There's so much to do, and so much I want to do, that when I do engage and act I feel better and thoroughly enjoy it.

Now why do I let myself continually get in the trap of just being lazy and staying home? No fucking clue. Laziness plays into it and is probably the biggest component. Lack of motivation, and often times lack of company is a part of it for sure as well.

The important thing though - how do I get it through my thick head that I need to give myself that extra push to make things happen? Just think of a giant ball that's sitting on flat ground. Once it's rolling - no sweat keeping it rolling. But how can I push myself to always give that extra strong push and shove to get the ball rolling in the first place? That's something I need to work out.

Professional Thoughts - Daimler

I'm not sure how my career with Daimler is going to play out, but I've got a pretty confident feeling it won't be a life-long gig like my coworkers who graciously shared some ribs to celebrate.

Before I go any further, I gotta say that Daimler has definitely helped me get to where I am today. I mean, wouldn't be in Germany right now if that wasn't the case. I've been able to see many places and work across the globe thanks to Daimler's (and really my old director's) belief in me. Pretty awesome and I am grateful for that.

As we all know though, companies are full of politics and bullshit, and Daimler raises that banner proudly. I've got a good job now, but the poor decisions, poor money management, and high lack of innovation within the company as a whole is frustrating.

Professional Thoughts - Woodworking

One bug that's popped into my head over the last few weeks is the thought of trying to make woodworking more of a full-time thing. This is really just in the pipe dream stage of thinking things out, but it's giving me a little push to develop my woodworking plans, skills, and experience. I'll start expanding on that idea and doing more throughout 2021, and look to keep learning and growing with that.

If that ever becomes a full-time gig though, realistically, probably won't happen. But, that's not to say I'm going to follow that trail of bread crumbs as long as it goes and see how it plays out!

Signing Off from 2020 - FINALLY

I thought I had more comentary to share, but I'll spare you folks the boringness of my chaotic and cluttered mind. :-)

With that though, it's only a few days until the hopeful year of 2021 graces our calendars! Needless to say, I'm excited. And I'm sure you all are too. 2020 has been quite the turbulent year, in pretty much all aspects of life.

My plans for next year obviously all depend on how this damn virus gets under control. If people are idiots and don't fulfill their responsibilities and wear masks and socially distance and prevent the spread, well, it's gonna be another shitty year. IF, however, we all do our best and keep our distance and wear masks and get vaccinated and be smart and diligent, well, 2021 could turn out ok.

The one thing I've got in my head that I REALLY want to do is a trip up to Scotland. I was planning it this past summer but a forced quarantine killed that. The recipe of Mountain Biking, Backpacking, and Whiskey drinking over a week or three just seem way too good to pass up in what I presume to be an absolutely gorgeous part of the world.

On top of that, if things clear up and Europe allows Americans to travel in, I'm for sure anticipating visits from Mommy and Peewee, and I'd love to show them around here in Southern Germany and Europe in general! They were planning on coming out this year, but again, Covid.

At some point, I need to head back home too. Not sure when this will work out, but likely towards summer/fall, I'll be flying back to my beloved PNW. It'll likely coincide with some kind of work trip, so I might be able to be there longer than anticipated. But damn, I miss home, and can't wait to be back again soon!

The other rough plans also include a week of Mountain Biking with some guys I met at Lac Blanc this year (plan is to head to Les Gets and hit up the multiple parks there, I can't wait!). Also really looking forward to Covid not having such a damn negative impact on travel, so I can head down to the Alps a bit more and get some neature in my life. I was hesitant often enough because of Covid to where I didn't get enough mountains in my life this year, and that is always a huge bummer.

Non-travel wise, I'll be diving more into woodworking and see how I can hone that craft, I gotta get my driver's license by the end of January or else I can't drive over here until I pass the test, and then a bunch of smaller stuff that aren't on my radar right now.

All that said, I'm excited for this crazy year to come to an end, and looking forward to what the next has in store.

Thank you to all you lovely dear readers for following along! As a brief summary, things are going well for me over here. I definitely miss home, and look forward to returning once the opportunity arrives, but am doing my best to stay positive and enjoy the good things in front of me at the moment.

To all of you folks out there, I wish you all the best!!!

Original Publish Date: December 26th, 2020