A Tinnitus free morning!

I’d like to say “day”,  but it’s not over yet.  Plus,  I sure hope I’m not jinxing it by even saying anything.

It’s one of those rules,  like realising the sailboat you’re on might come in first place in the race,  and then having the absentminded temerity to say something about it?  Bad Karma.  Bad.   Need to touch teak immediately, or something might break.

Hopefully the crap we have here from IKEA counts.   Looks like wood,  but who can really say?

 

I don’t think I’ve ever even mentioned the fact that,  for a few years now,  I’ve had something called “Tinnitus”,  and I don’t think I even realised what it was until maybe a few years back.  Just happened to be reading something “on the line”,  and then realised,  “Hey,  that’s what that annoying buzzing is!  Huh.” 

 

Of course,  if you start reading about some of the causes of Tinnitus,  it gets even more confusing, and I’ve read just about everything,  and I still haven’t figured it out.  Used to get sinus infections many,  many years ago when I worked in a particularly dusty school,  so maybe that ultimately lead to this condition?   Hard to say.

If I knew exactly what it was I had to do to make it suddenly stop like that,  I’d be all over that like a dog on a bone.

Meanwhile….

Don’t care,  ‘cause today it’s decided not to show up!

Heehaw!

 

 

Fine.  Enough of that.

 

I’d like to now present to you,  a combination of things that you’d be hard pressed to see most anywhere else.

 

 

 

Yes,  that’s a case of Austrian beer in a Canadian shopping bag.   Note the logos.   Daughter Unit Number One brought that one over for me when she was here a couple months ago,  along with a couple packs of socks from Costco I might add.  

Not the beer.  Just the bag.  I got the beer this morning.

 

I had put in these requests,  since the socks are the thicker kind that I used to wear back in my caretaking days and seem to keep my knee and hip bones from clunking about in their usually painful fashion.   The shopping bag is just the right size for lugging home a case of beer,  and I had already had an unfortunate incident earlier on with another one of these properly sized shopping bags,  when I misjudged the placement of the aforementioned beer,  and ended up busting a seam.  Drat!

Beer is a tad heavy it seems.

 

Hm,  maybe that’s why my middle keeps getting heavier,  the more of it I drink?

 

Nah.

 

 

I see people with these little two wheeled shopping carts. 

Like this one.  Some times fancier.

I’ve even seen them at ridiculously low prices. 

Doesn’t matter. 

 

I absolutely refuse to have one.  I’d sooner lose the tips of my fingers to gangrene from lack of circulation,  than be caught dead yanking one of these things around. 

 

 

It’s right up there with idiot mitts, 

 

 

and the rope around your neck to keep from losing your glasses thing.   I’d sooner just get bifocals if it gets to be that much of an issue.

Unless MAYBE it’s on a pair of reasonably good looking sunglasses,  but even then it would probably have to have something to do with being on a boat or on some other type of vessel where dropping them would be catastrophic. 

Just the same, I think I’d still only be willing to clip my hat to my collar.

 

 

Now I realise I’ve wandered around here from time to time wondering just where I’ve left my specs,  but QUITE OFTEN,  that is the result of someone ELSE having moved them.   Or someone ELSE wearing them.  

Here’s a typical and brief conversation:

“Ah,  can you have a look at this?”

“Well yes,  just as soon as you give me back MY GLASSES….”

“Oh”

 

See? 

 

Since they are only “cheaters”,  I probably have a dozen pair,  and simply keep a pair in every location where I might need to actually see something.   The rest of the time,  a little fuzziness on things doesn’t bother me.

 

Simple really.

 

 

Yesterday I was going on a little bit (too much, probably)  about how you know it’s time to go home.

 

But here’s the thing.  One of the things I know I’m going to truly miss when we do finally say our final farewell to Europe is,  well…CHEAP BOOZE.

For us it’s only beer and wine,  but I’ve looked at the other “hard” stuff,  and becoming an alcoholic here could be done in a very economical fashion.

And we all know that I’m cheap.

 

 

 

So let’s do a little math on the beer,  shall we?

Normally a case of 24 “Ottakringer” beer sells for €17,04.

That’s €,71 a can.  That’s already not too darned shabby. 

Just a note on the currency.  You’ll notice the use of a comma,  not a period.  Plus,  the first one you would say as,  “Seventeen Euros, four”  (Siebzehn Euro Vier, auf Deutsch)  The other amount would be, “Seventy-one Euro cents”,  or just “seventy-one cents”.

Just thought I’d point that out.

 

Also note,  these cans are a half litre each.    Oh ya!

Pretty good value.   But then,  IT GETS BETTER!   Today,  beer is on sale.   When the cashier swiped my “Vorteils” card,  I got €5,28 off,  bringing a case of beer down to €11.76,  or €,49 a can*!  

 

I like that math.

 

 

The slight annoyance is that,  you do need to sign up for one of  those stupid member cards.  I’ve got one from Billa,  Merkur,  Wein & Co.,  and just last week I signed up for one from Leiner.  Usually it’s the only way to get an advertised discount once you get to the cash/check-out.  It’s a form of target marketing that they do here.   In the past,  I’ve had a Tops card,  as well as a key fob thingy from Pueblo Xtra.   Thankfully with these types of cards,  membership is free.   They just want to be able to send you crap,  along with really important emails.  It’s pretty much the only mail we get,  so I don’t really care too much.   In the email department,  I just give one of my many web based rarely used email accounts,  and then go in a couple times a month and clean house.

 

I should also mention,  since you’re probably thinking,  “Gee Bob,  aren’t you giving out way too much information there?”

Well,  not really.  They have your name and your address,  and that’s about it.   Which brings me to one of the very annoying things they like to do in both Canada and the U.S.   They like to ask for either your Social Insurance Number in Canada,  or your Social Security Number in the States if you want these types of things.  

 

I don’t like that.  

 

That number is between me and the gubbermint,   and it’s bad enough that they have it already and could some how get it misplaced.  I don’t want to give it out to some retailer,  no matter how easy it is for them to use it to keep tabs on me.   Here they just give you whatever customer number happens to be on the next form in the pile.   Seems to work for them.

 

Now,  if it’s on some form at the bank,  or an investment firm,  where they may have to either remit some sort of tax or some such thing?   Well,  as painful as it may be,  that’s what it’s for.  Not to be sitting at the top of some form or other in a filing cabinet at the head office of someone selling garden mulch.

So,  even though I have to fill out a bloody form,  and get a bit of junk mail from time to time,  if it gets me cheap beer or wine,   I’m in!

 

 

*****

 

 

 

*At “Press Time”,  the Euro is about $1.35733 CDN or $1.42788 US.  (Yikes, that Yankee Buck is a tad weak,  but let’s not go there!) 

So that’s $.66 cents CDN or $.69 cents US. per can.

 

 

I’ll try and control myself.

 

 

 

 

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