Weekend report.

Maybe that sounds a bit over the top.  Just having trouble with new titles is all.  I’d make reference to the type of titles I don’t want to use,  but I just might speak out of turn.  So I won’t.   (no “Rumblings”,  “Meanderings”  or “Thoughts”)

In spite of it getting a little nasty yesterday,  it’s once again sunny today.  Not the best temperatures,  since it’s still single digits,  but I’m OK with that.   It’s February after all.

Speaking of which,  I thought these guys were wasting no time getting things ready for “ice-cream season”.   They’ll be opening up again tomorrow.  That’s February 28th for those keeping score.   During the more wintry months,  to keep a couple bucks coming in, (oh wait,  I guess that would be “Euros”.  Whatever.)  they use it as a clothing store.  Stuff like scarves and mitts.  That kind of thing.  We didn’t go in.   I have enough scarves,  mitts and toques.  I’d prefer not to have any at all to be completely honest.

 

 

It’s a chain of Ice Cream parlours,  and they do a brisk business.  You watch,  they’ll be mobbed tomorrow by noon.    Austrians really love their ice cream,  and there was some crazy statistic I read once about just how much they consume each year.  It was BUCKETS.

We’ve only bought ice cream there once I think.  It’s pretty rich.  Too rich for me,  since I usually end up with a tummy ache.  If I could just eat the stuff without it ever hitting my stomach!  That would be awesome.

As you recall,  I picked up Travelling Companion from the airport on Friday afternoon.  I left early enough to get the car washed,  but discovered that the place down the street had changed the whole procedure,  and I ended up spending a little longer there than I had hoped.

Not only that,  but the old girl in the Merc in front of me either had no clue what to do,  or wasn’t willing to do it.  You could either pay by credit card at the machine just before going in,  or buy a ticket at the cash and wave the UPC symbol under the machine in the same spot.   She just lowered her window and waved her ticket around.  I so wanted to honk!   One of the attendants had to come and “help” her.   (rolling my eyes here)

Used to be they had a guy in there who would give the car the initial spray,  and then the wash and dry didn’t seem to take nearly as long as the process that I had to wait for.   Won’t go back there.   As it is,  I no longer get my fuel there,  since they don’t accept the credit card that we have from the Company That Cannot be Named.  Paying by cash is a huge inconvenience,  since it involves have to fill out a little form and then submitting it to the leasing company.  It’s complicated,  and I won’t even go into it.  I was willing to pop for the €6 for the wash “out of pocket” so to speak,  just to get it out of the way.

I know!  Alert the media!  I was actually willing to spend money on the car that I’m not supposed to have to spend money on.   Pretty far fetched,  I realise.

What I then didn’t count on was sitting in traffic on the way out to the airport.  I was fully expecting to see some sort of pile up, but it was just a very busy on ramp,   and after that it was clear sailing.  I’m not going to even talk about how it’s impossible for some people to queue up to get off the highway.   Suffice to say I saw one guy start off way over in the right lane,  move all the way over to the far left,  only to then later exit off to the right.  C’mon! 

 

Of course,  right on cue,  my phone rings and T.C. is already out past the point of no return.   These airport pick-ups mean I either wait for her,  or once in a while she does have to wait for me.  It was a pleasant afternoon to wait outside at least,  and that meant I didn’t have to go into the parking lot.   If there were some way of timing it as well as that all the time, that would be the preferred method of pick-up,  but it almost never happens that way.   Mind you, whenever we do that sort of “curb side pick-up”,   I do have to stop and block traffic,  but at that point,  I don’t really give a rat’s tiny behind. 

 

So I have to show you this neat little collapsible vase that we finally started using Friday afternoon.  We’ve had it for a while, having received it as a gift from Daughter Number Two a couple Christmases ago, but we hadn’t gotten around to using it.  On a side note,  we tend to do that.   We’ll get something and put it away “for later”.  I’m sure a shrink could have fun with that one.  Don’t know why we do it.  Started out with nothing?  Hang onto things for dear life?  Don’t know.

 

Having broken yet another vase a while back,  we had to rummage around until we could find this one.  That’s the other thing.  By “putting things away”,  that also can mean having a shit of a job ever finding them again.

 

 

It’s stored flat,  you then fill it with hot water to get it to go into the shape you want (“vase like”  is preferred) , and then refill it will cold water,  and shove in the flowers.

Kinda neat,  actually.

 

Saturday was…just another day.  A little shopping (me, groceries)  and not much else.  If I told you T.C.’s schedule,  you’d know why she likes to veg out a little after being away for a week.  There was a brief hint of heading out in the afternoon,  but by then the street out here is mobbed.

 

This is taken from our living room window:

 

 

Actually,  those aren’t shoppers.  It was just another protest.  Not sure what they were protesting,  and I wasn’t about to race down to the street to find out.

I was trying to use the Nikon,  but I guess I hadn’t taken a gander at the battery lately,  since it was dead.  It tends to “lock” the shutter if the battery is pooched.  Kind of idiot proof that way I suppose.

 

Gee,  we haven’t had a protest since the big Opera Ball a couple weeks ago.  Slackers.

 

Well I think I’ve emptied out my brain for today.  Doesn’t take much to fill up a thimble.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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