Zimske Gume.

These two words have been going through my head all morning.  They just happen to be two Slovenian words is all,  and they were a couple more Slovenian words that we learned on the weekend.
See,  Travelling Companion's cousin was concerned whether or not we had "Zimske Gume"  on our car.   And yes,  we have "Zimske Gume"  on the car,  and it's a darned good thing we do too,  since it's been snowing just gobs here.

So fine,  if you have no desire to go to google translate and look it up,  that's "winter tires".

 By the way,  don't always believe what you read in "google translate" without cross checking with maybe a good dictionary,  or in the case of last weekend,  a sign advertising winter tires and an explanation coming from a native speaker of the language who just happened to be sitting in our back seat.

 Just thought I should mention that.

I realise it's hard to have all those conditions in place if you're attempting to learn a new language,  but it helps.



 So we're back to this?

I swear this is a new photo!  I had cleaned all the snow off yesterday!
I took it just now,  and it's around noon time.    They're calling for around 20 cm.   Whatever system of measurement you chose to use,  what I see there on the table is beginning to approach the "that will be quite enough,  thank-you"  end of the scale.

The rather expected result of these kinds of conditions is that muggins here has the dubious honour of driving Travelling Companion to work.   She's just not overly keen on that whole winter driving situation.  Wasn't too bad back in Canada,  since she not only had "Zimske Gume" on the car,  but it was only about a 10 minute drive from the house.
 No Biggie.
 Here it's a little different,  since you can well imagine that there might be a couple butt clenching moments on the roads when surrounded by?   How shall I put this?   Those whose driving skills in adverse conditions are somewhat lacking?   I already saw one rear ender yesterday afternoon,  and it was clearly obvious that the rear ender was the result of the one twit simply following too close. 
 Being rear ended is probably my biggest concern.  I'm quite capable of avoiding the twits in front.  It's the nitwits from behind that give me the willies.

Speaking of things that can make a person wonder just what's up,   we were going merrily along on the North Bridge,  and were quite content with the fact that we had left the bulk of the traffic behind,  when out of the blue we get a warning from the "on-board computer"  telling me to cautiously pull off to the shoulder since one of my tires was going flat.

Huh?

 Thankfully Travelling Companion needs her glasses to be able to read these kinds of things,  so she didn't go directly into a panic.   That always helps.
 Thing is,  some of these cars have just WAY TOO MANY SENSORS,  and if a sensor should happen to,  oh I don't know?  get frozen say?   Then there might be a problem?   There was no way in hell I was stopping at the side of the "carriage way"  on the advise of a few lines of programming.   When we got to Travelling Companions workplace,  I did the only test I knew how,  which was to go around and kick all four tires,  and lo and behold,  they all had air in them.  Besides which,  they're "run flat tires"  whatever that means,   but I certainly didn't feel any adverse effects when we were driving.
 I'd rather not have ever had that experience but trust me,  I know how a flat tire behaves.
Actually,  I also know how a car handles when the entire wheel decides to come off and go rolling merrily off into a cow pasture,  but that's another story.

  That about wraps up today's excitement.   Aren't you excited?

 Word is Travelling Companion wants to be picked up at 2:00 p.m.  which means I'll have to leave shortly.



 Feels like I've been spending a lot of time in the car today.








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We know the drill.

Probably time to dig out the bird feeder?

 When I went out with the shovel to clear the snow away,  I did notice some furtive little bird tracks where they had been looking for food.   I didn't see any evidence of tiny little bird snow shovels,  so I figured I'd just take the initiative and clear off the table.   I mean,  my snow shovel is considerably bigger after all.

Wouldn't they need like a "bird snowblower"?

Never mind.  



That's actually not what I had in mind today.   Other than the fact that we're down to eight more sleeps, (yay!)  the other news is that today was the day to go and pick up our Residence Permits.

Such fun.

Not much of a "yay"  on that one I'm afraid.


 It wouldn't kill them to have a system by which you pay up front and then go to a completely different office to pick the things up but no,  it's the same routine all over again.   You line up outside the building,  shuffle inside (if you're lucky enough to even move that fast)  then get your number,   then go upstairs to the big cattle call type waiting room.

 An hour and a half.

To pick up two pieces of plastic.

Thankfully my bladder was being cooperative.

There was no bonehead this time suggesting we should go to city hall.  
As a matter of fact,  the lady at the first ticket wicket was quite pleasant and chatty.
That was kind of bizarre actually,  since the notion of someone actually being pleasant in that sort of situation is somewhat out of the ordinary.   I'm not just referring to life here in "Absurdistan"  either.   It's been my experience that most "officials" are a notoriously miserable lot and should be taken out behind the wood pile for some "fine tuning". 
Of course,  that's just the "Farmer Bob"  in me coming out,  so don't take any notice.
I have a whole list of folks who could do with some "fine tuning",  but we won't go there.



Speaking of "miserable"....

Sure wouldn't hurt if they'd let you smile just ever so slightly for those types of pictures? Couldn't hurt in my case,   that's for sure.


So there you have it.    We're legal again for another year. 

Well almost.   Mine expires in October,  since that's when my passport expires.  

*sigh*

We're still not going to start the process until two weeks before Travelling Companion's runs out I'm thinking since:
1) I will have renewed my passport when we go home for Christmas, and
2) I don't really care?

I think Lawyer Dude (who was almost on time this time)  mentioned something about 90 days or something.   Whatever.   pfft!  They can kick me out. 



Hope everyone has a fine day.  




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Stuck

And this,  Ladies and Gentlemen,  is another one of the reasons I'm not overly keen on taking public transit.   You of course remember the whole not wanting to smell you,  hear you or see you thing I mentioned a few days ago,  right?   Well,  how about being cooped up with the same smelly bunch for a couple hours?
In a subway car.
In a tunnel.

Seems with some of the adverse temperatures (and really,  it's only hovering around the freezing mark)  there was a power outage on one of the subway lines yesterday,  and a train load of passengers were left in a tunnel for TWO HOURS!

 Are you kidding me?

It says there on the second line,  "Wurde Zug im Tunnel vergessen?"   You can figure that one out I'm sure.


I heard something on the radio yesterday afternoon in the car and thought at first I had misunderstood.

 Nope.   Seems my German comprehension skills aren't all that shabby after all.

I would additionally like to point out that,  although I did have to stop at traffic lights and sit in the car from time to time,   I was in fact comfortable,  "moving"  to some degree or other,  and arrived at my destination,  on time, without having the car break down.

Just thought I'd mention that.

And yes I know,  Vienna has one of the best transit systems in the world,  bla bla bla.   Whatever.   And yes,  I know there was that one time there when we couldn't get the flippin' garage door to open for us and we had to jump on the subway to meet our visitors down town.
Fine.
But we could have also hailed a cab.

And I suppose that being stuck in a subway car for a couple hours is part of the "charm" of living in the big city?  I guess there are certain things I no longer find charming.  The "authorities"  will be investigating as to just what went wrong.   Certainly there must have been people calling frantically on their cell phones?   I mean,  they're always yakking on the damned things in the subway cars,  so I can only imagine that the signal strength must be just fine.  

This isn't to say that I'd never take public transit.   No no,  I'm just pointing out my preferences.   In the best of all possible worlds,   I'd happily take the bike most any day,  with the proviso that there were some sort of notion of  "subjective safety".   Some days I just don't feel like bolstering my courage to ride a bike in Vienna,  especially when the first part of my journey is on a street like Mariahilfer.   The actual weather conditions have very little to do with it.   I would like to get some sort of eye wear to ward off any errant snow flakes however,  since getting pounded in the eyeballs by snow is a bit uncomfortable.   Other than that,   I've ridden in temps down as low as -9°C.


Speaking of snow,  we're getting some.

I should have started a "segue count".   Too late,  dammit!


 
Just got an apologetic call from German Teacher Dude that he'd rather not head out in the present conditions,  since it does seem to be getting worse.
I'm fine with that.   It's not like he's delivering an organ for some sort of life saving operation.  Life is really too short to be stressing about these kinds of things.

 I'm only slightly annoyed that I got the car washed yesterday.    Kind of a waste.




Remember this?

Yes well,   there's been a slight change....

 Now where did I put my boots?  




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