Happy Birthday EllaMom! (aka Ellamae, Cindy’s Mom)
Last night’s Oktoberfest dinner lasted much longer than anticipated. We had invited two of Cindy’s colleagues to join us since they were each alone that night and between toasts with Oktoberfest beer and bites of homemade wurst, the conversation was mostly about AAS and it lasted a long time. At one point I looked at Cindy and she seemed ready to fall asleep right there, so I stood up, paid the bill and ended the evening. It was great fun, but we should have done it on a Saturday, not a Sunday evening.
This morning started with Cindy’s alarm, which she almost always beats, but she actually was sleeping through it and I had to gently wake her, since I don’t know how to turn the alarm off. She was beat, having been up for two hours in the night, so while she prepared for work, I made her breakfast and made the coffee particularly strong. Once she departed my Monday morning routine started with lots of laundry, a grocery run, and planning an afternoon walk while the weather is still lovely. We are expecting rain for the next several days, so I want to make the most of this lovely window of weather.
While the laundry was cooking, I caught up on some of the international news and this article got my blood close to the boiling point. Six months ago, with great fanfare, the Iraqis elected their lawmakers and for the past six months, these devoted servants of democracy have done nothing except collect their annual salary of $136,600, plus housing and transportation. Most have spent their time outside the country so as to be able to enjoy running water and constant electricity. I guess the sacrifice of lives, money and time that the US devoted to bring democracy to Iraq was well spent!!
I think I’ve mentioned the Boys on the Bus Bench before. These are the drunks who sit, sleep, and drink at the bus bench outside our living room window. The bench is far enough so that we don’t get the smells, but close enough to get the noise. Today, I have had to rename the group. There now seem to be an equal number of women in the club so I’ve named them The 54 Club. The 54 refers to the number of the bus route servicing this stop. I do believe that The 54 Club may have gotten some rather tainted vodka over the weekend. They have been particularly loud today, with two of them really yelling like crazy men; well, they are crazy, so I suspect that is normal. When I went out to shop they were so hopped up on something that they forgot to ask me for money. One looked like he thought he was on fire and kept jumping around hitting himself. This is really different behavior and it must have been noticed by the shop owners, who normally seem very tolerant, because one of them must have called the police who showed up in force with a type of paddy wagon and hauled all eight of them away. I haven’t see that happen here before, other than with demonstrators who are demonstrating against something the government is for. Ah, the excitement of urban living.
Ciao for now, Cindy and Wm
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