Sad but true....the color palette has undergone a complete reversal; now the brown of the tree trunks and ground, and the green of the pine trees predominate, while the light dusting of snow that followed and deepened the fog of early last week has mostly gone back into the ground. The temperature has moved from -5 or so to plus 3/4. In places where the sun don't shine there is still some snow on the ground, but otherwise the fields are back to brown with green where the winter greens are struggling their way out into the air.
The still, dry cold of last week was actually more clement than the more windy but supposedly warmer wet cold of yesterday and today......this stuff kind of seeps into and enervates me a bit. It is still quite walkable and even beautiful, just more normal and different.
Today we took Gunter's (my father in law) car back to him in D-Hausen and then walked back (3 hours or so) through the forests, thru Marburg's altstadt, and then along the Lahn, by the small town of Kappel where Anja's mother grew up, and up the hill and thru another forest and so back home to a very nice hot shower and then Didi's (I guess he is my step father in law) dinner (at 4pm...sounds early but it's already getting dark, so when eating in Rome, etc.) of Schnitzel with a special kind of Saurkraut and my favorite dish of his, Bratkartoffeln...really yummy potatoes pan fried with bits of bacon and olive oil and butter. Beer, coffee and my German Xmas dessert weakness Stollen (a kind of butter/sugared up German fruit cake/bread) of which I am eating way too much. Followed by, now, sitting in the Kamin (not sure of spelling but it is the 'fireplace room') zimmer ('tsimmer'=room) and writing away.
The biggest problems I have identified to our travel/figure out where we want to live plan are so far these: 'Community', something I'll call Efficiency, and Purpose. I will articulate the basic elements of each, and I welcome comments from any readers with suggestions:
Community-Anja and I have lived in the San Francisco for the last 14 years together and I have for my whole life lived in the area. Her family is in Germany (around Marburg) and London. Mine is all near where I grew up. One dream we have bandied about is trying to buy an old Bauernhof with some land, maybe in this area of Germany. Such a purchase would give us a relatively immense amount of space, both living and with some land. Undoubtedly, it would demand from us a ton of work to convert whatever we get into what we want: a place that friends and family would love to come to on some regular basis, and that would satisfy us in terms of a living space we could love and grow into. I am not afraid of the work. But since this isn't Hollywood, I am worried about the field of dreams aspect. IF we made such a place exactly what we want (many many variables and challenges, many unknowns but isn't that part of the fun?), who would come (?) and how often (I for one am more worried that no one shows up than that we are constantly inundated with guests)? Assuming most folks came in the summer, there would be biking and hiking trails galore, but not much culture (that is, not much to encourage multiple visits over a lifetime). Basically, how do we keep contact, physically, with people we care about? And how much should we worry about it? Some friends in New York have talked to us at length on this specific issue, and there is no easy solution.
Efficiency-or, effectiveness. While we are on the move I feel very ineffective in my daily life. Interestingly, not regarding work. I can get a day of exercise in and some reading and writing, and login at 6pm which is only 9am back in the U.S. on the west coast. I can review client accounts and call anybody for less than an american penny a minute. But during the day I miss my deadlines and daily sports and workout routines. Maybe part of the answer is just to accept not having a routine. But I like to get accomplish things and even though I get around fine in German, still buying and shopping is a little extra effort. I am in the process of setting up a little area with a desk and file space and that should help....right now I have to kind to hunt and peck through piles of stuff to find what I want. I think this is the least of our problems; maybe no problem at all
Inerjection: One thing I did do and recommend everybody do, especially if they are thinking of living on the road but even otherwise, is to digitize as much as possible. Every document I need, every record I need from here on going forward, every phone number and password, except for physical receipts, is stored at some part of the internet. That is, it is all accessible from anywhere I can login, and not device dependent. I really don't need to lug a computer around at all times, so if my hard drive blows up I haven't lost anything I can't easily retrieve.
Purpose-I am not a believer in 'the one meaning of life'. I do believe any reasonable life has many elements of meaning and they only have to be important to the individual. However, as part of our lives going forward, one of the elements of meaning we are trying to identify is some purpose beyond just having fun; i.e.-something that gives back to the world in a way that is meaningful to us and makes us feel good (yo...it's all selfish). We would like to do something together, but have different areas of interest and competency and so this might be tough. Nonetheless, it is something we are going to spend a lot of time trying to figure out. Global warming? Volunteer work of some kind (Peace Corps?). One idea I had was to look into a group that from what I remember goes to disaster areas and coordinates relief by setting up mobile communications .... something like 'telephone guys without borders'. That sounds useful and like something I could do...haven't found out enough about it and haven't really discussed it with Anja but it is an interesting idea. Doctors without Borders also might be a possibility....they must need people without too much medical knowledge (and maybe I could learn some basics) but who are available on short notice and have energy and basic common sense/intelligence? More research there to do as well. This area is an exciting challenge for us.
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