What's On My Mind

The house is quiet today, Dick is out of town and the dogs are at the groomers.  With all the sanding and graveling of our roads during the ice and snow Josie and Toby had gotten very dirty.  The weatherman says we are going to have warm temps through the weekend, but he doesn't know that whenever I have Toby's fur shorn, it usually turns frightfully cold.  Guess I better get out the little doggy sweater.

In the past year there have been many retirements at Dick's company and now layoffs are beginning to happen.   And like many companies, there have been no hirings.  I am having a pity party for myself as the work that these people did has to be divided up among those left, including my husband.  Extremely grateful that he has a job and wants to continue for a few more years, but this means lots more business travel for him and I'm bummed over that.   This is the first week in a very long time that he's been gone 5 nights.

Good news:  Dick, myself, Brooke, Abraham, Elijah and Emma are going to Germany the end of May.  We will be there for Leigh (daughter) and Rene's wedding on June 1st.  Must say it will be the first wedding I have attended on a Wednesday.  But those Germans have at least one holiday every other week and one falls on the following day.  They are expecting quite a crowd and it sounds like they have planned a great party afterwards.

Dusseldorf, Germany has the largest Japanese population of any city outside Japan itself and they have a very large festival on the Rhine River every June.  This year it falls on the weekend we will be there and hotel rooms are booking up fast and for full price.  Ouch!  We are looking forward however,  to the very decorative Japanese boat regatta on the Rhine and the spectacular fireworks show by the river also.

We are also very pleased that during our visit we will get to see Tante (aunt) Gini, the 98 year old sister of my late mother in law.  I know she will be so excited to see her nephew and his family.  We hope she will be able to make the trip to the wedding festivities.  If not we will certainly drive to her home which is about a 4 hr trip from Leigh's.