On Our Way to Prague

We decided to Lyft all the way to the airport instead of using BART. It is a long walk from BART to the San Francisco Airport where we would pick up the wheel chair assist. We watched our Lyft driver on the phone app make his way towards our house, only to see that he was stopped, for a long time, by the train. He finally arrived, we directed him through town to avoid another train. Traffic was a bit heavy, but we made it to SFO and the wheel chair assist kiosk, only to be told that several of the wheel chair pushers had just  even told to go for lunch and it would be about 25 minutes. We walked. Sore foot, ankle, toe and all.  

It wasn't long before we were on our plane settling in for a flight of about 11 hours. Here I must confess our guilty pleasure of flying Business Class. It is outrageously expensive, but oh, so pleasant! We were treated to a drink... maybe it was two (three?) and a nice meal. 

We settled down to sleep, without success. I knew I needed to get some rest, but it was only 5 or 6 pm according to my body.  I think I finally got in about an hour of sleep just as they began serving breakfast.  

We landed in Munich and were greeted by Johannes, in lederhosen (it is the beginning of Octoberfest), and his wheel chair. He skillfully maneuvered through a rabbit warren of corridors and elevators. We took a brief ride on a handicap shuttle and were taken to a passport checkpoint. There were no other people there! We whisked through the process. That aspect of the wheelchair transport was amazing! If we had walked we would have been in line with everyone else on the plane. Shortly later we were on our way to Prague. 

We caught a nap, far too short, before our first trip briefing, and then met with our friends for dinner. 

It was a full day... and a half!

Go? or No Go?

We Dreamers planned a trip to Europe over a year ago. Shortly after we returned from our 45th Anniversary Celebratory Trip  Our friends, Ranee & Marc contacted us, letting us know that they had such a great time doing a riverboat cruise and liked traveling with us... and would we like to do another trip?! We vacillated... should we?! or.. shouldn't we?! Finally, a few days before the cut-off for a prepaid discount, we laid out the cash.

This is a mega trip for us. The trip begins with a few days in Prague. Then we are bused to the riverboat in Nuremberg. We travel along the Danube to Budapest. We Dreamers did our first riverboat cruise from Budapest to Passau, Germany, in 2006. Holy cow! That's a long time ago! That was long before I even thought of blogging! There will be only a few stops that we have visited previously, and I am sure we will see new things and learn new things.

But.. wait! 

There's more! 

After a few days in Budapest, we will continue along the river heading toward Giurgiu, Romania. (When I return I hope to be able to pronounce the name of the city!) Once we arrive, we will be transported to Bucharest. After a few days exploring that city we will be transported to the airport, our magic fairy wings will be stripped away, and we fly back to San Francisco and our almost mundane lives! (Well... I guess I can't really say that! My life is rich and I am fortunate to be able to enjoy retirement.)

Tuesday night of this past week... just days before our long-planned departure... Mr. Dreamy discovered suddenly  that he could not walk without a great deal of pain. His foot was swollen and the pain was excruciating. He was able to see a Doctor the next morning, and then we motored on to the imaging facility for X-rays. The results determined that he had not broken a bone, and the pain was from a severely strained ankle and foot. What? How? When? Where? He could not recall anything that had happened to cause the injury. But, the swelling indicated something had happened. (To truly add insult to injury, as he was hobbling into the kitchen at our son's house he kicked "the castle". Alexis is standing in the castle in the picture below. It provides a stable platform that allows her to cook with Mom or Dad. )

Thus began the discussion:

Should we go?

Can we go?

Can he walk?

The cruise company is not ADA compliant. Wheel chairs will not work on the ship, or on their tours.
We had purchased insurance policies. We could get a voucher for another trip, and the airline would refund our money with a statement from the doctor ... which we had.

So... we moved on day by day. Not sure what to expect.  Should we stay or should we go now? The Mr. tried EVERYTHING to alleviate swelling and pain. He used ice. He used compression. He used KT Kinesiology tape. He used elevation. He even went to a Medical Marijuana Dispensary here in California (where it is legal) for some pain relieving lotion.
The swelling increased. The pain increased. Then.. by Friday... it seemed that he turned the corner. The swelling began to diminish. The pain in most areas of the foot began to subside. He believed that he could, indeed, make the trip to Europe. So, we packed our suitcases!
We have arranged for a wheel chair at each airport. We are ready to call Uber... or shall we call Lyft?! We are ready to be on our way!
Stay tuned for posts about our voyage!

Tabled

We wanted to find a table for our narrow living room. When we were looking at the house the stagers had a long, thin table along the wall. I liked how it balanced the room without taking up too much space.

We wandered into the Berkeley area to a shop that sold slabs from trees. There it was. The perfect piece for our table... it was a 10' long narrow piece with one side left raw, and a straight cut for the back.

The shop planed the slab and we picked it up the next day!

The Mr. worked on sanding it and finishing it. 

Then we hunted for legs. I happened upon this freebie in Chris' neighborhood. It was still there the next morning. We left the glass and took the table.

The legs were removed and installed on the slab. The slab was anchored to the wall.

Voila, Voila 

We have a table!

Quiero Aprender Español

I regret that I did not take Spanish when I was in school. I never realized how practical it would be in the future; never dreamed of the influx of Spanish speakers in our country. In the mid '90s I had a half dozen Spanish speaking students in my classes. The beginning of the wave. I can still picture Eduardo. He tried to teach me Spanish, and a huge smile would light up his face as he put up with my lousy pronunciation. I regret that I didn't try harder!

I challenged myself to learn Spanish this year. One hundred days ago I began using the Duolingo program on my computer and handhelds. If you haven't heard of it... it's free and offers instruction in a few dozen languages, including Klingon! The activities are multi-faceted and lead you from matching words and their meaning, to writing sentences in Spanish, translating Spanish sentences into English, and filling in the blanks. There are rewards, like those you'd find on a computer game, but I don't really pay attention to them., You can also place bets on keeping your daily practice "streak" going.

I have taken numerous books out of the library, many claiming that I will learn the language easily if I use their book! I bought one book because I liked the workbook format, and I use that on occasion. That book is "Barron's E-Z Spanish". My car radio is tuned to a local Spanish music station. My son chided me that he never can figure out lyrics of songs in English, how the heck was I to learn Spanish from their songs?!

Duolingo reports that I have learned 462 words! Every day I run through a number of exercises. I like the way that the program leads you into more complex language patterns. I also like that there is a discussion area for each exercise. If you are curious about why the suggested answer is considered appropriate, the discussion will explain the more subtle nuances of the language. I am now listening to Duolingo podcasts for "intermediate" Spanish learners. I don't consider myself quite at that level, but the podcasts intersperse English with the Spanish so I can keep up with the true-life story.. oh, and they speak slower so my brain has a bit more time to process what I am hearing!  I celebrate each word and phrase that I understand! There are also stories on the "Lab" tab online. These remind me of reading exercises I used with students years ago. As with the podcasts, there are many words I don't know, but in context I can figure out the gist of the story. Oh and did I mention TinyCards? This is an additional application that has flashcards for the stories, flash cards for the exercises you complete online, and you can make your own flashcard sets.

I don't mean to sound like an ad for the program... but I'm loving it. I love that it makes language education accessible to anyone with connectivity, which is their mission.

Gracias, Duolingo. Estoy feliz de aprender español.

3,072 Bottles of Wine in the Box

Do you recall that wonderful "I Love Lucy" episode at the chocolate candy factory? The one where Lucy and Ethel can't keep up with the candies coming at them on the conveyor belt. I worked with seven other people recently to bottle wine. We all commented that we felt like we were on that episode, but with wine bottles. As much as we would have liked to have tucked some bottles here and there to speed up the process, it just wouldn't work!

We have become members of a local winery. One of the benefits of membership is that we can go to their tasting room, a convenient mile from our home, and have a free glass of wine. Many evenings we ride bikes to "Rigger's Loft" to enjoy our free glass, then head home for dinner. Members received an email inquiry asking for help bottling. We both decided it sounded like it would be interesting. So, Wednesday morning found us at the loft, ready to learn what we were to do.

There were seven stations in the bottling process.

Station 1. Bottles are dropped onto a table by the case. If you hold the carton by the corners, and place it open side down,  you can lift the carton off the bottles and most of the time the cardboard grids stay in the carton. The cartons are piled on the floor and will be taken to the other end of the line to be filled with full bottles of wine. The bottles have to be "sparged". A quick jet of nitrogen is blown into each bottle using a hand-held tool similar to a tire inflater. The jet of nitrogen blows any dust in the bottle out, and stays at the bottom of the bottle keeping any contaminated air out of the bottle.

Station 2. The filler grabs each prepared bottle and pushes it up to a nozzle. On this particular machine there were six nozzles. A long 2" diameter hose runs from the tank to a hopper at the top of the filler. The wine is gravity fed through each nozzle into the bottle. If the filler is set up correctly, wine will stop flowing at the exact "full" point.  (At first we had some problems with too much wine in the bottles... the corks were not going in all of the way.) When the bottle is full, the filler lifts it out of the nozzle and puts it on the table.

Station 3. The corker operator (that was me for quite a while) grabs the full bottle with his/her right hand. It is pressed into a "V" in the machine which has a switch that activates a piston, driving the cork into the bottle. The bottle is then lifted out with the left hand and put on the next table.

Sparging going on in the background. Bottles waiting for corks in the foreground
If the bottle is a bit too full, a tablespoon or so is poured into the pitcher.

Station 4. The foiler places the foil cap over the top of each bottle. No machine is involved! It sounds simple, but this is one place where we would run into a bottleneck (I just had to use that term!!) The foil caps are nested, making a long tube, and it takes some finesse in getting just one cap off.

Station 5: The foil shrinker grabs a bottle with the right hand and places it on the platform of the machine in a V made by two pieces of wood. Then the operator must use both hands to push two buttons. The machine lowers over the neck of the bottle and emits heat and pressure which shrinks the foil. When the machine lifts, that bottle is placed on the table to the left and the next bottle on the right is placed on the bed of the machine.

Station 6: There were two bottle labelers. Bottles were picked up and placed on the first labeler, or passed on to the second labeler. Once the bottles were in place, lying down on the machine, a foot pedal was pressed and the bottle rolled as labels for the front and back stuck to the bottle. Bottles were placed on the last table.

Station 7: Full, labeled bottles of wine were placed in the cartons which had been emptied at the first station, and carried down to the end of the line. Once 12 bottles were in the carton, it was taped shut and placed upside down on the pallet... which was actually right-side-up as far as the box label went. Each pallet held four layers of 16 cartons of wine. That's 768 bottles... and each person touched each bottle at least once, sometimes twice! During the entire day 4 pallets were filled... 3,072 bottles of wine!

A few rejects have been set aside. The labels will be scraped off  before new ones are applied. 

 We had a wonderful time. We were tired, but it was fun to be part of the team. Certainly there are larger operations with more automation, but this system works for this small winery. Will we do it again? Certainly!

Secret Admirer

We were camping out in our Airstream trailer with a local California group. Upon returning from an evening event I heard delightful guitar music and singing from an adjacent campsite. It was brutally cold and I didn't want to stay outside, but I thoroughly enjoyed the music as I went back and forth with the dogs.
The next morning our campground neighbor was tidying up on his campsite. I asked if he was the guitar player and singer from the previous night. He indicated that he was. I complemented him, and told him of my enjoyment. Shortly thereafter, we Dreamers left the campground on an adventure.
As we returned, I noticed some Hydrangeas on our picnic table. Along with the flowers there were a few pieces of firewood (and more by our campfire ring), and a hand-labeled CD of music. I felt like I had a secret admirer!

Steff Kayser was my "secret" admirer. He hails from the Seattle area. The CD included his original songs in the same genre as others, such as, "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round", "Doctor My Eyes", and "Desperado".  If you ever have the opportunity to hear Steff sing, and like this genre of music (as I do) I highly recommend you take the time to listen, He's great!

Steff Kayser

When She is Good

I am enjoying (most of the time) my grandchildren. Alexis turned three in June and Kellan is almost 10 months old. The kids live about 12 miles from us, but traffic turns that into 30 minutes, or more, of travel time.

Alexis goes to preschool programs in the morning 4 days a week. She comes home for lunch, quiet time and then an afternoon of doing whatever toddlers like to do. She stays home on Thursdays, and I have been helping Holly, the other grandmother, with kid care then. I also get to have Kellan on my own for a few hours on most Fridays.

Alexis fails at quiet time. She fails at napping. She even struggles with sleeping at night. Nona Holly and I often wonder what escapades Alexis will have when she is supposed to be quiet or napping. And, in hindsight, it is when she is quiet that she is up to something! Like... the time I came into her room to find all of the bedding removed from her bed... and the mattress moved off as well!

Here are a few more scenes from the summer:

They really need to get a dog!

Clean up would be so much easier!

Alexis is not ready for a car of any size! 

She couldn't quite coordinate pushing the "gas" pedal, AND steering!

Who needs a TV?

We took a break from scooter riding to pose on a funny bike!

Kellan is a sleeper!

Helping Grammy bake is the best!

I can handle this part of baby-sitting!

At the Botanic Gardens

Captured... by the camera, at least.

At the dog beach