baby sitter son

 This morning it was the son's difficulties with printing a map, he had fully forgotten the night before that he is unable to print from his mobile telephone. So trouble google maps and print a map showing the route from the house to Ergolding. Show him a trick for printing maps which offers a bit more control than Google's own offerings. He is not really grateful, he is meanwhile the family computer expert and strange ideas from his idiot father are not welcome. Especially those of them that happen to work. But it does not matter, do the printing, and then he rushes off to put on presentable clothing. 

Later on the wife explains that he is taking part in a course for baby sitters. This is a nice idea. The wife then explains that he will probably never get a job as a babysitter because he is male, and there is always a prejudice against males carers for children. The arguments are not easy to understand, and seem to really have a great deal to do with prejudice.

The long walk around the old town today was simply tiring, and it was good to get back home again

rail

 In the bathroom let the water run warm, and take a shower, wash the sleep down the drain. It is sometime earlier than seven in the morning, the son's summer break from school has started. Use the towel to remove the water, to dry the old body, past really caring now, but why not.

There is a knock on the bathroom door, hurry up with the drying and go back to the bedroom. The son knocks on the bedroom door too, and says that he has a problem. He needs a special offer ticket from the railway company, and, being underage, an adult with a credit card has to pay for it. So start the laptop, he opens the little account with the railway company, and there is the bill. Click on all the appropriate places, and then it becomes clear that the railways used to be run by the state. An identity double check. Then a link to the bank is made. Another identity check, then a second device security request. This is the bank now. Start the security app, enter the codes, agree with the transaction. Then the payment app returns the interface to the railway company app. The railway company app asks whether or not it is in order to go ahead?

Yes. Click the appropriate square.

Do you want to print or do you need it on your mobile?

Print.

Pdf.

Print

Ok, that's it, all for a sum of nine euros, an amount of money spent at amazon or apple or any others of these American companies with one click.

Perhaps this is another reason for German rail going broke.

 Now the son has his temporary youth pass from the railway company as an A4 Printout.

take ten

 Take the bicycle through the pedestrian zone, slowly, there are so many pedestrians and children and all. One is allowed to use the bicycle here, but it is better to go slowly. There is no point in causing an accident. Having left the pedestrian zone behind pedal the bicycle up the long straight road towards the railway station. There are many junctions on the way, cars suddenly poking their snouts out and getting in the way. There are many red lights.

It is a silly errand to the waste depot. The yellow plastic bags at home have run out, and the next place where they are obtainable is at the depot.

The sun is bright and strong this afternoon, and the bridge over the railway lines is long and quite a steep climb. But pedal on steadily, reach the top and roll down the other side. It is a long road now, beside the railway tracks and the cycle paths are confusing. After a junction this path becomes very wide, and there are cycles now coming the other direction. Keep out of their way.

At the depot, ask a man whether or not one can take a roll of plastic bags from the box perched on the window ledge. He says one can in a completely offhand manner. So take three rolls and place them on the carrier. And then head back home again, a distance of some three kilometres. Take a different route going home, suddenly there is traffic everywhere and no cycle path. 

Cycling is not pleasant in the town, regardless of the amount of paths and amenities provided. Arrive back home soaked in sweat, place the rolls on the kitchen counter and lie down in bed.

And lie there for at least ten minutes.

early evening out

 After the morning's walk, and a short rest, and a round of washing through the machine and the dryer started, put on the suit and the shirt and the tie. A pair of black shoes too, they are new, never worn. They are a year old now.

Take the bus to the railway station, this is the first time in years. Buy a day ticket and go to the platform, the tunnel under the tracks has not changed, it is still platform number six to Munich. It is strange to have to wear a mask, but the railway people are strict. Take the train all the way into Munich central, and then take an underground to the venue. It is great to be in town again, all the liveliness!

Being five minutes early for the show just means that a wait is necessary. The exhibition is in some kind of a  Catholic place, it seems to be a hostel of some kind. When the time is right, go in and be greeted by the exhibitor. Look at the paintings and make approving noises, though they are hard  to understand. Sorry, no purchases possible. It is a strange show, and it seems as if the paintings are not so great.

There is a pianist, a lady from Japan, and she is marvellous. She plays difficult pieces with great mastery, and attention. Her concentration is enormous.

Thank her for her playing. She is professional. The piano is a Bösendorfer grand piano, and her playing is a dream come true.

She is selling CDs, notice that afterwards. She is a fan of John Cage, and John Lennon too.

But she is much more interesting than the painting.

And just a small point on the side.

If you want to be taken seriously wear a suit shirt and tie. It makes people curious.

watch

 Watch the woman behind the counter take one order at a time from a group and deal with each order and then take the next one. Each one singly, each one slowly it takes a long time to complete the list.

Watch, she is at number three, a group of five. They are all raising their eyebrows, as she turns to address the next person, and then goes to get a plate and then goes to the cake display and then gets a tray and then starts the coffee machine and then asks whether or not sugar and milk and then finalises the tray. Then she turns to  the next person in the group.

And repeat the procedure, and again.

Order a coffee and a buttered pretzel, and take a picture of the QR  code on the table to take care of the covid registration.

By this time she has forgotten whether the coffee should be black or white.

The coffee should be black, without sugar.

Take the tray outside and take a seat.

Watch two men unload a delivery truck, a small refrigerated truck. There is a wooden pallet on the road, watch as innumerable white boxes of fresh pasta are neatly placed upon the pallet, until they are stacked as tall as the man stacking them. The other man goes back to the shop to get a hand lift truck to drag the pallet back to the shop. It is a wobbly load, a young woman from the shop comes out to help. Two people steady the load and one pulls the truck and they all move down the pavement to the italian supermarket on the corner.

Sit and finish the coffee and the pretzel. It is a warm day, and today's walk had been five kilometres.

Still, the depression of the last week or two will not go away. It is not a thing to write about, it would be so much nicer to write of beautiful cheerful things.

But this is the way things are now

four

 And just at the bridge the legs feel tired, it is getting difficult to walk at all. Five kilometres will have to do. Walk past the café, the bakery one, and see that all the spaces are filled with women, a few with their small children, all enjoying breakfast away from home  on a shopping Monday.

Walk past them, go up another alley, and then turn left to go into an arcade that leads between two parallel streets. Come out at the noisy beer garden, they are just starting the days work.

It will be necessary to lie down at home, the body does not feel up to much at all.

And the mind does not either. Strange vision and hallucinations come as the body drops back off to sleep. Perhaps it is a cold, or influenza, who knows. Last night was difficult, and awakening at four was silly, but then it was not deliberate.

daily walk #33

Awaken too early to make any sense of what is going on, go to the lavatory anyway, and then wash the hairy face. It is too early and not late enough, the son is up but he is too tired to go out. Go back to bed lie down until seven in the morning. Turn of the alarm, get up, put on clothing, a fresh shirt, and remember to take the pills today as the doctor had ordered. The son is not prepared to leave the house yet, he is involved in his teenage dreams and nightmares.

Leave the house and head for the park, as every day. Be overtaken by an over-fit jogger on the hill, well there is nothing to be done about that, know full well that this old body will never be in a state to do that. It is humid, and quite warm. At the top of the hill take the long way around and pick a few leaves for the rhea birds, they seem to enjoy pecking and snapping at them. They are always unhurried in their wanderings, seldom do they run. They just stalk about.

There is a very young girl, barely not a baby anymore, feeding them small bits of grass. The girl's father warns her to mind her fingers, the birds can snap at them, and with such small fingers that would probably hurt.

Walk all around the town today, stop to admire an old house. A woman stops and chats about the house, she explains what a lovely old house it is.

And at home again, after seven kilometres walking in the sun, realise that the shirt is soaking wet around the neck and under the camera bag's strap.

pulse

 Fed the birds a few leaves today, leaves of a kind not available inside their enclosure. They seemed happy enough, but it is clear that nothing compares to apples. The damp fresh leaves must be a bit like sweets for the birds. They are hazel leaves with some maple thrown in. The birds snap at them quite happily. The animals are Rheas, also known as Nandus and they are not in the least frightened of people.

Walk on around the enclosures, take some water at the water fountain. Meet the collector of Leicas and his wife, the two of them are taking a walk down into town. Chat for a short while, and then both parties go on their way. 

The river has calmed now, it is no longer as wild as a few days ago, and the flood gates have been closed again. All is quiet until the next rain.

Today is the first day that the pills have just been clean forgotten. All day feeling better and better as the blood pressure rises, and only in the evening take a reading, and it has already climbed back up to it's high level.

The nice thing is that when the blood pressure goes up the pulse goes down. Look forward to the next walk tomorrow.

underpass and cyclists

 That underpass just ahead, an underpass for cyclists and pedestrians, might make an interesting picture. A picture that will record a cyclist driving from the light into the shade of the tunnel under the bridge over the river. So stop and wait. Focus the camera at the correct distance and wait for cyclists. There is a slope and a bend on the other side of the underpass, so the cyclists are suddenly there, without much warning.

One passes, and after a long wait another. The second is a very large lady with a straw hat. Not what was expected, but worth while as a snapshot. Then there is one with his headlamp on, racing through the tunnel with an electric whine.

Really it is just a matter of light and dark and a sihouette. But that alone is difficult. It takes a good few minutes just standing around waiting until more cyclists come by.

And then go on with the morning walk. Pensioners do that, they take morning walks. And perhaps it will be good for the health.

elsewhere

Fumble in the pocket for the mask, it is all turning into a question of etiquette now, put the mask on, realise that it is upside down, take it off, turn it nose-clip side up and put it on again. Step into the shop and ask for a cup of coffee and a buttered pretzel. The woman behind the counter mutters something into her mask. Beg her pardon, that was really not to be understood. 

Then there is a loud shout, and every word  comes over singly. There is not a problem of hearing, it is just all these people mumbling into their masks that makes communications difficult.

This happens all the time, wonder at it. 

The next customer comes in, and the same thing happens.

The woman is visibly annoyed. All these deaf people. But then, maybe they are not deaf. Maybe it is just the muffling qualities of her high quality mask. But she sounds so angry, nobody is going to tell her.

Sit down at the side of the busy street and enjoy the cup of coffee. Then a man arrives on a bicycle, and starts to shout at some men at a neighbouring table. They shout back. He laughs, tells a joke, and laughs again, this time at his own humour. The men are all shouting and guffawing at each other now, they are cronies, they see each other daily.

This is as irritating as the woman muffled shouting.

The man puts his mask in and goes into the shop. The woman mutters something. He says "what?"

The woman shouts.

Now they are both shouting at each other.

It is time to finish the coffee and seek some peace and quiet elsewhere.

home

 There is a table in the kitchen upon which the coffee machinery is placed. The coffee maker and it's attendant grinder. Also a device for carbonating tap water, the tap water here being of high quality and there is no need to buy mineral water. Underneath this table is a small shelf with two baskets upon it, one for waste paper and one for used bottles and jars. Take this one out of the shelf and place the bottles and jars into a plastic bag. Some of the glass jars are revoltingly sticky, there is still some of their erstwhile contents stuck to them. Old jam is just sticky, not at all nice.

Look around the kitchen to see if there are any more old bottles and jam jars and things around that need to be thrown out. There is a jar quarter full of some meal, which has been there for years. Throw away the pale yellow powder and put the jar dusty old jar into the plastic bag along with the other ones. There is an old wine bottle there too, the one given as a reward for the blood transfusion two weeks ago. The wife enjoyed it in front of the television. Carry the bag and the basket of old papers down to the rubbish bins, put the papers into the blue bin. Take the plastic bag and leave the house.

Walk up the church alley, cross the road at the end. Be careful, a man was killed yesterday at a crossing on this road, a man on a bicycle was hit by a truck. There is no reason for more care on this day than on any other day, but this event leads to an increase of care, a sense of fear of  all these huge vehicles.

There is a bottle bank behind the ugly block of flats built into the centre of town here. Throw the bottles and jars into the appropriate holes in the different containers, there are containers for white glass, brown glass, and green glass. All these things are well sorted.

Go back home, return to tidying up the kitchen and the crockery cupboard.

sticks under the bridge.

 On the final part of the day's walk, the long part along by the river, notice that all the underpasses for pedestrians have been closed. Apparently the danger of imminent flooding is getting worse, the river has changed from its usual placid flow to a raging brown torrent. It is a brown much like milky tea, and there are bits of stick and larger bits of driftwood floating there. 

Cross the river using the big bridge, and then keep walking upstream. This is the area known as the mill island, or the Mühleninsel. There is still large flour mill there. The bridge over the flood gates by the power plant has been closed, there are many logs and other bits of flotsam jammed against the gates. The river is roaring over the lowered steel barriers, thousands of cubic metres every minute. There is spray and foam everywhere. Later on men with heavy plant will remove the branches jaammed against the piers of the flood gates.

At the next bridge there is a crowd of tourists watching the approach of a particularly large log, some are using their mobile phones to capture videos of the whole affair. The log passes under the bridgle, all the watchers run over to the other side to pursue the log on it's further course downriver with their eyes.

It is just like that story with the bear and the piglet.

somebody

 things happened but there is nothing to write about.

but maybe there is, the morning's walk had to be broken for a long time to catch breath. This was at the top of the bluffs, at the small zoo. Watch the birds, and the crowds of children. Today is the day that the preschool children have their outing from the kindergarten.

Walk down the hill, and take the path to the river. The river is seriously swollen today, and the footpaths under the bridges have been closed. The water that fell in the alps yesterday is here now.

Two of the three flood gates have been lowered, and the water gushing through turns into a white froth and then back to the colour of milky tea. From the bridge watch the tree trunks floating down the river, tree trunks that have been washed out of the low-lying forests farther upriver.

Follow the paths back home, buy a cone of strawberry ice cream at the Dolomiti ice cream parlour in the main street.

And then go home, do the planned work. Take pictures of old equipment, see if it can be sold online. Somebody may want it.

safety first

 The morning walk is difficult today, the air is heavy and damp. It is warm, too. Proceed up the long path to the Devil's Bridge slowly.

Several bends in the path before said bridge ahen old woman is walking up the hill very slowly, she is barely moving. Wish her a "Good Morning" in passing, and proceed on, start climbing the steep wet boards the bridge is made with. This is one of the only bridges that has a hairpin bend in the midle, and where the the one end of the structure is four metres higher than the other.

Some distance after the bridge look down at the path, there is the elderly woman passed earlier. She is standing at the lower end of the bridge looking at the sodden wood surface of the strukture.

Watch her as she prods the surface with her stick. 

Then watch as she turns about and slowly heads back down the path. The damp shiny surface is just unsafe.

location failure

 It is a warm, humid, morning. The shirt sticks to the skin, and the legs to the trousers. Pass the power station on the river, and walk along the gravel footpath to the next bridge, the one that continues  the main street over the river into the quarter of the town known as Nicola.

Cross the river there and, for a change, take the first left meaning to follow the river up to the next footbridge. The sky is featureless and grey with cloud, and the small street winds from side to side between the houses. This is an old part of town, not so grand as the rest of the old town. The pavement turns from tarmacadam road to a hardcore footpath, curving along between hedges. Then it turns into a well made tarred pavement again and follows the river, Do not think, just follow the path, the river to the left. 

The headache that has been there since leaving the house to climb out of the valley via the footpath in the park, to pass the enclosure with the birds and then to go back into town again has intensified. It is irritating. Look at the river.

This is where it suddenly becomes apparent that the river is flowing the wrong way. This is ridiculous. There is no tidal force in central Europe that will make rivers flow in the wrong direction. Walk on, unclear as to what happened now. Was there a mental blackout? 

Proceed, and it becomes apparent that this is not the main river, but the smaller one, the one that will be filled in case of flooding. It is quite full now, but the path is still useable. It is slightly surreal, an area of town not normally visited, and the grey light robbing every sense of direction. 

Then everything pops back into familiarity. It is still unclear how it was possible to arrive here, but this is close to the bridge crossed earlier.

It is much later, and with the help of a map, that it is possible to see that the small path doubled back almost completely, and the high level of water in the small river completed the illusion. 

Instead of just following the main river to the end of the island, it had crossed the island and followed the small river in the opposite direction.

Not the river had changed direction, the human was inattentive and had no sense of direction.

short trip on a bicycle

 Leave the town, pass under the railway bridge. The footpath is for pedestrians and for cyclists, and runs parallel to the main road. Sometimes  the path veers away from the road, but it always comes back. Sometimes it seems to be like an old country road, perhaps it is the one - time course of the main road before they modernised and straightened it. Follow the course of the path for some kilometres. There is a long stretch where the path is an avenue between apple trees, the apples not ripe yet. After a short distance of about seven kilometres there are houses on either side, it is now a modern residential area. Close and convenient on the main road leading to the Munich motorway. A country landscape with a considerable level of background traffic noise. There are family homes on either side of the road, each with a space for a car, some with a tidy prefabricated garage.

There is a narrow tunnel under the main road just here, follow this path. It leads down to a reservoir on the river, this is part of a hydroelectric power plant. Glimpses of it were visible from the road on the way to work, and now there is time to take a closer look at these things.

Arrive at the shore of the reservoir, it is a large water surface and there are hundreds of swans there. 

Also there are small diving birds that fly above the surface at a moderate altitude. These birds regularly dive into the water with a major splash, only to take off again shortly afterwards. They must be hunting. It is a beautiful view, and it is pleasant to just stand at the rail fencing off this reservoir, looking out over the water at all the distant fowl. A cormorant flies past in a straight, purposeful line close over the water surface. This is a bird that is going somewhere, unlike the circling of those small white diving birds. 

The swans just swim about in the distance, being majestic.

There is a signpost with a notice informing it's readers that feeding of the birds is prohibited, as is boating and swimming.

There is a small guest house there. Settle down and order a glass of water, and  a salad.

This is a pensioners luncheon. 

talk

 There is a man with white hair sitting on the other end of the bench.

This is Landshut, and the language is German.

"Do you mind if I sit down"

"No, the bench is long,
it is over two meters longThere was a carpenter in a television show who made a corona bench, with areas for sitting and for not sitting so as to maintain social distancing correctly"

"Oh, strange.
He could have saved himself the bother and just put up two chairs"

"He would not have got into television that way"

"True"

"Have you been injected, inoculated?"

"yes"

"THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOT TESTING"

"in France?"

"No, here, it used to be free and now it will cost money"

"Probably a good thing, that will encourage people to take the injections"

"Fifty Euros for each test!"

"If it helps to secure a functioning health system it is surely worth it"

"There are not that many virus patients any more"

"Every hospital bed used by a virus patient is one less for all of the other"

"Ok, so what do you think of asylum seekers?

"huh?"

"They are all sick spongers, getting money that we don't get"

"I have earned enough, let others get money if it is available."

"I get my pension, but more would be nice"

"More is generally nicer, but enough is good"

"they are given dental treatment free"

"Good for them"

"There was one single mother asylum seeker given a car by the government!"

"A clever woman, how on earth did she do that?"

Silence

Wish the man a good day, leave him to his strange rage.

happily asleep

 There is the sound of footsteps and doors closing and opening, the loose flagstone in the passageway clinking as it is stepped upon. Look at the watch, not yet awake. It is fivein the morning, and the son is active. He has filled the washing machine with a few clothes, and is busy in the kitchen making up some kind of breakfast for himself.

Barely awake, use the bathroom, and then decide to shave. Not having shaved for a week, the stubble has grown to be like a beard. But it never grew fast, ever. So it is not difficult tor remove now.

Meanwhile, the son is busy with his machinery in his room. His room is a disastrous mess. but then teenagers rooms frequently are.

There are still two bruised apples left. Slice them with a knife, make cubes of them, and put them into a plastic bag. Nobody will eat them, not the son nor the wife and certainly not the cat.

Put on day clothes and leave the house at a quarter past six. Take the walk up the hill, as the doctor had suggested, taking the camera bag and the plastic bag full of apple slices. It is damp weather, there is a constant threat of rain, and nobody else is under way among the trees of the park. The walk up to the top of the hill is concluded at seven in the morning, as the alarm on the mobile telephone proclaims. Turn the dinging noise off, 

The birds are waiting, all six of them today. They are insanely keen on the apples, they appear to have quite a taste for them. It is good that their beaks are not strong, they snap after the apple pieces without a regard for fingers.

When all the apples have gone, walk back down to the town, take the longer route by the river. There are groups of school children everywhere, many studying their 'phones in small groups, and discussing whatever is to be seen on these devices.

Upon the return home, at ten to eight, realise that the son has gone back to bed. He will be late for school, and tell him so.

There is nothing to be gained by waking too early, even if the intention is worthy of praise. The wife is still in bed, happily asleep. The son has picked up his bag and gone to school, it is only ten minutes away.

running girl

 It is still dark, daybreak is a bit later today, the year is moving on. As steadily as it has done for the last sixty five years of personal experience. Put on the clothes, why not, and the shoes too. Make a cup of coffee, read all about the usual information on lost and found pets in facebook. All the people for whom it is of central importance to reunite unhappy owners with their lost animals, or to find owners for those animals deliberately lost.

Instagram, no news either, and the news updates in the mail will only arrive later.

When the coffee is finished, take two of the bruised apples and cut them into slices. Make sure that they are not in any way mouldy, these apples are for the flightless birds in the park, the Rheas, the ones with the long eyelashes and the snappy beaks. Put them in a plastic bag and this into a pocket of the blue linen jacket.

Walking past the sculpture museum be overtaken by a young girl in black tights and a red t-shirt, and running shoes. She is out for a morning run. She lopes past easily on her long legs, her hair flapping behind her in a huge ponytail.

Climb the well-know slope all the way up, without a single break. This would have been impossible a year ago, it just goes to show that regular exercise makes sense. 

The climb still takes ten minutes, and there is the running girl with the black and the red and the long hair again, running along the path in the distance that leads to the castle. She is still running easily, that is all so enviable.

The rheas like apple. They are fast and greedy, snatching pieces out of each others mouths if they cannot swallow them fast enough. They cannot chew, they have no teeth. They are all five at the fence, their long necks like serpents as they snap for the small morsels. They are not careful now about fingers, they are just plain madly greedy.

Walking down the hill to town, down the path in the hollow, the alarm sounds. It is the mobile 'phone, and it is now seven in the morning.

Turn off the alarm, and walk down to town. Cross the river and walk along the bank. There are children on their way to school everywhere, on bicycles, walking and running. Entering town by the main gate meet the running girl again. Only now she is not running, she is riding an electrically assisted bicycle on her way to school.

deal with disorder

 Five years on now the tearing depressions will not go away, neither can they be chased, nor can they be ignored. It will not do at all, all this rushing around and not getting anywhere. Retired from work, the first retirement pay is due in at the end of the month, and somehow, things just go on. A few visits to the old place of work, and the realisation that that is now really over and done with.

It is early, walk up the hill, the top of the park is the same as the church spire of Saint Martins Church, all shrouded in mist. The mist does nice things to the light, everything soft and glowing in the early sun.

Wait at the fence for the rheas to come over, at first only one, and then several of them. They all feed happily on the proffered leaves. The birds are getting used to the daily offerings of leaves that are not available to them in their enclosure.

Go back down towards the town along the back path, passing through the old walled garden. The light here is so nice that an extra round about the garden, now a park, seems a good idea. There are some nice vistas of the house in the garden from the bottom of the park, especially nice in the early sun.

On the way down the back path, a cyclist comes speeding up the path. Her machine gives of a steady whine from the supporting electric motor. The motor must get quite warm after what is nearly a kilometres steep climb on a gravel path. This would require a very fit cyclist using a conventional bicycle. With electrical support, the woman manages easily, keeping a cool appearance in her office clothing.

Walk all the way around the old town centre, a distance of a few kilometres, and then return home for yet another cup of coffee.

As soon as the mess at home comes into sight, realise that nothing has changed, it is still just a major challenge to deal with the disorder.

two cups

 The darkness outside has lightened to a grey, the light filtered through lumpy irregular clouds. Birds are starting to twitter, and there is the occasional sound of a car rushing over the cobblestones. The old town's road surfaces are mainly cobbled, many of them have been resurfaced with the modern regular cobblestones. These are not as noisy, and are easier underfoot, but are ugly.

Get up and sneak out to the bathroom, deal with nature's call, and step on the scales afterwards. The weight is still too high, it will remain that way for many months more, if not for ever. Wonder if there is any point in trying to lose weight. The long walks every day let there be a feeling of increased fitness, but this is not reflected in the scale's display.

Turn on the coffee maker in the kitchen, check the contents of the coffee grinder. Coffee is coffee, despite all of the bad things that are said about it. The wife has bought a second and a third pack of coffee from the supermarket because she was impressed by its low price. Many things are like that, she will shop cheaply not realising that the reduction in cost is frequently just a poor compromise. The coffee is nasty.

But it is coffee, and it will all be used up sometime, and this cheap offer will be replaced by another sad product of the cost cutting food industry.

There is the distant sound of an ambulance, the driver sounding his alarm horn constantly, despite the lack of traffic on this early Sunday morning. And another car rolls over the cobbles in the small town. The twittering has been replaced by the cooing of pigeons. It is lovely to have the windows wide open in the morning letting in the cool air, and the feeling of freshness that comes with the morning.

There is the sound of three bells, once the booming of the big bells from the tall church, and then the tinkling sound from the smaller church. There is the sound of an approaching ambulance, it's tone rising as its direction of travel and speed augment the frequency of the sound of it's horn.

It is was three quarters of the hour, and now it is five forty eight. Time for a second cup.

close encounter with an eccentric tramp

 Let the family sleep on, both of them, and take the walk up the hill to visit the rhea birds, those one thousand odd steps out of the valley through the now green and leafy woods of the castle park. Gather a few maple leaves in anticipation and take care not to step into those parts of the path which have been washed out by the recent torrents of rain. The devils bridge appears to be falling apart now, more and more. They will have to do some serious repairs to it in the coming spring, or close it.

It is early, and the lower part of the park is deserted. It is cool and pleasant. In the distance there is a man in an orange safety waistcoat filling a bottle from the fountain with the drinking water. 

The big flightless grey birds are scattered inside the large enclosure. One of them comes over and placidly takes the proffered leaves, snapping them down it's long neck. The others start to walk over, and the placidity goes, the bird wants to get as much of the available leaves as possible before the competition arrives.

Then there are three birds there. See that they all get their share, and then leave.

The man up on the hill is still filling his bottle. It is a large bottle, his vest has advertising for a local hardware mall on it. The man appears about fifty, is wearing shorts, and has a wheeled case with him, of the sort that some people use for going to the shops. Sitting on a park bench, watch him pack his things into his case. Another elderly man arrives, he has two sticks. He greets the man in the orange waistcoat, who immediately starts to tell him the story of his life.

That was close.

Leave the elderly man and the man in the waistcoat. The man in the waistcoat is now prancing about explaining things to the elderly man who appears to be regretting his friendly greeting.

Get up and go, take the long way back into town, use the path that leads to the castle. There are parking attendants there, talking about the four wedding parties that will take place there today. Listen, and then leave. Take the steep brick footpath down to the town, the town that is now filling up with the first tourists of what promises to be a hot day.

non event

Take the road up to the castle, a long climb. Up to the town gate the road has footpaths on either side, but afterwards there are none. The remains of what used to be a small village for the servants in the castle are there, but this has now evolved into one of the more expensive suburbs of Landshut.

After this village the road keeps on climbing up the hill, with steep embankments on either side. Perhaps this is the old stocking lane of the castle, now it is a road barely wide enough for the monstrous cars that people drive nowadays. There are houses clinging to the embankments on either side, some smart boxy and modern and others old and overgrown.

There is a home for the aged at the top of the hill, and a signpost for the children's hospital. Follow this road until there is a turnoff for the public parking space and the public playground. Follow this path, and enter the park from the top, remembering to pick some maple leaves for the flightless rhea birds in the enclosure at the little zoo in the park. Walk across the playground, remembering how much the son used to love the sandpit there, and all the wooden structures and swings put up for children's entertainment.

It is starting to rain, and a single rhea notices that there is a person at the fence with some leaves. The bird stalks over with that curious gait that they have, almost aristocratic, unhurried. A quick stab of the beak and the first leaf has been torn from its stalk. And so on, until there are no leaves left. There is a hazel nut tree there as well, take down a few leaves, the bird likes these as well. There is a young soft hazelnut among the leaves, this appears to be of great interest.

Leave the bird in the enclosure and walk down the hill, taking the path that will lead to the devil's bridge, and walk all the way to the bottom of the hill in the rain. Normally this is the way up, now it is to be seen from the other side realise how steep it is.

This is all a non-event.

mechanical part

Take the first free parking spot on the pebble parking area and leave the car. An erstwhile colleague is just walking back to her work place. Exchange greetings with her, and she asks what on earth is going on. Tell her that there is a part made by one of the mechanics awaiting collection. We chat and she explains that the old physics building is beginning to fall apart because of all the vibrations caused by the building site. Floors are rising and subsiding and walls are cracking.

Go on up to the top floor and knock on the door of the workshop. Then just go in. There is the machinist, the man who made a simple rod of metal that just narrowed at each end. It should fit perfectly. He has made one in brass and one in stainless steel.

His daughter is there, she has just finished with school. There will be a party tonight, all of her year are going to have one final fling, before they all go their seperate ways. Chat with her, she is pleasant company.

And then leave, take the road to central Munich to visit a friend who has his house their, The Google app demands the user wait and look at advertising. Speak to the mobile phone, and tell it to take me to the friends house. Another app opens, the one made by the manufacturer of the 'phone. A civilized Australian English voice starts to give directions.

The traffic in town is horrendous, and there has been a major accident, and it is raining heavily.

As a result of all this, arrive one quarter of an hour late.

But it does not matter.

blood

 A walk through the town, following the small map sent per email. 

It is to a church hall that is being used as a blood transfusion centre. Don the mask and go in, there is a man ticking of names on a list. Join a queue, fill out a form printed out especially using the data from the small plastic card.

Then stand in another  line, see a doctor. She asks questions, and measures blood pressure. And when she is finished, join another line, an assay of the red blood cells is made. Then go into a large room with ten couches and choose an empty one at random.

A woman comes in, calls the name, raise the hand. She asks for the date of birth just to make sure that there has been no confusion. Then there is a short pain in the arm and the process starts.

It is finished in five minutes, leave with a bottle of wine and a cheese sandwich. A small thank you for having been there.

hot day and headphones

 Gather a few maple leaves from the young trees at the bottom of the hill, and walk out of the valley, gathering a few more leaves on the way. At the top of the hill go to the enclosure where the Rhea birds live. They are fall sitting on the ground, they just look like mounds of grey feathers. One of the birds raises it's head, now it is a mound of feathers with a long flexible neck topped by the head with the big beak and the eyes with the long lashes. Then the bird rises up on its long legs and stalks over to the fence. The head darts forward and the beak grabs a leaf, tearing the green part down. A large bird in the background sees this and it and a smaller, probably younger, one approach. The three of them hungrily feed on the maple leaves, they are absolutely not shy.

When the leaves are gone, proceed down the back way to town. It is still quite early, and there are very few people about.

Walk all the way across town, crossing the wide river, and then the smaller one, and going on to the huge drainage channel which will catch all the water from the floods when these occur. When there are no floods it is just a long wide park with a small stream in the middle and a cycle path going up the centre.

At the electronics store leave the channel and cross the main road and go into the store. There is everything here from coffee machines, televisions, vacuum cleaners, vehicle simulators, electric bicycles, to small robots to wipe up the mess on floors. Search for a pair of headphones for the son, and allow an assistant to help. The assistant demonstrates a pair of sound cancelling headphones. They are strange. As soon as they are switched on, the noise and hum of the shop vanishes, and there is only the sound of the recorded speech and music. He attempts to sell the most expensive headset in the place, but convince him that the more modest ones will serve well.

He is a friendly young man from Syria, and he does his job well.

Walking back from the shop suffer a dizzy spell, and the small cut on the finger starts to bleed. Visit a chemist's shop and buy a package of sticking plasters, the chemist puts one onto the bleeding finger.

Visit a supermarket and buy a small tray of apples and a bottle of water. 

Sit down on a roadside bench untill things are a better. It is a very hot day today.

visit

 A week after the party, return to the old place of work. Enter via the secret route through the basement, then take the six flights of stairs up to the second floor. 

This is to pay a visit to Reinhold, the man who is just disaffected and never happy at work. Have a cup of coffee and a chat. He is unhappy and has years left in the place. Perhaps he really should find a nother job, but he is too depressed now. He was at his sons wedding on the day of the farewell party, so say a special farewell to him. He is unhappy, and the Covid regulations have left him alone in his shop. He says that the machinists in the big central workshops drink to much, but they are happier and have each others company.

At eleven,go downstairs, well hidden behind the mask. Knock on the door, they are all there, the four that had made the invitation. They say thank you for the party, and thank them in turn for having been there, and for having been there in such large numbers.

They are still drinking the left overs of the schnapps bought for the party, that is good.  

Return to Landshut, stone cold sober after a single glass of social beer. 

There is no need to get on the wrong side of the police.

walk

 Having walked roughly seven thousand six hundred steps for the morning walk stop a the bakery. Wait five minutes until they have dealt with the previous customer and buy three croissants and three bread rolls for breakfast. Perhaps the family will accept this today. The woman counts properly and charges less than at the other bakery last week. 

There are another one thousand one hundred and fifty seven steps until home. Walk through the town, the town which is now filling up with tourists in the fine weather. Take the back way around the church, through the graveyard. There is a young family there, the children playing between the trees.

Take the breakfast things into the sitting room, clear the table, and make a small breakfast table with butter and the bakery wares, and knives for everybody two small pots of jam.

Three empty cups beside the espresso machine, make one, leave the others there so that each person can make a cup of coffee to their own taste.

Breakfast is a success, the two still in their night clothes and the other one in a sweat having walked nearly seven kilometres for the sake of exercise.

The rolls and croissants are better than those from the baker's shop in the centre of town. They have a flavour of their own, and do not have the taste of an overheated reheat oven as the others frequently do.

The walks in the morning are a good thing, even if the body is tired afterwards. It is relaxing to rest when you are tired.

robot farmer

On the second walk today,  walk down by the river, on the side of the cycle paths. There are many wide-tired electric bicycles under way, speeding along with minimal effort on the part of their riders. It is a hot day, and after two thousand steps find a park bench to sit upon, facing away from the river.

The shopping Saturday is coming to an end, and the parking lot between the town  and the river is steadily. becoming empty of parked cars.

A man sits down on the opposite end of the park bench, an older man who wants to talk. He chats about his farmyard, a sizeable enterprise outside town. He talks about his father, who died young. His father was seriously wounded in Charkov, and they managed to patch him up again, and he became a successful farmer. Then he died of bowel cancer at fifty-six years of age.

The conversation went on to the man's new tractor. A machine that had cost one hundred and eighty thousand Euros, and is capable of steering itself over the fields. Chat about the advancement of science, and all those novel methods in agriculture.

Finally talk about the weather.

And on the way back home think of the friendly farmer

Clearing

The lamps outside, hanging high in the yard behind the house are glowing now. They have spent all day gathering energy from the sunlight. Now they will glow for half the night.

The day started with loading up the small trailer with plastic containers of rubbish from the building activitities last year. Upon completion of the loading of the trailer see that its right hand tire is flat. As a result the trailer has to be unloaded again, so that the remaining air is enough to support the tyre. Get the car and take the trailer to the nearest petrol station. Fill the tyre with air, and check the other tyre too.

Then return home and reload the trailer.

The journey to the waste disposal place is uneventful.

Pay the fees, return home. That was one load, a paltry four hundred and fifty kilos. According to the scales in the waste disposal place, and they are really quite accurate.

The neighbours are holding a gathering in front of the house, they are in the way. Tell them so, and they look appalled at the rudeness of it.

Then take a long walk in the park, two miles of peace and quiet. Listen to the birds sing.

mercy

Walking back down to town again today, and the same people are repairing the path. Say hello in passing. There is nothing much to do today, except to collect an errant parcel from the post, a parcel that went to France and back in order to ensure a refund. A complicated story, all based on some form of Chinese import scam.

The devices are useless, they will remain in their box until someone claims them or the matter has subsided.

The man in the post office has an explanation for the misspelt surname on the collection card. The label on the parcel has been damaged.

There are short queues in the post office, with all the people keeping their distance from another.

Go home, with that silly parcel and feel a depression, sudden and black. Try to work against it by cleaning up the kitchen, then lie down until sleep takes over, a mercy.

It is the first day in as a pensioner.