Got Wheels?

I got my first driver’s license in June 1975, sponsored by my parents, strictly limited to cars only, my Dad said – even though legally I could have rode motorcycles in Germany with that class 3 license back then. In August 1980 when I had finally saved up enough money to buy my first motorcycle, the law had changed. I needed a new class 1 license for my BMW R65.

Still, at that time there where only 5 different classes of driver’s licenses available in Germany:
1=motorcycle, 2=truck, 3=car, 4=moped, 5=tractor

german driver's license back side Over the years the laws were changed several times in an effort to fit in with the rest of Europe. That resulted in growing confusion, since all older types of licenses needed to retain their validity. The back of my driver’s license lists in detail which ones of the now 15 different categories of vehicles I am allowed to drive.

In January of 2013 we saw another paradigm shift happen – but people didn’t realize what this meant until much later.

Up until that date a vehicle with three wheels was considered some type of car and required a class B license. After that date three wheels meant motorcycle, with a class A1 or A license. To make matters worse, if two wheels are closer than 46cm to each other, they count as one.

Now that spurred some serious creativity!
Yamamha Niken
If you earned your license class B (for cars without trailer) before January 19th of 2013, you are allowed to ride the Yamaha Niken in Germany. It looks and rides like a motorcycle. For the legalities of your older license it is considered a car, though, because the front wheels are far enough apart to count as two. Voilá – three wheeled car!

Ellenator
Also, if you are 16 or older and earned your class A1 motorcycle license after January 19th of 2013, you can drive the Ellenator – which looks and behaves like a car. Since the rear wheels are close enough together, they count as one. Because the engine has been throttled down to 15KW, the moped license is enough. Voilá – three wheeled moped!

Office Space

I’ve been working in IT since 1978. Punching cards first, then operating, later programming. From the early eighty’s on my work was carried out in some kind of office space. During those over 40 years I’ve sat in a dozen different offices. They all fell into one of four general categories. There is the open space concept, the cubicle farm, the classic office with door and window, and the home office.

In the order of worst to best, here’s my take on them:

open space office setting for hot-desking

My personal nightmare since the beginning of my career – the open plan office. At least in the early days I had my own assigned desk in that laying battery. Nowadays it seems to me that companies forgot, that this concept had been proven inefficient, unhealthy, and inhumane in the 1980’s. They are now coming back with the same old idea, adding a cruel touch to it with hot-desking.

 

personalized cubicle office space

Not much better, in my opinion, is the cubicle. A very popular office concept in the USA. If you never had to work in one of those, I recommend the movie “Office Space”. That should give you an idea, why this can’t be good. You get some visual privacy, and some companies allow personalization within reason. I had a pretty cool plant growing over “my” cubicle. The lack of window and door gets to you after a while, though. Also focus is lost easily with all the noise and traffic.

classic office for two peopleI consider myself lucky that, for over half of my career, I sat in a classic office with a window and a door. Most of those offices I shared with one to five colleagues, working on the same (or at least similar) projects. I always had my “own” desk to keep the necessities of my job and a few personal items. This office concept is as good as it will possibly get for most “typical” office jobs. If it weren’t for the commute I’d be fine working in a classic office for the rest of my career.

home office

An unexpected side-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was the widespread use of 100% remote work for many people. The company sent me into home office on March 3rd, 2020. For me this office setting is a dream come true! Total focus, my own desk, my own equipment, privacy, no distractions, no commute – and (lucky me) my husband works with me in the same office, for the same company, on mostly the same projects.

If anybody ever told me, I have to come back into a company office for more than occasionally, I’d quit.

New Domain, same Adventures

new domain same adventures

I had been hosting my domain and its pages on the same webspace provided by JustHost.com for over 15 years. Everything was OK – some minor problems with outages and failed software upgrades, also lousy customer service when those problems happened – but then I realized that I was paying over $230 annually for this little playground of mine.

Sorry, that’s just too much!

I also wanted a .de top level domain name, so I started looking around. I’m happy to report: my new hosting provider is now Contabo.com – company headquarters in Munich. Domain name is included for free in my basic package. Plenty of space for what I need – and at a fourth of the price. Also, the site is now secure, starts with https:// – some viewers find that important.

Can’t beat that!

So, my job over the weekend was to move my content and check for broken links. Wasn’t too hard.

Blackout? Prepare for Wild Camping – You’ll be fine

The current energy crisis – if that is even a thing yet – has people worried about potential wide-spread, long-lasting black-outs. While I agree that the potential for these is real in Germany, especially as the winter comes up on us, I consider myself well prepared to survive at least two weeks without electricity.

Just think about what “no electricity” at home really means: it’s simply wild camping without the tent.

Unlike in the US or Canada, wild camping is generally prohibited everywhere in Germany – unless you do it on private ground with the owner’s permission. So, when your power goes out, enjoy your unexpected legal wild camping trip. Just make sure you have your supplies ready.

My list is sorted by priorities – the most important thing first:

  • bottled water, 3 litres per day per person
  • flashlights and batteries for those
  • portable toilet with baggies, gelling powder, and wet wipes
  • non-perishable food that doesn’t need refrigeration
  • essential medication (if you need to take any)
  • camping cooker or grill
  • disposable dishes and silver ware
  • sanitizer
  • cash
  • keep your car fuelled/charged
  • solar (or gasoline) powered inverter generator
  • charge your cell phone, if you can (but don’t expect to have a network available)
  • plenty of large, sealable plastic trash bags
  • if you have pets, consider their needs too

Some things are nice to have, like a way to heat your house with wood, or a filled rain barrel in the back yard. If you have to leave your house, make sure the pipes won’t freeze.
Also, don’t forget you’re not alone. There may be neighbours, or relatives, who are not as prepared as yourself. Help them!

Modernizing our Heating and Hot Water System

old boiler and new boiler, side by side comparison

Our 1963 house was equipped with an oil-burning boiler/furnace built in 1997. While the system worked fine, it was clearly not the most efficient. So, with the price of fuel rising, we wanted to modernize our heating and warm water production, preferably without a “paradigm switch”.
Currently the best technology available for our requirements comes in the form of an exhaust-energy recapturing, condensing burner, a 1,000 liter hot water buffer tank, and an indirect water heater.
The project started on a Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. Half a dozen men worked fulltime to remove the old boiler, drain all water out of our over 20 radiators, reroute water pipes, install a new exhaust and air-intake line into the old chimney, put in the new boiler, add the buffer tank and fresh-water indirect heater.

They had to shut down the water in our house multiple times, sometimes for hours, and we had to take cold showers for four days.
Finally, Friday afternoon around 2:00 p.m., everything was in place. We received a thorough explanation of the technology, how to do regular maintenance, how to program the system, and a lot of information about the benefits and improvements we will experience over time.

The one question, that I am most interested to finding the answer for, is: how will it affect our oil consumption? In the past two years we used about 4,000 liters of heating oil annually. I’ll keep an eye on that.