I ride again!

Posted on by Karin Brenig

Honda Shadow VT750CS
I was sad when I had to sell my 2009 HONDA Shadow Aero before moving back to Germany. The plan was to buy another HONDA Shadow as soon as possible after getting the most important things organized.

I had greatly underestimated the amount of work “getting organized” took. Moving into my parents’ basement, organizing 24/7 care for them, starting a new job, finding a house of our own, moving there and getting the place furnished…. that all takes time.

To make things worse, I found out that HONDA stopped making the Shadow for Germany in 2016 because of stricter emission regulations. Apparently HONDA didn’t sell enough of those bikes in Europe to make engine modifications worth their while.

Now go search for a used one, preferrably somewhere close. I got lucky after a few weeks of online research: a beautiful 2014 HONDA Shadow VT750CS for sale, black, low mileage, and located in Munich. It didn’t have a windshield, no saddlebags either – but I found original parts online too and had them mounted.

So, today, even though it’s a bit late in the season – and a pretty chilly ride – I went and picked her up from the shop. With all the fixings.

Life is good!

Posted in 06 - Having Fun

Managing our Trash – and my Parents’ too

Posted on by Karin Brenig

Moving back to Germany I anticipated a few obstacles and a little bit of “reverse culture shock”, but about important things – like work, housing, health insurance, politics – not about something as mundane as trash. I vaguely remembered, that Germans separate their trash – but I didn’t expect to see the system that far blown out of proportion!

The handling of trash has become a science. Housholds have to deal with it on an individual basis, the cities and communities may, or may not, offer full-service garbage collection. When you move into a new town, your first visit to their website should be for information about garbage, and how to handle it.

Where I live, I have to sort my trash into a dozen different categories

Bottles with refundable deposit

Recyclables
cardboard and paper
brown glass
green glass
white glass

Compostables
only plant based organic material

Packaging 
all packing materials that are not cardboard, paper, or glass

Waste
everything else, except toxic waste

Toxic
paint
chemicals, pills
light bulbs, electronics
batteries

Only 3 of these categories of trash will be picked up at my house by the municipal garbage removal service: compostables (my 80l green bin) and waste (my 120l black bin) on trash day in alternate weeks, and packaging (in about 3 big yellow plastic bags) once a month.

Everything else I need to haul around to find proper disposal locations, and times when they are open.  Refundable bottles have to be returned to the store, where they were bought. Paper, cardboard, and three colors of glass can be dumped at various locations all over town – but only Mondays through Saturdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Anything that is too big for my black bin, or grass clippings and green waste that would be too much for my green bin, or anything from the toxic category, needs to go to a collection site within my county. Those are open on three or four days a week, usually for two hours in the afternoon. There may be a fee for dumping certain bulky items, or chemicals, or whatever they feel like charging for.
recycle center
Where my parents live, the rules are slightly different. Their packaging material will not be collected, so that needs to be dumped at those, always overflowing, dump sites around town. After a while you will find out, when they empty those out – and dump your stuff right afterwards, into empty containers at a semi-clean location.

Can somebody explain to me, how this system is ecologically and economically advantageous? I can’t see the benefit for the environment, if every household spends hours every week driving all over town to get rid of their trash, and maybe that of their parents too.

 

 

Posted in Opinions

COVID-19 Positive

Posted on by Karin Brenig

The world has been in a state of paralysis for over a year now. Our basic constitutional rights have been violated. We can’t move about, we can’t meet, many of us can’t work, we can’t shop, we can’t go out to eat or see a movie. We feel like we aren’t allowed to live – all because of one invisible enemy: a virus, which we have no medication for, and just recently developed viable vaccines against.

So I really understand why people are angry and protesting, or feeling depressed and helpless. I for myself decided, though, to not indulge in self-pity nor waste my energy on politics. In my experience most situations can also have positive side-effects – you just have to look closely.

For me the COVID-19 pandemic brought some remarkable improvements

my arm after a covid shot

  • I’ve been working from home, saving me about two hours on the daily commute
  • my husband and I are spending more time with each other, doing more things together, strengthening our bond
  • I prepare our meals at home, which promotes mindful eating habits and helps keeping my weight under control
  • I’m at my residence most of the time to take deliveries, manage remodelling projects, and turn this house into a beautiful home
  • my self-confidence received a boost, because I realized that  – despite the global chaos and nonsensical politics – I have a pretty good grip on my personal life
  • once I am fully vaccinated, I’ll be allowed to regain some of my rights – and I will once again treasure the things I used to take for granted before the pandemic.
Posted in Opinions

Old Skills applied to new Situations

Posted on by Karin Brenig

DIY haircut When I started cutting my own hair about fourty years ago, I had no idea that this particular skill would come in handy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because hairsalons, like many other personal services, have been locked down in an attempt to reduce the number of new infections in Germany, people here are getting anxious.

If you are used to getting a fresh haircut every six weeks, going without one for over three months can be depressing. You might feel unkempt, scruffy, not really your old confident self. Now that, on top of the many restrictions we are facing, apparently triggered a news-worthy situation. My favorite morning show on TV aired a clip about this “hairy” problem. They interviewed people on the street, asking them how they deal with their new hairdo. One of the show’s hosts even posted a short video of himself cutting his own hair.

I had to laugh at that! My haircut has been do-it-yourself for a long time. Because I like to be independent, and I like the convenience, and I’m just a tad minimalist. So, just for your entertainment, you can now watch me cutting my hair.  Karin cuts her own hair

Posted in Opinions

Old Dog doesn’t need New Tricks

Posted on by Karin Brenig

Karin working in IT in the 80s

When I started working in IT, back in 1978, nobody really knew, how this “EDP” thing was supposed to work. Anybody without fear of breaking stuff was more than welcome to try their hand at it. We were explorers.

I punched little holes in cards, I fed those cards into the cardreader, I threaded magnetic tape into vacuum channels, I started programs on the master terminal console, I put tractor paper in the printer, I carried heavy disk drives around, I debugged code on a mainframe… all that without ever really receiving any formal training. We were hunters and gatherers.

Over the years the field evolved. People actually got trained, had job titles, passed tests and had to show certificates, or diplomas, to prove their worth for employers. I was really glad, that I didn’t have to go through this, because I was already “in”. We were mainstream.

As technology trickled down from the scientific top level, through big corporations, into family businesses, and finally everybody’s homes, new skills were needed faster; more people had to learn, and re-learn, how to do anything related to IT. Mainframes, client/server, PC’s – it became increasingly hard to stay abreast of all the new ideas, tools, and objects in our jobs – and lives. We were clutter.

When you realize, that you can’t know it “all” – because there’s just too much of it – you focus on the one area that looks most promising for the future. So many interesting topics, so many newly emerging technologies, shiny objects all around me – but will I pick the right one? Client/server, maybe? What if companies don’t use this, or that, or the other, anymore five years from now? The circumstances picked a niche for me, and many others. We were specialists.

The bigger the company you work for, the more complex their processes are, the harder it becomes to innovate. Especially big, old IT systems are increasingly hard to replace. Stuff that runs at the core of your organization – built over decades – can’t be replaced every time a new, better, faster, cheaper way of doing things emerges. It’s like trying to change a flat tire while the car is in motion. That’s where we are now with mainframe IT. Systems that we developed since the early 1980’s are still being used daily by big companies. The specialists, who developed those systems are at (or beyond) retirement age. We are undertakers.

Twenty years ago I worried about my skillset becoming “outdated” – and myself becoming “unemployable” – if I didn’t keep up with the ever changing world of IT. Today I’m baffled and flattered by the amount of serious job offers I (old dog with old tricks up her sleeve) get. My “antique” skillset is apparently highly sought after. We will be the last resort.

Posted in 05 - Getting Settled