Events

The government of Manitoba has just decided to remain on daylight saving time permanently, notwithstanding the clock change scheduled for November 1st:

After sorting out my train drama last Monday, I made it to Aachen, Germany, and thence to the Dreiländereck: the point where Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands meet. I am, as everyone knows, a big geography nerd, and I also like to have an excuse to take a long walk. This satisfied all the objectives.

First run

Just a couple of things I paid attention to today:

I spent a little time this morning getting through one more day's worth of photos. I visited Liège last Monday, my first full day on the Continent.

Today I have one of the most fun parts about returning home from vacation: doing all the adminstrative stuff that piled up for the past 8 days. I have 888 photos to deal with in Lightroom, which will take a while. I've also got to reconcile heaven knows how many credit-card transactions, because everything in Europe these days is cash-free. Plus I need groceries, Cassie needs a walk, and tonight is the first choral rehearsal of the season, so I need to get all this stuff done by 5.

Started in the taxi line at O'Hare T5 after arriving from London.

After decades of taking the Piccadilly Line tube on every trip to London I've ever made, and after decades of snickering like a 13-year-old boy every time they announce where the eastbound train is actually going, I finally went there:

Having spent the past week in French-speaking countries, and having spent a lot of time preparing for the visit by learning as much French and French culture as my brain could hold, I got in the habit of saying "Bonjour" every time I walked into a shop, café, or really anyplace someone was working. (That, and "excusez-moi de vous déranger," "s'il vous plaît," and "non, absolument je n'ai pas voté pour ce putain d'espèce du clown, il y a encore des americains sains, en particulier lesquels qui parlent...