The Morning Dew

It is obvious that the cold, crisp and painfully beautiful sunrises of autumn have begun their daily ascent. Like a brick in the face, a chill has settled into my apartment only chased out by the comfortable warmth of my wall radiator. However, to keep my gas bills low and keep more money out of Putin's pockets (something ridiculous like 60% of Germany's natural gas comes from Russia, ugh) I don't keep my heat on in the evening. That means the polar bears need to wear their ice skates for the first 25 minutes or so. Afterwards, it at least becomes reasonable.

The leaves of the trees that line my street have been raining down in a colorful array of gold, brown, green, maroon and other beautiful autumn hues. It is a delight to watch them flutter to the earth but not a delight to try to walk on the sidewalks or pick out leaves from my car every morning. I fear that in three weeks all of the leaves will be gone leaving me with a barren wasteland of dead trees to look out at from my window on a daily basis. This Sunday I am going indoor plant shopping. This is an important facet of my 'fight winter depression' strategy this year. He or She will sit lovingly in a warm, sunlight prone corner of my apartment and I will do my best to care for my green friend. It is suggested that you should talk to your plants. I don't believe this will be a problem for me as I talk to myself already. Might as well seem like I'm doing it in the name of plant growth.

The impending visit of my family from the States to Germany is now in death mode. Think flight of the bumble bee. So much to be done in so little time. Friday is schedule day so we will see how much work I have to accomplish before Thursday morning. Next Saturday we head out west to London via the Chunnel (Eurostar). We have arrangement and a general idea of the sort of thing we'd like to do in London. I still have no idea what we will do the following week. A trip down to the Mosel is always enjoyable. I really don't want to spend so much time in Aachen. At the same time, this is also my vacation time. I figure we'll see different cities. Rental cars are already ordered, must figure out this weekend what to do.

TO DO

1. Install final window shades, shower curtain.
   
2. Sweep, Mop final touches (Tuesday/Wednesday)
3. Finishing touches on London trip. Prepare for after London Germany trip.
4. Inform gym of two week break.
   
5. There should be something here, but it's eight in the morning.

Gotta run. The Germans want to learn English and I shall answer their call.