Wanted: A new home!



















I really really hate to do this, but I have to use Remember White Rabbit as a platform to find a new home for my 2 guys, Rosie and Rocket. They are actually girls, and are each just over one year old. Because our move out of the country became finalized so quickly, there is really no way for us to organize taking them with us due to vaccinations, a place to live, etc, so they need to find a happy place to live in Germany! Unfortunately my 2 preferred bunny keepers also have no capacities for these guys, so if you or anyone you know can provide them a good home (and please don't tell me your stomach would be a good home for them, I've heard that one already and it's not funny any more), please contact me via a comment on this blog, email or telephone!

Neil Diamond said it the best...

Far
We've been travelling far
Without a home
But not without a star

Free
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream

On the boats and on the planes
They're coming to America
Never looking back again
They're coming to America

Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, we're travelling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm

Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
Freedom's light burning warm

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America

Got a dream to take them there
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America

They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today

My country 'tis of thee
(Today)
Sweet land of liberty
(today)
Of thee I sing
(today)
Of thee I sing
(today)

Like my great grandparents before me, I too am coming (back) to America! And soon! America, brace yourself for my German men! They have famous lederhose, and they will wear them.

How 'bout that?

Pretty neat, huh?

Don't count your chickens until they've hatched.

Huffing at the Plus Markt

Maybe I'm getting old, but I really wish that security guard would come back to the Plus Markt and at least stop the wild homeless Australian from huffing the gasses from various aerosol cans in and in front of the supermarket. You see, for a short time, there was constantly a security guard in my local Plus supermarket keeping loiterers (often various forms of drunks blocking the entry) from annoying shoppers and begging for money. These were the golden days of my Plus market, about 2-3 months ago. Well, he hasn't been around lately, and a perennial fixture of the Plus market, the Huffing Australian, has been totally out of control. The security guard was keeping him outside on the sidewalk, but now the huffing Australian has set up his blanket right inside the entry by the shopping carts, and today was the second time I've seen him IN THE BUILDING huffing gasses from aerosol cans. Why is this tolerated? I can put up with a lot, I can put up with the Huffing Australian talking to my kid, I can put up with the Huffing Australian making crazy noises, I can put up with the Huffing Australian barking at dogs in front of the store (as he did today, and the dog shut up). But I cannot put up with the Huffing Australian actually huffing.

Apparently the story on this guy is that he had a German girlfriend, and this is why he's in Dresden in the first place. Well, the love affair ended, and life soured, so now he more or less lives in the Plus Markt. He turned to drugs, and maybe because he's poor, he gets high by inhaling the gasses from spray cans. I actually kind of feel bad for him, because he's obviously in a very bad situation and a bit crazy, and people abuse him. What he needs is help, not some change from the shoppers, certainly not a donated can of hairspray, but rehabilitation. But he should not be huffing in a supermarket! Why is this allowed? Why are there police parading in riot gear when there's a little festival in the neighborhood, when there's a big soccer game, or when some rocket scientists build a tree house in a tree that's about to be cut down to make way for a bridge (protecting the guys in the tree house who are trespassing, I might add), but when somebody actually smashes some windows on a Turkish restaurant (or 3), or actually throws somebody out of a tram, or actually busts the mirror off of your car, or actually does drugs in front of your kid in the supermarket, there are no police to be found? Come on Dresden, get on the stick.

I'm turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so



Well, not exactly Japanese, but just a bit German. It's been 5.5 years, and, well, the influence is astonishing sometimes. Especially when I'm riding my bike. I've noticed that I've become very impatient with, say, pedestrians on the bike path. Normal rules of the road (or sidwalk for that matter) dictate that one is to keep right, at least in most western countries. Well, I boil over when I ride up behind a group of rocket scientists occupying the whole path, who don't even notice that they are walking on the bike path, then curse me for riding a bike at all. Then there are those brain surgeons who ride in the wrong direction on the wrong side. One of these jokers caused me to get verbally assaulted by a couple of senior citizens last Wednesday. I stayed over to let this guy pass the senior citizens rather than crowd him off the path and into a tree, but they got all worried that I was going to ride right into them and started yelling "The bike path is the red part!" Though most often cool-headed, I nearly yelled back "I know, I'm not stupid, but that guy is".

Another thing has to do with speed. I like to ride fast. And everyone else who doesn't ride fast gets on my last nerve because they are slowing me down. Somehow, I have absorbed this without even noticing. I always laughed when someone explained to me how slow drivers are dangerous because they are holding up the flow of traffic (which is something I've often heard here), but now I really understand what they mean. Get a couple of slow cyclists on a busy street, the fast guys can't pass them, then somebody brakes and the whole crowd goes down!

I also get all competitive when I pull up to a stop light and another cyclist crowds up really close to me just dying to take off faster than me. You see, my bike looks sort of like a bike a grandma would ride, but actually it's pretty fast. I've witnessed this phenomenon in cars at stop lights as well, you've got some little guy in a tiny hatchback who thinks he's all big and tough with his customized exhaust pipes, and the driver of the car I'm in starts commenting about how the other driver "thinks he's going to pass, but he's not!!!" and floors it when the light turns green, leaving the other guy in the dust. Unintentionally, I do the same thing on my bike.

This whole thing doesn't just apply to unwritten traffic rules, either. I've been told in the past by certain friends and family members that I even sound German when I speak English now. Well, a couple weeks ago, someone who I consider a language expert was cracking up for the first five minutes of our conversation (in English) and told me that I sound like a German who speaks really good English. And even non-German Europeans have difficulty hearing where I come from when speaking English or German. I've often been asked whether I'm Scandinavian!

One final note: the normal greeting for friends, family, business partners and colleagues is always a handshake here. I like this, and find it's a very civil way of saying hello, though some of my fellow Americans avoid it like the plague because it's not the American way. My policy is when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So, yesterday one of my closest friends, a fellow North American, came by, and though we've always avoided the handshake with one another, we did it! Somehow automatically, it just overcame us. We shook hands yesterday. Then had a good laugh at ourselves. Because...
We're turning Japanese we think we're turning Japanese we really think so!