There was a local storm and that also brought about advance warnings yesterday. I noticed since the dog came in from the balcony, looking unexpectedly excited, and moments later diagonal rain and storm started, slamming windows in the neighbourhood and displacing stuff on balconies and window sills.
Reports say gusts were up to 100km/h (around 60mph). Where I was that storm lasted around 10-15 minutes, bringing summer street life to a standstill as everybody out tried to get out of the way. There was minor damage from fallen trees, a couple cars were hit, and overground transportation networks were stopped.
So last night and today weather is much cooler, around 20C only, down from 35C yesterday. The streets are being cleared from fallen branches and debris from flower pots. Public transportation has restarted mostly, but I think there were more people on bikes than usual.
Dog walkers we met this morning had wild stories to tell about how their dogs reacted to the situation. Ours was fine.
Happy place is in movement, I think. Sure the garden I had around the house as a kid was huuuge and the lake and all, but.. they meant exploring the hidden corners, bushes, old walls, crumbling bricks. It never got boring until maybe I was 16 years old and other activites were more promising. :)
As a kid I wanted to be like a Chameleon. You know, perfectly adapting to any environment. Unsure about a spirit animal though.
Some days like those last few and then some to come I'd just identify with the simple life we are able to provide to #maltethedog - a select few hours of demanding activity per day, training, happy to work and with the walkies, and snuggle up when you wanna.
The favourite local small shop is this, Chili and Paprika, run by Mexican enthusiasts. Where else to get handfuls of poblano or a jar of mole! The usual queue shows up on those two days of the week when fresh tortillas are brought in.
My next chili sauce cooking coming up I'll be sure to go. Or beans for chili. Shop has been around for more than 5 years, which is a good sign (it has been that long, just checked my Google Maps review).
Happily using our office for work about once a week, why, I may have mentioned being there may feel like a mini holiday. Since it sits adjacent to Park Sanssouci, our local and less formal version of Versailles You might like this one more @Karl Auerbach !
The photo hints at why holiday is an applicable category. I get to walk the dog in the Unesco world heritage site all afternoon, with castles, artfully designed paths, canals and quite some kitsch too. Views such as this get me every time. @Muse this is a few minutes walking from the tea pavillon you went to see, in the north west corner.
So since the park is huge (lol, well Europe, not America) and gardeners must work there all year to keep it beautiful a voluntary entry fee was established a decade ago, with near zero success.
The newest initiative was to make tickets mandatory, and tier them along "use once", "multiple entry" and "annual ticket". Given the choice I'd get the annual ticket, possibly in the price range of 30€. But I doubt that change will ever come to pass. The city of Potsdam will insist on being miserable and keep complaining.
Since the city depends on tourists spending money making ticket purchase compulsory was discussed many time over but never politically enforced since that would cost your seat in parliament from angry locals' reaction. We'll see how that goes this round. =)
Do any of the parks or gardens you mention have entry fees?
National Public Garden Day, i didn't know that exists. Very nice photo there @Christoph S looks like a fine place to be!
Being an inner city dweller the parks available near here are heavily used every day, and most show it. Only the early mornings belong to dog owners. But then I mildly complain about luxury problems, since there are a handful in easy walking the dog distance. This is not a given for many places.
The Mauerpark is probably the most famous. The Mauer part is from The Wall, which ran its deadly duty near here. So almost a mile long, shaped like a towel long and kinda narrow, it offers views such as this:
The hill that photo is taken from borders on the old Sports stadium which is being torn down these days, and the area is undergoing change. Slow for change, things are moving forward eradicating part of East Berlin heritage.
When I went to the city of Kiel the other day for family business I had to go to Laboe, a nearby town that is home to the national memorial site for lives lost in the marine corps. Having gone there as a kid many moons ago I found it hasn't changed much at all. The original U-boat is still there, this time I went to see the other place nearby.
I'm not the oldest in the group of friends, or with coworkers. Or here, hah. :))
FORTRAN is what was in the magazines when I got interested, so I had heard of it early on, for some definitions of early ≈ period of 1985-1989. It had zero practical relevance for me tho.
However my first baby steps were BASIC as that came with the C128 family got, and the freaking ringbinder manual detailing all the commands was good enough to build a two-joystick two-sprite and collision logic minigame. That was the start.
(The manual is an approximation too, as I can't seem to find a photo the BASIC 7.0 one I think I used.)
After primary school a version of PASCAL ca. 1991 that was taught on something mainframe in the teacher's room and multiplex terminals in another.
When I revisited the place in 2004 for a local Python users meetup that was all gone, except for one teacher who felt old, he told me that.
Should you ever make it to the Netherlands, a similar thing in the shape of fist-sized chunks is available as Olibollen. Inevitably you'll make a mess of your coat because powder sugar will go everywhere when you eat in on the go.
Cinnamonroll? I cannot help but think of this cute guy.
I was a fond Motorola phone user at one point. I still receive their offers via email. They remind me of a time long gone when "setting up an outgoing email server" worked by way of bash-scripting and no one cared, or knew about security, however implicit. I myself may or may not have b0rked up a mass email campaign sent via our hacky tool on the first job. "Dear $fristname," ... lol. Long ago. Product quality focus at Moto may have changed too.
The relative attention to detail too warrants some cynicism: they too seem to have low safeguards agains eff-ups in the marketing domain. In emails they address me as %%=v(@firstname) at times and have funny, wacky autotranslations on the landing or product pages. Oh please.
FWIW, I would maybe still use my Moto X Style of 2015 had the battery not gone down to about two minutes of use in the end, after 3 years. Or my DIY replacement efforts would have worked out, which didn't happen, because the screws they used are both tiny and their head would wear out on attempt to unscrew. Sigh. I still applaud the excellent cameras, hardly any oversharpening, and overall smooth evenly lit pictures. The Moto gestures. And perfect proportions, good grip and weight distribution. They just don't make them like that anymore. In contrast, sometimes the current Moto product policy makes me shake my head a little, they sure cram very many models into the mid-to-low-tier range.
A slap, I'd give a few. But only the soft kind to co-workers because stuff I tend to want to improve, those ideas sit around too long before, after a slap, people get moving. But this is the good kind.
The many slaps I'd want to give a customer's IT dept for a balls-up on their side would receive. A lapse which cost us dearly in terms of hours. I conducted dozens of hours over the last two weeks dealing with the falllout of their accidental mismanagement. My favourite tool would be the RITA -- The Reliable Internetwork Troubleshooting Agent (as per RFC 2321) many times over until the problem is done away with on their side.
I'm not a slappy person, so what I do is teach people and go like "you fix your sh*t, I'm happy to wait" and keep masking the mood with blobcats.
So I have this 7+ years old bike that serves me well for city type getting around. Nowadays the chain might jump when I accelerate, which is not good for busy junctions and generally city traffic.
The bike shop repair guy says "bike has shark" referring to the shape of various worn out bits. I'd be in for 150€ of repair costs in replacement parts and labour. All parts traction need replacing, front, chain and rear. See photos; never mind me not cleaning it. This is all the Shimano SiS and Acera stuff the bike came with. The derailleur gears can stay if you ask me.
What parts can I get in order to a) make the next set last longer than the factory default, and b) maybe save me a buck or two if I'm going DIY? Or should I get something different to max out the mentioned, proposed budget? I'm fine with spending that amount or similar if that gives me both peace of mind and 7+ years of hassle-free cycling.
But. Any bike parts website is giving me a headache. Too many options cause choice pollution. I have a hard time from separating marketing blurbs from statements about, say, durability.
I haven't done this type of work in two decades, however I think I can get it right given half a day or so. Any advice on what to get?
My guess with these guys was they had planned for a long time and delayed the performance - the day before this happened was very windy, to the point where I would have cancelled the whole thing.
But, they knew what they were doing and on Sunday it was doable. (In the pixelfed gallery there's two photos fopr perspective.)
This dog really loves the local mud pit. Thanks to intermittent rain every few days the fun never stops. Do I even need to say we shower him frequently? #mudretriever
