Geesh what a depressing day.  It's grey and chilly and dull, a perfect cemetery day.  In fact I took the mother-in-law to the cemetery to prepare the family tomb for November 1st, All Saint's Day.  We moved some big potted plants around then swept and scrubbed the marble.  There were all sorts of folks there doing the same thing.  Families hide brooms and brushes under the slabs and behind planters.  The cemeteries have faucets and racks lined with watering pots, trash cans and organic recycling bins.  Very organized.  I got the lowdown on all of the neighboring tombs.  Who uses plastic flowers,(tacky), who puts out colorful or modern displays, (also tacky), who neglects their tombs, (very bad), and who does a nice job with the upkeep, (good).  Some family tombs are no longer tended because there is no one alive willing or able to do it.  After fifty years their contract runs out.  If it isn't renewed the bones are moved to an "ossario", or bone storage place, and the tomb is given to another family.  Creepy.  There are a lot of strange rules governing these cemeteries.  A non family member cannot be buried in a tomb without first appealing to the town administration.  The family whose tomb it is, has to submit letters saying why they want to let the outsider in.  I think one should be able to stick whomever one pleases in the family box!  I'm sure not going in there.  No trees, no grass, foreigners one and all.....

On the drive home the fields had all been cut back and plowed.  A huge hawk flew right across my windshield.  He was hunting over the stubble left from the corn harvest.  Poor little field-mice!  When I got here I called our accountant in Maine.  She is number three and hopefully the one who will dig us out of this mess.  It's been a year since this tax stuff all started and I am sincerely tired of it!  We leave for Germany early tomorrow morning.  Auf Wiedersehen!  xxoo me

My Germans are here!  Das ist gut!  They are down this-a-way visiting through Tuesday and then Grace and I are driving to Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt, to visit with them for four days.  We leave early Tuesday morning, stop for lunch in Vevey Switzerland to visit with Betty, my library colleague from last year, then continue on for another 5 hours or so.  The trip takes around eight hours if we drive straight through.   I'm very excited!  I haven't seen them yet as they're staying with another German family in the city.  We're meeting tomorrow for lunch and shopping and then Paula, Grace's friend, comes back here with us.  Monday night Birgit and her son, Jaro,  are also sleeping here.  They have to camp out on the floor which will not be very comfortable but we want to leave early and have no other space for them.  I'm looking forward to a week off and a trip away.  It's been a rather intense fall.

It is now Saturday night and I've just come back from visiting with the Germans, bringing Paula, Grace's friend, back with me.   I didn't realize how much I missed them until I had them here again.  There are certain people in your life that just make you feel safe and comfortable.  This family has that effect on me.  They are warm and cuddly.  Tomorrow is a walk in the mountains followed by dinner out.  Then off to Deuctshland!  Oh boy!  xxoo me

The Bora has come, the Bora has come!  The Bora is a type of strong wind that comes from the east, over the Adriatic Sea.  This is the first really clear day since we've been back and it's because it's blowing like mad.  I love it.  The locals hate it.  It is so rarely windy here and today it's "knock your hat off and chase it down the street" windy.   When it blows like this here, there are serious problems in northeastern Italy.  The strongest winds hit Trieste, a city at the upper tip of the Adriatic.  The streets in Trieste are lines with ropes and chains so that pedestrians don't get whipped out to sea.  The roofs are covered in heavy stones so tiles aren't turned into projectile weapons.  I've never been but would love to see it.

At work we have a flummoxing problem.  Three times now, my colleague in the library has found large footprints on the toilet seat in the handicap stall of our bathroom.  This is why we are flummoxed.  The footprints face the wall.  A squatter would face out.  There is nothing on the wall or ceiling to entice a person to stand up on the seat.  I feel like Nancy Drew in " The Case of the Footprints on the Toilet Seat".  We run back and forth a few times a day to see if the prints are back, trying to figure out who is leaving them.  Once we figure out who, we can ask the why!  Work can be a little slow sometimes...

xxoo me