Susanne

I actually slept until 7 am or so. Still not enough sleep but closer. Since the boy slept on I tiptoed out of the bedroom and started my day in the living room, meditating and writing morning pages.

I took a shower and washed my hair and once the boy was all up and ready we went over to my parents for breakfast. Cue endless talking. It was decided that we needed more groceries and the boy and I managed to convince my parents that we did not need to be driven to the grocery store that is only 1.5 kilometers away and that, yes, we would be able to transport some veggies and gummy bears in my daypack.

My mother still thinks that I ride my bike everywhere when grocery shopping despite me telling her every single time that I mostly walk. And yes, I do carry all those groceries. Yes, I know that she can’t lift her shopping baskets after her weekly shopping tours for only two people. I am 25 years younger and work out a lot more than she has ever done. Also, I do all my shopping on foot which means I’m used to it.

Walking to the grocery store was very nice and Google maps showed us a shortcut I didn’t know.

Here’s a picture of a random sandstone quarry on the way.

The boy and I got to talk and then we chose loads of candy and chips and soda for the rest of our stay. We walked right back over the hill and my mother was pretty surprised that we were back already. (It’s funny, my parents’s house is at the foot of the one hill in the region, the local castle sits on top of the hill and every time you want to go to the middle of town or the castle or anywhere, really, you start out by walking up the hill.)

Then it was time to make lunch and I only helped a little. We had something with mushrooms, rice, crème fraiche, tomatoes and cashews. (No picture because my parents don’t do social media. My father has started reading „Facebook for Dummies“, though.)

After lunch the boy and I took a little break in our apartment and then went off to the castle. It has been ages that we last went inside and there are more rooms to see. It was lovely.

The castle peaking through the houses on Main Street.

View from the top of the battlement down to the castle park.

The weather was rather hot and I was happy to be wearing my orange dress with the red polka dots (got a compliment for that one from my mother, by the way, which surprised me; I’d have thought that it was too bright for her taste). We briefly considered getting ice cream but dutifully went back to my parents for „coffee and cake“. (You probably all know that „coffee and cake“ is a German institution, a separate meal taken in the afternoon not unlike British teatime.)

We decided it was too hot for tea (and the boy and I don’t do coffee) but had some water and nice cake my mother had baked.

After that and some chatter and phone calls with my aunt back and forth it was time for dinner which was sandwiches and then the boy and I retired to our own place to watch more „Good Omens“.

By now our plans are pretty set, we will do a nightwatchman guided tour tonight (unless the weather is foul), go out for lunch tomorrow, meet my aunt for „coffee and cake“ in the afternoon and then walk off into the noon sun the day after.

Woke up early, meditated and write morning pages.

Got up, had breakfast and started a new sweater, the one I wanted to take with me on the trip. I’m knitting it from some purple handspun.

Finished packing talked to husband and the boy, got ready and packed up. We decided at the last minute that the boy should take a bigger backpack because there was no way I could fit his slippers in.

I didn’t take a picture of my luggage but managed to get everything in a daypack and messenger bag. I did take the ukulele as well.

We walked to the train station and spent the rest of the day on trains. I did not manage to make myself write, I find it rather hard to write on trains. For once I was not in the mood for traveling at all and felt as if the train ride took ages and ages.

We had lunch early:

This will probably be the last picture of my food until I return home because my father doesn’t approve of people who post pictures of their food on the internet.

I finished one book and started another one („October Man“ by Ben Aaronovitch) and knitted and knitted until I didn’t want to knit anymore. Sitting around all day knitting and reading sounds nicer in theory than it feels.

Our train was fifteen mintutes late. (Well, the first one was ten minutes late but we had 45 minutes before the net one left, and the second one was fifteen minutes late.) My mother met us at the train station.

We have an apartment right next to my parents’ house. It is nice and big and has a nice smart TV.

We had dinner with my parents and then I was starting to yawn all the time, so we went back to our apartment. I had to ask for the wifi password but once that was sorted and all the devices were connected all was right with the world again. And we watched the first episode of „Good Omens“ and loved it.

I’m hoping for a little writing and a little music today, we’ll see how that goes.

Woke up from the alarm and promptly fell asleep again, so no writing. But morning pages and meditation.

Had a late and lazy breakfast already a little tense because of the doctor’s visit and the trip. Husband was still overwhelmed from the whole hail damage-thing which is rather understandable.

I only knitted a little bit but finished the t-shirt’s body. Did the dishes and went running. It was great but I walked way more than I ran:

It was pretty gray but dry.

You can’t see any of the damage from here but the tree line looked rather ragged and there were leaves on the paths everywhere. Someone must have gone through an cleared the paths, though, so everything was passable.

Then I fell into a bit of a slump which meant I started making lunch too late. Still, I did get showered beforehand and lunch was good and on time. Might have been a little better if the potato salad had time to sit a little longer:

Then the boy and I went to the dermatologist because of his acne. He got prescriptions for things to try and we went to the pharmacy right away. And then he had to go back a second time in the evening because something was not in stock.

We wandered back home via another supermarket, I wanted to get more scrunchies but there weren’t any I liked so we bought some licorice.

I took a break and then started packing for real. I’m taking too many things. The laptop and all the electronics, a new knitting project, the ukulele but only one outfit besides the one I’m wearing on the train.

The boy and I watched some more Star Trek, I tried writing a bit and went to bed.

Today I’ll spend most of the day on a train, leaving here at 10.30 and arriving at 6.30 with 45 minutes in Hannover. Maybe I’ll find a scrunchy there.

So I’m expecting a lot of time for reading and knitting and not much else.

I didn’t sleep well. Something fell from the roof around midnight and that had me sitting in bed wide awake. In addition to that there was also a weird low sound reverberating through the house. I wandered through all the rooms until finding out that that sound was the dehumidifier in the basement.

The plan for the day had originally been to go grocery shopping in the morning and write in the afternoon between students but that got a little derailed.

I got up late, had breakfast, talked with my husband, did the dishes and the boy was still not up. So I went out to the bakery, the butcher, the post office and the health food store. There were a lot of people out in the streets cleaning all the leaves and twigs from the sidewalks. There were side streets full of debris. And we heard the sirens all day. That hailstorm was a doozy.

I got everything I needed and sent off the taxes (yeah!) and then found the health food store closed because of hail damage.

So I walked back home and decided to go to the supermarket as well.

The rest of the family had already started the cleanup. Even the boy was outside putting shingle shards in containers.

We had an easy to cook lunch:

We took a bit of a break after that and then it was time for me to teach my first student.

Afterwards I went outside and helped raking leaves until it was time to teach my second student of the day. Everybody I met talked about the hail and what things broke or didn’t break. My mother-in-law had talked to insurance and had found out that we need a quote from a roofer next, so my husband called the guy who did our roof the last time. He’ll come by some time today and look at it.

And then it was dinnertime, the boy and I watched an episode of Star Trek and I went to bed pretty tired. I walked 16,500 steps that day so that might be part of it.

Today I want to go for a run, go to the dermatologist with the boy, pack for the trip and go to bed early. Writing might be a good idea as well.

That was exciting. Everything is alright, though.

I did wake up shortly before the alarm and started the day by lying in bed unwilling to wake up. I had just watched a video about the importance of starting the day right for motivation and that was definitely not the right way.

Still. After three days of not writing I was pretty set on getting some words down. I started by writing morning pages because my mind was still reeling after talking to my mother, then I forgot to meditate and then I forced myself to write. After a slow start I managed to keep working on the novel for almost an hour, so that was good.

Then breakfast. My husband showed up late so I could finish another novel and switch to „Storm Cursed“ by Patricia Briggs. I worked on the Crazy Tee and managed to finish the body. Well, almost, there is some ribbing to knit and then the sleeves.

We were pretty late again but managed to go running anyways:

It had rained before but the run was nice and dry:

And then we made lunch:

After that I did the dishes right away, took a break, then a shower and then proceeded to finish the taxes.

Not my favorite thing to do. But I did it and found out how to do everything and after about two hours of work I managed to send it all off. We still need to sign the paper copy and mail it but apart from that we’re done for the year. Phew.

Just when I was about to hit „send’ and felt like celebrating my husband came into my studio asking me if I had seen the weather and that there was a big thunderstorm coming. I had already seen that the sky was all dark and a little yellow and that this would be a doozy. I finished the taxes and sat there in front of my laptop when there was a rather weird sound coming from outside and right after some big things hit the roof. I thought, „Hail,“ and turned around again when the noise became so loud and the hits so hard that I fled the room because I was afraid the hail would come through the skylight.

This was what we saw when we looked outside:

Those are shingle shards from our roof. The hailstones were about as big as a golf ball. My husband almost wept when he saw the devastation in the backyard. This is our porch, those poor cucumber plants were razed off:

There are holes in the rainwater barrel where hailstones went through a bush, then through the water in the barrel and still punched through the plastic wall of the barrel.

At least the skylight held for which I am rather grateful, for a moment there I imagined what I would do if both my laptop and my piano would be ruined:

The tarp over the skylight got ripped half off and has holes all through. The small roof in front of the annex door is cracked, the greenhouse roof is broken and about half the plants are dead.

While we were still looking at the damage the doorbell rang and our next-door neighbor was there asking us if we were alright. Which was rather sweet. Apparently nobody was hurt. One of the boy’s classmates was out there riding their bike and ended up with bruises and cuts all over their hands.

So it seems we will spend most of the day accessing damage and documenting it so we can get everything back to order. Fortunately we do have insurance against hail damage, my parents-in-law saw to that after the big hailstorm in the eighties.

Still. It feels like half the maple tree ended up on the lawn but fortunately it is only small branches and a lot of leaves.

So I guess I will skip my short run today. The boy has already started helping my mother-in-law with cleanup. There will be more of that later and also a grocery run. Since the boy and I will be gone for most of the week we don’t need as much food as usual, though. And I have two students coming in despite Pentecost break.

We’re all a bit shaken today.

I woke up from the alarm at 5.30, hadn’t slept enough and stayed tired all day. Picked up my phone to look on social media and that was it with the day. Bad move,

I did get out of bed on time to make breakfast but had forgotten my thyroid meds so I had to wait half an hour more. Most of the day was spent waiting for the day to end so that I could sleep and recharge.

I did call my mother around noon and had one of those slightly surreal phone conversations. Her memory has never been the best but it’s starting to get worse. She didn’t remember that I don’t like strawberries, also that I don’t eat rawr tomatoes (both things that have been true for many decades now and that she used to comment on because people who don’t eat strawberries are obviously totally crazy) and more stuff like that. She was sure that we’d be visiting from Thursday (or maybe Wednesday) through Tuesday. She was so sure that I looked it up in my calendar and – I shouldn’t have bothered because I have been planning this for weeks – the boy and I will step on the train on Thursday and get back on Monday.

My husband had a great idea for lunch after I mentioned the cream about to go off in the fridge:

I spent a lot of time knitting on my Crazy Tee because I’d like to finish it before starting a new sweater.

I also spent a lot of time pondering if I should start the new bullet journal this week even though there are still ten pages left in the old one. But I don’t want to take two notebooks with me and it is nicer to start a new journal at the beginning of a week instead of midway through.

In the end I set up the new journal. Having that will make my life marginally easier. I didn’t transfer all the collections and such yet but did set up all the essentials.

I had planned to spend the day mostly writing but that didn’t really work out. My husband wandered by my room, there was Instagram, and a novel I really needed to read and the boy.

I did do yoga but rather late. The boy wanted to play piano again after a hiatus so I started teaching him a new piece and we got to talk about music theory as one does. He told me that he had already made a pile of drawing supplies he wants to take with him on the trip. I was all proud that he was already thinking about packing. My son!

Of course I did start making my own packing list. I’m only half-sure what clothes to take, I’ll wait for the weather report but I already made a list of all the electronics and such. And yes, I could probably pack for a trip to my parents in my sleep and have it all done in five minutes but I like the planning and scheming and it makes me less anxious.

I also looked at video tutorials for easy updoes because I’m still contemplating wearing my hair up for five days so that my mother doesn’t realize how long it is. She did complain that the way I pull my hair back is not soft enough so I was actually spending time and thought on this.

On the other hand the boy’s hair and clothes and everything will totally grab her attention; maybe I can stay under the radar, long hair or not.

For these kinds of situation there are two strategies that work. One is camouflage and pretending that you do what the other person wants and the other is going strongly in the other direction, doing everything they hate with a vengeance. The second route often shuts the complaints right up as well.

And yes, I am totally aware how silly it is to worry about my mother making comments about my hair at my age. I definitely should start a bullshit bingo card.

The boy and I watched another episode of „Deep Space Nine“ and it was pretty good. And I made more progress on my t-shirt.

I did manage to go to bed earlier this time so I have high hope for today.

Today there will be running and – taxes. Fun times. Or rather not but I always feel better when they’re done. It is a public holiday but we’ll just ignore that, okay?