He's Baaaaaack ... More or Less.

Good Morning, Dear Readers!

Yes, Agnes and I got home last night from our latest trip to Germany. I'm not quite sure whether it's 4:40 AM or 2:40 PM, but I'm awake and slept relatively well last night. I should be fine at the office, at least until ten o'clock or so. Probably no one will notice.

We had a good couple of weeks in Germany, under the circumstances. Those of you who are my friends on Facebook already know that I am in awe of how much stuff two elderly people can accumulate in a two-room apartment (plus small kitchen and bath) and an 8x8-foot basement storage locker. And I can tell you that it's not as easy to get rid of junk in Germany as it is here in the good old US of A.

Our flight back yesterday from Frankfurt seemed endless, but our arrival in DC was unexpectedly smooth: the flight landed at Dulles Airport at 7:40 PM, and we were among the first off the airplane and into the nightmarish "mobile lounge"*; there was NO ... repeat ... NO wait at Immigration**, our bags were coming off the carousel as we got to baggage claim, we were in a taxi pulling away from the curb at 8:20, and arrived home at 8:55. If you've ever gone through the international arrivals fandango at Dulles Airport, you'll know how utterly amazing that was.

In spite of our best efforts, we didn't get everything done before we had to leave. Agnes will have to go back in a month or two to deal with legal paperwork screwed up by bureaucratic ineptitude, get rid of the last of the big pieces of junk we couldn't handle this time, and oversee the renovation of the apartment so we can rent it out.

I'll have full details and pictures in a few days, once I get the camera downloaded and sort through all the accumulated e-mail, snail mail, and other stuff.

Tomorrow's post should be the Right Cheek Ass Clown for June, but I'm not sure if I'll be awake and alert enough to write it, so you may see an alternate, shorter post. Don't worry ... we'll honor the right person in due time. Until then, have a good day. More thoughts coming once I wake up and know what day it is.

Bilbo

* If you've ever flown internationally from Dulles Airport, you can appreciate this. Here's a picture:

** "No wait at Immigration" never happens. Although there are about 30 stations for ICE agents to interview arriving passengers, I've never seen more than four or five occupied, no matter how many hundreds of people are waiting.