Speedy Recovery to GGL

Dear fellow Bloggers and Quiet Readers,

I just dropped Lightnin off at the airport. She's headed home to see her Father (GGL in comments to my blogs), by way of Atlanta!
Side note: I don't understand why you have to go from the Cincinnati Delta Hub to the Atlanta Delta Hub to get to Kansas City (Check out the map). Someone once said: "You can't even get to hell without stopping in Atlanta first!"
Anyway, the good thing is that she'll meet up with her sister in ATL and they'll be flying to KC together.

GGL had his surgery today and things did not go as well as we had hoped. When he was coming out his heart rate went out of control and they weren't able to get him stabilized at that hospital, so they Life Flighted him to one that had more capability.

When I got home from dropping her off at the airport she gave me a call that they had stabilized him during flight. That's good news, but obviously he's not completely out of the woods yet. So please keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a full recovery!

Typical Ohio Fall, Air Conditioning in the Morning Furnace at Night

If you read one of my posts during the past week or so you'll know that we've been breaking records for high temperatures ever since July. This past Monday (October 8th) we broke a record of 91F that stood since 1860, when they first started recording Ohio weather!

Well that all came to an abrupt halt today. In true, typical Cincinnati fashion We went from 90F to 60F for the high in 24 hours, and we're supposed to get down to a high of 48F tomorrow!

Yep, once again it's air conditioning one day and furnace the next! I could sure use some firewood right about now.

Donauschwaben Oktoberfest 2007

We've been members of the Donauschwaben Verein for about 14 years now, and haven't missed an Oktoberfest since!

The colors of Oktoberfest are Blue and White, and the sky cooperated fully this weekend.

It's the celebration of the coming of fall, complete with Music, Beer, Dancing, Beer, Food, Beer, Friends, Fun, and of course Beer.

The Fire pit!

We end up roasting over 500 chickens and nearly 20 pigs during the three day celebration.

Herr Klein serves up a Dunkle for a thirsty customer.

The pouring of a Festbier, an art form all it's own!

How many men does it take to pour a beer?

Apparently 4, 1 to do the pouring, and 3 to admire the work!

It's a family affair! The Klein's have been good close friends of ours, and are fellow Schwabians! We can always count on them for keeping our thirst in check!

It's been unseasonably hot this year, up in the 90's (F), but the heat hasn't affected the attendance. Lederhosen (leather shorts) are amazingly comfortable, even in this heat.

We'll be back out there again today doing our part to keep the tradition alive!

Ein Prosit Der Gemutlichkeit!

2 years

I just realized it's been two years today since I started blogging. My good friend FC talked me into trying this, and it's really been fun! (I know that he gets a bit disappointed that I don't blog consistently, but hey I do what I can). It's actually been more than just fun, it's been sort of like therapy for me. It's given me the ability to express my thoughts and my view of the world around me, sometimes as an observer and other times as a participant.

I've had the good fortune of traveling to Europe several times for work, and I've enjoyed sharing those experiences with all of you. I know that some of people that I've met during my travels read my posts, even if they don't comment on-line.

It's also given me the pleasure of being able to live vicariously through the posts of all of you other blogger's out there who are willing to share your lives with the rest of us.

I intend to keep going, posting things that seem significant to me at the time and are hopefully at least somewhat entertaining for those of you who read them.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Remembering September 2001

On Friday we found out that the traveling September 11th National Memorial and Museum was in town, so we decided to go down town yesterday morning to witness the Dedication Ceremony. We were joined by our friend's son "Young Thomas", who is one of SPC Dude's friends from school.

By the way Lightnin's shirt states: "My Son is Away Protecting Our Freedom and I'm Very Proud of Him". Mine has a photo of a WWII soldier drinking from his mess cup and states: "How About a Nice Cup of Shut The Hell Up and Let Us Do Our Job We're Freeing a Nation".

It was a somber and yet relaxing atmosphere. Several local dignitaries spoke along with several from New York.

One man from Connecticut, Tom Roger, spoke about losing his daughter. She was a standby flight attendant who was flying on American Airlines Flt#11.

The grey background for the speakers was actually two steel beams that will become part of the structure of the Museum. Everyone that was present was asked to sign one of the beams.

We gladly added ours to the several thousand names already inscribed.

We also met a women who's son was lost in one of the Twin Towers that day. She's holding a shadow box that contains the charred remains of his driver's License.

She saw our shirts and came over to us and thanked us for what our son, and those like him, are doing as a result of events of that day. Unfortunately we didn't catch her name.

These three young men raised money to help support the memorial by walking from Rossford, OH to Washington DC, a 65o mile hike.

I'm glad that we went down there to be a part of remembering this tragedy. Getting to meet folks that lost their loved one's in this terrible act of terrorism helped to rationalize why our son is in the desert for his second tour, and our Nephew has also completed two tours. They both signed up as a direct result of that day.

We need to remember this day above all others, even Pearl Harbor. After all this was an attack against innocent civilians, not a military facility. On that day nearly 3,000 people were senselessly murdered, and over 400 rescue workers lost their lives trying to help those in need. If we don't remember then we are likely to let our guard down and allow a similar or worse attack against freedom to occur!

Once we returned home we further honored the day by exercising our right to brew beer! Hey several of our founding father's were avid home brewers, and when we brew beer we truly do honor their memory!