Thursday, March 17, 2005
The Big Thaw
We had a whole lot of snow over the weekend, but on Monday the sun came out. It has been out since then, and the temperatures have really warmed up. It actually went up to 60 degrees, which is practically summer weather here. The snow is slowly melting, but there is still some lingering around. Downtown Ansbach has a creek that runs through it, and it is overflowing it's banks into some parking lots. The farm fields are also pretty flooded, but it should resolve itself in the next few days.
Yesterday I went into downtown Ansbach while having the oil changed in the Toyota. All of the cafes are putting out their outdoor tables, it was very nice to see. You know that spring is coming when they do that. The above picture was of the side of one of the churches downtown, I was killing time sitting on a bench. They are actually pretty interesting to sit and look at. There is a large baroque building with lots of statues on it that I was showing Jacob a couple weeks ago. The next few times he called them the "broken statues", he thought that was what I was saying. (Now we really enunciate when we say it "baaaa-roque") It was pretty funny.
They are really into spring and Easter here, probably just the excitement of something besides the cold gray of winter. Jacob's kindergarten is well decorated, the kids have been busy making all kinds of decorations for the classrooms and hallways. There are always little notices by his classroom door that lets us know what is going on that week, if we need to bring anything for them. This week we had to bring drei Eier (three eggs) for Jacob's kindergarten class. They had to be ausgeblasen, which means "blown out". So Kenny and I had a good time doing that, it was a first for both of us. We only squashed one, so we considered it a success. I couldn't believe that they were letting children that young decorate them, I really don't expect any of the eggs to make it home. But you just never know.
I walked to Jacob's kindergarten to pick him up today, it's about a 10 minute walk. I brought the wagon, in case Jacob didn't want to walk back up the hill on the way home. He really enjoys riding in the wagon, but then we saw one of his classmates climbing into their transportation for the ride home. It was a tractor - a big green tractor. So the wagon wasn't quite as exciting anymore, after seeing that. All the tractors are out in full force now, I counted 5 on the way to Ansbach this afternoon. Soon they will start fertilizing, which we know almost immediately when they do it. It's just something you have to experience to truly understand, I will leave it at that.
Yesterday I went into downtown Ansbach while having the oil changed in the Toyota. All of the cafes are putting out their outdoor tables, it was very nice to see. You know that spring is coming when they do that. The above picture was of the side of one of the churches downtown, I was killing time sitting on a bench. They are actually pretty interesting to sit and look at. There is a large baroque building with lots of statues on it that I was showing Jacob a couple weeks ago. The next few times he called them the "broken statues", he thought that was what I was saying. (Now we really enunciate when we say it "baaaa-roque") It was pretty funny.
They are really into spring and Easter here, probably just the excitement of something besides the cold gray of winter. Jacob's kindergarten is well decorated, the kids have been busy making all kinds of decorations for the classrooms and hallways. There are always little notices by his classroom door that lets us know what is going on that week, if we need to bring anything for them. This week we had to bring drei Eier (three eggs) for Jacob's kindergarten class. They had to be ausgeblasen, which means "blown out". So Kenny and I had a good time doing that, it was a first for both of us. We only squashed one, so we considered it a success. I couldn't believe that they were letting children that young decorate them, I really don't expect any of the eggs to make it home. But you just never know.
I walked to Jacob's kindergarten to pick him up today, it's about a 10 minute walk. I brought the wagon, in case Jacob didn't want to walk back up the hill on the way home. He really enjoys riding in the wagon, but then we saw one of his classmates climbing into their transportation for the ride home. It was a tractor - a big green tractor. So the wagon wasn't quite as exciting anymore, after seeing that. All the tractors are out in full force now, I counted 5 on the way to Ansbach this afternoon. Soon they will start fertilizing, which we know almost immediately when they do it. It's just something you have to experience to truly understand, I will leave it at that.
