I survived the hurricane!

I am glad to report that I have (thus far) escaped serious injury and have weathered the “hurricane” that blasted through Europe yesterday and last night. “Hurricane?” you might be tempted to ask. I also asked that question. But sure enough the papers and news shows were talking about an “Orkan,” so I looked it up to confirm its meaning. I had previously thought that a hurricane involved twisting fury of a tropical storm but apparently it means stronger than usual wind-gusts. Who am I to quibble? I’m not meteorologist…

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to pooh-pooh the seriousness of the storm we survived last night. It might not have been Katrina or anything but let me tell you, it did knock an a-frame sign right the fuck over. That’s serious shit. It also sent a great stone hurtling into my eyeball. And by great stone, I mean speck of dust of course. The news reports warned people to stay inside after 4 p.m. And many of them did. My jobless class was only half-full because everyone else had gone home to board themselves into their storm shelters. It was so bad that the streets were empty when I came home and wandered the avenue looking for a nice rotisserie chicken (true story. And they were out of chicken so I put myself at great, great risk for nothing at all). I sought my dinner in spite of a dire warning from Kathi’s sister and notice that someone had been killed in Munich. I thought to myself, “now surely it was a old fart, a child or retard.” It was a child. Three points for me!

It did gust pretty strong but let’s get serious, this was no fucking hurricane. Why should I be surprised though? This is a country where Arctic expedition gear is required for the local populace when the temperatures drop below the 50s. They wear sweaters and scarves INDOORS when the temperature drops below the 50s. They call in sick with “bad circulation” (how do you even know you have that? Try that shit in the States and see what happens…). “Durable” is not an adjective that applies to the German-folk. Are these really the people that threatened freedom in Europe just 60 years ago? I like this place but it’s hard to take it seriously sometimes.