I was planning to write on how summer (or, at least, late spring -- I guess that Summer Solstice isn't until June 20th) finally came to Hamburg yesterday. The weather was warm, I was making plans to wear a short-sleeved shirt this morning, and the restaurant at the ground floor of our office building suddenly sprouted a whole new set of outside tables, an outdoor coffee bar, and a big sign advertising their brand-new iced coffees. When I got home, Shelby had all of the apartment windows open, and we went to sleep with our roof skylights cracked wide.
Well, I woke up about six this morning to the sound of rain. I scrambled to close the skylights and went back to bed.
Now it's sprinkling, and it looks like we can count on rain showers on and off through tomorrow (at least). So much for that.
(I was awoken from a dream in which we'd decided to stay in Germany -- and on the night we became taxpayers, Chancellor Schröder unveiled a surprise plan to raise the income tax to 94% for the next three months to pay for "the emergency". [I never found out what the "emergency" was.] We didn't plan for that! That's not fair! The new tax plan was explained to the public by the means of labels -- dense-packed with graphs, tables, and instructions in seven-point text -- hastily pasted onto cans, bottles, and boxes in the grocery store ... because while some people don't read the newspaper or watch TV, everybody has to buy food. Right after I woke up, but just before I snapped into consciousness, I remember noting that I had to ask the HR guy about the new tax during our meeting today.)
Posted by Kevin at June 4, 2004 08:45 AM