Blogging in the U.S. of A

Well I have been away from the blog for a while now. I’m home for the holidays, sort of. Right now I’m in Indianapolis and my family is in Cincinnati but I’m close. It’s been a great time so far. My flight back on Saturday was fine but my luggage took a little delay and didn’t make it back until Sunday. It was a happy reunion because nothing was broken in my luggage (several bottles of wine, olive oil grappa, and ceramics). I have managed to see many of my friends already. Then Monday I drove to Detroit to renew my work visa. I was amazed when I arrived at the Italian Consulate and there was no one waiting. I went straight up to the window and turned in my paperwork and I was back out on the street in 10 minutes. I never thought that would happen. Last time I waited about an hour and half and there were only about 6 people in line. Then today I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get my expired driver’s license renewed. This too went very well and didn’t take nearly as long as I expected. I had visions of needing to take the driver’s test again (even though none of my research supported this). I was even considering studying for the written test last night, just in case. So after this I decided get another errand done and I purchased a cell phone to use while I’m in the states. Now all this is done and it means I need to go into work and get some real work done tomorrow. This plan is not a sure thing because our friend mother nature may not cooperate. The weathermen are all getting tons of airtime predicting the end of the world. It’s after midnight and she hasn’t unleashed her fury yet as the weatherman is predicting. We’ll see.

Old Photo Album

I have a little more time to add to the blog from the weekend now that things are a little quiet at work and my sister and company have headed up to Venice and Florence. Last Sunday we stopped at a little street antique sale in Monopoli. I don’t usually look too closely but everyone else was so I lingered a little longer than normal. I made the most interesting purchase in a long time. I bought an old photo album. It is photos that a German man took between 1935 and 1938 on his trip from Germany to California, Mexico then to Brazil. It’s incredible. It’s missing some photos but the ones it has are all stories in themselves. They are all small black and white photos about 2 inches square and usually the pictures feature everyday people or landscapes. They are so interesting. There is one of a boat that has a banner that says “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer” (One people, One rule, one ruler remember the time this was taken!) and then another boat that says “American Legion”. Who was this guy and what was he doing? The photos all have titles written by hand in white ink on thick faded black cardboard pages in German. I really could not be more excited about buying something. Maybe I’ll scan in a few pictures but I don’t even want to disturb them in the album. There are 4 photos that are not mounted in the album so maybe I’ll scan them. I feel this album is already worth 10 times what I paid for it, 20 euros!!