Au Weh!

Just two photos from last Friday's road trip. This car was outside the home in the parking lot, and it had a vanity plate, and I found it sort of funny. German speaking people do not say 'ouch'. They say 'Au (as in ow) Weh! (hurt). I think it belongs to someone who works there. I don't know, it struck me as being funny. The FF means whoever drives it is from Fürstenfeld, which is a long commute.... And they bought it at the Porsche dealer in Graz.





And that vineyard is growing fast across the way. It is so beautiful.






Peter has been in the 'au weh!' mode for several days. The weather changed, got cool, there is a lot of wind, which is abnormal, and causes phantom pain. He keeps having pain in the foot that was amputated, but feels the toes that are gone, and they hurt. And the rest of that leg keeps jerking, and he yells 'Au Weh!' So far, he hasn't gotten a med that stops it and has some sleepless nights. I know that it isn't acting out, have read about it, so I know that is a real problem for him.

We're settling into a routine. Friday is visiting day. Routine is good. He focuses on that, and looks forward to it. I wheel him downtown, he gets an ice cream if he behaves, and we talk. The staff seems to think I'm sort of like clockwork, and that is good. They are friendly, and I can set them off laughing with my off-the-wall 'humour', even tho I don't feel like that inside.... not at all...

And can only report positive things about that facility.

Oh yeah, I can bitch and moan about getting down there. Last Friday we got stuck in Wildon. Something about the switches in the tracks again. And that train at that time is cutting it narrow. I had to run the 300 meters from the station to the main square to catch my bus, and it was critical, because there wouldn't BE any more till late afternoon.

Au weh!

There are glitches in any system, but it turned out ok..... this time.... and if I bitch about schedules and things.... well, every trip is an adventure, I pay, and I expect to get to where I wanna go, golrammit...

Mostly I do.

So I go down there again, the day after tomorrow.

(Yeah, just a sucker for punishment...)

I got a post-card yesterday. Günther and Dorle did a cruise up to the North Polar cap, saw fjords, must've been awesome. They returned Monday nite and she got caught up on events here, and I was green with envy because I always wanted to take that trip. She revealed that her father-in-law would like to take all of Peter's stuff out into the drive-way from the garage and make a bon-fire out of it.

This did NOT surprise me. He is a hard, and unconciliatory man, to put it mildly, and I think he did his son a mess of harm. And continued on with his wife, and his grandchildren.

But the card was a weird choice. From Iceland. Sulfer geysers, hey. It's beautiful, but not what I would have expected.... It's like getting a subliminal message. Sulfer stinks like rotten eggs. Sulfer is what you hear about Hell being like. She said on the phone that it was horrible, and I wouldn't have booked THAT tour for anything. Who the hell thinks things like that up.... going to that smell?

So yeah, it was sort of an uncomfortable thing to get.

I don't know if it was a concious decision.

And someone across the way, an African, keeps playing something where someone is crying, 'rock bottom!'

It is getting pretty annoying.

Au weh!