08:02 – I got one of the colors wrong yesterday. I said universal indicator is “rose” at pH 3, but I should have said “salmon” or perhaps “terra cotta”. It’s a problem of guy-colors versus girl-colors. Like most guys, I have no clue what girl-colors like chartreuse or fuchsia are. I’ve even gotten in trouble with girls for pronouncing the latter in the German way. Which reminds me of a classic demonstration of the difference in how girls and guys consider colors:
Thursday, 7 March 2013
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Got my train tickets for Germany. A fairly good deal. Any six days, do not have to be contiguous, in a 30 day period, 1st class on any train, all day, two adults for $514.00 (390 Euros). That also includes a free pass to all public transportation in zone A and B in Berlin, Frankfurt and a couple of other cities. I am going to Berlin and Frankfurt.
Having done the train on my last trip to Germany I find it much more pleasant than driving. A rental car is just too expensive and driving too stressful on the Autobahn.
I also downloaded the DB train app for my Ipad and Iphone. Allows me to easily choose the source and destination with the app showing the times, train numbers and platforms. That can then be easily imported into the Ipad calendar which will sync with my Iphone.
I also have a sim card on order for Germany so I will have a phone number while in Germany. That was only 10 euros for a month with 100 minutes, 100 text and 100 meg of data. Should be more than enough for my limited use. For data most of the time I will be using wifi, which also exists on the trains.
Dude, you have your shit together. Nice work.
Geben Sie uns die neuesten Intel auf der Sitrep dort Chuck in Tiny Town Erfahrungen zu erweitern.
My wife chose paint colors a few years ago. One of the was called “Footie pajamas” which was a light green and another was called “Voldemort”, which is purple. Somebody gets paid to name these colors.
Rick in Portland
Having done the train thing before I sort of know the drill.
1. When walking up the isle to 1st class and people are sitting on the floor with their legs stretched across the isle you can drive the message home by dragging your suitcase across their legs.
2. Reserved seats in 1st class have their name above the seat and people get really pissed when you take their seat out of ignorance which is apparently not an excuse.
3. Some ticket checkers, especially on the local routes, have no clue that you have a valid ticket as they have never seen it before. You stand your ground and they go away.
4. When using the train bathroom in the station and the train departs going the other direction it is easy to go the wrong way on the train to find your seat.
5. The “silent” compartment is really just that. Don’t even rustle a newspaper.
6. The “silent” compartment is behind the train operator and provides an excellent view of the trip, the same as the operator.
7. Most people on the train will help if you they know you are a foreigner, at least on the ICE. The local routes are loaded with idiot teenagers.
8. Use the ICE whenever possible. It is quiet, smooth and fast. Local loops are buses running on rails.
9. Use a young ticket agent. They probably know English better than the withered old man in the next window.
10. It is OK to act like a tourist. They know you are and consider any attempt to not look like a tourist as stupid.
Ray, where’s your sense of adventure? We spent a week in Germany a couple of years ago and I enjoyed driving 160 km/hour on the Autobahn. We kept getting passed by the BMW’s, Mercedes and Porches going 200 km/hour, but it was fun. We were in Europe for five weeks and rented a car for four of those weeks for about $1,000. As there were five of us, trains would have cost a lot more.
Rick in Portland
“…drive the message home by dragging your suitcase across their legs.”
Outstanding. I expected no less. SteveF and I would additionally load said suitcase with bricks and glue shattered glass fragments on the outside of it.
“…people get really pissed when you take their seat out of ignorance…”
Do not plead ignorance. These are Germans. They lost both wars. We kicked their asses. Eventually. Take whatever seats you want and growl at them loudly. They’ll get the message. We can always come back over there. When we get tired of the Sandbox and the Suck.
“You stand your ground and they go away.”
Exactly. See how that works? Be even more arrogant and surly than them. (easy for most average Americans).
“… it is easy to go the wrong way…”
For Americans, there is no “wrong way.” Do whatever you want.
I would have to commandeer the silent compartment. I am as quiet as a mouse.
“…loaded with idiot teenagers.”
Are there any other kind? Dunno bout U but I was one once myself and enlisted. We’re so stupid we sign up for every war that comes down the pike in every generation. Now picture those idiot teenagers in Hitlerjugend and Waffen Shutzstaffeln uniforms.
“… the withered old man in the next window.”
Ja. The former Hitlerjugend or Waffen SS guy. A wealth of amusing stories. Cultivate him.
“… consider any attempt to not look like a tourist as stupid.”
They’re right about that, at least. We stand out so much around the world as what we are that it’s utterly hilarious. ANY attempt to pass ourselves off as something else is bound to meet with failure. So live it up! And if hadji terrorist fucks take over the train, don’t bother to whip out a Canadian passport or something; they’re onto that now. Stand tall and make them shoot you; none of that kneeling to have your head sawed off stuff.
Me, I’ll stay right here in northern Vermont where I belong. Nice and quiet in Retroville. Except for the occasional meth lab bust. The occasional dead body found in the city pool or behind a strip mall. The occasional OD-green (see, I can get *that* color right!) chopper overhead looking for heat signatures from pot grow-lights and folks having straight sex.
Yep, nice and quiet. No autobahn. No trains. No machine-guns mowing people down into mass graves.
Yet.
I have also loaded up the IPad with some recent movies courtesy of my son who can get just about any movie, many still in theaters and not released to the public. Others I just rented and ripped myself my own copy.
The movies will be used to pass the time on the plane and the train.
Also purchased an auxiliary battery pack to power the IPad so that it will last the flight. The phone will remain powered off until I arrive in Germany. I don’t know if the plane, Lufthansa, will have USB power outlets at the seat. Even if they do knowing my luck with planes the outlet will not work.
One real bargain was Skyfall. $20.00 at Best Buy which included a Blu-Ray version, a regular DVD version and a digital download for the IPad. Wish more would do that as I would probably buy more. Sell the regular copy to my friends without Blu-Ray and the price becomes reasonable.
Actually, I’ve met two former Waffen-SS guys that I know of, one while I was in college and one after. No HJ guys as far as I know, but the first SS guy was a veteran of the 1-SS Leibstandarte division. Both of them seemed like normal guys. They reminded me of my dad and other American WWII vets.
Ray, you R one organized dude! I bow and genuflect in your southern direction (ha, ha, all y’all R in my southern direction!)
If I ever travel anywhere I will use your plan as my template; but chances are real good I ain’t ever leaving northern New England or the Maritimes again.
And aren’t male children wunnerful? My (step) son also showed me the way, the truth and the light when it comes to locating and acquiring contemporary/current movies and tee-vee shows a while back. I used to stream them to the big tee-vee with Windows 7 but will now be doing it via XBMC on Ubuntu 12.10, which comes as a sw app option in the Ubuntu Software Center.
Oh, and on an unrelated note, sort of; a commercial airline pilot reported spotting a drone at 1,500 feet yesterday at JFK and “the FAA is investigating,” ha, ha.
“…Both of them seemed like normal guys.”
Yep, no doubt.
But then we have this, on the Liebstandarte:
” The elite division, a component of the Waffen-SS, was found guilty of war crimes in the Nuremberg Trials. Members of the LSSAH participated in numerous atrocities. They murdered at least an estimated 5,000 prisoners of war in the period 1940–1945, mostly on the Eastern Front.[1]”
(from Wiki article)
It should also probably be noted that the Eastern Front was a total fucking madhouse of warfare writ very large across gigantic swaths of territory and included several “battles” that have dwarfed any others in human history thus far. A thousand POWs shot a year over the course of the war, not to trivialize it at all, but man, a drop in that bucket of blood.
Ray, you R one organized dude!
And to take it one step further I have already acquired my phone number for while I am in Germany. The sim card is on the way so I can punch it to a nano-sim before I depart.
I still need to see if RBT will rent his house guardian snakes.
I’d be happy to let you borrow George and Martha while you’re gone, but you’d need to snake-proof your house first. They can get through unbelievably small gaps, and the last thing you’d want is to have to go snake hunting when you get back.
Re: overseas phones – The last time I was in Europe, I was meeting a work colleague in Athens. I was traveling from DFW, he was coming from Newark and we both managed to get delayed enough to miss our connecting flight to Thessaloniki. The unfortunate part is that on of us was at the gate level trying to get a flight and the other was on the ticket counter level doing the same thing.
We were there several hours before giving up and accidentally meeting up walking across the empty lobby. I vowed then and there that I would never be caught overseas without a working phone for which everyone already had the number.
Re: Lufthansa – I think all 6 of my Europe/Middle East trips have been on LH. I felt like I knew the Frankfurt airport as well as I knew DFW & GSO/RDU/CLT.
Have you ever requested a special meal from them? I understand they’re even better than the regular fare. (No fee pun intended.)
Re: Lufthansa – I think all 6 of my Europe/Middle East trips have been on LH. I felt like I knew the Frankfurt airport as well as I knew DFW & GSO/RDU/CLT.
This will be my fifth trip to Germany. The prior four trips have all terminated and departed out of Frankfurt. This trip I am flying into Munich as that is closer to my first destination. I will be departing Europe from Oslo Norway.
I will be flying over on Lufthansa. The sister of one of our former exchange students is a flight attendant for Lufthansa. Means nothing I know. But I have always wanted to try Lufthansa. Prior trips have been on Delta which absolutely sucked (never again) and US Airways which was actually not bad. Of course spending 8+ hours in an aluminum tube in coach is never fun regardless of the airline. I am going to contact my former exchange student to see if I can get anything special on the way over. With the rules of today that may be a pipe dream.
From Berlin we fly to Oslo on Scandinavian Airways. Out of Oslo we will be the guests of United Airlines. Not sure how the flight will be on those airlines.
Have you ever requested a special meal from them? I understand they’re even better than the regular fare. (No fee pun intended.)
Never have. I may this time request a low sodium meal. Not that I need the low sodium it is just that you get something beyond the standard fare. I have never really been disappointed in the meals on any of the flights I have taken overseas. Yeh, it is not Outback quality, but it is good enough to get by. Considering the venue one cannot expect gourmet food.
I have to make six trips by train to visit different families in Germany. Then I have two trips in Norway, one to visit a prior exchange student, the other to meet with the family of new exchange student for the 2013-14 school year.
Meeting with the family before they send their child over helps the family as we are no longer strangers. It is very stressful for the student as they have all been nervous, some even visibly shaking, about our visit. Something about us not liking them and deciding not to host them. It does help them when they arrive as they are not arriving to strange faces in the local airport.
This will be our 10th exchange student.
We’ve had two exchange students from Germany so fah, both grrls, one six feet tall and blonde with blue eyes but dumb as a bag of hammers; the other a petite brunette grad student who had been studying in Scotland and then at McGill with our daughter; she is sharp as a tack and was quite impressed with the Second Amendment here and my acquaintance with firearms over the decades. She’s graduating from St. Andrews in Scotland and wants us to be there and meanwhile is back in Germany where our daughter will be working this summuh; also wants our daughter to bring over some NRA and firearms memorabilia from me for her. Man, if I was forty years younger!
We’ve also hosted younger kids (eighth-grade level) who were pages at the Snake House in the capital here in Vermont. And if we want, we can also host minor league ball players who are here for the season. Meanwhile Mrs. OFD may be doing some work with the NFL later this year, in light of recent tragedies.
I may this time request a low sodium meal. Not that I need the low sodium it is just that you get something beyond the standard fare.
Yes, that’s exactly what I was getting at. I’ve heard that the request of a special meal often requires something to be made with fresher ingredients. Unless things have changed, they list the available options on the LH website.
I had to wait until I got home to play the Blandings vid; if she was a real person I would pay good money to go back in a time machine and cheerfully strangle her. I also got a kick outta the guys lighting up cigars and pipes and whatnot inside her house; imagine how that would go down today….?
Ray, how did you get that Germany SIM card from over here? I’m curious.
You might want to explore MagicSIM, which allows you to have 2 SIM’s in one phone—with no need to cut the second one. They make them for the S3 which I have, and the iPhone, which I think you said you had. It’s a software action to switch SIM’s, no taking the phone apart to change SIM’s.
http://www.magic-sim.com/category/id/1/Dual_Sim_for_Apple_iPhone.html
I find I like driving in places most others don’t—like Boston and the Autobahn. Actually, Indianapolis is adopting a lot of the Boston traffic protocols, like rotaries and right lane to turn left. Now if the cops would just stop ticketing people for not coming to a dead stop at intersections and keep things rolling, like in Boston.
I am sick and tired of trucks passing each other at 65mph when cars are allowed 70mph. There should be a ban on truck passing on 2 lane roads. And why, pray tell, are Americans satisfied with 2 lane Interstates when every one of them should be 3 lanes like most Autobahns, and that should have happened a couple decades ago? Took me a good 20 minutes longer than my usual 40 minutes to get to Indy yesterday after the mini-snowstorm, strictly because so many trucks were on the road, and blocking the passing lane by going 65 and taking 10 miles to pass another truck going 64.5. I-70 was dry as a bone, even though it had snowed a good 4 inches overnight.
My biggest trouble with driving in Germany was remembering that driving down what may have seemed like a main street, often did not have the right-of-way over traffic to one’s right at intersections—especially those that did not join the main road at a perfectly right angle. Routes that busses took, always had the right-of-way—that was the only way I could be assured of not making a mistake. Had a couple close calls, but no accidents.
Back here, I am still spooked by cars that pass on the right. Absolutely, positively verboten in Germany. Happens a lot on Interstates around here when the left lane is being slowed down by trucks passing trucks, and the left lane is solid with cars wanting to go faster, but the right lane is clear, so some joker will use it to pass a half-dozen cars on the right, then horn his way over into the left lane, getting in front of all those cars queued up and waiting for the truck to get over and let them by.
I suspect my air travelling days are behind me. Had Jeri lived, I was not going to accompany her on her yearly pilgrimage to see her parents at Xmas; mine had passed years earlier, and my kids were quite happy to visit me in Europe, rather than my having to fly to the US to see them. Flying is so unpleasant these days that I have no desire whatever to fly again. I have a close friend who has never, and will never fly, as a matter of safety. He has been to Europe many times, but has always taken ships, never planes. He used to travel by packet steamer, but I do not know if that method of travel is even available anymore.
Ray, how did you get that Germany SIM card from over here? I’m curious.
One of my former exchange students purchased the SIM card and is sending it to me.
You might want to explore MagicSIM, which allows you to have 2 SIM’s in one phone—with no need to cut the second one.
Interesting device. But I don’t want to spend $40.00 for something I am only going to do a couple of times. I will switch SIMS when I get to Germany, and switch again when I leave.
My next trip to Germany is planned for 2015. I am going to contract with a hotel in Germany for a meeting room with a catered meal. All the exchange students I have hosted over the years will be invited with their families. A sort of meet and greet. Many of them know one or two of the other students. But a big get together would be interesting and fun.
Chuck wrote:
“Back here, I am still spooked by cars that pass on the right.”
Don’t ever come to Australia, Chuck. We do it ALL THE TIME, without blinking. Even the cops do it. A visiting British friend was amazed, but none of us give it a moment’s thought. I mean, what’s the problem? But I will remember in case I am ever driving in Germany.
Haven’t flown on commercial aircraft/airlines since 1994 and no particular desire to do so now that it is such a total mess.
When people do that thing that Chuck is talking about, passing on the right and then cutting in to the left, it is considered the epitome of bad manners, but some dipstick always lets them back in. I saw this numerous times down in MA but one morning I got my jollies as I slowly pulled up to the ramp for the MassPike off 495 and the Staties had about six vehicles pulled over on the shoulder, drivers who’d done that little trick. I honked my horn and waved and smiled at them, with great joy in my haht.
On the way to work this morning, my light turned green for a left turn on a bridge but before I could do it, some bitch who’d been completely stopped in that left lane facing me, cut me right off to make a left turn herself, right through her red light, with malice aforethought. And the other day the bozo in front of me had his right signal on but then suddenly cut to the left and made a sharp left turn across three lanes of oncoming traffic. Even I was gobsmacked seeing that maneuver.
Meanwhile our state police up here focus all their attention, evidently, on motorists with busted taillights, expired inspection stickers, and pot growers and smokers. Last night there was a chopper overhead circling and circling for a good half-hour over our house in the Bay; no idea WTF that was about. I didn’t have the grow-lights on and wasn’t having straight hetero sex so WTF?
Do the cops even give warnings anymore? It’s like they are money makers now. Metro in Vegas have a record of brutality, too. Mostly for videoing them.
It’s a crap shoot; sometimes they’ll give out a warning cite, depending on what mood they’re in, if the operator is an asshole, if it’s raining or snowing, etc. I did this gig a long time ago so I’ve seen it from their side, too. Back then it was also a source of revenue, but not so much in the piddly little jurisdictions where I worked. Now, of course, it’s a political and economic football, and the powers-that-be are working hard at finding all sorts of ways they can generate revenue from motorists.
I sure as hell would not wanna be a cop nowadays and am glad I got out when I did, in 1986 at the age of 33. OFD saw the writing on the wall; increased liability; increased stress from within the departments; increased hazards out on the street; and just the utter thanklessness and total negativity of the job 98% of the time. I had knives and guns pulled on me, guys with guns taking aim at me, motor vehicle accidents up the wazoo, domestics likewise, suicides, robberies, biker gang bar fights, house fires, you name it, and after a while I wondered WTF for?
So I’ve been in either grad school or IT ever since and yet I still find myself asking WTF for?
Back 20 years ago, I did some extensive work for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department. When the project was complete, Tony Young, the Assistant Sheriff, told me that Sheriff Preston Oldham wanted to see me in his office. Preston thanked me effusively and said he wanted to give me a small token of his appreciation. It was a North Carolina Sheriff’s Association license plate. I of course thanked the Sheriff, and Tony and I walked out.
Tony said, “You have no idea what Preston just gave you, do you?” I said I figured it was a Friends of the Sheriff plate. No way, Tony said. That plate was one of one hundred made, and the Sheriff of each of North Carolina’s 100 counties got one. Preston had given me his. Tony said that if any cop in North Carolina ever pulled me over just to show him that plate and tell him that the Forsyth County Sheriff had given me the plate as a token of appreciation for services rendered. Tony said it wouldn’t get me out of a felony bust, but it’d probably get me out of just about anything else. I’ve had that plate for 20 or more years now, and I’ve never had need to use it.
I have been thinking about getting the dual SIM gizmo as a means to switch phone numbers. The number I have now is in the area code and with an exchange number of my university alma mater. I got that many years ago when my kids were in school there. Local phone calls were free from their dorm phone, so they could call me for free from there. That is no longer a factor for either of them, and since all my work is in Indy, I really need to move to a number there. But so many people have the old number that I really don’t want to ditch the old number overnight. By getting a pay as you go number in Indy, I could make the switch over a reasonable period of time, without fearing a loss of business from people who cannot find me. Some contacts call me only once a year and they would likely call someone else if I was not on the other end of a call.
Chuck, why don’t you just get a Google Voice number with the appropriate area code and forward it to your cell phone?
Back in the Bronze Age down in MA we used to have Massachusetts Police Association bulls-eyes stickers on our rear windows, and that would usually suffice to prevent ordinary traffic citations and other types of hassles, but not if one was an asshole about it or had other significant things wrong with him or her and/or the vehicle. These stickers also got abused by being handed out to friends and family members, so the Staties did not give them much credence or any credit towards various offenses.
No idea what they do down there now and don’t care much. The state is a total cesspool of nepotism, political cronyism and corruption writ large, endless taxes and fees for everything under the sun, a disintegrating public infrastructure, lousy skool systems, and around six or seven million people now, twice the population of what it was when I was a kid.
But if one knows what to look for and where to go, there are still vestiges of earlier history, beaches, wildlife management areas, and the Trustees of Reservations have some splendid sites around the Commonwealth. I keep telling my siblings about them but have aroused zero interest so far over the years; evidently everyone down there likes and is used to all the shit and prefers to sit at home and be glued to the tee-vees and internet when not out shopping nonstop and eating at restaurants. I guess I am the oddball and black sheep of the family.
OFD wrote: I also got a kick outta the guys lighting up cigars and pipes and whatnot inside her house; imagine how that would go down today….?
Did you also notice the galoot smoking the cigar bit the end off it and spit it on the floor! Ack!
As for cell phones in Europe, the last time I went there I called Verizon and they overnighted a European cell phone to me with my regular cell phone number plugged into it. It worked all over Denmark and Germany. I returned it to them when I got home, and they re-activated my US cell phone. Easy. Cost to me: Nothing. It was free.
If you are traveling be sure to get a portable 10,000 mahr battery for your smartphone
I am using one for this trip and it is great for my droid.
If you are traveling be sure to get a portable 10,000 mahr battery for your smartphone
You mean like one of these. http://www.mophie.com/juice-pack-powerstation-for-iPod-iPhone-iPad-p/2027_jpu-pwrstion-2.htm
No quite 10,000 but it should be more than good enough. The IPhone will be turned off during the flight and only the IPad will be used. The above should give me enough extra power to make it through the trip.
While in Germany I will have access to power to recharge my devices with no requirement for the phone to last more than a day.
Some interesting travel tips and I love the MagicSim thing. Eventually I’ll want a dual-sim phone so it’s nice to know they are gaining wider use. My friend in India just keeps mine and periodically adds 50 Rs to the card so it stays active.
On long flights I aways order a special meal, not because it’s any better but because they are served first and by the time I’m done I can usually get an extra surplus entree. Another trick that’s served me well is to go to the ticket counter as soon as I get to the airport and wrangle for a better seat. They don’t open some of them up until a couple hours before the flight, so I’ve often gotten a bulkhead seat that way.
You don’t want to know about the trains in India… :p
Another trick that’s served me well is to go to the ticket counter as soon as I get to the airport and wrangle for a better seat.
I have done that on some US flights when I have not been able to do my own seat assignment. For this trip I have already assigned myself seats where I wanted in the plane. I needed two seats together and since the plane is 2-5-2 configuration I got two seats on the side as my wife is traveling with me. I also did not want over a wing, an emergency exit or in front of an emergency exit. The emergency exit doors get too cold on long trips and the seats in front of the emergency exit do not recline.
“…You don’t want to know about the trains in India…”
Are they still anything like as portrayed in “The Man Who Would Be King,”?
That is one of my favorite movies, BTW. I’ve probably watched it five or six times now.
OFD wrote:
” I honked my horn and waved and smiled at them, with great joy in my haht.”
Too much information, Dave.
Oh? You meant your *car* horn. Well, that’s illegal ya know (except in Chicago), lucky you weren’t booked.
“Meanwhile our state police up here focus all their attention, evidently, on motorists with busted taillights, expired inspection stickers, and pot growers and smokers. Last night there was a chopper overhead circling and circling for a good half-hour over our house in the Bay; no idea WTF that was about. I didn’t have the grow-lights on and wasn’t having straight hetero sex so WTF.”
I’ll give you a hint Dave, don’t go skinny dipping in the lake, the neighbours might complain.
“I’ve probably watched it five or six times now.”
I read the story as a kid, like most of Kipling’s work, and then saw the flick when it came out and was gobsmacked until the present day; I watch it once a year. Best buddy movie ever made, period. I pretty much have it memorized. I so wish those buggers would do one more together before they croak; Caine is a fucking workaholic maniac anyway. Why he works so much with Shakira at home is beyond my ken.
“…don’t go skinny dipping in the lake, the neighbours might complain.”
Nope, no interest in turning blue and having stuff shrivel up inside me. Neighbors here are live and let live; wife got me the local t-shirt: “Saint Albans Bay: What Happens Here, Stays Here.” “But nothing much ever happens here.”
Chuck, why don’t you just get a Google Voice number with the appropriate area code and forward it to your cell phone?
Great idea! These kinds of insights are why I love this board. Thanks, Dave.
Regarding Lufthansa, it is the best airline I have ever flown—although KLM comes close. My recollection is that battery power for computers is available only in Business and First Class—unless things have changed. Food on Lufthansa will not be a problem even if you eat their standard fare. The Germans know good food, and American food ain’t it. For Germans returning to Deutschland, Lufthansa airline food is the first sign they are returning to civilization. Domestic Lufthansa flights are like US airlines used to be: wide seats (leather, no less), superb flight attendants who are rational, thinking adults who care about one’s comfort. I never noticed that Lufthansa delivered special orders first, though. IIRC they delivered it simultaneously with the regular food distribution. Same for KLM. Over the years, most special orders around me have been for kosher meals. Vegetarians just pick the meat out of the regular meals. Too bad seats on Lufthansa international flights are as uncomfortable as US airlines. I always had good experiences with United, but I have no idea who owns whom anymore, or what it’s like. My worst experiences were with American and Delta—Delta was by far the worst ever and did everything but give me the finger, although the verbal abuse was the same as. I am not a troublesome customer, but I refuse to fly Delta ever again. On Icelandic Air, had my bags left out in frog-strangling rain once for a plane change in Reykjavik and nearly everything inside was ruined (lots of staining which I suspect was from luggage on top or near to mine which leaked some kind of dye into my suitcase and clothes), but they would not reimburse me one dime. Ever after that, Jeri surrounded our packed luggage with water-tight plastic for international flights.
Lufthansa and Quantas used to be the only airlines never to have a death as a result of an accident. IIRC Quantas had a plane slide off the runway in Ozland during the last few years, and some guy had a heart attack and died from fright. But in my book, that one does not count, as no one was injured. Lufthansa and Quantas have unbelievable safety records.
The international cell phone situation has changed completely since I had my first. Before around 2009, my European cell phone worked in the US, and calls were the same rate as in Germany. We could text the kids in the US from Germany, and they could text us. Right around the time Jeri passed, they cut the SMS cord. I notified the kids of Jeri’s death by text, but within a week after that, neither of us could text the other. That was a difficult time for communications, because both my kids were moving and did not have 24/7 Internet access, and I was packing to return to the US. We had a difficult time coordinating their trips to me, and later mine back to the US. Also, their phones had previously worked in Germany, but were dead in the water on that trip, making it harder to find each other on arrival. Took 90 minutes for my daughter and I to find each other when she arrived at Tegel. Wouldn’t you know she was in Starbucks. Same when I arrived in Indy and my daughter was to pick me up. Brand-new airport building, and neither of us was familiar with the territory, and it took an hour to hook up with no phone communication.
Now from my first cell phone in 2001 to 2009, international calling was easy to do and reasonably priced. These days, it is damned near impossible to do and truly outrageously priced. Mind you, it’s not greed; as everyone here would say: it’s free market forces that just changed overnight.
The Qantas accident was at Bangkok, not in Oz. IIRC it slid on a drenched runway and into a golf course. No deaths, I hadn’t heard about the heart attack guy.
Eventually they decided to repair the plane in China. I don’t think it was economic to do so but they wanted to keep their record of never having totalled an aircraft.
As to airline food, I know a lot of people don’t like it but I rarely have a problem, especially on long haul flights. Business class is a dream, I flew Adelaide to Heathrow return in business in 1995. Heavenly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_1
Damn I hate iPads.
The 10,000 mah usb battery that I use is $39.99 with free shipping from amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Sensation-Thunderbolt-connectors-customized/dp/B009USAJCC/
Works like a champ, takes forever to recharge. Can recharge my Bionic four times without being recharged itself.
I last flew Lufthansa in 1998 or so from London Gatwick to Frankfurt. The plane was a twin engine turboprop. When we flew over the channel, the pilot could not keep altitude within 3 to 4 hundred feet so he / she was continually messing with engine speed. Those two wailing banshees called engines almost caused me to jump out of the plane just to stop the variable gearbox noise. I have a mental note to never ride in a turboprop again.
Flew United today back to the Great State of Texas from open carry Nevada. Was a nice 3 hour trip with no airline food ($14 for a sandwich, give me a break). I had snacks saved from my box lunches this week at Front Sight that I ate.
Sigh. I passed my pistol course at Front Sight as attended. So did my Dad and son (the former Marine). I have a lot of bad pistol habits to fix. And we are not talking about the two shots over the berm. Nor the fact that I shot the hostage in the Man to Man competition (steel plate shooting) so I got placed in the Special Hostage Intervention Team (over half the class shot the hostage). Yes, that is a acronym that I will leave for you.
We shot about 550 bullets over 4 days in 2 shots to the chest and one to the head from 3, 5, 7, 10 and 15 yards. Plus we cleared a tactical house. I’m sore, bruised and sunburned. USMC son wants to do it again in a couple of weeks. He carried a Beretta for a while in Iraq with no training whatsoever. The platoon commander just threw his Beretta and belt at him one day and said he would look good with it.
BTW, Texas is talking about going open carry for CCW holders.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/10/4611501/texas-revisits-allowing-open-carry.html
The 10,000 mah usb battery that I use is $39.99 with free shipping from amazon:
I looked at those products but the size put me off. I wanted something smaller and what I got is slighter narrower than my IPhone and 3/4 of an inch shorter. I have enough stuff to pack in my personal carry on that size, and weight was an issue. For my needs such size was not going to be necessary. The IPad will get at least 6 hours on it’s own battery, I only need to add about 3 hours.
Those two wailing banshees called engines almost caused me to jump out of the plane just to stop the variable gearbox noise.
Are you sure it was a variable gear box? Most such engines use a gearbox to reduce the speed of the blades to keep the tips from going supersonic. The adjustment in power is based on changing the pitch of the blades rather than turbine RPM or a gearbox. C-130’s worked that way and I am guessing that a lot of that technology is used in commercial turboprop engines.
I have a mental note to never ride in a turboprop again.
Count yourself lucky. I spent 11 hours in a piston engine plane flying from Virginia to Nevada. Four of those very loud engines. A constant vibration in the plane. At night you could see the glow of the exhaust tubes through the cooling cowlings. Of course it was a military plane. Sitting on canvas seats running the length of the plane down the side. A sandwitch in a cardboard box (the box probably more eadible). The upside is we could wonder up to the front of the plane and sit in the engineer seat while he slept in the back.
“…Of course it was a military plane. Sitting on canvas seats running the length of the plane down the side. A sandwitch in a cardboard box (the box probably more eadible). ”
Roger that; I remember all that stuff like it was yesterday; also the very short and steep landings and takeoffs by pilots who’d been on combat tours in SEA and elsewhere. Being in the zoomies I had many chances to fly all over hell, including military standby on commercial aircraft, downside of course was having to be in uniform for those. And on the military planes no a-c or heat where we sat.
Are you sure it was a variable gear box? Most such engines use a gearbox to reduce the speed of the blades to keep the tips from going supersonic. The adjustment in power is based on changing the pitch of the blades rather than turbine RPM or a gearbox. C-130′s worked that way and I am guessing that a lot of that technology is used in commercial turboprop engines.
I meant that the noise from the gearboxes on the turbines to the props was a variable sound. We were constantly going up and down in altitude and someone / something was changing the engine speed so that you could never get used to the sound. I got off the plane buzzing all over my body from the vibration.
TMI
“TMI”
No kidding. Really.
Does this guy know this is a family forum?
You sure it wasn’t the prop sync? Having flown too many props in my life, when the prop sync is malfunctioning, it makes the engines frequently change speed, but most pilots seem to prefer that to the ‘beating’ noise that occurs as the props constantly cross each other in speed. That beating noise itself can be of deafening level, and it is a separate sound from the engine and other prop/air sounds.