Winter is Here - Winter Tires coming Monday

Friday and Saturday were great days for weather. Not for our health, but I'll get to in a future post.

Friday night late it started snowing - really snowing. It stuck to the ground and everything. I love the smell in the air when it is snowing. With the shift in weather came quite a bit of wind. With this came damage to the electrical wires that power the trains. This resulted in delays. So at 9:30 p.m., when my train was 15 minutes late, it meant I would miss the 9:50 bus and have to wait until the 10:50 bus or have Tamara pick me up. I called Tamara and told I might need here. I would call her back after the train started moving.

Then a miracle occurred. A neighbor (the dad of Hannah's best friend) was also in the train and he had a car at the trainstation in our city. He offered to take me home. Wow, that was great. I called Tamara and told her to stay at home.

On the wy home the neighbor said he hoped we would make it home as he still has his summer tires on his car. In Germany there is law regarding tires. In winter you must have winter weather tires (or all weather tires) otherwise in an accident, the fault will be yours.

We did make it home, but I remembered that we also still have our summer tires on our vehicle. Saturday morning I made an appointment - for Monday, and hoped it wouldn't snow too much.

The next morning there were a few snow flurries, but nothing really stuck. I was grateful for that because of the summer tires. Hannah, Ian and I ran some errands in Ratingen while Tamara, Shantal, and Spencer went to visit schools. Starting with the fifth grade (next fall), there are four type of schools students can attend - weiterfürhende Schulen is what the Germans usually say. I'll have to post about that later as well.

Anyway, walking around with Hannah and Emma was also great. The weather stayed cold, but it was sunny by that point. That is nice weather. There is a crispness in the air that makes me feel alive.

In the afternoon, the weather held - sunny and cold. This meant I could drive to our friends house and help them move. I took the seats out of the mini-van, vacummed (it was a bad one this time around) and was off. We met the missionaries there who helped carry the bigger stuff. The boyfried of my friend was not in great condition and I also can't lift too much. So it was nice to have the missionaries there. It was great to be out helping someone and working on such a great day. We got everything moved in two trips and had a nice dinner with my friend. Unfortunately, by that point my stomach was not too happy with me (later post) and I couldn't eat too much.

That is the weather that I miss the most - sunny.