Observations around Miesau

I wanted to write this before it fades from my mind. Sharma, I and the kids had the glorious experience of renewing our ID cards yesterday. As most of you are not privy to military adventures such as this I will describe it as such...very similar to sticking a hot poker up your nose (which is better than a hot 'picker' I guess, but I digress). I had my picture taken for the ID card and I realized "Rob, you don't look like you did last year". In the picture, whether real or imagined I felt like my face was much fuller than it was a year ago. When I told Sharma about this she called me crazy and said that I looked the same (as a good wife should, she said all the right things). However, since I had been thinking about doing some exercises lately and this visual proof was in my hand I decided today was the day. I asked if Sharma wanted to go and she politely declined but said that she would walk with me. So we compromised, we sadled up Eddie with his harness and leash, set out with money in hand and off we went. We walked down to the local Hanchen (chicken) guy that shows up down the road from us everything Wednesday selling his rotisserie chicken. Man, these aren't just any chicken, golden brown, dripping juices, just spinning around...tempting you with every spin. Now, this is not all, he also has some of the best fries as well, freshly made at the time of your order. In addition he has a small container of salad (cucumber, carrot, sauerkraut, potato) that you get. We order Menu #2-chicken, salad and fries (which feed the whole family) for 10.90 Euro. We purchased the meal and walked back down to our house, as we approached our house there is a small road that branches off and leads of into the fields behind our house. I told Sharma not to eat the whole meal and ventured off down the road on my run. The first thing that entered my mind was "I am running...here in Germany" just a mundane activity that I could be doing anywhere, but I was doing it here in Europe...how grateful I was. Then I started to really take in my surroundings. I found myself running on this paved path through fields of bright yellow flowers, followed by green fields, followed by yellow as far as the eye could see. Then I noticed the hills that surrounded us, far in the distance, but still present, watching over us. As the monotonous sound of my gasps for breath continued I noticed this brilliantly yellow bird land on a plant in the field and watched me as I lumbered by. I had never seen a bird so brilliantly yellow, except in photos, what a treasure. In conclusion, I made it all the way back (I didn't run that far because I have to start slowly, lest I kill myself) and enjoyed the chicken, fries and potato salad that we bought. But I just wanted to let you know I do the same things here I would back in the states, pretty ordinary if you ask me...ordinarily amazing! I love it here and am glad that I took the time to really notice what was happening around me yesterday and appreciate our unique situation.