My aunt and I are taking a flight soon.

[DFW]

63. It has been going downhill here for a while. A self-perpetuating bureaucracy has no interest in efficiency.

It wasn't like this fifteen years ago. They had their off days, but not off decades. Yesterday was especially bad, but not the worst. Since I've been back over here (got back from South America Sep. 9th), I have had a train-delay-free day maybe twice, and I am in a different country almost every day for my job, usually by train.

The town I live in has a commuter train line running through it. It goes from Köln to Düsseldorf to Essen. My town is halfway between Düsseldorf and Essen. Despite the short distance, the line itself has been under construction for two years, and through service has not existed for at least that long. The station itself has been completely out of commission since September. A tiny coffee and pasty kiosk is still open, and susvives due to some bus traffic that was instituted to alleviate the train absence. But the buses take twice as long as the trains did, due to traffic jams brought on by--you guessed it, the lack of train service. My wife has spent much time looking after her mom up in northern Germany, so I often have to call a taxi if I'm alone. At least my employer picks that up. Geriatric care is not too good, either, and I have been shelling out €3000 a month for her care for two years now. (No, everything is NOT "free" here, don't believe the lies). At least I can deduct that from my German taxes. But the day care is usually handled by Polish agencies that bring over supposedly "qualified caregivers" who are most definitely NOT qualified. In the case of my mom-in-law, we get sent the "qualifications" in advance of the women who came over. They changed every month. The form asked them to check off their fluency in German (rudimentary, intermediate or fluent). They always checked off "intermediate," but when I met them and they heard I spoke a few words of Polish, they abandoned all pretense of knowing any German at all (they didn't) and spoke to me and my wife in Polish. The older ones understood some Russian, since they were required to learn it during the Socialist era. But neither my wife nor her mom speaks Russian or Polish, and the "help" spent most of their time smoking (outside--my wife's mom is deathly allergic to arsenic), talking to their friends back home in Poland, and eliminating the reserves of alcohol in the food cellar that had been there since my mom's dad died, almost 30 years ago.

The train misery here has been causing me to rethink my plan not to retire before the age of 80. My job is still fun, and I still find it intellectually stimulating to be speaking to the people I work with in their own languages in their own countries, and it's a different one every day. The outfit I work for is very liberal with their travel vs. time put in ratio, and if it looks like I'm going to be in (as an example) Paris from 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM, and I have stuff to do in Brussels the next day, they gave me the green light to cut the trip home (usually 5 hours) to the 80 minutes (if I'm lucky) it takes the hi-speed train takes up to Brussels, and stay in my "usual" hotel in Brussels, which is 3 metro stops from the train station. It's a "gotta boycott" hotel chain, but in this hotel, the staff knows me by now, and they always leave me fruit or chocolate or both in my room, and always comp me to the (pretty fabulous) breakfast buffet without adding it to my bill. Wednesday morning, a local friend came over for coffee, saw the breakfast buffet, and helped himself. The staff saw who he was with (i.e. me) and turned a blind eye to his freeloading. I offered to add his breakfast to my bill, and they wouldn't hear of it. The staff is a mixture of Filipinos, Latin Americans, Eastern Europeans, Arabs and sub-saharan Africans The concièrge is on of the rare Belgians on staff. I know almost all of them, and speak almost everyone's language (no Arabic or whatever-it-is that they speak in Cameroun, but those guys speak either Italian or French). I have nothing but the highest praise for every one of them. A new guy from Sweden joined the staff a couple of weeks ago, and I freaked him out by suddenly speaking perfect Swedish to him while the other staff laughed as his jaw dropped (they knew I spoke Swedish, but hadn't told him). Every so often, I write a letter of glowing praise to the hotel chain's main office back in the USA, and the head office passes it on the management in Belgium. Since 99% of the time, people only write to complain, the Brussels employees love it, and therefore, me. A little kindness goes a long way in some circles, and I certainly think the least I can do is reciprocate. The German trains get no such letters from me, needless to say. Since the German trains DO have kind a miles program, and I have enough miles with them for a free trip (if they ever offer such a thing) from Düsseldorf to the dark side of the moon, I get a partial refund as a compensation on occasion. They way things are going, I had better leave on deposit the bank accounts of my next of kin, in case I run into a delay that exceeds my life expectancy.

After work in Brussels, I then take the train home (usually). It's sometimes 3 hours, sometimes 5 or six if the German train that I usually book is defective, and the Private "Eurostar" train is sold out, which it usually is on the day of travel.

Any country that leaves vital services up to bureaucrats who couldn't care less if things work or not will find itself in the situation Germany is now. Bureaucrats love appearances they can put before the press. France put pressure on the surrounding countries to reduce the limit for non-reportable cash transactions. In Germany, it used to be €15,000 before you had to fill out a form. My wife and I both hate credit cards, so we prefer to pay in cash. Now, it's down to €2000 (€3000 in the Netherlands). Italy was down to €1000 until they were drowning in paperwork, and raised it back up to €3000 again. But it is all for show. It was supposedly to combat "money laundering," but a friend from the BKA (German version of the FBI) told me what BS that was. It was all for show so that the finance authorities never had to confront the real money launderers. They shoot back (imagine how bold the ICE goons would be if that were the case with the people they harass). He said that the drug money-laundering cartels just set up fictitious pizza parlors, taxi companies and video game parlors. None of them have any clients at all, but they dutifully each bring bundles of €450,000 euros in cash every week to the bank. It's all in €5, €10, €20 and €50 bills, fully declared, efficiently wrapped up and correctly counted down to the last €5 bill. "Business is great!" No one ever investigates, and no one ever doubts their word as to the money's origin. On the other hand, if some guy wants to pay €2500 for a gold chain for him mom for her birthday, and pays for it in five €500 bills, he is suspected on money laundering, and could end up explaining himself to the finance authorities for the next week. I've seen that happen, although it was a Krugerrand instead of a gold chain.

Anyway, we have much crap to put up with here, and it's not getting better. It has not been "top notch" for a very long time now. What is still good is that we still have a farmers market three times a week in the town square (been doing that for the last 8 centuries or so), and one of them brings a portable oven. The bread here in Germany was already not too shabby, so we have the freshest bread anywhere. There have to be some perks SOMEwhere after all, if I am to put up with this weather. Well, that and having a wife who is not only good-natured, a world class beauty but also a gourmet chef--there have to be a few consolation prizes somewhere in the equation.