Another week under my belt.

Hello all.

Well, I have another week under my belt and 7 days closer to getting back home. I haven't done anything interesting in a while so I need to get out of town next weekend.

I was working this entire weekend as the staff is conducting a staff exercise which is being evalutated by the Joint Forces Command. It is an artifical inject of events which the staff reacts to. The key is to do it according to well established doctrine taking all the proper steps. Interesting stuff, huh?

I will point out a couple of neat features the past two rental cars have had. My last rental, a Mercedes Benz C250 turbo diesel with 6 sp manual transmission, had a feature that, when stopped and going uphill, would keep the brakes engaged while you make the transition from brake pedal to gas pedal. If you have ever driven a manual transmission, you know what I am talking about. It prevents the car from rolling backwards while you work the clutch and gas. Nice feature.

As you may recall, in Germany, if you know you are going to be halted for more then 30 seconds, you are suppose to turn off the engine. On my current rental, a BMW 320i with gasoline engine and 6 speed transmission, when you have the transmission in neutral and the clutch is not engaged, the car shuts off after 30 seconds. As soon as the clutch pedal moves about a 1/4 inch, the engine starts automatically. It is really quite seamless, much to my surprise. I would imagine that if every car in the US had this feature (and Americans actually drove standard transmission cars), we would save millions of barrels of oil every year. Again, a really neat feature.

Well, Summer is in full swing here and I have discovered that Germans do wear shorts. I can tell you that Germans are reluctant to wear shorts for a reason. It is because they do it very poorly. Shorts are really pants that are not quite as long a regular trousers. Americans where shorts that are typically at or above the knee with some sort of sport shoe or sandal.

Germans, on the other hand, were "shorts" that are cut to around mid-calf. If you have ever seen the episodes of the longest running animated series in TV history, "The Simpsons", then picture the shorts the character "Milhouse" wears.

Additionally, if they are usually wearing some weird color socks with their tennis shoes or sandals, like gray. If they don't wear socks (recommended for all readers) they usual have really gross looking toe nails.

Honestly, they need to stick to traditional trousers and proper leather shoes. They do that very well. As I always say, figure out what you do well and do that all the time. At least the Summer season is realitively short here. I hear they do great Christmas festivals thougth as well as Octoberfest, which I will be in country for.

Hope all is well back in my "Motherland".

Until next time,
Michael