What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been (part 1)

On Feb 20, 2018 my life changed forever. I got the news that my mother had passed away. This was the event that set everything else in motion. 

We had been living in Germany for the last year, running the Deutsches Haus. Up until my mom died, the plan was to remain in Germany at least through the summer. But when Mom's memorial service was scheduled for March 24th, we decided as a family that we would close the business and return to the USA. 

On Friday, March 9 I booked a flight back to the USA using the SkyScanner web site. The flight was LH9153, which turned out to be a Lufthansa flight operated by United Airlines. The flight was scheduled to leave from Frankfurt at 1pm on March 22 and arrive in Chicago around 4pm the same day.  I also booked rental cars to drive from Bernsdorf to Frankfurt, and Chicago to St Louis.

The reason we didn't book our passage straight through to St Louis is that we wanted to minimize the trauma for our pets. By renting a car and driving to Frankfurt, and then renting a car in Chicago and driving to St Louis we could get a direct flight, and The pets would only have to endure one take off and landing. Additionally, we would not have to worry about the animals getting routed to the wrong place.

I filled out the Pet Safe application on the United Airlines web page on March 15 to book our cat, Molly, and our dog, Joey on the flight. I receive an automated email that stated they would respond within 48 hours.  

More than 72 hours later I still had not I heard anything from United's Pet Safe people so I called United's Customer Service on March 19. They informed me that Pet Safe would only be referring me to a company called Gradlyn Pet Shipping. The agent gave me a phone number and an email address, both of which turned out to be incorrect.

Fortunately, the email to Gradlyn has bounced back in the interim with the correct email and I sent them an inquiry as to what I needed to do. While I waited to hear back from them, I got on Facebook to try to IM (Instant Message) with United Airlines. During the IM session they verified that Gradlyn is the company that handles all pet bookings in Germany for the airline.

After the IM session I received an email from Gradlyn requesting the same information I sent to United Airlines on the 15th. After I sent it to them they informed me that it would take 48 hours for them to book my pets on the United flight.

The very next day, United announced that they would no longer be accepting pets on any of their flights. Gradlyn informs me that they think they can find another flight to book the pets on that leaves the same day as our flight. As it turns out, there are two flights that day. One leaving early in the morning, the other about 45  minutes later than our flight.

As they researched their options, I contacted the airline to see about getting my flight switched to the earlier flight. In preparation for this possibility, my booking was separated from the rest of my family. Fortunately, Gradlyn was able to book the pets on the later flight, and we thought our plans were in place.

**Please note here that I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday working on getting my pets booked, rather than the intricacies of closing down my business and moving across an ocean**

Finally, the big day arrived. On March 22 we drove to Frankfurt. We found Gradlyn's offices and brought the pets in to check them in. It turned out that our veterinarian in Bernsdorf was unaware that the pets had to be examined no less than 10 days prior to flying. Fortunately, Gradlyn had a veterinarian they could call and she came and examined both pets, and she certified them healthy to fly. After this, both pets were loaded into the transport van, and we go to the main terminal to drop off our rental car and board our flight.

I wanted to give a quick shout out here to Enterprise Leasing. The guys who check in the cars at Frankfurt airport are complete douchebags. They couldn't give us any time to unload the car, and bitched the entire time about how long it was taking us, and demanded the car key. However, just for some foreshadowing here, the crew in Dusseldorf managed to outdo them. Stay classy, Enterprise.

When our flight landed in Chicago, I turned on my phone and saw an email from Gradlyn stating that Molly has been transported but that Joey was removed "because he was very nervous and got injured while he was rubbing his nose to the metal mash from inside the Kennel door." They also want us to pay for the cost of boarding Joey while they figure out what to do.

Needless to say I was upset at this moment. I'm standing in the airplane waiting to debark, and I if I tell Lizzy at this moment she's gong to break down and cry. Plus, we still have to wrangle all our luggage through the airport, pick up our rental car, and pick up Molly. So I opted to keep this information to myself for the moment, and tell Lizzy and Dawn after we get situated in the car.

After we got the car loaded, we drove to the Lufthansa cargo facility to get Molly. On the way, I broke the news to Lizzy and Dawn about Joey. To say that Lizzy was upset would be an understatement. All of us were.  We had been awake for the better part of 24 hours, and we had no idea of how we would proceed. At this point, we decide to just focus on one step at a time.

The first step was to pick up Molly.  The folks in the office at Lufthansa cargo were very sympathetic and helpful. Once we got her situated in the car we drove back to the terminal in O'Hare to try to talk to United to see how we can get our dog back. 

I lost count of how many times we explained our story after that. One supervisor after another came out. We spoke with supervisors from Lufthansa and United, neither of whom wanted to take any responsibility, and frequently suggested that Gradlyn was the responsible party. Both of them agreed that since the problem was in Germany, someone there would need to handle it. Because of the time difference, there was no one available there to talk to.

Eventually, the Lufthansa supervisor stated that Joey could be put on the Lufthansa flight leaving the following day. Because of the time difference no one from either airline would be able to make a call to Gradlyn until the following morning USA time, after the flight had left Germany. They suggested that I call Germany at 2am USA time in order to ensure that Gradlyn places Joey on the flight. United gives us a voucher to stay at the airport Hilton that night. 

This is the only compensation offered thus far.

At this point it's about 9:30pm, and the last time we ate was the snack before landing around 3pm. Before we checked in to the hotel, we had to drive around to find dinner, and we needed food and kitty litter for Molly. Both of those were waiting for us in St Louis, but that did us no good in Chicago.

We slept for about 2 hours before getting up at 2am on March 23 to call Gradlyn in Germany. I spoke with them, but after they called to see about putting Joey on the flight, hey informed us that no one from Lufthansa in Germany is aware of any of this, and they will not accept Joey as cargo.

Joey is not coming home today, either.

None of us will sleep now, so we all shower and change clothes and we drive back over to O'Hare to see what can be done. It's 5am, and the supervisor on duty has no idea of what we're talking about. Apparently, there was no information was left about our problem by the previous night's supervisor. She says she'll investigate, but her attitude is already dismissive.

After a few hours, she informs us that United's position is that they bear no responsibility for this mishap and they can't help me. Because Joey was on a Lufthansa flight, I'll have to speak with them. She also informs me that no one from Lufthansa will be there until 3:30 that afternoon.

Let me stop here and say that my position here is that United is the responsible party. United referred me to Gradlyn, and is their agent. To state at this point that they won't help me is despicable, in my opinion. 

Because we were tired, and afraid for our beloved dog, we decided to contact the news media to see if some publicity will stimulate some action. Shortly after the news crews appeared, a the United supervisor was able to locate a supervisor from Lufthansa. They both assure me that they have been discussing our difficulty and that a plan is now in place. The Lufthansa supervisor tells us that Joey will be kept under the care of a veterinarian in Germany and Lufthansa will bear all of the costs. They will ship him to us on the 28th.

Please note that at no time did anyone offer to fly us back to Germany to retrieve our dog. However, United did give us three $10 vouchers for food, anywhere in the O'Hare terminal. So far our extra expenses incurred are:

• Parking in the O'Hare garage on the 22nd while we try to see what can be done
• Parking overnight at the hotel
• An extra day of car rental
• Parking at O'Hare on the 23rd

At this time we drive back to St Louis. The following day is my mom's memorial service.

Part II to follow

~Easy

Slacker

So after that last blog post a LOT of shit happened.

Maybe I'll get around to filling in the blanks, but for now I wanted to pave the way for my next post.

The short and sweet version is that I've closed up shop in Germany to move back to the USA. And that is the tale I need to tell.  The next post will be a doozy. I'd tell you now, but it's still happening as I sit here in Amsterdam.

Yes, Amsterdam.

I said it was a doozy. Buckle up. It's about to get bumpy

~Easy

Let's Get It Started

How did I end up in Germany?

It started back in 2014, one summer afternoon in St. Louis. I was in my back yard, grilling some pork steaks and enjoying a beer when my sister called me. Her husband's aunt wanted to sell the restaurant that his grandfather had started, and was going to sell it outside of the family. My BIL (brother in law) hated the thought of his grandfather's restaurant leaving the family, so he and my sister decided that they would buy it. My BIL  is actually a German citizen, and the restaurant we are discussing was back in Germany.

His grandfather opened the Deutsches Haus Restaurant in the early 1970's, and built the business into a genuine landmark. It was literally famous all over Sachsen, and the place where you went of you were celebrating any kind of event. The restaurant has two banquet rooms, one of which has an actual lighted disco floor in it. It also has a Biergarten, and a seperate bar that serves the Biergarten called Die Schwemme. Just for the hell of it, a 12 room inn was added over the restaurant.

About 10 years ago my BIL's grandfather retired, and gave the restaurant to his son. Sadly, he passed away without warning not long after, and his wife was left to run things. She didn't really want to run a restaurant, and spent a long time trying to convince someone else in the family to run it, and when she finally said she was going to just sell it to whoever wanted it my BIL stepped up.

That's how I got the call.

You may be wondering why my sister was calling her brother, the petty bureaucrat with the City of St Louis, to ask advice about restaurants.

I started working in the restaurant business at the age of 14, and worked in it until I was in my 30's. Over the course of my restaurant career, I have literally done every job in the business. I left it after my first child was born so that I could have more time to spend with my kids, but I always missed it.

So my sister and I talked, and she asked me if I would be willing to go to Germany with my BIL to help him restart it. Needless to say, I was more than willing.

We talked at length about his plans. My BIL wanted to do an update to the menu, and make the place more like an American bar. He wanted it to be a little more casual, with almost a sports bar feel. He also wanted to add some American "Pub" food to the menu.

I went to Germany with my BIL that October, and again in the April of 2015. I considered moving at that time, but my BIL and I never came to terms. It was a shame, because I loved the restaurant, the town, and the people. Both times I was there my passion for the business was rekindled.

In the fall of 2015 my BIL closed the restaurant, but he didn't want to sell it. He was convinced that the business could thrive again. However, the experience left him more receptive to my terms, and during a conversation at Easter 2016 a deal was struck.

So in February of 2017 I quit my job of 21 years,  I packed two suitcases, and I flew to Germany to re-open the restaurant.

That sounds a whole lot easier than it was. The man in the photo above was brimming with optimism and confidence. He thought that after 21 years of working in city government he'd be prepared for German bureaucrats.

Man, that guy was an idiot.

~Easy

To be continued...

Crystal Ball

When I dug back into this blog, I found a box buried under a pile of clothes marked Drafts. It's stuffed with old posts that I started but never finished.

I must confess to being surprised at the vast number of them, and the quality of what I did. I'm not sure why I never finished them, but I am impressed by the sheer laziness of not doing so.

My slacking skills are without peer.

This one caught my eye this morning. I'm unsure why I never published it, but I think I did pretty good. This draft is from 11/16/2017. It doesn't have a great ending, but I'm just publishing it as is, without any polish.

Enjoy.

~Easy                                                          

Crystal Ball

So here's what I see in our immediate future:

**The hard won rights of LGBT people will be rolled back. 
Folks that are married now probably won't have those marriages declared void, but it will probably stop being the law of the land. Oh, the big companies like Disney won't change anything, but the little baker up the street won't have to bake that cake for the homos anymore if he doesn't want to, thus Making America Great Again!

**Those pesky Job Killing Regulations will be removed
Drill, baby drill! Fuck that Spectacled Brown Titmouse and his habitat. We need to drill for oil and build new pipelines. We don't need OSHA, the FDA. the EPA, or any of those acronyms. All they do is get in the way of Making America Great Again.

**We'll stop paying and ask NATO to split the tab
Trump wants to either pull out of NATO, or make them pick up our tab. I could do an entire post on how ridiculous and stupid this is, but the bottom line is that we keep our troops in these countries not to protect them, but to protect us. If war breaks out in Europe, we're already there. Deploying an army is not something you do at the drop of a hat. The money we spend maintaining these bases is for our own security. Back when America Was Great, we didn't have these bases but they sure would have come in handy a couple of times, don't ya think?

**The New Deal
Trump believes that the USA has been getting the short end of the stick because no one but him knows how to negotiate a deal. So we can look forward to our president trying to re-open deals and agreements that are already in place. Does anyone think that other countries will make agreements with us if the know that every 4 or 8 years a new POTUS will want to add his mark so he can Make America Great Again?

**Tinfoil Hats

A large contingent of Trump's message was to the tinfoil hat crowd. You know, the ones who take pictures of contrails, think that Obama is a Muslim. or that Hillary killed a bunch of people in Benghazi? The ones who think that the Illuminati has infiltrated the bowling league, and they need to take an AR-15 over their shoulder when they go to Wal-Mart to buy the latest issue of the National Enquirer? Yeah, they're going to feel validated. Not because Trump said or did anything to encourage him, but rather because he didn't do anything to discourage them. This is how we Make America Great Again

Discovery

If you know me at all, then you know that I'm really fired up about something these days. Ive been trying to take a "wait and see" approach, but recent events have demonstrated that even though I had low expectations, things are going to be worse than I had thought.

Of course, I am talking about the new Star Trek series from CBS.

I am what one might call a Star Trek nerd. I love the show. I've seen every episode of TOS enough times that I can almost recite them verbatim.

I watched Star Trek The Animated Series every Saturday morning when it came on.

When Star Trek The Next Generation came on I made sure I had the VCR set to record it faithfully. It was a disappointment at first, but I could live with it. And it developed into a damn fine show.

So when they announced the spin off Star Trek Deep Space 9 I had a great deal of faith in the series. It did not disappoint. DS9 is my favorite of the Trek incarnations.

Then came Star Trek Voyager. This one I had high hopes for, but it became too difficult to watch. I stopped in the middle of the 1st season because it was awful. A few years ago I made myself watch the entire series, and it actually got pretty good around the 3rd season.

The last one that aired was Enterprise. This was a prequel series, going back to humanity's first steps into interstellar exploration. I really enjoyed this one for the most part. However, there was too much emphasis on some storylines that took up entire season arcs and weren't executed very well. I did have one beef with the show as relates to canon. They gave the Andorians ears, and renamed their homeworld Andoria. I was irritated every time I saw an Andorian.

And of course, we had several movies involving the original cast, and a couple of TNG movies. One of these is germain to my problem. I'll get back to this in a minute.

There are also the new Star Trek Movies from JJ Abrams. They are TINO (Trek In Name Only), and we will not speak of them any more than is necessary Don't get me wrong. They were loads of fun, but they completely missed the point of Star Trek.

Now we have this new drivel from CBS. The name of the series is Discovery, and it features a female as the main character.  This is actually pretty cool.

It's supposed to be set in the years between Enterprise and TOS (The Original Series). This is also cool.

The producers have been saying all along that they will be adhering to established canon. This would be very cool if it were true. However, it's not, and that is extremely uncool.

Here's one reason why.

Contrary to what most folks think, this symbol on the right is not the Starfleet insignia. At least, it wasn't originally.

This symbol is the patch of the USS Enterprise. The star inside it signifies that the wearer is part of the command and control structure.

When they released the first Star Trek movie, somehow the emblem for the Enterprise was being worn by everyone. It was explained that because the Enterprise had been so successful in her 5 year mission, Starfleet adopted their insignia for all.

I think that's kind of weak, but since there is historical precedent for it, I'll accept it. After all, it's definitely the coolest one.

There are numerous examples of different patches for different ships.

Below is a still photo from the TOS episode The Doomday Machine of Matt Decker, the commander of the USS Constellation. Can you see the emblem on his chest?

There's also this one of Ronald Tracy from the episode The Omega Glory. He's the captain of the USS Exeter.

Also this one on the dead crew of the USS Defiant in the episode The Tholian Web. It's hard to make out, so I put one next to it you can see

4 different starships, each with a unique insignia.

If there was any badge that could have been considered a generic Starfleet one it would have been the starburst seen on these folks who were starbase personnel.

(Please note the diversity there. A black man and a latino man both holding higher ranks than Kirk. The woman is the chief prosecutor for the JAG. This was in the late '60's)

So what's the point here?

Well, CBS and the producers of Discovery claim they will be adhering to canon.

And yet...

This is Michael Burnham, the XO of the USS Shenzhou. Apparently she'll be known as "Number 1" and while we know she's the XO, we don't know her rank. Since the show hasn't aired yet, I don't know whether she's on the USS Shenzhou or another ship.

I do know that she's not on the Enterprise.

And yet that is clearly the insignia of the Enterprise on her left breast.

I await an explanation.

~Easy

Ich Werde Versuchen, Diese Wieder

So...

A few things have changed since my last post. Monumental changes. You could say that it's proof positive that I am a slacker when it comes to blogging. In my defense, I have been kind of busy. So let me list the changes real quick

• I became a published author
• I quit my job with the City
• I moved to Germany
• I opened up a Biergarten

I think that pretty well sums it up.

I'll expand on this later, but for now I'm taking up the challenge thrown down by my friend Kristine over at Random & Odd who started this whole Blog Revival thing. I had to get something on the screen, even if it's lame and vague.

My next post will be marginally more interesting.

Maybe.

~Easy

Take A Bow For The New Revolution

I woke up this morning and Donald Trump is our President-Elect. The sun still rose this morning. I'm still going to work today. I still have bills to pay. The world looks just the same, and history ain't changed.

Yet.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this, and figure out why I'm feeling such despair. Forgive me if I ramble a little bit.

I've always believed that after the election, you move on and make the best of it.  The first item of my Fraternity's Code of Ethics says that I should elect the best men as leaders and follow their planning. Put another way, everyone needs to row, or the boat doesn't go anywhere. But everyone has to row together, and someone has to steer. Once we've decided who's going to steer, we need to row hard and trust that he's pointing us in the right direction.

We used to do that. We really did.

It used to be that hearings on Presidential appointments were mostly a formality, to check out whether or not the person was qualified to do the job. Of course there was some posturing during the hearings so that legislators could score points for their party, but when it came time to vote they were by and large unanimously accepted.

Now it's a shit show, where political parties are interested in getting their person into the appointment, or preventing the other party from getting their guy in. Legislators aren't doing their jobs, they're trying to score points.

I really believe that most people who hold public office do it out of a genuine desire to serve, and truly have their constituents best interests at heart. Or at least that used to be the case. These days it seems as if we're electing legislators so that they can go score points for our team, and not let the other team do anything. And if it looks like the other team might do something good, they have to stop them from doing anything good, because if they do something good then we look bad.

What a fucked up way to govern.

Recently I heard some pundits on NPR point to the 2000 election as the time when things started to get bad. I'll  have to respectfully disagree with that assertion. I think it started to go bad in 1992, but I can see how one could make that argument.

I remember so clearly in 2000 when Dubya beat out Al Gore. That one stung.

But after the election I still believed that deep down, Dubya wanted to do what he believed was the right thing, even though I thought it was the wrong thing. Dubya was a fairly decent guy from what I saw.

Of all of the recent Presidents, Dubya is they guy I'd most like to sit down and have a few beers and bullshit about sports. I really do like the guy as a person.

I still think he was the worst President in the history of our country, but I never really thought he was a bad guy.

Another thing is that I felt as if the 2000 election wasn't won fairly. Somehow, that made it easier to shrug off. We didn't lose, they cheated.

Not so this time. Trump won fair and square. He did what no one thought could be done, and that leads me to despair.

Despair that I see friends who are now saying stupid shit like "I really didn't want Trump to win because he'll be awful, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for Hillary" followed by a lame 3rd party argument, or some bullshit about emails or Benghazi.

Despair that some of my friends are saying that they voted for Trump because of economic reasons, and never considered anything else.

Despair that my daughter was crying last night because she's afraid that now she and her girlfriend won't be able to marry, or even be safe out in public together.

Despair that the racist elements of our society are now emboldened because they were tacitly approved by this campaign.

Despair because we're now the punchline for every comedian in the world now.

Despair that my country would choose fear, rather than reason.

Despair that my country would choose hate, rather than love.

This wasn't just any election, this was a referendum on the future of this country and the path we're going to choose.

And I'm not sure how to move on from here.

~Easy