My two flights went smoothly, though I was right about packing "too heavy." The third bag cost $150 to bring along, and I arrived bathed in sweat from all the schlepping of the two large carry-ons, my leather jacket, plus the duty-free scotch and candy I bought for the Schmids. Dietmar (aka Gig, pronounced "Geek") and Sabine are in excellent shape, and have been the greatest friends I could ask for. Gig sends warm "Hellos" to all, but especially to Jamie.
Ferdi and Max are handsome lads of 11 and 15, growing up fast. Ferdi is a race fan, and helps Gig work on his brakes, too. He can change pads by humself, and does a perfect job, according to Gig.
I chose to stay up as long as I could this afternoon, so Gig took Max and me to see his racing shop friend Paddy O'Grady, where we met his other buddy Klaus, who owns a leathers shop for bikers. I'd met them both back in 2001, and we all remembered that. We had a raucous 45 minutes, after which Gig took Max and me to the BMW dealer, where we were to see the car they had found for me. I now own a dark red 1993 BMW 520I (see pic) four-door with a stick shift, no air, roll-up windows, but only 130,000 Km (80,000 miles) on it, I only paid Euro 2.250! I am having new brake pads, oil, etc. done tomorrow, while we are registering and insuring it. (My German home address is Kelter Weg 24, Fellbach, Germany.) I pick up my Beamer late tomorrow. If I can learn how on a German-language keyboard, I will post this message to my blog.
Tomorrow, I will be a guest speaker at Max's English class.
Please hug Preston. I am going back to bed! Love to all.
