Weekend Rooftop Blogging

The leaves on the chestnut trees everywhere in the region already started turning brown by mid-August. Is that normal?

Are You Registered To Vote Yet?

The Democratic National Convention is in full swing in Denver, and I am following along as best I can. For those of us far away and living in different time zones, this means catching what we can at CNN International, and the Internet for the prime-time speeches which take place in the middle of the night. Speeches by Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton can be found at Crooks and Liars, (rest assured they are not being classified as such!), and I just caught Joe Biden's speech from last night at Huffington Post. All excellent stuff.

I voted faithfully but never followed earlier campaigns as closely as I am following this one. There has been an awful lot of media-generated (and GOP-approved) drama going on in the last several months, especially about Hillary Clinton's role in this election process. Last night, I hope, has cleared up any doubts people may have about the unity of this party. From now on it's full steam ahead.

But what can a person do overseas, besides give money? My first task is to nag each and every eligible American I know to register to vote and actually do it. Democrats Abroad has made it easier to get information and forms, so no one has any excuse this time around.

Lola-gate

I was at the Munich City Museum last week, and came across large portraits of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and of Eliza Gilbert, better known to the world as the "Spanish dancer" Lola Montez. A mistress of Ludwig's who led to his eventual abdication, I first thought of her as a sort of 19th-century Monica Lewinsky, but she was a bit more — imagine Clinton having an affair with, say, Madonna.
Born in Ireland, raised in India, schooled in England, Ms. Gilbert was not known for being a well-behaved little girl. After a short-lived marriage to an Englishman (which went under in Calcutta,) she wafted around bohemian Paris for a while, and had an affair with Franz Liszt. After the death of another lover she moved to Munich and hit it off with King Ludwig, who made her "Countess of Landsfeld" as a birthday present to himself. Her presence in his life fed the mounting opposition to his rule, and in 1848 he stepped down in order to stave off a revolution.
Lola fled Bavaria for Switzerland, hoping Ludwig would follow her. When he didn't, she went to London, re-married (scandalously, as it violated the terms of her divorce, and they had to leave England), and eventually split again for the USA. After more adventures in California and Australia, in ill health, she lived out her last days in New York, and died at the age of 42. She's buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Back In Innsbruck...

Oh my, there seems to have been a bit of a storm!
But my tomatoes plants look pretty good, for 8 weeks of benign neglect.

Diving classes

Not mine, though. Beau putting two candidates for Rescue Diver certification through their paces at Starnberger See. He looks so official!
This particular shore is popular with both divers and swimmers, as well as people who just want to hang out along the water (there's a cafe with benches nearby.)
By the way, Starnberger See is the very lake where King Ludwig II (the one who was crazy about Wagner) supposedly drowned, or more likely was murdered -- the site where his body was found is on the other side of the lake, marked with a cross. I haven't been to it yet.

AOWD

Last summer I enrolled in the Advanced Open Water Diver course offered at the dive shop (for non-divers, this is sort of the equivalent of getting a real driver's license after driving with the "Cinderella license" -- instead of being limited to 18 meters, I can now dive to 30.) I was almost finished but due to time and weather constraints, we had to leave the last day of the course until this summer, and yesterday I finally finished up all the required dives and theory, at this lake, der Plansee, in northwest Tirol.
The last dive was a "deep dive"--Michael, the instructor, took me down to 30 meters (app. 100 feet) and asked me to do some very simple tasks, in order to see if I was affected by nitrogen narcosis. The extra nitrogen which enters your bloodstream after a certain depth can make you feel drunk, giddy, stupid, give you tunnel vision, or perhaps a funny metallic taste in your mouth. It's all temporary and has no lasting effects, as long as you don't do anything stupid. I felt nothing unusual and he said my reactions seemed just fine.
At 29 meters there's an old sunken rowboat to check out. My beau was following us, taking photographs of us and of some interesting plant formations we passed.
There were also tons of little perch in shallower areas, and they swim right up to you. This lake (like many others) also supposedly has a spot (officially off-limits) where one can find small WW2 artifacts, such as ammunition. One lake has an RAF plane in it (too deep for recreational divers), another a car that retreating Nazis left behind and the locals pushed into the water, fearing bombs from the air raids. It's now a popular landmark for the local sports divers.

Unterwasser Fotographie

These are from an outing late last month, before I got back, taken by beau with his underwater camera. The originals were all green, but we recently figured out how to put them through the automatic color filter in Photoshop, and I am stunned with the outcome.


They make me think of illustrations for 1960s/70s children's books, or fantasy lit. We didn't tweak anything beyond running them through the auto-color-filter.
Many of the underwater photos in diving magazines are ultra-real, with über-sharp colors and lines. I love these specifically because they look dreamy and fairy-tale.

Bergseetauchen

As you may know, I'm a newbie scuba diver. I learned in the relatively warm waters off the Croatian coast, but most of my diving has been right here in the mountain lakes of Bavaria and Tirol, and for this one should have a dry suit (in contrast to a wetsuit.) These can run to about $1,000, and not being loaded with disposable income, I started looking for bargains. Last spring, I found a used one on ebay, and got to try it out for the first time last week.

These photos were taken by the beau in Lake Starnberg (yes, "in" it.) I'm still working on neutral buoyancy and getting used to the suit (getting into the damn thing is still hard work -- it has a zipper which goes from the right shoulder down to the left hip, wriggling head and arms into it isn't easy.) But, so far, so good (except, I just saw in the top photo that my finimeter is dangling. Sheesh, they tell you not to do that in the beginners' class!)

"A Chinchilla Of Hope"

Blogosphere presence (and occasional Practice Room commenter) Woody has started up a blog which details the love of his life's strange journey with adrenal carcinoma.
Drop by and give him some love.

How did that happen?

Somewhere between leaving my folks' house and arriving at beau's, I lost the cable which connects my digital camera to the computer. Which means, gah, I have to actually write posts. Or at least purloin pics from other people. Ordering a replacement cable today (no one seems to have them in stock.)

Week in New Hampshire

I am fortunate enough to have a family member with a friend who loves to invite guests to his lake house.
The loons. Their eerie calls are especially beautiful late at night over the dark water.

What a way to relax.