Winterlaufserie 20km

For those blessed / cursed / apathetic agnosticists with the sort of memory that would allow them to, for example, recite the first 10,000 digits of pi, learn obscure languages over the course of a weekend, or, say, describe in detail both the contents and present-at-the-time company of their evening meal from any specific date in the previous 40 years, you might just have the gumption to remember all the way back to the halcyon days of Fall 2014 when a quaint little ditty about Will and Sandi, two Canadian kids doing the best they can, appeared on this very blog outlining their ultimately futile attempts to run a 20km race in a laughably attainable time of under one hour thirty minutes. As you further no doubt recollect, this particular event was known as the infamous Waldperlach race of abnormal heat and waterless infamy. At this point in time the heroes of the blog/story were months into an intense marathon training program which included death-defying speed intervals along the mightily proud banks of the river Isar and strict dietary regimens including sometimes up to two bowls of ice cream after dinner, all in a bout of readying their super-human bodies for the torturous and historically recognized Firenze Marathon that was soon to come. You will further remember that despite great initial confidence and striking bravado, neither protagonist A nor protagonist B would ultimately come anywhere even close, really, to their sandbaggingly surmountable goal, as both sadly and dismally withered and wimpily gave way to the elements at foot. If you're not one of the happy few, you can refresh your not-up-to-snuff memory by visiting the original story, in all its timely glory, here: http://grenoblewmd.blogspot.de/2014/10/race-report-waldperlachlauf-20km.html.

Fast-forward now, if you will, to the month of February 2015 which contained within its confines last weekend's Winterlaufserie 20km. In some ways this could be seen as a grand chance to vanquish the bad taste left behind by that sad Fall day, so many moons ago. However, on this occasion the expectations would prove to be greatly subdued. Our heroes had not been training for anything in particular, it's the winter for Pete's sake, and, most importantly this time around, Pemulis/George/Will/etc. was very very sick with what I believe the technical term for said condition has become "mancold". He/I was so sick, in fact, that it was not only extremely difficult to move about the apartment due to full-body muscular ache, not only did this fateful hero miss work the Friday before, and not only was he relegated to drinking hot Cognac toddies in the nights leading up to the great event, but most important of all was the fact that he even nearly skipped the race due to a well-placed worry of extinguishing the world's Tempo/Kleenex supply thereby single-handedly causing an instability-inducing toxic hemorrhage to Europe's already rocky stock market and economic situation. But, we'd signed up already and I didn't want to waste the 15 euros, so I went for it.

The race was set to begin at 11:00 AM sharp at the Olympic Park's usual race-starting destination next to the Olympic Pool, just under the Olympic Tower, and between the Small and Large Olympic Halls, which are due east of the Olympic Stadium where events from the Olympics were held in the Olympic year of 1972. The normal heroes of this blog arrived about 10:15 to pick up the chip timers and all that and warm-up for the race ahead. The weather was cold that day, my friends. Luckily we could find warmth until the last minute in the confines of the Olympic Pool spectator area where Olympic swimming once took place. Unlike Italian races (or anything Italian really), the race naturally started exactly on time. Let me just underline again here that I felt certifiably deathly. And let me also say that with all this talk of me being so sick and almost not doing the race that the appropriate conclusion to the story would be a miracle win, finishing in one hour flat and entering the pantheon of great athletes, but that's not what's going to happen so you should just stop expecting that right now as I don't want the readers of this already fledgling blog to become too despondent and therefore stop reading it as we could really use the advertising revenue with all the trips we've committed ourselves to this year. I hope that Joni's cave takes long-term credit... [Ed: we don't have advertising revenue, sorry...]

Anyways, so the gun went off and we were off too. There was no way on God's green Earth that I was going to try to push things as at this point I was primarily concerned both with (in this order): 1. not succumbing to death; and 2. at least making it through the first 5km loop so that when I inevitably fell over in pain I could keep somewhat warm in the pool observation area. And so I went slowly. Just rambled along nice and easily as if it were a midday Sunday stroll [Ed: it was midday Sunday]. Sandi tore ahead, eager to take advantage of my temporary incapacities and in the process re-claim the family trophy in shorter-than-marathon running distances. Like the Waldperlach before it, this 20km race was composed of 4 loops of 5km. Not the greatest race structure mentally-speaking for someone whose chief goal is survival. But eventually I made it through the first lap and I saw Sandi just ahead (I would again like to remind the reader at this juncture of the apocalyptical-level of my cold). I will even admit here that as she passed an identifiable tree in the distance I looked at my watch and counted the seconds until I reached the same tree: about 30 seconds. Wowzers. But I wasn't thinking about trying to catch her or anything. Survival was still the name of the game and I had made it through one loop. The second loop was more difficult and I discovered a new sort of "mantra" that appeared to work quite nicely. Though one voice said (essentially) "you're not even halfway through and it hurts this badly!" the other voice would then counter with (and this is my breakthrough) "true, but soon, within nanoseconds of arriving at the halfway point, I will be more than halfway through!". It doesn't seem like so much now, but at the time I really felt like I was on to something.

At the end of lap 2 (halfway, remember) I wanted to again do the counting thing, but I couldn't even see her she was so far ahead. So I just kept trucking along at a pace that wouldn't cause me to fall over (I hoped) and that might eventually allow me to cross the finish line. At the end of lap 3 something interesting happened though: I could see Sandi again! So for this last loop I decided I would lean a little more heavily on the gas. I might even catch her! (spoiler: I didn't). But in the end, after pulling more than a minute ahead of me at the 10km mark, I finished just 28 seconds back. Not bad for being essentially on the brink of death.

Here's Sandi tearing ahead of a guy who's in the 10km race (lame) and who is not quite sure what's happening in his life at this juncture:

Here is Sandi post-finishing in all her deserved glory:

And here we are in live-action (!!) video finishing the race:

Final times? 1:32:24 and 1:32:52. That beats our Waldperlach by about a minute. And I was sick.

P.S. Keep those votes coming in the comments! So far we have 2 -- count them, 2 !! - for reviews of Tom's songs. The contest ends soon.

Hedonic Treadmill

The currently accepted theory about happiness (there are of course detractors), originally outlined in 1971, is explained by the hedonic treadmill: we are born (or learn/develop at a young age) an extremely stable level of objective happiness and well-being and over a long period of time, no matter what we go through in life, our level of happiness will ultimately return more or less to some constant. This seems to hold even despite major positive or negative events or life changes. A good way to put it into perspective is that this theory tells us that two identical twins, going through life with the same level of more-or-less static happiness, could one day be walking along together when the following occurs: the one twin (twin 1) decides to stop into a corner store while the other twin (twin 2) keeps walking. While twin 1 is buying a lottery ticket that ultimately nets him $10,000,000, twin 2 crosses the street and is hit by a car. Twin 2's accident is so severe that he loses both legs and, though he survives, he must go through months of painful rehabilitation as he regains some mobility, rebuilds his muscular/skeletal system, and learns to operate his wheelchair. The hedonic treadmill theory (and its variations) tells us that after the shock and trauma of the accident wear off and he gets used to his new life situation, and after twin 1 gets used to being rich and having more expensive desires, both will ultimately return to their original level of objective happiness. Twin 2, though he will have to grapple with new challenges, will end up just as happy as he was before the accident overall. Twin 1, likewise; at first it will be exciting to drive a Ferrari and drink expensive wine with every meal, but then it will become commonplace and feel just as normal as driving his old Toyota and drinking his $10 wine.

There are some variations and extra details, of course. The long-held view that more money = more happiness is actually more or less true, up to a point. In Canada, the "poverty line" is about $20,000 for a single person, after tax, per year. If you make only $20,000 a year, making more money will almost definitely add to your happiness as you have less stress about being able to feed yourself and pay your rent. If you make even a little more money after that then you'll be able to afford other things that will make you happier, like relaxing your muscles on a beach once a year or being able to afford healthier food. In fact, the more money you make, the more happy you'll be (on average) until what turns out to be about $75,000 a year. After that, making more money will not tend to make you any more happy. The reasons for this are several. One is that the more pleasure you're able to purchase, the less you start to savour each pleasure. The more money you make, the more stressful your job tends to be, and the less time you have to enjoy the pleasures that you might be now able to buy. There is also then the fact that people begin to expect more from you; if you make a ton of money, shouldn't you pay for everyone's drink? And if you don't, it's hard not to think "what a jerk". This can all be summed up basically as once you make enough money that you don't have to worry month-to-month about being able to pay your rent, buy your groceries, and have a little fun every now and then, having even more money won't make you all that much happier.

How do we reconcile this with the hedonic treadmill? Well the objective happiness level is more of a range. It's argued that someone who was born with / learned to have a range of let's say 6-8 out of 10 might be around a 6 if they're living with the stress of not making enough money each month, and might get up to an 8 if they're making good money, enjoying their job, and living a fulfilled life with hobbies and friends and little stress. However, even if they get in a terrible car accident like twin 2, their happiness will never drop below 6. Likewise, if they win the lottery and live every day to its fullest, etc., they will never make it up to level 10. A different person who for whatever reason has developed or been born with an intrinsic happiness range of only 3-5, no matter what happens, will never feel as satisfied with life as the 6-8 guy on his worst day.

All of this begs the question, then, besides making enough money, what makes people happy? For this something we could, for example, look to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (from a 1943 paper). The hierarchy of needs is a pyramid where the most essential aspects of needs/well-being/happiness sit at the bottom, and the less important, and those that require the levels below them to exist, sit at the top. Starting at the base, these pre-requisite needs are, in order: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and, at the top, self-actualization. Having enough money directly affects the bottom two levels: to be able to be safe and have love and everything up top, you need the basics of food, water, shelter, etc. Just above that, at the safety layer, well-being requires security of your body including, most importantly, your health. But what allows people to live at a high sustained level of happiness tends to be friendship, family, achievement, confidence, respect, morality, creativity, and acceptance. All of these can be summarized into the category of "meaning". We often imagine that if we could just live on a beach drinking margaritas all day that we would be happier than we currently are and all of our problems would go away. But that life, though it arguably would cover the physiological basics, be largely free of stress, and afford a good deal of free time, might be devoid of meaning. For many that meaning comes from success at work, their children's happiness and success, and the respect of their peers. While purely hedonistic pleasure is an important aspect of happiness, so too is learning, philosophical debate, and even personal success at work or in play.

Religion has throughout history brought meaning to lives. This helps to make it abundantly clear why religion still plays such a strong role for many people who might not get the same amount of meaning, and therefore happiness, from creativity or intellectual pursuits (no I'm not saying that religion is for stupid people, but at the same time I'm not afraid to say that it can help them more than the educated).

All of this leads up to an important philosophical question that many of us grapple with: what is the role of progress, particularly technological progress, in happiness? Because I can wear a wristwatch that uses a system of 32 satellites circumnavigating the Earth 20,000km in orbit above us to get a precise measure of how far and how fast I'm running (for example), does that mean I'm living a better life, and can be happier, than someone who lived 100 years ago without access to that advanced technology? Maybe, but only if I'm living a meaningful life. But objectively, someone who found meaning in religion and worshipping and family 500 years ago, despite the fact that maybe only 3 out of their 9 children would make it into adolescence, might only live to 40 years old, be withered and broken by that time due to hard manual labor, was probably happier, believing that living the right way throughout a perhaps difficult existence would allow them a great after-life, and knowing that their children that didn't survive were there waiting for them, than someone today who lives a shallow existence, though rich and owning cars and boats, finding no meaning in life other than buying the next car, boat, house, or vacation.

It is important, I think, to strive towards meeting all of these needs: meaning from love and supporting friends and family, and experiencing "traditional" pleasure in relaxing and good food and drink, and intellectual pursuits, and successes in hobbies and work, but also, importantly, meaning in accomplishments at work. And this is precarious for working in technology. I have to believe that progress leads to better lives because if I don't then it's much more difficult to find meaning in work. Technologism, like capitalism and catholicism, is a religion. And to live by it you have to believe that technological progress is good. Dangerously, I find myself not believing in the gospel. I think, sure, this thing is faster or sleeker or has more memory, or whatever, and I therefore want it (probably no small thanks to marketing), but I really believe that if it didn't exist in the first place, I wouldn't be missing out on anything and I wouldn't feel like I was in need of something without having it. Having that view can make it difficult to find meaning in your work if your very work is to make that thing better and faster and...

One might argue that focusing on the year-to-year gadget upgrade is overly mixing capitalism and technologism. Sure, next year's iPhone model may not change your life, but at a broad level the increase in medical health technology has allowed all of us to suffer less, on average, than before. So where does that leave us?

Does technological and economic progress lead to greater happiness? It can make it easier to fulfill the needs at the bottom layer of the pyramid for more of us. Health and basic food and shelter needs are more likely to be met now than ever before. But why can't I believe in the promise of technological utopia that I willingly embraced in the pages of Wired magazine as a teenager?

Because it's not enough. Maybe, in the previous short paragraphs, I've been able to reconcile what technological progress can do. It can help to make the bottom layers of the pyramid more secure. It can allow us to be more sure that more of us can count on being fed and being healthy. With those needs more accessible, we can then be more free to concentrate on living a life of meaning. But if reaching the state where the lower levels are more secure makes attaining the higher levels more difficult, if it leads to shallower lives and a life and culture with less meaning, then we blow the whole thing. But we've got it. Right there.

Don't agree? Want to help me lead a more meaningful life? Sound off in the comments!

The Earth has music for those who listen

Happy Valentine's Day to all you faithful, sporadic, first-time, band-wagon, and whatever else other readers of Grenoble WMD! You're all in for a really nice treat today as it's that time of the year again- no, sorry not a photo bomb post- no, it's that time of the year again for a traditional blog-style update on our lives. Please try and remember to keep breathing...

Today is St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 2015, A.D. Exactly one year ago to the day I found myself in the Queen's hometown of London, England winding down the end of a work visit to the capital of the Empire, watching Canada kick some behind in Olympic hockey, drinking Guinness pub-style, and dining Italian-style with old friends. In the year that has passed nothing exceptionally substantial has changed in our lives. We live in the same city in the same apartment, and frequent the same jobs (contrast this with comparing 2/14 in 2013 and 2014: jobs had changed, apartment had changed, city had changed, heck, even the country was different).

That being said, there are always things you can find if you are willing to spend enough time thinking about it. First, this time last year there was no running for me whatsoever as I was still, at that period of my life, living every day with at-the-time-recently-enlarged holes through my abdominal-area muscles! Cool! Contrast that with this weekend and, though I'm fighting a debilitating case of rhinopharyngitis (common cold, don't worry), we will be (as long as the rhino doesn't really get the better of me) participating in our first running race of the year tomorrow at the Winterlaufserie 20km in the Olympic Park here in Munich. We're not expecting any breakthrough results as the running hasn't been a top priority around here lately (we haven't even come close to running that particular distance), but as long as I can make it out of bed, I think it should be fun.

Though running hasn't been the top priority lately, we have been doing some of it. Our ascendance into the vaunted halls of the München Road Runners Club has been a great success so far. Most Saturdays we've been swimming with the club at a private Hochschule pool that we rent out for 90 minutes and on Sundays we do two hours of indoor cycling near the Donnersbergerbrücke area. We're missing both events this weekend for the first time since we started though because of the race tomorrow and partly because of my continuing battle with the Rhino (as I call it). Tuesday nights we do a 1 hour endurance run with the club through the Olympic Park. It's preceded by the coach running down (metaphorically speaking) some recent club news and announcing results and upcoming races. This is the part of the night where I stare off into the night wondering what the heck he might be yakking away about.

The weather this winter has been cold. Uber cold, even. I've mentioned this before but it deserves mentioning again: it never dropped below zero last winter and we didn't see a flake of snow. This year there has been snow on the ground since early January and it has rarely gone above zero. However, we may finally be emerging from the woods, as it were. The high for yesterday was 10 degrees (though we didn't quite make it there) and today the sun has been shining on the ambient temperature's way up to a theoretic maximum of 9. River bank BBQs and picnics are just around the corner.

What else is around the corner? A whole lot -- finally. After a chilly winter of hibernation and staying around Munich, we will venture out and greet life and the glorious sunshine head-on! First, we will make weekend trips in the next several months to London to visit Brittany (OK, maybe there won't be so much sunshine here, but you never know); to Hannover to visit Sophie; to Åsa/Gothenburg to visit Thony and family; to Nice for Thony's Ironman; and to Timișoara in Western Romania (home of the start of the 1989 Romanian Revolution) for a friend's wedding. There is also our big visit to Crete coming up at Easter as I mentioned before. We'll be staying in the south-somewhat-west area in the mountains and close to the beach to be able to easily head down to the Mermaid Café (where the night is a starry dome) and hear them playing that scratchy rock n' roll beneath the Matala Moon. And then maybe we'll go to Amsterdam, or maybe we'll go to Rome. Rent us a grand piano and put some flowers around our room... (note the word 'maybe' before that last part).

Long-time blog readers will also be excited (or horrified) to learn that I've started writing a novel (so that I could join the club, you know). Look for it wherever books are sold (pretty much just Amazon these days, I think) in perhaps 1 to 2 years time...

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Special Grenoble WMD Valentine's Edition Contest: please send in a topic that you would like to be addressed in an upcoming post. Tell us why you want it covered and the most popular submission decided by the editorial team will win! Please leave your input in the comments below.

Kipling

“London is for businessmen, Paris is for fashion and the Canal and growing up, Berlin is for street artists, Grenoble is for cyclists and skiers and scientists, Munich is for beer drinking, Rome is for everything – especially food and coffee, Austria – the whole country – is for trail runners and pastries and I would say classical music, Amsterdam is I guess sort of for art and flowers and probably diamonds too and drugs, Marseille is for sitting around all day long drinking bad espresso or good mint tea, oh, and boat rids, Lanzarote is for drinking white wine, sitting on the beach, and some cycling too, Toronto is useless, Hong Kong is for more business and expat drinking, Montpellier is for students, Barcelona is for everything but Tapas have an undeserved reputation of being good (by the way), Bali is for surfing, Montreal is where it’s at, Brussels is for members of the European Parliament and for jogging and really expensive hotels, Tuscany is for wine and coffee and olive oil and hot sun and beautiful views and taking it slow (but also running marathons), oh wait, London is also for ethnic food of all kinds and cool record shops and big protests, as is Seattle (for the latter), Geneva is for watches and not much else, Lyon is for river boat bars and apparently weddings, Salzbug is for Stiegl, Sweden is for smoked fish and Ironmans, Moissieu-sur-Dolon is for Pétanque and relaxation, Padova is for concerts and shoes and day-trips to Venice and startup smartwatches, Dublin is for Guinness, Prague is for the river and the streets and Pilsner and ballet I believe but it’s no Moscow though I’ve never been, Nice is for jazz festivals and more Ironmans, Paris is Paris is Paris is Paris is Paris is Paris, Delft is not worth your time, Guelph is for running, Torino is for aperitivi and Fiat and, along with Barcelona, a strong reminder that putting a bunch of money into the worst part of town in hopes that after the Olympics it will change what made it the worst part of town normally doesn’t exactly work out, Vancouver has some of that but you can see the mountains and get to them pretty easily, Bern is for reinforcing the idea that Switzerland can be a pretty boring place, Lausanne is to counteract that feeling, Stockholm in particular is for being overwhelmed with grandness and for organic food, Antibes is to show you that while it’s the Côte d’Azur it’s no Nice, Avignon is mainly so you can say that you’ve been there and be disappointed with the famous pont, Annecy is beautiful and like many other places also for marathons, Florida is North America’s Nice and vice versa, California is the promised land, Lille is the North and is pretty dreary but it’s still France, Calais is much worse though, Leeds is a place, Cornwall is for surfing believe it or not, did I mention Grenoble?”

“They’ve got to be for more than just that.”

“They are. Those are just the main important points.”

“You really think Toronto is useless?”

“Well not completely useless. There’s that terrible hockey team that’s fun to laugh at. But… hmm… ya, pretty useless.”

“What about the CN Tower?”

…

“Fair enough. What about that restaurant Lee? And Susur?”

“He moved to New York when he realized that he was in Toronto.”

“Who?”

“The chef. Susur Lee.”

“That was one person?”

“Yup.”

…

…

“Is Munich only for beer drinking?”

“No. But I would say that’s it’s main draw. It is where the Oktoberfest takes place.”

“I thought Oktoberfest was everywhere. There’s even one in Toronto, by the way.”

<sigh>

“What else does Munich have?”

“They have Frühlingsfest.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s basically Oktoberfest but a little bit smaller and it happens in the Spring.”

“Anything else?”

“Yup. Starkbierfest.”

“Let me guess; another beer festival?”

“Yes! The Strong Beer Festival – happens in March.”

“Toronto has the Toronto International Beer Festival.”

…

“Is there anything good in Munich that doesn’t end with ‘bierfest’?”

“Yes, there’s the Braukunst!”

“What’s that?”

“It’s the craft beer festival. Really nice.”

“Ok. More specifically, does Munich have anything good not related to beer?”

“Hmm… there’s the wine and style show in the Fall.”

<sigh> “What about something cultural? Like to do with museums for example.”

“Yes! There is Die Lange Nacht der Museen!”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a night where all the museums stay open all night long and turn into bars and nightclubs! Super cool!”

…

“It’s also close to the mountains.”

“That’s good. What about within Munich?”

“The Olympic Park is pretty nice.”

“It’s not in a part of town that they wanted to rejuvenate and let go to shit after the Olympics ended and there was no more money?”

“No, it’s one of the nicest parts of the city actually. I think that strategy that failed in Barcelona and Torino and kind of Vancouver, etc., was only started more recently. The Munich Olympics had its own problems though.”

“Like what?”

…

“Have you ever been to Japan?”

“Only the airport, so no. Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering.”

…

“How’s the weather in Munich?”

“Right now it’s really cold. Snows most days, even. Last night it was -13!”

“Ouch. That is cold.”

“Yup.”

“What do you do in Munich?”

“In the summer you go to the riverbanks and you have picnics and BBQs. It’s actually pretty cool.”

“And in the winter?”

“Write stuff in cafés that doesn’t make much sense.”

“Fair enough. So Stockholm is intimidatingly grand?”

“Yes. All of the buildings are size XXL. And there’s the King’s castle looking over the city on this big hill-“

“The King?”

“Ya, the King.”

“Sweden has a King?”

…

“Do you know any famous photographers that live there by any chance?”

“Yes.”

“Do you get any enjoyment out of your work?”

“Not really.”

“But it doesn’t leave you with a sense of fulfillment or like that you have some purpose or…?”

“Nope.”

“What’s Rome like?”

“You’ve never been?”

“Only passing through.”

“It’s great. I wish I could spend a lot more time there.”

“But what’s great about it? You’re never very specific in your answers.”

“I dunno. I’m not a very specific person. Some places, like Rome for example, are just great.”

“Hey do you know that Kipling poem If?”

“Stoicism and all that?”

“Well I suppose so. But it’s more than that.”

“How so?”

“It’s just great.”

“Ah-ha! You see!”

“Hey what happened to all your hair?”

“Bad genes and stress, I guess.”

“That sucks.”

…

“So it seems you’re big on Paris then?”

“Oh ya. Big time.”

“What’s so great about it?”

“Everything. Well, everything except the weather. It rains all winter long. The summertime is glorious though.”

“People use that word? Glorious?”

“Probably mainly in writing. I can’t imagine myself saying it out loud.”

“But you just did.”

…

“What’s wrong with Antibes?”

“Too many people and it’s a bit dirty these days I think. It’s still a nice place though.”

“What about the old town?”

“Beautiful. But it’s right by the marina filled with multi-million-dollar yachts. It almost makes you sick how much money some people have.”

“Totally. We should do something about that.”

“Careful. Say something like that in Canada and under the new terrorism laws they’ll lock you up.”

“Ya, that Harper. He’s terrible.”

“Shut up! You want to go to jail? Or worse, a CSIS secret prison?”

“You can’t even complain about the government anymore?”

“Only the Harper Government™. That’s totally illegal.”

“Do you like coffee?”

“See above.”

“Fair point. It’s good in Rome but bad in Marseille?”

“More or less. But really it can be good anywhere.”

“True dat.”

…

“What’s Moissieu-sur-Dolon?”

“It’s a small town somewhere between Grenoble and Lyon. Don’t you read that Grenoble WMD blog?”

“No. Never heard of it.”

“Check it out. It used to be pretty good but has kind of gone down hill lately.”

“That’s too bad.”

WFH

I get about 10 or so of these e-mails a week. All they say is "WFH". Sometimes the really lazy will simply reply-all to someone else's "WFH" and add a "+1" to the body of the message. While WFH fittingly appears similar to the somewhat-non-synonymous and perhaps better known to the outside world WTF, WFH actually means "Work From Home".

Company X that I work for has a policy that you can WFH once per week. I'm not sure if you can bank them (I don't think so) but if you could I would have about 80 of them. WFH is very difficult for me (and therefore I don't do it) because when at home I would rather just do something that is, well, not W. It doesn't matter that you're probably not allowed to bank them, however, because no one takes the once-per-week policy very seriously. Some people only show up here once per week (a kind of inverse WFH one time per week policy). Crazy.

And so I find myself in my island-of-four at the far end of the office looking down to the snowy river (great view in this new office, btw) all alone. The other three are WFH (or just "+1") and I'm keeping everything going all by my little self.

There is still snow on the ground here in Munich. It's been here for weeks now and it is really cold. Last year there was no snow -- not even in the sky. This year is cold cold cold. BUT, we're going to Greece! How about that!? Just 8 weeks to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is how cold it is:

The church I pass on the way to work along the river (actually sunny the other day!)

Earlier on the path to work I walk along this canal and it was very slippery

Munich from St. Peter with snowy roofs (not my picture but taken this past week nonetheless)

Here is how we're sometimes dealing with it:

Indoor cycling

Fondue party :-)

And finally, here is a picture of Crete where we will be in just eight weeks time: