This morning I slept in a bit—I’ve had an exhausting week.
There was a brief reprieve for me this morning: It was time for my once every 4 week haircut—although this time it was only 3 weeks since my last trim because my stylist is going on vacation for two weeks. The fact is that it took me well over 3 years to find hair stylist in Weimar that I didn’t loathe and, ultimately, I have to say that I feel blessed. He’s actually one of three stylists I’ve come to adore and trust blindly.
I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, or not, but he is the one person who is regularly in my life who speaks no English, so it forces me to stumble by in my incredibly awful German.
That said, he started talking to me this morning using words I’d never heard, but with a minimal amount of hand action, I knew immediately what he was talking about, and I whole heartedly agreed: It was miserable out.
Normally the salon is a short ten minute walk from where I live, but this morning, I went out and was caught unawares when I immediately slipped on the front walk.
Basically Weimar was an ice-rink.
It’s not all that surprising: we had a substantial snow fall a couple weeks ago. Immediately after the snow fell, temperatures plunged into the sub-freezing range—one morning it was a toasty -17°C (1°F) when I headed to the office. The temperatures have not really exceeded freezing for a substantial amount of time until yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon it was a bit slushy out as I walked home—and then night came, temperatures dropped and black ice formed—which is why I was caught off guard as I stepped onto what looked my normal front walk.
Interestingly I learned something new this morning: cobblestones retain cold, asphalt does not. Icy cobblestones are also quite miserable to walk on—even though they are, in general, quite textured. More than once I grabbed onto a nearby fence as I wobbled my way down the sidewalks. I ended up walking partway to my appointment through the middle of the asphalt streets instead of the cobblestone sidewalks.
Fortunately I was able to cope, but I did see an elderly man, complete with a cane, get into a predicament: no way forward, no way back. Thankfully one of Weimar’s citizens, who had in fact just picked himself up off of the ground, went to his rescue.
By the time my hair cut was finished, Weimar had warmed up some more and the sidewalks seemed, on average better.
That didn’t stop me from nearly falling on a cobblestone sheet of ice around 1 in the afternoon—a tiny scrap of shade made something unexpectedly tricky, and I had failed to notice, despite a verbal warning from my WeimarColleague.
Got my hair cut today, too. I have this thing where I pretty regularly get a haircut while on vacation. So far, it’s always turned out nicely.
All those years in Wyoming should have prepared you. *grin* Though, if you had re-frozen water/snow instead of fresh snow, I guess this makes sense.
my regular is 1ooo miles away. i’m in Weimar for 15 years, and havn’t found anyone I can trust!