NOT AGAIN!

There is no way anyone could have avoided the tragedy that took place in the suburban L.A. Fitness gyms' exercise class. Five women, at recent count, died as a result of George Sodini's (48) reported hatred towards women. It was reported that he had never spent a weekend with a woman and hadn't had sex for almost twenty years. Supposedly, he had a history of being rejected by women and had been keeping a blog in which he confessed to having tried once before to commit this crime, but "chickened" out. Evidently, he also struggled with alcoholism. He wrote on his blog that he suffered from depression. His neighbors said he was antisocial. On his blog he stated that he would die on August 4th, 2009. He did. He took his own life that day as well.

My heart goes out to all of the victims in this senseless massacre. It is a repeat of the Virginia Tech shooting in April of 2007. The perpetrator of this crime was a 23-yer-old student named Seung-Hui Cho. Cho was diagnosed with severe depression and a social anxiety disorder.
What is similar with both of these men, and in the case of the two young men who took the lives of 12 students and a teacher in the Columbine School shooting, is anti-social behavior and depression. In all of the cases they lacked control over their emotions and the ability to adjust to society and be accepted by their peers. Their final act of control over an otherwise uncontrollable life was to take the lives of others before taking their own lives.
I hope we can learn more from these disastrous events and that we can perhaps profile the type of individuals who might perform such a heinous act. In every case there is a history of trouble and a paper trail of previous early warning signs. Death threats on websites and blogs that reveal highly disturbed individuals are huge red flags and should be taken seriously. Authorities need to address these people and seek professional treatment for them and follow-up before they become deadly. By now, there has to be a checklist of criteria for identifying these criminals. It is difficult to read about innocent lives being taken by people who have clearly demonstrated the hallmarks of a mass murderer. I pray that schools, parents, law enforcement, therapists, counselors, and pastors, etc. begin to report anyone who displays these behaviors before it is too late.

Again, my prayers go out to the families of all who died or were injured.

BAVARIAN BEER GARDEN EXTRAORDINAIRE!

Near Nymphenburg Park, Munich's premier sightseeing attraction, the Schoss Nymphenburg, is a beer garden called the Hirschgarten. It is part of a 200 - hectare (494 - acre) park with hunting lodges and lakes. It's the largest open-air restaurant in Munich, seating some 8,000 beer drinkers .

From our home, it is just a twenty-minute bicycle ride to this beer garden. We ride through meadows and along streams to finally arrive at the Hirschgarten. Then our immediate problem becomes where to park the bike? As you can see from my photo of just one bike park, there are thousands of bikes in the park.

Steve, my husband, is standing at our table in front of a tree with a sign posted on it. The sign is common in most of Munich's beer gardens. It says that per government ruling, the people of Bavaria are free to bring their own food to the beer garden, but any beer on the premises must be purchased from the vendor. I love this about Bavaria. No one is excluded from enjoying the lovely shaded garden.

The customs that are practiced in order to run an orderly beer garden are interesting in themselves.



The first step is to pick out your beer stein from the thousands of glasses provided in shelves.

Next, the idea is to take your glass stein and rinse it out in a sink of clean running water in large stainless steel sinks.

Finally, you take your clean glass to the bartender and he fills your glass straight from the keg.

The menu consists of sausages, rotiserie chicken, assorted salads, pomme frittes, and soft pretzels.

And, of course, there is plenty of beer!

If you should wander a short ways from the beer garden you will have a special treat. These deer make the Hirschgarten their home.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, BABY!

Image by sonson via Flickr

How do you celebrate a wedding anniversary when you are both on different continents? It's 9:00 PM in Munich and it's just 3:00 PM here. I wanted to Skype, but he is with a colleague at the Augustiner at the moment. I'm headed out to the pool for a refreshing dip. He did call and leave me a text message wishing me a happy anniversary. Oh, and a lovely email arrived in my mailbox earlier today. He said he was out buying a present--hummmm, I wonder what it is? His plan to get me flowers failed because the text he sent to my daughter-in-law asking her to get me flowers for him today didn't make sense to her. So, she brought her i-phone to me to have me read his text. We both laughed when we realized she was to go out and buy me flowers. I told her it was a nice gesture, but I have gardens filled with lovely flowers here at the house and not to waste the money. It was a nice thought, though.

I left him cards all over the house, including an anniversary card, before I left Germany for the states. He has already found them all. I have a gift on order that will a

Image by Jack Duval via Flickr

rrive here before he does, so he will get that in about four weeks.

But it's not easy commemorating your life together when you are not really "together." If you're reading my blog, honey, know that I adore you and I wish I was there with you or you were here with me. Maybe next year?