Week 20 Stuttgart and surroundings (250 km)

"Live goes on" if also differently than one has planned it. At least most of the time! This weekend I was on the road in the old homeland. Albeit for a very sad occasion. It is always very sad to go to funerals, even worse when people pass away very young. I would like to draw attention to a serious issue, if you are having suicidal thoughts please turn to others and seek help, for example the telephone helpline: +49800 1110111 A very wise man once shared some very intelligent wisdom with me: "Suicide is a final solution to mostly temporary problems." It always goes on somehow, especially in a social system and help network like ours in this country. Is it Corona or am I just getting old? Meanwhile I am present at more funerals than weddings.

Friday was very sad because of that. I had planned to go south by bike on Thursday, but the weather forecast threw a spanner in the works, so I had to take an early train on Friday. I have experienced enough thunderstorms and storms in the great outdoors, so I don't have to go into it in full consciousness. I'm not insane, am I? In advance, I have already made "dates" with friends and created me a weekend tour. Thanks to all involved, it was very nice to see you live (again) and not only virtually. You don't believe how important it was for me. Only one "date" fell through and it was not because of me!

So hardly arrived in Stuttgart first in the "Office" Bismarckplatz, coffee at Fragola, it still feels like home. Then on to Monte Scherbelino (Birkenkopf), was that always so easy? And then down again via Stuttgart's most beautiful half-height trail, the "Blaue Weg", back to the west of Stuttgart to have another coffee. Then I had to leave to get to the funeral in time. Very very sad. My condolences dear S.

Afterwards I cycled to an old place of work. Beer garden. One looks for personnel. Non-specialists are trained! I hate to say it, but everything was better in the past. Quality standards? Only the prices are in a lower framework, however, that can not be everything, right? Especially if you know where the basic products come from. At the tap, pure laziness/convenience has prevailed, put the glass baskets in their own way. Effectiveness? I ordered a pork neck, I got a minced steak, because despite asking the kitchen actually no pork neck was ready, the young lady was busy cutting lemons and did not look and has probably relied on their colleagues from the early service. Well, mistake. When I take over a position, I first get an overview. In addition, I was allowed to stand at the food counter for a few minutes until the young lady was done with her lemons, only then did she take care of customers. The pig neck story had also caused her to run around the kitchen in a rage, throwing stuff back and forth. Oh well, what can you say. Dear restaurateurs (system caterers), why don't you just start not giving your people the minimum (or less) and treat your "human resources" better than slamming stupid Hullugullu slogans at their heads? Appreciation is the keyword. Also towards your customers. Take an objective look at who works well, ensures quality and standard, and who is buttering you up but otherwise lazing around when you're not there (well, that's true for all companies nowadays, isn't it?). Then another unpleasant encounter with a driver in Waiblingen. My lane was blocked, by a parked delivery scale, and I swerved onto the road, behind me a black SUV that was acting kind of strange, so I stopped and wanted to let him pass, whereupon I was insulted (Wa%&er) and beatings were threatened. I no longer understood the world, looked him in the eye and asked what the his problem was? He continued it became monstrous to me. I pulled out my Kamara, he saw that, continued to shout and drove away. Did he pull his tail in front of my phone? It looked like it. So that's how it works! How nice that my GoPro has also recorded everything, have your license plate, your face, your threats and your insults, ad is out, my very first (!) in a double pack, of course, the van that was on the bike path. Okay following these unpleasant Intermezzi, back to Stuttgart to the very first highlight of the weekend, the bike store. Pure distraction for me, all problems, worries and sadness for a moment wiped to the side. My trestle was built up and serviced. Thank you Felix, Fuchs and of course Martin for the spontaneous service and the usual friendly and super courteous manner. That's the way to do it! Thanks for the test rides, I'll be back to you soon, I liked the bikes and it's time for something faster! In the evening then a meal with a former intern of mine, now a seasoned chemist, nice development! The meal in Edgars note (best onion roast beef of the world) went clearly on his bill. Without me, the young man would probably still be studying today. One of the many whom I had the honor to teach something and to promote them at least a little bit (within my modest possibilities). But I think the times are over, where I have lifted whole working groups from the ashes and have promoted and pushed whole careers. It is always like that! When I've gone somewhere the level has dropped several notches. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow (at the beginning I was stupid enough and thought I had to install structures to keep the years, sustainability and so on. To this day, installations I set up in 2008 are still running at the University of Stuttgart and are still top of the art, according to the security department). Today I only care for an optimized working environment as long as I am on site, after me the deluge, because ingratitude is the world's reward. Selfishness is the new cool! Modesty? Who needs it, history is told by chatterboxes. How arrogant and little insight can one be/have to speak of a self-organization of the working group, just because one is there and keeps the whole story running silently through 60 h (and more) of weekly effort. Greetings to all of you out there, I don't miss you. Gratitude, dear achievers and egoshooters, is the key with me and my helper syndrome. Plain and simple, don't you know, right? It can be so simple (and cheap).

So what happened next? Actually I wanted to bivouac outside somewhere (I know where) in Stuttgart. The weather makes me a line through the bill. So hotel for 35 euros booked, I know which. Willi (yes the "I-push-my-bicycle-every-mountain-high Willi") calculated me that the night in the hotel is cheaper than his 2 room apartment in which he lives with his wife and his small child, in the end. Tired I went to sleep to sit only the next morning at 6 am awake in bed, great weather, so pack up out and cycling. Then in Stuttgart West still on the weekly market and clear coffee, then it was off to the Remstal. Home stretch, to the next unpleasant encounter with my past. One of the two producer parts. It is unbelievable that after 30y years, with over 40, I still have to struggle with how conflictburden the first years of my life were. The physical and psychological violence that was perpetrated. The being used as a pawn, a weapon, a means to inflict pain in the psychological warfare of a failed marriage. If you want to divorce, especially if there are children involved, do everyone a favor and get it over with as soon as possible. Don't live together under one roof forever, especially if you have nothing more to say to each other except insults, hatred & threats. For a whole 10 years. Bite the bullet, get a job and an apartment and leave. No pension entitlement or compensation and no money you are "entitled" to is worth it. Not even sleeping in in the morning. And please never reproach your children afterwards (30 years later), what could have become of you, if they had not continued the marriage for your sake. Especially if the children know the "truth". The memory of the years locked in a room when the physically violent parent came home and they were alone will not be better. Ask yourselves what could have become to your children if you had not been like that. Not provoked at every opportunity, not used the children as a weapon. And never try to tell your children how much they have cost you. Especially not if you can't calculate and don't have everything right in/at your head. To this day I am still waiting for a sum so that I can pay it back all at once. Money is all that matters to you, even after you own so much in the meantime. My deepest condolences. I want my peace and my salvation, that is important to me. There you see again what such a visit can trigger everything, phew. That went deep with me. So Lars also got to see a very insecure Ralph with tears in his eyes at noon on the marketplace. I needed a short time to get clear. Sorry for that! Was simply much in the last time. Nevertheless very pleasant and the next time we meet first and then I tackle the emotional part. Then it went on to Leinzell, Briegel from the baker Weith. Worldwide (there are yes only regional) the best. Thank you dear Anja, that you got some for me. Thanks for the coffee and the great 'conversation about soccer and travel destinations! Gladly again! Live and in color was great. And I was once again in the Leintalperle. How I missed it! In the evening then still further to the grill to Danila & Thomas. On the way, in Göggingen, I was stopped by Tommy, who passed me by car. See you soon at the fair, I just say. Thank you. Then to a wonderful evening in a 300 year old house. Super great what you make out of it. Again, thanks for the great time, for the food and finally hearing and speaking my dialect again. Home. I hope to be invited again sometime. Then on in the morning, back again. About the village where you grew up for 15 years. Not much has changed, except the house where you were raised. Fortunately! That has changed so much, that didn't trigger anything. It looks nice, something was really made out of it, out of the neglected newly built place. On the way still at a future couple in the Remstal past, thanks for the coffee! Looking forward to the wedding and come with pleasure. Then in train and back to my beloved wife, Briegel on the balcony, with a really great sunset. A beautiful evening.

Thank you to everyone involved who met with me, whether you know it or not, you were very healing for me. Thanks for the great phone calls along the way Alexa. As I sit here writing this and have to leave for Berlin soon I am watching the video footage of the home stretches and so hope not to be so homesick in the future. Maybe it helps, runs just not as planned with me, wa? Anyway, "live goes on" and today is the beginning and the first day of the rest of my life. See you soon, back here at this place and now Dream Theater in Berlin (I was already thinking about going to Madrid, Bilbao was canceled).

P.S.: Of course it was also a test how well my foot verhelt, so on the third day I had pain again in the evening, so still have to make a little slow.

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