In my style of German, that's Happy Fall of the Wall Day!

German allows you to make compound nouns of nearly limitless length that are simply dreadful (and typically bureaucratic), but also short ones like Zeitgeist (and unfortunately blitzkrieg) that are so perfect that other languages use them because they don't have their own words that work as well.

I spent a month in Germany in October 1980, including about a week in Berlin with a day trip to East Berlin. It was a remarkable place then with the separating wall adding this menacing and very odd dimension to the city. Other ways in which the city was - and was not - separated such as the subways and streetcar system, are too bizarre to explain here. In May 2008 I was back for the first time and the changes I saw were beyond conventional words such as "astounding" or "amazing".

EAST GERMANY'S ICONIC TRABANTS ARE NOW A JOYRIDE AT TRABI-SAFARI IN BERLN

Twenty years ago today something miraculous happened that few of my age then, let alone those of my parents' and older generations' ages, could imagine: the Berlin Wall and the entire 1400 km heavily fortified border that separated the two parts of Germany fell, and less than a year later German reunification would be real.

But the Berlin of today is a direct result of what happened on 9 November 1989.

(For an excellent account read this article in English from Spiegel-Online. Der Spiegel [The Mirror] is the weekly German newsmagazine akin to Newsweek or Time.)

My mother was German and I think what she always said about the wall was similar to what most other Germans felt. She thought it would eventually come down but not within her lifetime. Well, I'm happy to say that she outlived the wall by 18 years.

The process of healing the wounds of 44 years of postwar separation haven't been easy for Germany, especially for the former eastern part. But in spite of the at times wrenching change, few Germans would turn the clock back. Young adults born around the time of reunification have no personal memory of anything other than a unified Germany and a unified Europe. Good for them and good for all of the other young Europeans.

And when you look at the pictures from November 1989 all you see is complete joy (mixed with disbelief) that the detested wall had finally been broken.

In my small way as a German-American, I share in the pleasure of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the wall's demise and honor everyone who had a hand in bringing it down.

THE NEW BERLIN MAIN TRAIN STATION (Straddling the former east-west border)

My first impulse was to title this post "Requiem for a Coffeehouse" but I concluded that was both too somber and, I hope, not really accurate.

Last autumn I mentioned the Crosstown Coffeehouse in the first of two posts about Alameda. Dropping in for at least an hour or two - often many more - had become a part of my daily routine when I was in the East Bay which was frequently. (My partner worked for an Oakland-based company and the job required his being in the office roughly every other week.)

FAITH AND JENNIFER BEHIND THE COUNTER
Sadly for me and especially for its employees and local customers, the first version of Crosstown will come to a close next Friday, 24 July. A dispute with the landlady who owns the building is irresolvable and the result is that the coffeehouse's lease will cease at the end of July. The last week of the month will be spent boxing up equipment and supplies for storage.

For several years I've told fellow Norcalblogger, Steve Brown ("But This is Chico, too"), what a great place Alameda is for someone like him, a self-described flaneur who enjoys walking amidst a mix of old and new and everything in between.

Tomorrow (Friday, 17 July), he and I will leave Chico bright and early at 6:00 a.m. for a one-day trip. I'll drive and play tour guide but Steve gets to select from the array of choices where we go in the limited time available. We'll wait for Bay Area rush hour traffic to abate slightly and then hit the road back to Chico in the early evening.

Steve has "blogging rights" since I already wrote two long posts about Alameda last year although I plan to write something about the temporary - I hope - closure of my favorite coffeehouse there.

Forecast for Chico tomorrow: 103
Forecast for Alameda tomorrow: 76

Can't say I'll miss the weather here while I'm gone!

Right after I got back from Reno three weeks ago my old laptop failed me. Specifically, the "on" button kind of collapsed into the case. I couldn't turn the darn thing on.

I went to a local computer store and they in essence said, "Your laptop is dead. You should buy a new one".

But thankfully, they also gave me the name and number of Eric Reimer, owner of Affordable Computer Solutions, and told me he was the only one in the Chico area who specialized in fixing laptops.

Good thing I called him.

Eric called me right back and came over to my house to pick up the ailing machine. Then he called the next day to tell me what the problem was, brought it back, and then showed me a really easy work-around to avoid buying an expensive part. For this excellent service he charged a remarkably reasonable fee.

I am going to buy a new laptop later this year or early next year when Windows 7 is standard. When I do I'll get a recommendation from Eric as to which laptop to buy, and then pay him to do the data transfer from my old machine to the new one.

When your laptop gets sick or just needs some professional attention, get in touch with Dr. Eric. You can reach him at (530) 570-8975.

Phileo McAlexander, a very good friend dating from my Seattle days (1985-1990), is "looking forward" soon to being able to glow in the dark. Well, that's a silly take on a serious subject. In fact, she is going to be undertaking a big dose of radiation today in order to clear out a cancerous thyroid.

In this short, second-to-last post inspired by my recent stay in Sonoma County, I wanted to inform you of an attraction that isn’t attractive, certainly not in the conventional sense of beauty, history, or cultural significance.

Nonetheless, Santa Rosa’s Bottle Barn does draw those looking for an outstanding selection of wine, beer and liquor at very competitive prices.

Bottle Barn’s slogan is “Where Wine Country Buys Wine” and I think that's accurate.

Sorry I didn’t think to take a picture of their place of business but it’s about as interesting as your average structure along Meyers Street in Chico. Yet you’ll soon forget about the utilitarian appearance when roaming its aisles.

Don't be surprised to find the same bottle you just bought at a winery at a significant discount here. Romantic it isn't, but the Bottle Barn is an excellent place to look for great deals and wide variety.

You’ll find Bottle Barn about a mile west of U.S. 101 at the north end of Santa Rosa. Click here to see it on a Googlemap.

I’ll close with this piece of good news to those who come to (or through) Santa Rosa: the 101 widening project is now finished and traffic moves much more easily through downtown.

"Using up my bookmarks / Clogging my mind
Read this, don’t read that / Can’t you read my blog?"

(Apologies to the Five Man Electrical Band.)

Here’s a brief non-travel, non-running related post about a quick way to keep track of your favorite blogs.

If you’re reading “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” then chances are good that you read other blogs hosted in many locations, not just the Enterprise-Record's Norcal Blogs. Now if your method of checking for new posts has been the same as mine then I have a suggestion for a faster way: Google Reader.

Until I found Google Reader my modus operandi was to bookmark each blog and then periodically check them one by one for updates. Pretty tedious, wouldn’t you say?

Now all I need to do is log in to my Google Reader account to see if any of the blogs have been updated.

It's really simple:

Step 1 – Set up a Google account if you don’t already have one for Google Groups, Google Maps, G-mail, etc.

Step 2 – Go to Google Reader, sign in and specify the URLs for the blogs you are tracking. (This is called “adding a subscription".)

Step 3 – When you want to see if any of the blogs have been updated you just sign in to Google Reader.

Take a look at two screenshots of my Google Reader homepage:

To the left is the portion of the homepage that lists the blogs to which I have “subscriptions”.

The blog names in bold font contain new posts.

The number in parentheses indicates the number of new posts.

For example, the blog “Rafi on the Rails” contains one new post.

This larger chunk of the Google Reader homepage shows not only the list of blogs but also the first few lines of each blog with a new post.

From here I can read the entire post within Google Reader or I can go directly to the source should I wish to see the blog in its original format, or to read or add comments.

That’s all there is to it. Get started at www.google.com/reader !

Would you like to get an e-mail reminder when I add a new post to "Planes, Trains & Automobiles"?

Whether or not you use Google Reader I'm happy to include you in a blast e-mail to notify readers when I add a new post to "Planes, Trains & Automobiles". Comment back to me with your e-mail address. (I won't publish the comment with your e-mail address for all the world to see.)