Last of February, First of March

This "weekly" only covers four days, because from Friday afternoon, O.K. and I were on a mini break for the weekend, which deserves one or two extra posts.

Monday, the 27th of February, was sunny but very cold; -3C (26.6F) may not seem all that cold, but a sharp wind made being outside really uncomfortable. Seeing the sun from my windows made me want to be out there, but when I finally did leave for my after-work walk, I cut it short and turned home after just half an hour - I usually don't bother going out for anything under an hour, but that was a day where one did not want to be out any longer than necessary.

It was still sunny but cold and windy on Tuesday (Feb. 28), but a tad less so than the day before. Spending my lunch break at my Mum's meant a 10 minute walk there and another 10 minutes back. Being outside felt slightly more pleasant than on Monday, and so I was looking forward to meeting an old school friend after work for a walk round the palace grounds. We live less than a mile apart, but get to see each other only a few times a year, meaning we always have a lot to catch up with.

Wednesday, the 1st of March, was actually the one day of that week I meant to work at the office. But last week's train problems were not sorted yet, and so I decided against it, and continued to work from home instead. It was yet another bit warmer than the previous days, and my sister and I met for a pleasant after-work walk across the fields between Ludwigsburg and Kornwestheim.

Just before 6:00 pm, mere minutes until sunset

It was much milder at 10C (50F) on Thursday (March 2), and I knew exactly what I wanted to do after work: Walk to Benningen. I did that on my "lower" route (I have an "upper" and a "lower" route for that walk), and enjoyed the late afternoon sun during those two hours very much.

Earlier that day, I was upstairs for a chat with my neighbour. Fatma had been in Turkey to visit her elderly parents and her daughter for over a month, and I wanted to hear how her family was and how she had been, how they had fared with the earthquake and so on. 

She looked well, and none of her loved ones was hurt or their houses destroyed, but she said it had been a terrible time - not just the first earthquake, which woke them up in the early morning hours of Feb. 6, but the several quakes afterwards, and the constant fear of it happening again. They spent the first night in the car, and she told me she slept in her day clothes for the next 20 nights, and kept having panic attacs - not so much for herself (I am not afraid of death, she said), but for wanting to protect her family.

Now she is glad to be back here, where she feels much safer with her husband and their younger daughter. There was nothing I could do but listen, of course, and I expressed my relief at her family and friends being alright.