Two bits of News:

News #1
They started to keep records about the weather here in Austria 130 years ago and according to those there had never before been a winter with so little Sun. Since the middle of last Fall and throughout the Winter we've been having nothing but clouds, clouds and clouds again.... together with low lieing fog, fog and more fog. I think I could count the number of hours where the sun was visible on the fingers of one hand.
Or so it seems.

News #2
In the Salzburg Financial Scandal (with caps) the graphologist has issued his finding: The Signature on the letter is, with high degree of certainty, a forgery.
So, do we now call the cops? Do we ask the Prosecutor's office to investigate and lay charges?
Will they do this with "high degree of certainty" or just low degree of maybe?
Do not hold your breath

Which of the above is more upsetting to Bertstravels?
You get two guesses.

SAME OLD THING - Same old Saturday Night

For a moment there, I thought that the snow fall had stopped. It did... all of a couple of hours. then it started again. A very fine, dry snow, quietly, steadily falling without let-up...
Soon we will all be buried under this white stuff. 
I told Christin that I was going to fly to Florida, buy Key West and settle there once and for all.

So what else is new?

The Financial Scandal of Salzburg is getting, as the saying goes: "curiouser and curiouser"...
Now they have discovered a letter in which the Housing Department gives to the Finance Department completely unfettered permission, describing in great detail what the Finance Department may do with the 800 Million Euros. ( the exact amount is still in question. It could be more) Investing into Shares, Derivatives, Options, Foreign Currency Transaction of all manner and kind... and on and on... in other words, the Housing Department said: Here's all the money with which we are supposed to build social housing, but, hey, what the hell...you take it and gamble with it to your heart's content. What a sweet letter, giving the go-ahead to Monica and her political bosses to continue "Verzocking" hundreds of millions of Euros..
(remember the meaning of "Verzocken" ... to engage in high risk investments.

EXCEPT... wait a while... the boss of the Housing Department says: What letter? I never wrote such a letter, I never signed such a letter... This is a clumsy forgery !!!

This is not my signature!
This is not the way we sign our letters!
This is not the stationary we use!
This is not the stamp we affix to our letters...wait a moment...
this is the stamp used by the Finance Department...  the number 61 clearly identifies it as belonging to the Finance Department. We would have no access to this stamp and anyway, why would we use the stamp of the Finance Department?
and again: While this signature at the bottom of this forgery LOOKS like mine, it definitely is not mine...

So, we call a graphologist, a hand writing expert whose final opinion will be published tomorrow, but certain circles claim that the graphologist's opinion will confirm the signature as NOT being genuine. Okay, are we then calling the Police ???

I WILL AGAIN RAISE THE SAME ALL IMPORTANT QUESTION:

If the housing department doesn't need the money that urgently, that they don't miss it for years...(The whole swindle started in 2006) and if the Finance Department can invest these funds on long term basis, this clearly indicates that Governments on all levels have too much money.
There is, therefore, only one decent, honest, moral way to deal with such overabundance of funds:

GIVE THE MONEY BACK TO THE PEOPLE BY LOWERING THE TAXES.

Did I say: "decent, honest and moral" ? I think that these are the very attributes missing in many, if not most, Politicians of all stripes.

The activities of Governments should be restricted to the following:

External Affairs (including a small but efficient Military Force)
Internal Security (to protect the rights and safety of private citizens) 
Health and Education, and
Fixing of Pot Holes. (the above list is a little "tongue in cheek" list.)
(on second thought: maybe we should give the fixing of pot holes into private hands as well.)

No, Bertstravels does not own an asphalt company.

WINTER IN BLEIBURG

During Winter this little building houses
our Palm and Yucca trees.
Will they survive this frigid weather?

A week ago there was almost NO snow on the roofs
and only very little on the ground.
Within 48 hours our back garden looked like this.

Our neighbours bird feeding station.

Care for a swim???

Hide the Facts = Censorship

Here we go again, we hear those trumpets blow again....
Back we go, contrary to my earlier promises, back we go to Monika Rathgeber.
Oh, you have forgotten who Monika R. is ? Monika R is the lady who was in charge of the finances of the Province of Salzburg. Remember, she's the lady who invested hundreds of millions of Euros, which the Province received from the Federal Government to build homes, in the money market. She, it was originally assumed, "verzockt" (high risk .gambled) funds and accumulated losses in excess of 345 million Euros.
Then they counted it all again and found that she actually made 70 Million Euros. It took weeks and weeks of painstaking search to establish this miracle. For a long while nobody knew where all these funds lay hidden.
Some people suggested that now all is okay. Monika didn't loose money playing the market, she actually made money doing this. Other people, a bit smarter than the average politician, said: "Hold it... gambling with taxpayers money is "verboten" or should be against the law.
So they established a panel to closely examine the entire sad affair. This "Examination Panel" (Untersuchungs-Ausschuss) called for witnesses, who will be examined. (An entire day has been set aside for the examination of Monika) and, of course, this Panel called for documents.
The documents were delivered. See there... entire sections were blacked out, however.
Rightly some members of the Panel protested, that such "Censorship" would make it difficult, if not impossible, to get to the bottom of the entire scandal.
The chair of this Examination Panel, one Ms. Astrid Rössler however commented: "I was told, that the black-outs  concern only personal data and in reading the documents I concluded that nothing essential was blacked out."
Now isn't this precious....  The Chair of the Examination Panel is satisfied to accept the censored documents, because 'somebody told her 'that only personal data were blacked out and in any event, reading these documents convinced her that nothing important was blacked out.'
How does she know, how does anybody know the importance of a blacked-out section of a document?
A Panel of Examiners must be given uncensored information.
For Goodness sake, we are not talking here of military secrets, the publication of which may endanger the security of the country...we are talking about documents, likely dealing with the investment procedures and financial dealings of Monika Rathgeber and her political  bosses. Are those politicians trying to hide their personal involvement in this nefarious affair? Why is the Chair of the Panel so quickly content with such censorship?
Something smells here to high heaven.
It would not surprise me if the witnesses  called would show up with a band-aid over their mouths, so that they could not reveal personal data, and, in any event, the fact that they could not talk 
doesn't really matter, since they would have nothing important to say. So the Chairlady of the Untersuchungs-Ausschuss was told by somebody.
Are they not ashamed of themselves?

You know who would be ashamed ?
Bertstravels, that's who.

The King of Schladming

Schladming is a small town, more like a large Village, situated in the Province of Styria, in Austria.
About 4,500 inhabitants call it "home". It is surrounded by the most beautiful mountains and is a favourite spot for tourists from all over the world, Summer and Winter.
The citizens have recently elected a King.
First they hung three Goldmedals around his neck and then they proclaimed him: "King of Schladming".
What makes this so interesting is, that this new King of S. isn't even an Austrian.
He is, in fact, a Citizen of the United States of America and his name is Ted Ligety.
During the World Championships of Alpine Skiing, Ted garnered three Goldmedals in absolutely sovereign style. This is a feat which has not happened in 45 years, when a Frenchman, named Jean Claud Killey   did it for the last time. Before Jean Claude it was the Austrian from the town of Kitzbühel who won the Gold in Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom. at the Olympic Games in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, in 1956.
Ted Ligety is the first American to ever win 3 Golds in one competition .
When he was asked if President Obama had called him to congratulate him, he answered with a sly grin:
"No, Obama has not called nor has he sent me an SMS."
Ted Ligety is not only the King of Schladming, but he seems to be a thoroughly nice man with a brilliant smile.

My son, Steven and his family were in Schladming last winter and he probably skied the same slopes as Ted. Maybe not quite as fast, though.

Bertstravels is definitely not a skier...

Not a Good Week... not at all a good week...

Last week I slipped on a patch of ice, fell backwards and landed on my left hand. Xrays showed, fortunately, no break, but a severe contusion. And the outside bone of my left wrist was pushed out of alignment.
When the doctor at the hospital pushed it back into place, I almost murdered him..  the pain was severe.

Then I lost the key to the front door.

On Wednesday, Herwig, my nephew called me with the sad news, that his mother, my sister, not unexpectedly,  had passed away. She was in her 91st year and had not been well for the last few month or so. During the last few weeks of her life, she was almost constantly in a stage of semi consciousness. During the last seven days she ate or drank nothing. Last Wednesday, my sister, Inge, closed her eyes for the last time. She died peacefully and without pain at age 90+....  

The Church Service was short and without "pomp and circumstance". The priest spoke without the usual Catholic Pathos. He spoke quietly and to the point. Herwig gave a very lovely laudatio, describing her life in short outline with a lot of love. The burial service too was conducted by the priest in lovely and short language. Then we all left and, as is the custom here, all assembled in a nearby "Gasthaus" for a meal in Inge's honour.

My mother used to tell me that I, the youngest of her four children was, for her, the easiest and least troublesome to raise. Why ? I asked. "Well", she said, "I had a full time mother's assistant."

When I was borne, my sister Inge was 10 years old and simply took over the job of 'mother'.
She would prepare the milk bottle, test the temperature on her wrist and feed me. She changed my diapers, she took me for walks in the baby carriage, she cuddled me when, for some reason, I cried. She got me dressed in the morning before she went to school...  and so on... and so on...
She was, in other words, my surrogate mother, to the extent that her own life, like school, allowed this.

Now Inge is gone and I will have to fend for myself. Test the milk on my own wrist and cuddle myself when I cry.

I will show you some pictures of Inge and the funeral.

That's the way time goes by...
so says Bertstravels.

Ingeborg (Inge) Reitter-Schreckeneder 1922 - 2013

At Inge's 90th birthday

Inge