Only the postman

Like a total eclipse of the sun -- Easter slowdown in Germany.

The first year we were here, we barely had enough food in the cupboard to make it through the Easter holidays. 

Not for lack of money - that will happen in the future - but because the shop opening hours surprised us. Several months later, we had another out of shopping experience and stood in front of a closed grocery store on a Monday morning.

Feeling like complete idiots.

We got over it, but the Easter and Christmas lulls continue to feel odd. Back stateside, Easter was no big deal, and Christmas was the day the Koreans and Chinese fed the whole country, or so it could seem.

Whereas around here, only the postman goes about his routine while the rest of the country is in front of their TVs, out walking in "nature", hypnotized by the blinking lights of the casinos, or sitting in southbound monster traffic jams.

Easter is one of the times that reminds us that people are very funny critters.

The relentless activities, so critical in our daily quest to prevent the skies from falling down - they stop, and the skies stay up there. They don't fall down, they don't even get lopsided or creak like an old barn under stress.

Nothing, nada.

In a week or so from now, the single-mindedness will kick in again, as if nothing had happened.  

The 18 wheelers will rumble and hiss, the trains will rush from economic hub to economic hub, the traders will yell and the politicians whine (and yell), the spreadsheets will fill and become verdicts on people and companies.

In the meantime, TheEditor, bolstered by successfully passing several citizenship tests, will have a look at the latest papers and certainly find something that fits his editorial philosophy "if you can spew inanities and innuendo, so can we".

And the postman will be there.