Viennese Palaces (+) in a Day; or, I'm just a simple gardener

[There were many photos.  Here's the link to the new album.  Enjoy.  I know some will beg for captions.  Another day, another life. ]

The second title comes from the voice over, and EH's constant repetition of it, from the palace tour at Schonnbrun...and then again at their other place in the city, Hofburg.   Also known as "Sisi's rooms."  (more on that, gag gag, later)

So you get the gist of all this, and our prole response, here's the "summer palace" --

A mere 1,000 rooms.

But the Hapsburgs, as we were told repeatedly, wanted to have the common touch, so they all learned a trade.  The last one was a gardener.  Of course, as Meg pointed out, he was a "simple gardener who had two attendants to pull him out of his bath every morning and wipe him down" or, as I put it so eloquently standing in line, I wasn't sure if this characteristic made them better or more likely to have someone attempt to assassinate them -- which happened regularly it seems.  You know, the simple emperor with 1,000 rooms, with gilt on the walls, the man of the people, and all...SMN!

But, on a slightly lighter note, we started the day with this --

This place, the Cafe Einstein, was two blocks from the hotel.  And, yes, ICYMI, on the left front corner is custard.  EH *made* me eat it for breakfast.  The waiter didn't speak English and neither did the menu, so we worked Google translate hard (a handy thing) and this is what we ordered.  Their "grosse" as I recall.  Oh, and, not pictured, it came with breads and two boiled eggs.

The discussion, given all the pics of Einstein on the walls, led to Albert (who we determined had nothing to do with Vienna, but is an intellectual rock star and all).  Having read Isaacson's biography and seen the first 3 episodes of the National Geographic series, I pointed out his genius was based on a few papers written in one year.  I was given heck!  "How many times did the man have to re-write physics?!?!?!?"  I just pointed out that the great man himself made no bones about it, according to Isaacson (and his own papers) that he was disappointed he never got further on the General Theory.  You know, light breakfast conversation.

Then to Schonnbrun.  1,000 rooms.  Summer place.  A la Versailles.  Supposedly Marie Antoinette was overwhelmed by Versailles, but given the size of this place, well...

We heard a lot about how the next-to-last Emperor, Franz Joseph, who ruled 68 years up to 1916, was such a common guy.  Got up early, worked hard days, didn't like pomp.  Just ruled over 70 million people and had places in Vienna with 1,000 and 2,500 rooms.  You know, Joe Shmo on the street.

After lunch (pictured), we took the U(nderground) to the other palace -- the Sisi Museum. Okay, if we were gagging a bit at Schonnbrun, it gets better.  Sisi, Elizabeth, was Franz Joseph's wife.  They married when she was 16, a Bavarian princess.  She was a very attractive woman and the voice over let us knew she knew it and worked to keep it that way -- including a study where she actually worked out (a chin up bar, rings, etc).

Sisi gets credit for the stuff in this palace.  This was the big one downtown, which many generations built onto, until the 2,500 rooms.  The tour began with, and I'm not making this up, 40 rooms of silver and plates.  40.  No shit.  EH asked at one point why anyone needed that many gilded candelabras...

After the 40 rooms, which we didn't dally in, we went through the royal apartments.  The voice over in the audio guide included the same lines about Franz Joseph our everyman (with 2,500 rooms here, right?) etc.  They seem particularly proud of a recording they have of him saying the pro forma words at the end of his audience, which roughly translated were "nice talking to you, we're done."  Except shorter.  He wasn't wasting much time with small talk.  You know, being busy working on the empire and all.

By the end of all this,  EH was worn down, so we stopped for a drink (there's a Starbucks in central Vienna!?!!? who knew?!!?!?) and I walked down to see St. Stephen's "dom" as it's named.  The 900 year old structure is an excellent example of Gothic architecture.   And love those roof tiles.  I bet those aren't 11th century.

and, gentle reader, if you thought we were too pooped to poop, no!  We then walked the 900 meters (so saith Google maps, liar!) to the "Secession."  This is a small gallery famous for its Klimpt mural.  You will seem some pictures of some of the art there...and, yes, really, there are rocks on the floor as one exhibit.  Yes.  Really.   And then there's the shot that you may not recognize, there's a bottle of water on that post in the middle of the room.  NO!  Not "a bottle of water" but a half...half...full? empty? bottle of water.  SMN #2.

Then back to the hotel for a pre-dinner nap and shower.  Then to a nearby "Austrian" cafe, after an abortive stop, and we had this, yes, this for dessert!  Finally, strudel!  And, yes, my friends, EH really did burst into "Toaster Stroo-dle" as the waitress walked away with our order.  Where's the embarrassed emoticon? 😞

Now, back to Sisi:  Sisi bore Franz Joseph, who the voiceover said adored her, multiple children (who can keep track of all the Franz's?) but she wasn't big on much of it.  They quoted her on marriage about spending 30 years having been forced into a decision at age 15 that you didn't understand.  She wrote poetry and liked to travel and was "rarely at court."  He had like 6 pictures of her in his study/office.  She had none of him in her similar room.  All of her family back in Bavaria and the youngest daughter.

Well, Sisi had the luck of history on her side: in 1896 or abouts she was assassinated by an Italian activist while in Switzerland.  She was laid in state at the Hofburg, where we were, and etc etc, creating almost instantly a cult of Sisi.  There are movies.  Some from Hollywood.  etc etc.

Let me finish with some generalizations: we've read that Vienna is regularly ranked as the best city in the world to live in.  We see that.  It is clean.  The underground runs on time.  It seems to have everything you'd want in terms of culture.  However, we both liked Budapest better.  Dirtier, grittier, no one seemed worried about time -- my anecdote was that the woman at the checkout counter at Schonnbrun asked for my ID!  I was using my AAA travel card.  I hadn't signed it.  No one had asked in 5 days.  But she pointed out that it said "not valid without signature."  I pointed out I had no ID that matched the embossed "Travel Card" on the front. :) . I showed her my passport, she said "I had to..." and I wondered...WTF!

Now, to traveling: I admit to screwing up this arrangement in Vienna.  We are staying in a very nice hotel -- at least one star better than the one in Budapest -- across the street from the university.  However, as I scouted and arranged this, it was supposed to be "close" to the train station -- turns out we came into a different train station!  and it's not close to the center of town, really (not like in Budapest), so there are places to eat, but it's not touristy, so Google translate is teaching us new words.  Like Frielandi -- which is a free range egg.

As you can see from the pictures, there would be much else to tell, but I have 50% more steps on my Fitbit today than any other day on the trip.  And tomorrow there's another gallery, and then to Bratislava...where I'm not sure what to expect, although we are booked in the only (who's surprised it's just one?) 5-star hotel in the city.

I will go to sleep tonight, pondering 3,500 rooms and being a simple gardener.  :)

Midway (between Budapest and Vienna)

EH has me humming Strauss's *Blue Danube.*  Or some off-key proximity thereof.  She started this when she actually saw the Danube for the first time in Budapest on Monday night.  She's kept it up even after recognizing Strauss was Austrian...until today, where we passed a hotel named after him.  Yes, it's like that in Vienna.

But first what EH calls "traveling with pedants."  The esoteric discussion over dinner last night was "what is the difference between a dumpling and pasta."  Since most readers will know how I feel about pasta, you can imagine how this comes up.  Since I am NOT a fan of dumplings.  She says "they are the same thing" and it goes from there.  Answer: although they can have the same ingredients, no one "prepares" dumplings, unlike rolling pasta.  I argue the dumplings I know have no eggs, but her google search denies this.  You know you can find ANYTHING on google.

Dinner tonight.  Picture.

For those of you (cough cough) who do the German thing, you may recognize this as a "palatschinken."  Right.  Anyway, the English version of the menu called it a "pancake."  We laughed at the translation: either the Austrians are still pissed about Marie Antoinette and don't want to touch French or they have a serious misconception of a pancake.  (they are crepes...duh)

Which led to the "what's the difference between a crepe and a pancake" question -- pedants on vacation.   Answer: pancakes have a rising agent. 

So, dinner.  We found this cafe which was quite nice about a ten minute walk from our hotel, which is quite nice.  EH ordered...wait for it...Viennese goulash!  What??!?! What, what?!!?!?  

She did not say for a fact it was better than the Budapest version, but she did admit potatoes make everything better (for her).   It was "more vinegary."  Thus saith Julie Child. 

We arrived in Vienna after a mostly blah train ride, where there was no Wifi as promised till we reached Austria (and no cell service for us, though, as is traditional, someone nearby had phone conversations AND someone else had their phone set on "alert me if there's wind" and it beeped constantly -- thanks, dude, glad to know you're so popular, but TURN IT OFF!!!!!).

Karen asked for pictures from the train.  Like this one. 

Nope, don't know.  We went through cities with names I'd never heard before.   All in western Hungary.  There was no landscape worth documenting at 70 mph and the rail stops weren't anything to blog about either. 

We ate lunch outside the rail station in Pest (pronounced for us pedants as "pesht"), eschewing instead of chewing Burger King, McDonalds and KFC.  I'm not making this up.  OC there was a Starbucks there and...wait for it -- one on our walk to dinner here in Vienna.  You see my shocked face. 

Our morning included a trip out to Heroes monument, a circle on the end of one of Pest's avenues.  This was built in 1899 for the Millenial Exhibition.  It's Gabriel on the column and a bunch of guys named Milosc and Laslo are the statues.  

The Agricultural Museum looks like an old church --

and there's a spring that spits out hot water (72 degrees C, we were told by the tour guide) from under the Heroes square -- and into their "famous" baths (we went in, saw no one bathing, and left).  If you can figure this one out: you can drink the bath water (yuck) and it helps your gastro-intestinal ailments.  By killing you, most likely. 

And that was it.  

Some things to know: several times I was asked if I wanted my purchase on my Visa card (don't leave home without it) in HUFs or in American dollars or Euros.  I ended up going with HUFs -- the one time I know they wanted $12+ and the charge came through as $11.50.  Shysters.  

Also worth knowing: most of the good stuff in Istanbul is on the European side of the Dardanelles.  Just sayin'.  

Tomorrow we are going to maybe two palaces.  If EH is up to it.  She had a bout of the water retentions today and we had to slow down.   She seems better before and after dinner (didn't have the multiple glasses of Hungarian wine with her goulash tonight).  So, fingers crossed.  And, to save time, we aren't hopping on and off, but taking the underground (the Metro) straight to places tomorrow and Friday.  An hour dragging around the city on a bus is a good way to get to know a place, but it cuts into your actual looking time. 

But here's our first impression: Vienna ain't no Budapest.  The train station was newer, sleeker and more lively.  The taxi driver was Nikki Lauda.  The church near our hotel (Votivkirche) is only 150 years old but is mistaken for a Gothic one in town that's 700 years older.  Vienna is cleaner and you can tell this was the rich end of the Empire.  Bastards!  Bigger buildings, bigger promenades, you name it.  

But it looks nice. 

Here's the picture link.  I'll create a new album tomorrow for photos, so there won't be so many to get through.  

We're halfway through.  Arrividerci.  Or...guten nicht or some such shite. 

Big Beautiful Day in Budapest

Warning! alliteration with B's coming.

It was a busy day with a bus ride in Budapest today.

Weather: when we got around to go out for the day it was 69.  For you foreigners, that's 20 in dog years.  It got up to around 80...with bright sun (as you'll see from the pics) -- warm.

To begin: we started the day non-too early, except for vacationers, as no site opened till 10.

Here's a pic of breakfast:

EH tells me (there's a reason why she's "Encyclopedia Hicks," EH) that Hungarians love their donuts.  There's actually a listing of top 13 donut shops in Budapest.  NS!

The one in 2nd row down, center right, pink with black center, if you can read the label, is "Happy Poo."

And, Mrs H rightly reminded me of the Jim Gaffigan rift from his new Netflix special about getting caught bringing donuts into the country.  "You know you can get them here, right?" :)

Then to the bottom of the hill in Buda (we are on the Pest side) and the ride of the funicular.  Here's my video -- it would have been better if we'd gotten in the first car instead of the second.  But fun, nonetheless. 

From the top of Castle Hill, the views are amazing.  Here's one.  And here's the link the photo album for the first two days (link):

 We spent a bunch of time in the Hungarian Historical Museum, based around the ruins and not-so-ruins of Buda [not Pest] Castle.  What we learned (adding to EH status): Hungary has spent most of its known history being someone else's b***h.  :).  They even credit the HUNS!  NS!  Then to the Angevins for a few centuries.  There was a Luxemborg prince.  A whole line of Polish kings.  And we shouldn't forget either a century under the Ottomans, another under the Hapsburgs, the Soviets...bleep, I could go on and on.

That they have any real history left is kinda amazing.   And, on top of that, the dumbasses tried to blow up and destroy part of the castle foundation during a construction project in the 50s!  Sheesh.

But our favorite line went something like this about the Soviet era: "the design of this space was bleak and soulless."  Uh huh.  Proud of THAT heritage, say what.

Then we went for a Hop On/Hop Off bus.

This led to today's "can't you be more stupid" tourist "moment."  We were told by a cashier who spoke something like English (we neither speak anything like Magyar, the language here, so she was WAY ahead of us :)) that the stop was down the hill.  We found the stop and the sign had a 3 on the poster.  Stop #3.  Got it.

We waited over half an hour, and we thought the buses were half an hour apart.  After some thinking and wondering, I finally figured out that the 3 was in a black circle and the black circle meant the black line, which, LO AND BEHOLD!  was the NIGHT line!  It wasn't coming for hours.

We walked down to the base of the hill, found sign #20, had "lunch" (I had apple strudel, EH had some green s**t on a pastry, seasoned, I was told, with paprika (wait for it -- this will become a thing soon).

We then rode for an hour.

Two things worth mentioning we saw on the ride: the St. Margrit's Bridge takes an 150 degree turn in the middle of the river (on St. Margrit's Island).   I've never seen such a thing.  Bizarre.

And there are parts of Pest, designed by a Frenchman in the 19th century, that remind you of the boulevards like Hauptmann in Paris.  Unlike the Parisians, they allow gaudy signs and wires for things like street lights and public transport, but the broad avenues with those design buildings have that feel.

Then off, near the hotel.  We then stopped for official lunch, which avid readers will remember from last summer's California trip.  That's EH with her mango strawberry ice cream.  Lunch of the gods.  Okay, in chocolate, it's lunch of the gods.  Mango.  Yuck.

 Not far from the ice cream we found!  this is the Michael memorial picture -- "oh, s**t! there's a Starbucks here."  Wait till you see the picture of the Hard Rock (there was one on Grand Place yesterday in Brussels and there's one somewhere here -- we've decided where 5 Americans are gathered there has to be a Hard Rock.  And where's there's 5 wannabe Irish Americans, there's an Irish Pub (there's one on the main drag here...sigh).

 Now, to the Budapest Eye.  For those of you who don't know, I don't *DO* heights.  EH was amazed I willingly paid and went up.   I was only a little sick. :). But got those great photos, including this one, which is of our hotel (it's right across the street).  The entrance is in that shadow on the left side, but that's it.  We have an inner facing room, so you can't see me standing at the window.  Nevermind.

And, then, after a nap (I have a rule about naps in the vacation agenda, which has been violated constantly since 2002), to dinner.

Another Hungarian place.  This one is small and busy -- the only table we needed to sit down and be done in less than two hours.  Here' the amuse bouche, which had garlic sour cream on top.  ICYMI that orange colored powder on top is...wait for it...paprika!  Who knew?

 Meg had the prix fixe, which included this goulash soup.

 I had the vegetarian option, which was mushroom paprishka (see the orange powder on top?) with dumplings.

 You can see the other items in the link -- Meg had duck over cabbage and we had dessert, mine the chocolate sauce (terrible idea!) slathered sponge cake and Meg the apple torte with custard sauce.

Then we went to St. Stephen's Basilica for a concert.  The organist was quite good (duh).  What I found amazing was the place echoed so much from the dome that I didn't know how the singers didn't just stop to let it roll by -- it was like the echo sometimes stepped on the next line.  I will spare you my "comic" asides ("she's good with that fiddle") and say that Meg's takeaway was that they claim to have St. Stephen's mummified hand in the crypt.  He's only been dead a thousand years!  Gee, I don't get why she questions this.

And, to come full circle (pun intended), here's the Budapest Eye, after the concert, from our hotel entranceway.  Nice, eh?

Great day.  Tomorrow, some Budapest, then off to Vienna (we have hotel reservations there tomorrow night).  Don't count on a blog.  Just sayin'

Day 1+?: Brussels and then Budapest

What day is it?

For those of you who have taken the international overnight flight to Europe, you will be familiar with this question.  You leave the States in the evening and then "sleep" on the plane (my Fitbit denies there was any sleep ): ) and then get off the plane having lost 6 hours (in our case).  

But it's vacation: every day's a Saturday, right?

The journey began in Brussels, where we'd never been, and which both EH and I enjoyed.  The highlight of Brussels, so some guide wag said, was the medieval part of the city.  So, that's where we went.  The Grand Place was excellent -- that's it in the photo.  

 You can see it is quite a nice square.  We were hungry (again, what day is it?) so we sat at the cafe on the square, on this beautiful, sunny day and had...yes, Belgian waffle.  And, no, it didn't taste differently than any other waffle -- the batter wasn't sweeter, the powdered sugar sugarier...but it was fun.

There was that one "stupid American" moment: the menu was in three languages.  So, I spoke some terrible variation of French and Spanglish to the waiter, something like "Merci, por favor."  EH laughed and laughed.

After buying some chocolates (there were only like 6 chocolate shops on the square, including the most famous to Americans, Godiva), EH saw a "comic strip" store and went in.  As I stood outside, leaning on the window sill, no less than two women (I'm NOT making this up) asked me for directions!  IN FRENCH!  The first was put off when I said I didn't speak French, but the second I was able to point toward what I thought was a taxi stand near the train station.  I guess I have that kind of look -- in French.

On the train to the airport, I embarrassed EH again (it's a gift).  The woman across from us was reading a paper titled "Metro" but it was in a language I didn't understand.  So, I asked.  "It's Flemish."  EH said "what did you think Flemish was?"  To which I responded, "Well, it used to be known as the Spanish Netherlands."  The woman smiled and said "Not since the 1500s."  Yes, I'm that old. 

Earlier, when EH wanted to know where Ghent was, as a train was heading there, I reported that all I knew of Belgian geography I got from Uncle Toby, who received his "war wound" (cough cough, literary allusion) "there" in Tristram Shandy during the War of Spanish Succession (ca. 1702).  Not many trains back then.

Then off to Budapest. 

Unbeknownst to us (till we got here), Hungary (to repeat my bro-law Butch's joke, where everyone is...wait for it...hungry) has its own currency.  Although part of the EU, they don't use the Euro!  According to the grocer, the current rate of exchange is 295 HUF to 1 euro!  Whoa!  so, here's what came out of the bank machine. 

 The ride from the airport was meh -- I did the bright thing of hiring a driver, who was waiting for us with the sign with my name on it (I've always wanted to tell someone I was Jones and take their driver :) ). Miklos did not speak much English, but he took his tip in euros. :)

The hotel is about what you expect from 3***s in Budapest, small, clean and ok.  Not your grandpa's Holiday Inn.  And the entryway!  Yikes!

But we are a five minute walk from the Danube and these views.

Budapest has some great looking buildings, but it does seem a bit...well, "Eastern Europe."  The Budapest Eye is right across the street -- tomorrow's blog MIGHT include shots from there.  I think you can see Putin from there. 

And, finally, Hungarian food.  We had the tapas plate, which included horse sausage (who knew?!  -- we were told that it is leaner than most sausage), and a cheese pate that was heavy on the paprika (this is true of ALL Hungarian food, it seems).  EH went for the veal ragout with dumplings (pictured).  It was quite good.

There was a donut shop across the street.  Which tells you where my mind is.

So, that's day 1, or 2, or 1+.  Catch you next time. 

On the Road Again!

Yes, it's that time of year again!  Rah rah!

You can see my bag is packed (packing cubes and all), tightly, ready for another trip and some pictures, some blogs, and, best, some quality experiences.

EH and I are going to Central Europe.  This is her "graduation present" -- we planned on doing it late last May but things never came together.

They did this year.


Where? Our layover Monday morning is 7 hours in Brussels, then to Budapest.  On Wednesday from Budapest to Vienna.  Friday evening to Bratislava.  Saturday noonish we go back to Budapest and fly home through Vienna (ironically).

Itinerary: after discussion, it was "castles, museums, and food."  Yes, I know where the two best donut shops in Budapest (there are such things) are. :)

So, look for your posting email & enjoy the ride.  We will.

Images (yes, many of food) of a Faculty Strike

Hello happy Readers!  I am back because I wanted to put down for my posterior (#joke) what happened this week -- we went on strike!  APSCUF went on strike!  Never done in our 40+ years. Forced to it by a bunch of bunglers on the other side (I recognize the redundancy of that statement).

Let me start with MY overview: it was a great experience!  We had a membership meeting last night (Friday) where many people talked about the friends they had made, friends they had reconnected with and that next time they were asked to authorize a strike, or even do it, it would be an easy call.

IT WAS A WHOLLY POSITIVE EXPERIENCE.

[late addition: my string bag items for first day]

LHU hat, hand  cleaner, REAL drugs, mini-speaker, "schmoo" (hi-tech drink thing), minor drugs, breath mints (a la lobbying school), recharging battery...umbrella & gore-tex pants followed

My role was a picket captain.  When I signed on, I asked if I got a captain's hat; I was told "sure."  (Liars!)  But I "found" a hat.  Here's the picture from day 1:

And, if you missed it, that IS a parrot on my shoulder (more momentarily).  Because every captain in the movies has a parrot on their shoulder -- right, matey? My two shifts called me "Cap'n Graybeard" because, I was told, "Captain Steve" just sounded so...well, not nautical.

BTW, you can see Mark Cloud, in his blue APSCUF shirt, in the background.

I texted both my "crews" (we had 2-hour shifts and we told to take 2 each), supposedly at "5:30 on Wednesday" (it was really 6:30) to make sure they knew we were out & we'd see each other soon.  They all responded with something like "aye aye, captain."  LOL.

I wrote an email about being on faculty strike that I never sent, from my experience in 2011 in California (in two days, I got tear-gassed and then picketed -- an interesting experience.  I love LA!), that said it was a lot of walking, some bonding, and a lot of boredom.  Back and forth, back and forth.  I logged 39,000+ steps in 3 days -- I only took 56K ALL WEEK last week.  There hasn't been enough ibuprofen.

But get this: the one member of my crew, Kate from Rec Science (you'll see that she's both "young" and fit) did 50,000 steps on Thursday!!!!  I think she did 4 shifts.  Inspiring.  And tiring.

#EATING OUR WAY TO A CONTRACT

Since this blog often focuses on food, I can move to that via the students -- they kept bringing food on Wednesday.  And Thursday.  I put in pictures in order...

Crew member Paul with Wed quick lunch -- MacD's (a terrible theme; BTW -- the president's office is in that building in the background)

I thought we had MacD's in last picture!

Warm snickerdoodles.  I can resist anything but warm cookies! 

My lunch Thursday (there was a meeting so I was in "the Temple") -- that's a cheesesteak & donut.  #heart healthy

My vegan officemate Tracey posing taking a freshly baked muffin from one of our English majors

President-elect Matt Girton wanted this shot taken of him finally eating something healthy -- brought by wiser students :) 

Finally for brunch on Friday, yes, that's moist chocolate cake with a heavy layer of peanut butter icing on it.

STUDENTS

If you can't tell from the pics and food above, the students were great.  I wasn't doing numbers (gee, I'm an English professor) but on Wednesday there were lots there, bringing food, just saying hi and talking, and many picketing with us.

(Side story: I talked to a colleague last night -- I knew everyone in the room, OC -- who had his daughter on the line with him yesterday, aged about 12, who wanted to bring her great grandfather's miners helmet and did.  Generational unionism.  Awesome)

They also went into the admin building and had a sit in around noon Wednesday.    The President didn't even stick his head out of his office.  (this in stark contrast to my friend the president at West Chester, who was pictured on Twitter out on the line, shaking students hands and talking to them -- the caption said "this is what leadership looks like.")

We were especially warmed by our (English) majors -- many, many, many came by, stayed and chatted, some brought food, some walked the line, including Meghan, our English Major of the Year two years ago, who walked multiple shifts over multiple days.  Props.

Frank

At some point I was inspired by my parrot to name him/her.  When the shit hit the fan on Tuesday night, and the system was no longer talking, I realized the parrot's name should be Frank.

Frank became famous, of course.  My favorite point on this was running into the HR director, who was friendly back before she got this gig (she worked as the provost's AA) and I was just a faculty member signing a temp contract every year.  She looked at the parrot and I said "his name is Frank" and she said "I don't want to know."  On her return from Starbucks (no, she didn't get me one...so close and so far) she overheard me give Frank's routine: "I expect them to take birdseed...I stopped talking on Tuesday..."  She said "I don't want to know, I don't want to know..." I yelled out his Twitter address.

Frank made the paper (it's a long story but here -- http://www.lockhaven.com/news/local-news/2016/10/faculty-strike-at-lhu-across-the-state/) but here was Frank's reaction --

Frank(THE FL parrot) ‏@FrankFLparrot  Oct 20

Toy effing' parrot! What what what?! Frank. My name is Frank! D*****t! I'm famous! For my color. For my early bedtime! For not talking!

I got a lot of mileage out of Frank. As I should. His last tweet, after the settlement, complained about the lack of mention in some of the press releases and that he decided he'd just go back to Florida.

LOL.

HOME

I think everyone reading this, or on the original distribution list at least, know I live in a mixed home: I'm a union officer and my wife is in HR in the system. I can say, after the strike, we are still married! I know many wonder how that has happened AT ALL for 35 years, but we are actually speaking lovingly this morning. But it was a rough week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we competed to see who could get out the house earliest (I won Friday...someone was losing energy as the week progressed), and Wednesday and Thursday she worked till after 8 PM. She said "just the normal 14 hour day."

And this gives me an opportunity to grouse about the system's management (I mean Frank, mostly, and his predecessors) and their strategy on our contracts. The only time we've gotten one on time since Jim White and Jim McCormack wrote one on a napkin in the mid-nineties (I've seen the napkin), was when we said we weren't working without a contract in 2007, and most of us know how well that went on the union side. They waste huge amounts of human energy with this -- the last week the number of hours of meetings, of work in HR offices, is just ridiculous. Moving off campus, contingency plans, having someone go to classes to take attendance, it's all just a big waste and no Chancellor for 20 years has seemed to care. I guess it's Marxist: those who make the decisions really don't care what it does to those of us proles in the trenches, on both sides.

I feel for those in those offices around the system who had to grind all this out, and still will have to put it all back together. Not so bad as to not strike, but bad in the big picture.

The Organization and the Finish

One question is always "how (not can) do we pull this off?" It seems having had two strike workshops was beneficial (I'm here taking credit for the one in 2013 being helpful) because the mobilization chair, our assistant chair, PR chair, spokesperson, and student liaison did great jobs. And the equipment put together -- like bullhorns -- was right. It was smooth as you could expect. The one thing I missed from California was a port-a-potties (CFA hired a consultant to put their strike in '11, with solar powered phone chargers, pop up canopies, coolers and nutritious snacks and high quality sound systems) -- but we all survived, though I'd hate to be the person who cleans the bathrooms in the three homes we used for 3 days.

As I arrived Friday morning (about 830), Rep. Mike Hanna, who is on the Board of Governors, pulled up to our picket station and said that an agreement was close at hand and to hang on and he thought there'd be a deal by noon. Word spread. When asked, I said, we picket till we're told not to -- more than one "almost agreement" has slipped into days, weeks, to nail down.

My heroes (and friends) -- our negotiating team: from left, Ken (Mr President), Mary Rita, Jamie (VP with the lights over her head -- ironically angelic????), Amy, and Chris, with Stuart (our hired gun) in front signing. 

But Friday we had weather. In the night Thursday night the area had 4-7" of rain (my source is a guy in a tee and shorts in Sheetz Friday morning); it was overcast and spitting all morning. Then, around noon, the wind started howling. A student had come by and brought a tarp and hung it between trees with real ship knots and we scrambled to untie it and cover our signs. We used a cooler and folding chair to hold it down, somehow in the meantime using someone's "stuff" (including keys) as the trashbag. She scared us more than the storm yelling at us. LOL.

So all the picketers gathered in the Masonic Temple downtown, our temporary off-campus on Main St., and they had homemade vegetable soup (never got there) and then more MacDonald's (yes, at one  point I had a cheeseburger).  

We had decided to have an all member meeting Friday evening to look at the last proposals and get everyone psyched up for Monday morning -- thinking we wanted to be strong if we went to week 2.  We had slideshow, prepared of course by Mark, ready, but knowing that there was stuff in the air -- Stan (our chapter president) had another conference call at 3:40.  He came out saying it was over -- then the official message came from the state office.  & Mark started working on the slide show of the agreement.  I bought beer.  

It was quite the celebration -- I counted 100 there at one point and some people came and went. 

Many people spoke.  One recurrent theme was our solidarity, and the help and support of so many students.  Many walked the line, many brought food, many were supportive by honking as they passed, some wrote emails to our president, the real Frank, the Governor and representatives.  And they didn't overdo going to class -- we'll spin it positively that they supported the faculty who told them they'd be out on strike.  

It was one happy group in that room last night.  We talked about how easy it'd be next time -- and we're willing for there to be a next time -- and how close we felt after all going through all this.  One of the scabs came and gave a painful speech about how he screwed up and was too weak and knew he didn't deserve the benefits we'd gone out for but he knew that now and he'd be there from now on.  He got some applause.  No one wanted any downers.  (one funny story, one Exec Council member, who might be a bit intense ran into the Starbucks on East Campus [I teach 2 classes there this semester] to yell "scab, scab, scab" at a guy as he got his coffee and then tried to get to his office and, the next day, said he saw another scab a block and a half a day went running after her yelling "scab" but he said "she's faster than I am."  LOL.  Some people will have a tough time ahead.  Just sayin'.  I don't remember there names -- right?

And, so, today, I'm home, not picketing, with a good TA, and a great experience.  

And here's my departmental colleagues (the ones left at the end of the meeting, rocking the blue T-shirts & one Hogwarts scarf): 

From left Nicole, David, Gayatri, Lisette, me, & Rick (the radical)

And, to finish, my memento from 2011 that came in damned handy this time (I have several crew members deaf in an ear...sorry!)  I'll put it aside till next time.  Somewhere, sometime.