All righty. Now have icon, title, subtitle. Here I go a'bloggin. 

Last night I was sitting around in a mediocre bar talking to a friend who thinks that anybody can write a book. Thought I would start out small with a posting instead. That has to be progress.
 
It was a weird evening.  There were these two wandering carpenter-apprentices who came in to the bar,tapped their strange twisty canes on the floor to get our attention, recited a funny poem, then passed their hats around collecting change. Sounds like the beginning of a joke but actually in Germany if you take up a trade like carpentry, you are required to spend a couple of years wandering far from home and learning your trade. Just like in the middle ages, I guess.  Not sure how it works exactly but it must not pay well. I know that the apprentices are not allowed to go within a certain distance of their home town for two or three years. Must remember to ask someone to explain it to me sometime.