Two Stories

 After a weekend review of the next round of 'ultra' Covid-19 ban rules.....I came to realize that only one single type of mask will be acceptable....if you ride buses/trains or shop in grocery/pharmacy stores (the only shops open presently).  That mask is the FFP-2 type.  Yes, the regular cloth type (washable) and the normal surgical paper mask?  They won't be acceptable.  

So I'm sitting here with five or six cloth masks, and a box of forty paper masks....worthless.

A month ago, if you wanted the FFP-2 type masks....they were around at most every shop, and priced at 1.05 to 1.50 Euro.  

Yesterday?  The first two stops were worthless....they were out.  Finally, I came to a drug store, and they had them.....3.00 Euro each.  Yep...they were probably making around 2 Euro in profit.  I bought a couple for the wife and I, and just figure I'll hunt down sources in the future via the internet.  

Made in China label?  Yes, readily apparent.  If you asked me the manufactured price?  I'd suggest roughly 25 Euro-cents.  There's something wrong here but you can't put your finger upon it.

So the second story.  Our household consists of two cars (one relatively new, and a 13-year old Audi TT).  

Around the Christmas holidays, we used the newer car for the most part.  Over a two week period, the TT just didn't get driven or cranked up much.  Curiously, this car has the original battery.  

Wednesday of last week came and the car was used for a brief 5-minute drive to a grocery.  Upon arriving back at the house, and attempting to back into the car-port....I rolled the window down to see better.  Once in the spot, I hit the button to raise the window.  It failed....nothing went up.

I suspected the window motor finally failed.  I checked the fuzes....no problem there.  

Getting a reservation these days with the German mechanics?  Near impossible.  So yesterday morning....a appointment came up.  The TT cranking up?  Nope....that battery was completely dead.  I called the ADAC guy and he jumped it, and I made a straight-line drive to the mechanic.  About halfway there, I hit the raise-button on the window, and shockingly....it rose.  

Prognosis?  The window motor requires a certain amount of amperage from the battery, and last week's condition of the battery was that it was in a dying stage....not enough juice for the simple raising of the window. 

The mechanic?  He's putting in a new battery, and there's probably still six more years of service out of the car.  The lesson learned.....a 13-year old battery is simply not going to last forever, and one day you might be stuck somewhere with the window in the down position.