They Had Us At Hello.

Rechnitz shines.

Day two of our ice saga. Bitterly cold, minus 11 earlier but a warm minus 7 as we speak. Walking only possible dressed to disguise and work absolutely impossible, Bob's work that is. His boss luckily called an ice day and thankfully so because I was considering all sorts of hats and scarves to disguise Bob with.

Great, a day off and too cold to do much more than hibernate inside. All we still needed was a contingent of pellets. Normally we go to the Lagerhaus in Deutsch Schützen but it being Tuesday, they were closed. They do that a lot, you know! The chariot had a few occasions to boycott this extremely cold weather and it was touch and go whether it would deign to turn over and spring to life. Yesterday afternoon I almost had to cancel my lesson. After four false starts the spluttering took hold and off I went but the whole time I was at my lesson I was stressing that it might not start up for my journey home. Hill starts and me are a no-go.

Bob got it started earlier this morning and not to jinx it, we decided to make a run for Rechnitz's branch of Lagerhaus ( yes, they open like normal shops do ) to fill up our supply of pellets. At minus a gazillion degrees outside one doesn't even want to contemplate running out of heating supplies. Even with our radiators glowing we are both still dressed in several layers of warm togs.

Bob's been getting many a supply for his work from the Rechnitz Lagerhaus because they are open when one needs stuff. Before we walked into the shop itself we saw our chimney sweep's car parked outside. As we entered, he saw us and gave a friendly wave and even came over to ask us what had made us shop so far from home.

Bob went further into the shop and suddenly we heard:

" Hi, too cold to work in the vineyard? "

How jolly nice was that. Bob, who'd only been frequenting this Lagerhaus for a few months as opposed to a few years of our local one, was greeted with anything but an occasional bored nod. Brilliant. We were both floored, Bob a bit less than me as he was chuffed as blazed and had his head held high off the floor.

You know, a friendly smile and personalized greeting does so much more than mere advertising. As we've always been told by our parents, a smile and friendly greeting doesn't cost anything but means the world to the begetter. Thank you, Lagerhaus Rechnitz.

Biggi