Water Subscription Contract: Fill & Download for Free

I would also first say, as an American, that there are probably fewer annoying aspects of life in Germany than there are in the U.S. So the following criticisms are friendly. But, since you asked… (these are not in any particular order):Sunday store closures, especially drugstores if you happen to have a medical problem and suddenly discover you lack the OTC treatment you thought you had. You can go to an emergency Apotheke, but it’s a pain in the neck. And I miss the 24 hour drugstores of NYC.No class action lawsuits. And home buyers are very disadvantaged when they attempt to sue a home builder who has botched the job. I speak from experience. Very long court process, with very stupid rules. In certain areas, you as a consumer are far more disadvantaged in Germany than you are in the U.S., as Germans who bought Volkswagen diesels can tell you.Being an American in Germany when someone like Trump is President is incredibly annoying. He just seems to validate all the nasty things that many Germans have said about the U.S. over the years. It was a lot easier to counter anti-Americanism when Obama was in the Oval Office.The driver’s license isn’t accepted as ID. This was nightmarishly driven home recently when I tried to see an ER doctor and the admitting nurse started yelling at me that there’s an “Ausweispflicht” in Germany, so I should’ve had my passport on me. But the passport has no information that’s not on the German driver’s license, and you can only get the license if you have the passport, so by the transitive property… Ugh. Every once in a while you come up against these inane rules that have no logic behind them. Of course, you have them in the U.S., too, but if you grow up with them, you’re used to them. Plus, for Germans, this rule is fine, because their ID is the size of a driver’s license and fits easily in a wallet, whereas non-EU citizens have to carry their awkward-sized passports around with them all the time (which I don’t do).German notaries. I. Hate. Them. They serve no purpose and they charge based on the total value of whatever’s being dealt with in the legal document. So, they provide no service to you except giving your document a signature and a stamp, and then they bill you for an astronomical sum.Germany puts a special punitive tax treatment on non-EU citizen expats who have non-retirement brokerage accounts in their home country (country of origin) and who want to own ETFs or mutual funds in those accounts. (And America has similarly heinous rules that prevent Americans living abroad from buying German ETFs and mutual funds and REITs in their German brokerage account.) So if you want to invest in a non-retirement account, you basically have to buy individual securities, which requires a lot more research and a lot more risk.If you’re a U.S. expat, having to file tax returns in both the USA and Germany is more than annoying. It is a major drag. And it’s expensive.The prevalence of cigarette smoking and the government’s decision to allow smoking in bars and clubs that don’t serve meals.If you want to fly to a warm island with beautiful beaches and warm ocean waters to break up the cold and dismally dark winter, you have to fly a long, long time.No cold noodles with sesame sauce in the Chinese restaurants here. Frozen yogurt places typically only offer one or two flavors of frozen yogurt. I asked a German froyo owner about this once and he told me that Germans don’t like to have too many choices. ( ! ) Also: No NY-style deli! If you go into a bakery that serves sandwiches, they’ll usually have pre-made sandwiches in a little glass display, and if they don’t have what you want, they won’t make a fresh sandwich for you. Even though they have the ingredients. I find it really bizarre. And they just don’t have NY-style thick subs here, just the damn “Subway” chain. On the bright side: It makes it easier to lose weight, I guess.The Anmeldungsamt and Abmeldungsamt every time you move to a new address: Annoying.Want a library card? You need to find that Anmeldungsformular and present it to the library with your passport (AUSWEISPFLICHT!). The New York Public Library was satisfied with some envelopes showing I received mail at the address I provided. (At least, that’s how it worked in the 1990s.)In Berlin: Militant bicyclists who think they should never be required to brake or alter their trajectory under any circumstances while blowing through red lights and violating every conceivable traffic rule: Annoying.Watching the Heute Show shamelessly rip off the Daily Show but without being nearly as funny: Annoying.Having to listen to the “Leitkultur” debate that comes up every few years: Annoying. (Repetitive political debates are annoying everywhere, of course, but this one seems especially pointless.)If you place a German book on the table with the front cover facing upwards, the text on the side binding is upside down. I don’t know why, but this drives me up the frickin’ wall. It just seems like a blatantly stupid decision and I don’t understand why German publishers persist in sticking with it.As long as I’m being petty: I don’t know if this is just a Berlin thing, but most restaurants are so cheap that their bathroom sinks only let you wash their hands in ice cold water, which is annoying in the winter. I don’t find this to be the case in other European countries — you can wash your hands in warm water in Spain, France, Italy, etc. This isn’t the case everywhere in Germany, of course, but I encounter it a lot. (On the plus side, the public toilets in Germany are almost always extraordinarily clean, which is far from true in France or Spain. Oh, what I have seen in France and Spain… [shudder]).Most subscription contracts — for magazines, cell phones, or fitness clubs — have a rule that you have to notify them that you don’t want automatic contract renewal at least THREE MONTHS before the date when the renewal would occur. There is just no reason for this, other than to—as I mentioned in #2—screw the consumer and force him/her into an extension of a subscription that might be unwanted.Having to pay a 19% duty on anything you order to be shipped from outside Germany — *and* you have to pay the 19% duty on the cost of the good PLUS the shipping costs. The shipping costs? Really? And you can’t import drugstore things like Sudafed or Children’s Chewable Tylenol tablets or vitamins — Customs will block it if they find it. And the kicker is that DHL will charge you an additional processing fee if Customs stops the package and requires you to send them proof of the declared value. Basically: You should really avoid having anything of any value shipped from outside Germany.Numbers! Especially the dictation of phone numbers! My feeble, old brain just can’t get used to hearing the number in the ones’ column said before the number in the tens’ column. This comes to the fore on those occasions when a German is dictating his or her phone number to me and insists on saying “123–4321” as “eins, drei-und-zwanzig, drei-und-vierzig, ein-und-zwanzig.” And I, copying as fast as I can, am already lost on the second digit because I have already written “13” before hearing the “und-zwanzig.” And then sometimes I might not hear the “und,” which yields “1320… “ [eins, drei, zwanzig] and so I inevitably end up begging the speaker to say each digit singly—which, by the way, usually does not require the speaker to make the effort of saying extra syllables, so I don’t even understand the impulse to say “drei-und-zwanzig” instead of “zwei, drei” when dictating a phone number in the first place. But whatever. The kind Germans always humor me in the end—but only after giving me heart palpitations during the first dictation attempt!If you’re in the U.S., it is not unusual to make incidental eye contact with strangers on the street and either 1.) say “hi” or some such thing if you’re in a suburban or rural area, or 2.) make a subtle nod of the head if you’re in an urban area. Berliners, and Germans in general, I think, do not do the “eye-contact-then-nod-subtly” routine. Moreover, if *you* do the nod to a German, he or she will stare at you as if you’ve just escaped from the asylum. I find those stares very unnerving (though I laugh about them). And I think the “eye-contact-and-nod” custom is actually quite nice and I miss it.Last little one: In US stores, it’s fairly common to have a “Take-a-penny, leave-a-penny” plate so that everyone can avoid getting 1-cent coins in change if they don’t have the exact sum to pay in cash. It’s a lovely little karmic custom. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in Germany, and its absence annoys me every time I’m handed a bunch of little red coins here.I think that’s about it for now. Still: A great country, with a great quality of life.They really ought to change the orientation of the print on the book bindings, though. And that three-month rule. And get rid of notaries. And accept the driver’s license as an ID or let non-EU citizen residents get a type of EU ID. And someone should open a place that serves cold sesame noodles and Boar’s Head turkey subs…

Study the works of Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius...Stoics propagate the idea of focusing only on things that are within your control.Instead of wallowing in sorrow - fix, change, act!Stressing over things that are out of your sphere of influence is futile.If you can not correct the situation, no matter what happens, you will always have one thing under your control.Your mind.If a hurricane destroys your house, you can reframe your thinking. Shift your attitude. Be happy that you survived. What is a house after all compared to your life?It might sound ludicrous to think this way. But it is liberating.For example, let's say one of your clients cancels his subscription/contract. Of course, you are not happy.But can you do something about it? Can you reach out to the client, find out the reason behind the cancellation, sweeten the deal?Do whatever it takes.What if you try your best to change the mind of your client, but he cancels nonetheless?Not much you can do here. His will is out of your control.What you can control, however, is how you take it.Be grateful for the time the client has spent with you and your company.Thank your client, send him a personal note or promise a future discount. Ask for feedback, if you have not done so already, to find out areas for improvement.Most importantly, do not worry.Life is too short for that.From “Enchiridion of Epictetus” by Epictetus"If, for example, you are fond of a specific ceramic cup, remind yourself that it is only ceramic cups in general of which you are fond. Then, if it breaks, you will not be disturbed.If you kiss your child, or your wife, say that you only kiss things which are human, and thus you will not be disturbed if either of them dies."A similar idea from the other part of the world, found on https://kottke.org/15/04/the-glass-is-already-broken.From “Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective” by Mark Epstein“You see this goblet?” asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master.“For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns.If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it.But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.”

When your neighbor’s house catches on fire, the fire trucks won’t come because those people never bought a subscription to fire services. Nobody works for free.Wisely, you did purchase one however, and as your neighbor’s house is engulfed, you realize that yours is going to catch fire from the heat. You know this because you are outside spraying water on the siding which is beginning to melt.So you yell at your room mate to call the fire department. The insurance adjuster who answers wants to know if the person they are speaking to is the person that purchased the policy, or authorized to represent the home owner.Frustrated, roomie just brings the phone out to you, and starts removing his personal belongings. Wise man.Now the insurance company wants to ask you some questions. “Is your house actually burning?”“No? Our contract is for homes that are already on fire.”“Has your home had any nearby unreported fires, or in the past, been on fire itself?”“Have you made any modifications to your home since purchasing the policy?”“Unsanctioned renovations may void your policy, especially if it caused the home to burn more readily.”Stuff like that. Insurance companies are in it for profit, and they will weasel out of contracts if they can.House fires spread quite often, even with fire trucks on site.