Surviving the Blustery Weekend

It's Monday again and another weekend has slipped past. Actually, this one more blew past than slipped, and that is due to the big storm we had, beginning on Thursday evening. I had a feeling that Friday would be a windy ride on the bike down to ride Maroz, but I was taken off guard a couple of times and nearly brought to a standstill. It's not a fun feeling to be always bracing for a gust of wind that might be the one that finally tips me into the ditch! However, all's well that ends well and I made it down to the stable safely.

Maroz was unimpressed, to say the least, with my plan of riding out into the dunes, but I assured him that it was good for both of us and so out we went. Poor fellow, there were times when walking a straight line was a challenge if the wind was hitting him broadside! The clouds were whipping by overhead, and there was no rain, so it wasn't really a bad ride, but we didn't stay out more than an hour all the same. Maroz was delighted to be back in his stall and munching on his lunch, while I anticipated a zippy ride home since I'd had the wind in my face on the way down.

Interestingly, revoltingly, that was not the case...the wind decided I needed more of a workout and had switched directions to keep me company all the way back. Up to a point, I can keep reasonably upbeat and think about the workout I'm getting, but I have my limits and Friday saw me hit that. I looked at the weather report later and saw that we had 40-55 kph (25-35 mph) gusts. One interesting moment was while I was riding along on the bike and a drift of leaves was blowing along with me. While still on a straight stretch of the road, there came toward me another drift of leaves, causing a mild confusion in my mind as to just what exactly was going on with all the invisible currents around me!

I arrived home to a scene of mild chaos on my front step - the change of wind directions had finished off COMPLETELY my plants that had done so well all summer and autumn. So, fushia, begonias, and impatiens were all uprooted and they, their dirt, and a mixer of rain water were all swirled around in the area of my front door. That was about the last straw (add to all this that I was pretty hungry and you'll have a fair idea of my mood) and I came into the house, called Mike and declared I was never going outside again!

Of course, I didn't mean it, and the wind did eventually die down, but it sure was impressive while it lasted. Later on Friday afternoon, just after Mike got home from school, the heavens opened up and poured: Friday night, all day Saturday, snow on Sunday that didn't really stick and then more rain all Sunday night. Now there is sunny skies, but we earned them!

Yesterday, Sunday, we were invited to a friend's house in Amsterdam. Jennifer is Canadian and hadn't been able to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving (1st Monday in October) because people were out of town. She made up for that yesterday and we enjoyed a delicious feast with her and several others. I think Mike and I did ourselves proud getting our tummies in shape for this Thursday when we will have American Thanksgiving. Way to go, Team! The fact it was snowing outside added enormously to the whole feel of the feast and we had a thoroughly wonderful time. Thank you for being such a wonderful hostess, Jenn!

In just under two days, Mike and I hop on the airplane for our whirlwind trip to Denver, I'm finally thinking about what I should actually pack, while Mike has had his list done and things set out for days already! We are not checking any luggage, so with airline restrictions and such, it's a bit of a challenge to get it all in. The fact we are going to be surrounded by family who can lend us practically anything we might need makes it easier. I mainly hope I don't forget any of the little tidbits we are bringing along for gifts! Tomorrow sees me back on the horse in the morning, then running a few errands around town in the afternoon. I will meet Mike at school on Wednesday in the late morning as we head up to the airport. Oh boy!!

The riding path through the dunes, a protected area separating the populated areas from the North Sea.

Maroz and his shadow rider

A Hague Day

Mike and I are meeting in The Hague this afternoon when he gets finished with school. I'm going down earlier for a hair cut and to have a bit of a wander. Since we are leaving next Wednesday for Denver, we have some shopping to do that will save us having to pay overseas shipping costs for Christmas packages. We have a couple ideas, but we need to do some prowling in and out of stores to get more inspiration. As for the haircut, I haven't had one since June, so it's high time!

I'm hoping it's not going to storm on us while we are en route or out and about, but it's entirely possible when you look at all the clouds moving around. These photos were just taken from our living room window, so you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about! As a description of what else you're seeing besides clouds from our window, across the street we have a grocery store called Albert Heijn (pronounced "Hine"), as well as a row of shops comprising a pharmacy, bakery, Renault car dealer, and a computer shop. Above all of these places of business are apartment buildings - the Dutch are experts at conserving space! Our own building is made up of a ground level of shops (drugstore and a Chinese restaurant), then two levels of 5 apartments each. We are on the top, at the end furthest from the street, so the canal you see in the first photo runs beside our building. The Plein in front of our building has a nice little flower shop as well. All this, combined with the local bus route going past our front door, gives us a lot of amenities. Since we don't have a car, that is very nice!

We live so close to the North Sea, the weather is changeable here, to say the least. Add to that the fact the Netherlands doesn't have much in the way of geographical obstructions to wind, and you get a windy climate with weather that sneaks up on you in a hurry! I predict that my bike ride to The Hague will be into a strong headwind, but at least I know the ride home will involve a lot less effort! I will also be taking along my rain gear, just in case. I've noticed an interesting phenomenon here: if I take rain gear or an umbrella, I frequently end up NOT using it; however, if I go without, or heaven forbid, wear sunglasses, then it's sure to rain on me! An uneasy balance is achieved when I have rain gear AND sunglasses...I think that really buffaloes things and the weather just sort of roils around, but never actually arrives at doing anything!

This week is low key for us, Mike's trying to get all caught up and planned ahead so he doesn't have to worry about anything while we're on our whirlwind 4-day trip to the States. His school has next Thursday and Friday off for American Thanksgiving, so we are flying out on Wednesday afternoon and returning very early on Monday. Mike is turning 40 on Saturday, the 29th and his family is all gathering in Denver, where we will meet them. It's a bit of a luxury trip, but it's our favourite holiday and how often does a guy turn 40? My parents are meeting us there as well, as is my brother, Brendan and his son, Christopher. At last count, there will be 33 people for Thanksgiving dinner...!!! It will be great and just what the holiday should be about! Coming back will be the challenge, as we land at 06:30 in the morning and then Mike gets to go to teach all day. I really appreciate not having to report to a specific job at times like this!

Oh, Monday

It's a blustery Monday afternoon here, the wind making the trees really hang on to the last of their leaves. It rained most of the morning and at noon, I even had to turn on the living room light because it was feeling more like twilight than lunchtime. Now the rain has stopped and the clouds are a bit higher, but the wind is still hammering away outside. Mike just called as he was walking out of school for the day and said it may take him an hour to bike home against the wind (FYI, we live a 6 minute bike ride from ASH, so he might have been exaggerating a bit). The plan was then to go for a run together, but we have scaled it down to a walk, figuring that we'll get a decent workout walking into the wind. At least it's not too cold, only about 11-12 degrees Celsius (50-50 degrees Farenheit).

We had a nice weekend, mostly sunny and the opportunity to spend time with good friends. On Saturday, Mike biked up to Leiden to watch football (aka soccer) with Mike and Karen, I chose to stay home since A) I don't like watching football, and B) we were going out to The Hague in the evening and I had some stuff I wanted to get done at home, including making a yummy garlic and fennel bisque we would have for dinner. Our outing in the evening was a mellow and nicely conversational time with Bill and Hans and we vowed to try and make it more of a regular occurrence. It probably helped that we were in a cozy little bar, known as a Brown Bar here because it serves only beer and wine and has a natural wood decor. There was music piped in, but not so loud that we couldn't hear each other speak, and it wasn't packed full of people, so we had space to sit down and relax.

On Sunday, we had a nice sleep-in and then a leisurely morning. Mike needed to pick up some papers from school, so I proposed we take a longer walk and stop by there on our way home. It was a nice day, we went by the farm I like so much because of its goat population (they even charmed me on demand by making goat sounds...it's not baa like a sheep, what is the English equivalent?). We came to school and the gate was closed, at which time Mike said, "I guess it opens at 1:00 on Sundays, not 12:00. So, we kept on going and ended up back home. A relaxed afternoon, reading and watching some TV and then I made a white bean and chicken chili for dinner - also yummy.

The first blog of the rest of my life

Hi there.
Well this is a new thing for me, so we'll see how it goes. I've been inspired by my former high school English teacher, Marianne Love, who has been blogging for several years. I always enjoy reading her posts because they have a way of taking me back to Sandpoint (Idaho) and reminding me what a unique place it is. I will try to do justice to Marianne's teachings all those years ago (she taught me Grade 10 English in 1984-85).

It's a Friday evening and the plans Mike and I had have been postponed until tomorrow night. These involved riding our bicycles down to The Hague, about a 40 minute ride, to meet up with friends to toast the U.S. President-elect. However, since only one friend was going to be able to make it, we decided to wait until our toast held a little more weight. The place we were (and hopefully still will) to meet is called de Paas (www.depaas.nl) and is a great little beer café selling over 400 brands of beer. I don't think the plan involves toasting with each beer...

Last night and today were parent-teacher conferences for Mike at school (www.ash.nl), so he was done at noon today. He and a buddy headed to The Hague for a separate café trip while I was out riding a horse (more on that presently). Mike's comments about last night's 30 or so parents who came in were positive; all bar one set came in to say how pleased they were with their child's progress in Economics - what Mike happens to be teaching this year. I don't know about this morning's group, but one assumes they thought him equally as wonderful.

As I wrote above, I was out riding at the time and very pleased that it was neither raining, nor too cold, nor a howling gale. Instead, Maroz (the horse) and I enjoyed ourselves in November (read: weak) sunshine, galloping around the dunes separating his stable from the North Sea coast. A 25 minute bike ride home and now I'm relaxing in front of the computer.

Just so you know, bike riding is a big part of our lives here as we don't own a car. We made that decision when we first moved here and have rarely regretted it. We did own a car for about 6 months, but found the excessive traffic and high (Dad tells me the price of gasoline is higher here than anywhere in Europe, though I don't know his source on this, it sounds plausible) costs for gasoline, insurance, road tax, etc., etc. made the decision to sell an easy one. The few times we've really needed a car, we rent one for a day or a week and that seems to work just fine. Of course, the next time I'm out and it's a torrential downpour and my rainsuit springs a leak, I won't be singing the praises of biking, but for now I'll act all noble and environmentally in charge of my own life.

I think this is as good a start as any for a blog, so I'll leave it at that for today.
Tot ziens!