Just Wait a While

I’ve said it several times already, but it’s true: if you don’t like the weather…

Bright one minute...

Then again it doesn’t matter if you like it or not, the weather changes faster here than anywhere I’ve ever been. Yesterday was a great example, but one day last week took the cake. The day after you-know-who won the you-know-what (it is hard for me to be sensitive of the feelings of fans of the third place finishers), the weather was clear and crisp (which is code for really cold in the shade, but it was very sunny; but in this place you cannot ask for more). The day after that is the one that takes the prize for “Four Seasons in a Single Day”.

...snowing the next.

At 5:30 (no a.m. or p.m. here; they use a 24-hour clock so you have to get used to subtracting 12 from the big numbers just to figure out what time it is), although still very dark, I could tell it was raining. I was absolutely certain of this near daily occurrence as I walked to the metro station beneath my Totes Mini umbrella. Around 9:00 I could see only the sheets of rain from my office window. When I looked again at about 11:00, the courtyard was edged in ice from the heavy pounding of sleet.

When recess began…uh…yeah, recess—the Dutch have a saying: We zijn niet van suiker (We are not made of sugar)—the primary school children seemed oblivious to the light precipitation that continued to fall. Somewhere before 13:00 (start subtracting) the sunshine made the ice in the courtyard glow like a Christmas card etched in glitter.

Skies over Amz'dm

My mini Totes was again somewhat useful as I walked to the 

Hail: Act II

metro at 15:00, but by the time I reached my street in town I was missing my sunglasses because of the glare from the sun. (I stopped carrying sunglasses a loooong time ago.) In fact, when I reached the apartment I took some snaps (as my British chums like to say) of the magnificent sky over Amsterdam. (Locals say “Amsterdam” much in the same way Baltimorons take liberties with the pronunciation of “Baltimore”. Three syllables become only two, and they are garbled together super fast. “Am-ster-dam” comes out “Amz’dm.”)

Over dinner I asked Gwaz if she could hear the same noise I thought I heard. Sure enough…hail, 

which Gwaz had also seen earlier in the day. When our newly-discovered favorite British game show, Pointless ended at 19:00, rain was pounding the front windows. By 21:00 beddy-bye was calling. Too bad because I missed the snowstorm that night.

...and at 16:00 hours

Edam at 13:00 hours...

And then there was yesterday. Our plan all week long was to go to Edam (yep, where the cheese comes from.) Pronounced “A-dom”, Edam is as old and preserved as little Dutch towns get. When we left home, sans sunglasses (why carry them?), the skies were overcast. We did our routine pre-trip checklist: wallet, keys, chipkaart (transportation debit card), 50 cent piece (most toilets aren’t free, if you can find one), scarf, gloves, etc, etc, etc. (Hey, these stairs are killers. Additional, avoidable ascensions are the absolute worst!) It was at lunch in Edam that I realized we had no umbrella. “No worries,” I said, “it’s not raining.” That was about the time it started to snow.

Snow is lovely. Snow is beautiful. Snow is also as slippery as eel snot after countless pedestrians trample it because no one seems to shovel around here.

Just before bed, Gwaz said, “Hey it’s snowing again.” Five inches later, it looked like this:

Like I say, “If you don’t like the weather…”