Horrible spring.

Greetings, dear readers. Yes, I do still operate this blog. My long absence is due to the weather. Only in the last week have I ceased wearing my long coat and boots to venture outside. Mind you, it is June 25, quite officially into summer.

This spring was really, really bad in Amsterdam. How bad was it? Well, for starters, we had a fairly serious garbage strike going on for a few weeks there. The only bright spot there was that the weather was unseasonably cold, so the stench did not build up too terribly before it was all over.

However, 40F-degree weather in May is hardly acceptable, especially after you have endured an ice-covered, rib-cracking winter, and finding solace in a garbage strike hardly makes up for it, for crying out loud. I'm serious. If I had been treated to this kind of spring my first two years in Amsterdam, I never would have settled here. The weather better shape up, or I may just have to start taking names.

So, if you wanted to be here this spring and are upset that you didn't make it, take heart: you picked the perfect spring not to be here.

Summer, however, promises to be better to us that that miserly ole spring, and she has smiled warmly upon us through clear skies for the past three or four days, now. The parks are turning into beach parties, and shops are suddenly "closed for the nice day." Oh. I'm serious. Merchants think nothing of blatantly hanging a "I'm enjoying the good weather sign" on their door and toodling off to the nearest bench with a bottle of wine. Not us, of course. We are unable to shed our American work ethic just yet. We are open during opening hours, novel though that concept may be. Americans get a break on a snowy day; here, it just takes a little sun. Carpe Diem, whatever the weather where you are!