weed killer

As European officials on Wednesday weigh whether or not to re-approve the use of Monsanto's glyphosate, a storm has erupted after the World Health Organization (WHO) seemingly flipped in its assessment of the dangers posed by the chemical.

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Road Kill- 4 days of food in Amsterdam

Didn't make it for 4 days; we did a walk thru on Saturday, since it was like right around the corner (in Amsterdam thats about 1/2 mile), and we did sorta participate; we bought 5 Cocos, awesome baked coconut muffins. But yes there was a LOT of food, food vehicles of all sorts, shapes, sizes, live music, plus the usual crazy young people doing their crazy thing.

rolling kitchen

Schmeck!

John Schmeck! Where the heck are you? We miss you! 
Apparently you have a building in the town of Maastricht, NL, which would be an excellent place to move to in case you are getting tired of Dunedin, FL, USA

Click on the Player above for one of your hit tunes from the 80's!

Schmeck Building, Maastricht, NL......who knew?

the King

Largest selection in the city........I have only been in this store a couple of times; I am pretty sure they would welcome me even with a shopping cart, which is really what you need at a minimum.....

Tourists vs. Windmills

You can't do that in America- no. 3

In America, you can't carry on with this type of activity right in front of your house. I mean this could be some kind of sophisticated drug activity, or perhaps an in your face government surveillance operation. What is that giant silo for? And what about the sinister tracked vehicle?

Oh, its a contractor.

That silo is for concrete and the tracked vehicle is somehow installing new pilings under that existing building. Apparently, since buildings all over Amsterdam are sinking, this type of construction happens all the time. If you are a piling contractor, you are set for life.

More Tourist photos!

Time for some tourist photos!

Its way past time for some scenic views.......

King's Day- Managed Anarchy

Wednesday night, 23:03 (11:03pm; 5:03pm EST). The city trash trucks are in full swing. King's Day went out with nary a whimper. It just sort of faded out to the distant beeps of a large vehicle backing up.

For the uninitiated, earlier in the day it was orange anarchy in the streets. People everywhere; on the main streets, at neighborhood corners, at canal bridges, in front of apartments and shops, dancing to DJs and live music, checking out all kinds of stuff for sale on the street. Drinking, oh, the drinking.

One could juxtapose this with say the Starkville, MS Cotton District Spring Arts Festival, wherein you have the East/West/South Stages, the Beer area, food vendors, and the Arts and Crafts booths. Thats pretty much it.

There, you are more of an observer going from event to event. Here, everyone is participating and there is no clear separation between 'events'. You just flow from a music venue at an intersection with hundreds of people, past beer, wine and food vendors, past sidewalk sales of all kinds (Kings Day is also national yardsale day), past the chair in the middle of a street with a sign that says "Applause, 50 cents", past the fully decked out in orange guys with the leaf blowers, to the lady selling coffee and pastries from her open apartment window.

All this activity seems spontaneous, random and chaotic. Yet there is an underlying order. After all, Amsterdam is known for its large and efficient bureaucracy. 

Walking across a canal bridge you notice the barge that has blocked off a side canal so boats are forced down another canal, the one with continuous 'bumpers' on both sides to protect the houseboats from the crazy, drunken boaters. You notice the large number of portable 'open air' urinals, which I have learned are collecting all that pee to be recycled. You notice a lot of city employees from various divisions- police, traffic and transportation, waste, street patrol, bridges, waternet, etc- keeping an eye on things.

But its party on, at least until some predetermined time (by the aforementioned City) where everything starts to close down. By 21:00 (9:00pm) the loud music from various sources pretty much stops. By 22:00 street noise returns to its usual Wednesday evening level (people walking by, occasional bike or scooter). By 23:00 the trash trucks move in shortly followed by the vacuum and street sweeper vehicles. By midnight, its all gone.

Our brief sojourn was just through our local neighborhood. Multiply this craziness by hundreds of streets and neighborhoods throughout the city. And I can't imagine what was going on in the Red Light district. Multiply again by towns and cities across the Netherlands. National craziness! Our Fourth of July pales in comparison.

Netherlands- party and urine central

Yep, its Kings Day tomorrow, and the locals and tourists are already getting warmed up. The fact that it is 42 degrees and raining probably will not 'dampen' the revelry very much. Got the very crowded and loud bar around the corner, and across the canal somewhere is a live band. There is no escaping the sounds that are bouncing off the 17th century buildings......craziness.

stay tuned for some KD reports.

.....when up 1.5 million ale-fuelled revellers take to the streets and canals of Amsterdam on Wednesday for the city’s annual King’s Day celebrations, the local water board does not intend to let all that resulting pee go to waste.

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