Liberation Day.

Puh.
Sounded like a good title.
I'm sure it's a little known fact most anywhere else, but there have been two days of significance here in the Netherlands. The first is May 4th, which is Dodenherdenking
at which time you lower your flag to half staff after eight p.m. I haven't yet been able to discover the significance of eight p.m., since my understanding was that the word came to the troops that all hostilities would cease at midnight. (?) But maybe eight p.m. is a convenient time or something.
There's the laying of the wreaths type ceremony in Amsterdam at the National Monument on the Dam square in Amsterdam, which is of course covered on live TV, much the same way that Queen's day was.
The following day is then Liberation Day

So I put out my puny flag.

There are a few gatherings in some of the larger towns, and I caught something on the news about a festivity up in Zwolle, where they had something like 150,000 last year. There's never that much trouble getting folks together for a festival here it seems.

Just an observation.

There has been a definite dry spell when it comes to blog entries.
Sometimes the force just isn't with me in that department. I think the whole bike theft thing kind of took the wind out of my sails just ever so briefly. Been in a slump on numerous counts.
Did manage to go out and maim a small tree and yank out another one in the poor excuse for a garden. I've run out of room in my green waste containers though, so I have to hold off on any more pruning.
We did go out on Saturday and replace the aforementioned absent member of the team, but I think I'm still a little annoyed with the whole idea that some bastard would simply get on your bike and ride it off.
Just makes me want to spit.
And I'm trying to be nice and not slip off into a stream of obscenities here.
We had been looking at a replacement bike for Gabe, since her Schwinn was both too complicated, and a bit too short. (why do we get these bikes that are too friggin' small?) We therefore ended up getting a matching pair of Gazelle's. His and her's.
I know, you're rolling your eyes.
Just stop.
She's already managed to drop the thing. OK I realise that that's a motorcycle term for "fall off", since if you "drop" your bike, it means you took a spill. That happened on Sunday afternoon 'cause she wasn't watching where the hell she was going and damned near plowed into the back of me. At that point gravity took over.
She's fine.
One of the pedals on the bike is a little scuffed. Thankfully I had already installed her fietstas, which took the brunt of the dusting up.

So I've been out a couple times to pick up a few things (gotta eat) on "new" New and Shiny, but now of course I'm eyeing everyone and his dog, figuring I'm surrounded by bike thieves.
If they only knew.
Maybe paranoia will mean I'll get to keep this one a bit longer. That would be nice.
To make matters just ever so slightly worse, I had to go back to the bike store on Monday afternoon to pony up some more dough, since we completely forgot to replace my bike bag on Saturday. Shoppings sans bike bag ( fietstas ) really sucks, and I don't recommend it.
I may or may not replace the sunglasses I lost. I don't really need sunglasses on the bike in this country, but they do help keep crud from getting into your eyes from time to time.

I'll have to think on it.