Week 7 Another Weather Warning

 Week 7

Photos from Sunday afternoon:

People skating on the new pool at the back of our place. When I walked past, our "drone" man, Andre, was getting set up to take some aerial photos.

Some 40,000 people were treated in hospital accident and emergency departments for ice-related injuries during the wintry weather, according to calculations by the Dutch trauma surgeons’ association NVT. The most common injuries were broken wrists, hips and shoulders, the NVT said, and around 1,000 people required an operation. The figures are based on a survey of 20 hospitals nationwide.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

Monday

We cancelled the clients again for Monday - as there was another Weather Alert - this time for ice on the roads as the temperatures begin to rise. There was a bit of rain predicted and if that falls on the frozen ground it turns into "Black Ice" - and is very slippery.

All the Covid testing and vaccination centres were closed, so we did the same - rather than run any risks with our clients (or me!).

This week's temperatures were all in the plus 6 to 8 range, whereas last week they were all minus 6 to 8 or less. It needed a few weeks of the minus temperatures for us to have any chance of an Elfstedentocht - the last one was in 1997.

Tuesday

The snow had mostly turned to slush and mud by Tuesday afternoon.

and by Saturday it was totally back to "warm" weather...

On Aging

I have mentioned John P. Weiss before. From his newsletter of last week: On aging: (it struck a nerve, but I think I have most things covered, even if more by accident than design).

1. Stay active. If you’re not active, start. Exercise is vital to aging well. Even something as simple as daily walking.

2. Companionship. Friends, even pets, are good for us. Especially when we lose a spouse.

3. Read. Your mind is like a muscle. Use it or lose it. Don’t sit on the couch absorbed in television. If your eyes are bad, try audio-books.

4. Healthy food. Doritos aren’t good for you at 30. They’re even worse at 80. Eat healthily.

5. Preventive medicine. Stay on top of medications and doctor appointments. Be proactive about your health.

6. Dress up. Don’t be that guy in the dining hall wearing pajamas or sweats. Dressing a bit more elegantly can make you feel better.

7. Laugh. I don’t know why, but humor heals. Also, it defangs the things that scare us. 

8. Forgive. There’s just something liberating about releasing others from their sins. And it heals you, too.

9. Embrace memories. George Will calls memories “roses in our winter.” Celebrate them. They'll keep you warm when it's cold out.

10. Believe in something bigger than yourself. Your faith. The universe. There is more than we see here, and there is peace in that.

11. Passion. Creativity and art enrich our lives. Painting. Crafting. Woodworking. Quilting. Try one!

...and from this weeks letter...

"I’m a huge fan of digital media, but we should all be consuming and producing it more intentionally, in a way that serves us, as opposed to us serving it."

https://johnpweiss.com/blog/165986/how-a-deaf-composer-can-help-you-improve-your-creative-work

An interesting block of wood!

Even here the level of the water can be adjusted - the Fries Boezem...

I'm always reading boating or canal stories - this one was about some recent Italian research...

Actually, we don't have a single river in Europe anymore. They are channeled streams with an abundance of dams, locks and other obstacles. The Italian university Politecnico di Milano comes to this conclusion after a study of 1.65 million kilometers of rivers in 36 European countries.

The numbers are impressive. Europe has 1.2 million barriers in the form of dams and locks . On average, a river only flows freely for 108 meters between two human obstacles. That makes Europe the most fragmented river network in the world, according to the study, published in Nature.

Locks and stepped rapids account for about 31.7 percent of the barriers, weirs about 30 percent and canalization under roads about 17 percent.

The most fragmented are the rivers in the Netherlands, where 19.4 obstacles per kilometer of river have been built. The rivers in Scandinavia flow most freely although humans have also intervened considerably there. There, rivers often serve as hydropower plants. The Scandinavians are building more such obstacles to achieve their climate goals.

There is no European registry for river obstacles, therefore the number has always been underestimated. Previous studies reported 61 percent fewer hurdles. Yet all these human objects make up our continent. They ensure that fish do not perform as well , rivers have a different course than before and we sometimes can no longer sail.

A "blokje om"

When I first came here, I used the term "going around the block" if I was going for a walk - indicating a relatively short distance.

Janny translated it as a "blokje om".(blokyeh om). There is a new walking app out called "ommetje" which translates to a "short walk". The word om gets the diminutive form by adding "metje". The "tje" is pronounced "cheh" - it comes in various forms, for example a boy is a "jongen" but a little boy would be a "jongetje". Boeke is an "hondtje" - a little dog. It can also be used as a form of endearment.

Anyway, the app is giving me a bit of a challenge - I walk 3 or more times a day with Boeke anyway and now I can keep a record of it on a "Little Walks Leaderboard". It is a national fitness campaign organised by the Brain Foundation and a neuropsycologist Eric Scherder "to contibute to a healthier brain".

This one from the participants in Wijnjewoude

(Aha! I made it to the top of the leaderboard this morning - by gaining extra points for an "ommetje" before 0900hrs!!).

and this one from the extended Rozema family... (one can be on two leaderboards)

The big freeze

I also listened to one podcast about the storm in Texas where they were talking about the "plight of firefighters" - having to stand and watch without any water.

My own thoughts then wandered to "boat winterisation" - I wondered if that was a normal practice in Texas? (I looked it up; I think it is but there were some boat owners who don't do it, but would "hang a warming lamp in the engine room" if there was a cold night forecast.). So, I imagine that there were some caught out, considering the severity of the current event.

Considering that we had our own cold snap, it is hard to imagine that things failed so dramatically in Texas. We did have burst water pipes one year, but that was a combination of extreme cold  - minus 20 C and an internal blown fuse which had stopped the heating system.

In my 27 years over here, I have had only ONE major general electricity power failure - our whole nighbourhood was without power for about a day - AND we were paid compensation by the electricity company! There have also been a few of only a few seconds or minutes, causing little or no disruption.

The Housing Shortage in the Netherlands

Developers, construction companies, lobby groups, housing corporations and tenants associations have formed a massive alliance to tackle the housing shortage in the Netherlands. In total, 34 organisations have joined forces and say that one million new homes need to be built in the the Netherlands in the next 10 years to meet demand.  At the same time, they say, measures are needed to improve neighbourhoods and make the Netherlands’ housing stock more energy efficient. The organisations hope their plans will form the backbone of the next government’s strategy on housing. ‘Far too many people in the Netherlands are waiting for a home,’ said Martin van Rijn, chairman of housing corporation lobby group Aedes.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

Vulnerable Children

This newsletter came at a time when we were dealing with our own "problem", even though it was not directly related to the COVID restrictions.

(We "lost" one of our boys. He had become unmanageable at home and so the father and stepmother have had him placed out of house. He is one of two brothers we had here - we had earlier split them up in order to break the bad influence they were having on each other).

It feels like a "failure" on our part, but at least we tried. Janny has been to several meetings with the authorities and it has eventually become so bad that they had to resort to the utimate solution - it really has to be dire before they will do that.

Maybe the older brother will come back now and we hope that the other boy finds his way somehow. Luckily, there is plenty of help going around.

Social Domain (Friesland) Newsletter

Help vulnerable children and young people

In this newsletter we ask your attention for vulnerable children and young people. This corona crisis is not easy for anyone, but it is extra difficult for them.

What if home is not a nice or safe place? What if parents cannot provide their children with what they need? The primary schools are open again, but the secondary school students are still at home. The structure for these youngsters largely disappears and the normal activities that belong to their age are often also not possible. 

The corona crisis has had a great impact on young people and children in various ways. With this newsletter we want to offer the Frisian healthcare providers and municipalities a positive outreach and inspire them with what is possible! 

International Certificate Pleasure Craft (ICP)

It's time to start thinking about the boat again. (we're having a warm weekend at 11 C.).

The ICP started off (in Europe at least)  to make it easier for pleasure craft owners to travel within Europe. Like so many good things, it had become misused and eventually some countries began not recognising it. Mainly because of misuse by drug dealers and other criminals.

I've paid for a couple now - at about €29,00 for two years, it is incredibly cheap (so thought the criminals as well). It also met one of the requirements for taking one's boat into France and Belgium.

Happily, it has now been revised - but I don't know if the price is going to be the same.

(We have never planned to take our boat to Italy, Spain or Portugal.)

The revision of the ICP is complete. The new rules will take effect from 1 March. The changes concern the application procedure for an ICP. The rules are becoming stricter, preventing improper use, such as was recently in the news. The most important changes are that an ICP is now only issued to a Dutch person or someone who has lived in the Netherlands for at least 5 years and that applying for an ICP by a legal entity (BV, association or, for example, a foundation) will no longer be possible. An application through an intermediary is then also no longer possible. This is to put an end to the practice whereby owners of yachts from other countries could apply for an ICP in the Netherlands and then supposedly escape all kinds of rules and costs in their own country under the Dutch flag. The countries that previously indicated that they do not (no longer) recognize the Dutch ICP do not yet do so. Italy has never recognized the ICP, but has accepted it in practice. That suddenly came to an end this summer, after which Spain and Portugal also dropped out. In that sense, nothing will change with the new ICP in those countries. An ICP is still not accepted there. The Watersportverbond does indicate that it also wants to talk to these countries on the basis of the new practice. We need not feel sorry for the various intermediaries in the Netherlands, who made it possible for foreign owners to apply for a Dutch ICP. Almost all of them already offer registration in other countries.

The International Certificate for Pleasure Crafts is issued on the basis of Resolution 13, a (non-binding) recommendation from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). In some countries, such as France, it is mandatory to have an ICP if you want to sail with a pleasure craft. The ICP then serves as proof of ownership of the vessel. For that reason alone, the sailing associations issue the ICP on the basis of a covenant they have with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands.