Last week before holidays…
This morning I went my daily morning round (15 minutes) with the dogs. Yes digs, plural, for we have one dog staying with us because his boss couldn’t use him during her holidays. Before him, we had another dog staying with us for the same reason. Our dog is going with us, just like last year. This dog staying now with us is a special friend of our dog, almost the same breed, as a pup our dog got familiar with him when visiting his house and walking in the park. Joris, our dog, is the only male dog accepted by the guest dog Jelle. Anyway, both dogs sometimes pull their leashes quite strongly, on top of that in opposite direction, when they smell something attractive. It reminded me of the time period I am in now: on the one hand: haste, haste on my job straightening out things that have been lying but must be completed and chased by students who want to have their points for their bachelors thesis to graduate before September, combined with filling in our holidays agenda for the coming period, and on the other hand the uncertain coming period combined with attention for my blogs (I feel I have less time for them than a couple of months ago) and my sailing boat. The 20th Janine is going to a one week stay in a conference centre of her “School for Practical Philosophy” and Menno and I are “free” to do things that men like to do without female interference. Before that, Wednesday the 18th Janine will go and collect my mentally retarded brother from the Belgian border village Bergeijk to join us (us, that is Janine, Menno, his 8 year old “stepsister” and the dog) on the boat (easy-going!) on which we are then sailing somewhere in Friesland. He will not stay overnight on the boat during the night so alternately Janine and I will drive home with him to sleep until Sunday the 22nd, when I will bring him back home. After Janine’s absence we will sail for another week or two, going somewhat further on open water (Ijsselmeer, Waddenzee), then we don’t have Wessel and the little girl with us so we are free to sail as roughly we can.
Now putting this all together it appears to me that these things are almost too much for me to handle in such a short time, that’s where my odd feelings come from I think. Take for instance only the sailing boat: in my head I’m busy fixing things up, e.g. there is no reef in the sails so I improvised a way to make the sails smaller when it’s demanded by the wind strength. I don’t have energy and time to look for “great pictures” for my photoblog, either. And guess what? I took a walk in the park near my office and a coot with her youngsters almost tried to creep into my camera! Isn’t that consolation! I show the picture on the photoblog (right upper side of this blog).
Also I got an e-mail today from my cousin in a far away country who needed to pour out his feelings about the socio-economic situation over there. His father emigrated shortly after W.W. 2, when many Dutch people emigrated. I tried to cheer him up a bit, but I found he is also right and he is with his family in the middle of it. I thought of my slogan “it’s better to light a candle than to curse darkness” but even Jesus cursed darkness, e.g. when he chased the merchants out of the Temple. Sometimes I think our world is the Temple and the big money hunters are the merchants to be chased out. Recently I read about the Mediterranian coast completely spoiled by building companies, even now tourists are rare (the newcomers are stayers) they continue building hotels, for a great deal to whitewash black money; these Mafiosi are really unscrupulous, and don’t hesitate to set fire in areas where they can’t build because of nature protection.
Well, it’s time to think of my own little world of reality again, there are still 2 theses to grade today.
This morning I went my daily morning round (15 minutes) with the dogs. Yes digs, plural, for we have one dog staying with us because his boss couldn’t use him during her holidays. Before him, we had another dog staying with us for the same reason. Our dog is going with us, just like last year. This dog staying now with us is a special friend of our dog, almost the same breed, as a pup our dog got familiar with him when visiting his house and walking in the park. Joris, our dog, is the only male dog accepted by the guest dog Jelle. Anyway, both dogs sometimes pull their leashes quite strongly, on top of that in opposite direction, when they smell something attractive. It reminded me of the time period I am in now: on the one hand: haste, haste on my job straightening out things that have been lying but must be completed and chased by students who want to have their points for their bachelors thesis to graduate before September, combined with filling in our holidays agenda for the coming period, and on the other hand the uncertain coming period combined with attention for my blogs (I feel I have less time for them than a couple of months ago) and my sailing boat. The 20th Janine is going to a one week stay in a conference centre of her “School for Practical Philosophy” and Menno and I are “free” to do things that men like to do without female interference. Before that, Wednesday the 18th Janine will go and collect my mentally retarded brother from the Belgian border village Bergeijk to join us (us, that is Janine, Menno, his 8 year old “stepsister” and the dog) on the boat (easy-going!) on which we are then sailing somewhere in Friesland. He will not stay overnight on the boat during the night so alternately Janine and I will drive home with him to sleep until Sunday the 22nd, when I will bring him back home. After Janine’s absence we will sail for another week or two, going somewhat further on open water (Ijsselmeer, Waddenzee), then we don’t have Wessel and the little girl with us so we are free to sail as roughly we can.
Now putting this all together it appears to me that these things are almost too much for me to handle in such a short time, that’s where my odd feelings come from I think. Take for instance only the sailing boat: in my head I’m busy fixing things up, e.g. there is no reef in the sails so I improvised a way to make the sails smaller when it’s demanded by the wind strength. I don’t have energy and time to look for “great pictures” for my photoblog, either. And guess what? I took a walk in the park near my office and a coot with her youngsters almost tried to creep into my camera! Isn’t that consolation! I show the picture on the photoblog (right upper side of this blog).
Also I got an e-mail today from my cousin in a far away country who needed to pour out his feelings about the socio-economic situation over there. His father emigrated shortly after W.W. 2, when many Dutch people emigrated. I tried to cheer him up a bit, but I found he is also right and he is with his family in the middle of it. I thought of my slogan “it’s better to light a candle than to curse darkness” but even Jesus cursed darkness, e.g. when he chased the merchants out of the Temple. Sometimes I think our world is the Temple and the big money hunters are the merchants to be chased out. Recently I read about the Mediterranian coast completely spoiled by building companies, even now tourists are rare (the newcomers are stayers) they continue building hotels, for a great deal to whitewash black money; these Mafiosi are really unscrupulous, and don’t hesitate to set fire in areas where they can’t build because of nature protection.
Well, it’s time to think of my own little world of reality again, there are still 2 theses to grade today.
3 comments:
I enjoyed reading your blog today! I enjoyed reading about your everyday life, the people in your life and the issues that come across your path. Life is great! These are the times we need to take in and remember as they will quickly fade into memories - times that we will say were the "good old days."
The photos of the boats are wonderful! Get those theses marked and have a great vacation!!
Your boat looks great. Enjoy your vacation. Go someplace that the "developers" haven't spoiled yet.
I'm curious what men do when women aren't around. My experience is they either do nothing, or they get in trouble. You don't seem the type to do nothing.
(*grin, I'm joking).
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