Cold

It has gotten cold here, butt cold, colder than a black steer's tuchus on a moonless prairie. Unfortunately this seems to make the Dutch even more rude than usual.

One of my pet peeves is when I am driving down the road, usually the highway, and the speed limit is, let's say, 45. There's a car behind you, all over your backside, who finally passes you just before the speed limit changes to, let's say, 55. This guy either: A) Doesn't see that the speed limit has changed, or B) Doesn't give a damn what the speed limit is. He doesn't change speeds so you are forced to stare at the back of his Passat until there is an opportune time to pass. Inevitably, the speed limit will change back to 45 just after you get past him and he'll get right back on your bumper because he didn't notice this most recent change either.

The Dutch do this on their bikes. It's not as annoying in Dutch because bikes don't go very fast so the obliviousness or rudeness of the person may only set you back a few seconds as opposed to fifteen minutes. They will, in typical get-in-everyone's-way fashion, pass you and then slow down. Now you have to wait until the coast is clear so that you can pass, or just slow down so that another of their countrymen can do the same thing to you, ultimately creating a line of slow moving Dutch to impede your progress.

I'm obviously not used to cold weather. Adjusting to it in a foreign country is even more difficult than it would be with central air conditioning. Dutch dwellings have space heaters (radiators?) that look like something out of, Black Snake Moan. I keep expecting to come home and find Cristina Ricci chained to my heater. I guess they are safe. I think I remember seeing them years ago in Kentucky. It seems like my Great Grandmother (Mawmaw) had them in her house. Or, maybe she just had a stove to heat the house. Either way I feel like the whole building is going to burn down if I leave the heater on all night. I keep expecting to wake with the smell of smoke and Samuel L. Jackson yelling at me, screaming that he's going to kick my ass.