Until…

An email comes in from a girlfriend that I used to work with when I started in my current job about 13 years ago… telling me that her son, who has been poorly for weeks now, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor… They don’t know if it is benign or not, they are assuming it is a primary tumor right now, without having spread. It’s in the hollow cavitiy in the brain, not in the brain tissue, they think… And she’s now waiting too, an agonizing wait… for tests, for results of tests, for decisions on treatment…

Of course, getting pissed off about all the stuff going on here at DutchBitch Casa and the incompetence of service people, I always do realize that there is worse things in the world. I always do. I know it’s a minor thing, but it’s still pissing me off.

But I will have a cold (a.k.a. DutchBitch) shower any day…

Eva, I am thinking of you so much right now. What I had feared for days now, Daantje turning out to have a brain tumor instead of a cyste has become the horrible truth… I so wish I could turn back the clock and have it all not happen to you and your family… Goddammit… Life sucks big fat balls right now… I have tears in my eyes and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it…

First, a day ago my blog * POOF * just vanished… gone… all of it… only thing that was left was a simple line that “it was missing the MySQL files”

My first reaction: * PANIC ! * Over four years of blogging gone… I have been blogging for 6-7 years now and I have once before lost about 2-3 years of blogging…

My second reaction: * DAMN! * It had been weeks since I last made a back up. How is it that I can never force myself to do regular back ups but I just do the panic-back up after something has gone wrong…

My third reaction: * Ooohhmmm * I calmed down, sent out a support ticket to the support desk of my hosting service and then realized that IF the blog was really irreversibly damaged, there was nothing I could do about it and I would just have to suck it up and bite the bullit and start over…

The support desk guy, Brett, got back to me and told me that I had done something that deleted my php.ini file… *I* had not done shit. My blog was working fine, I had not posted, commented, updated or done shit to the blog and mysteriously my php.ini file was gone. Then again, I had no desire getting into an endless ya-uh/nu-uh battle, so I did what he told me to do to fix it and and after a few attempts * POOF * the blog was back… Thanks Brett!

And then…

the goddamn fucking waterheater broke down again… I was at home today because repair guy was coming over to do the annual water heater check up. Cool… he actually arrived in time, he spent about 1.5 hour working on the water heater and managed to get me water pressure I have never ever experienced since I moved in here years ago. Then he left… and I had oodles of water pressure, water was spouting out of the showerhead like crazy, but it was COLD!

So I called the service desk of the firm to inform them that following their annual check up I now did not have any hot water… A few hours later repair guy #2 rang my doorbell, he tried the taps, and the water was hot as hell… Then he left, I turned on the shower and

COLD!

WTH!?! I ran outside to get him back, he tried the taps again and hot water… Then he tried the shower which was indeed cold… he rattled and checked some stuff and then informed me that it was probably my thermostatic tap that was broken.

Why the FUCK does all that crap break down when you are out of money?! Can someone for Gawd’s Sake explain that to me? I called The BIL, went over to the only DIY store that takes gift vouchers, got the cheapest crap thermostatic tap I could find, paid with my last leftover birthday gift certificates and The BIL is coming over in a few mins to install it so we can see if that will actually fix the problem…

Cos ya know… I hate taking cold showers… And there’s someone coming over next weekend that I don’t want to treat to cold showers again. He might think I do it on purpose. Ya know, to hear him squeel… * sigh *

Watch this space. I will be back to let you know if The BIL, a.k.a. The Magic Man, was able to fix the problem by installing my new thermostatic tap…

And you know… after damage to the car in December, slipping in the icy street in January, bronchitis in February, inflamed ankle joint this month and now this… I think it is time, as we say in Dutchyland, for the devil to piss off and start crapping on someone else’s pile of shit… I am quite done for now…

UPDATE Thursday Evening: OF COURSE installing the new thermostatic tap did not fix the problem… so that means another call to the service desk… having to take another day off work… waiting for repair guy to show up… and hoping to Gawd that he can find the problem and fix it this time…

UPDATE Friday Evening: So after tons of phonecalls, and everyone blaming someone else for the problem, repair guy #3 showed up and basically told me, what I already feared, that repair guy #1 had actually fucked up and caused the problem by upping the water pressure. After spending most of his time trying it on with me *GAG* he told me that he could partly fix it but has to come back on Wednesday with a few replacement parts… And how that was us actually having a date for next week *MORE GAG AND PUKE*. So the story continues (the one about the hot water, not the one about the hot date with repair guy #3 *GAG GAG GAAAAGGG*)

He’s tweeting all kinds of stuff and pictures from the ISS, so I figured he’s worth following on Twitter. Go check out his Twitter account and his TwitPic page Very cool!

It’s no longer swollen, well not most of the day anyway. And I can see the contours of my ankle again and fit into my shoe. So hopefully the meds and staying off my foot as much as I can, has done the trick, for now…

I’ll update as soon as I am back at the office…

UPDATE 1 p.m.

Dr’s verdict: inflammation allllmooost under control, continuing medication, keep using crutches till end of the week and then trying without the week after as much as possible. Follow up check on Thursday. My verdict: Thank Gawd the pain has subsided and ok, I can deal with the crutches for another 1.1.5 wk if I have to. I’ll be a good girl… for now…

Yeah, that’s right. Today I should be getting ready to travel to Schiermonnikoog. It’s that time again: the department’s annual course in Clinical Epidemiology on the North Sea island of Schiermonnikoog. The course that I am the course coordinator of. The one that allows me to travel to my beloved island at least once a year… And this year I won’t be there…

With the ankle still suffering from the aftermath of a severe inflammation – me not being able to drive 2.5 hrs to the ferry to Schiermonnikoog – not being able to do the long days and short nights that we usually do over there – not wanting to be stuck on the island on the off chance that the inflammation would flare up after my meds run out – and having to be back home for a follow up visit with my GP sometime this week… I had to make the very hard decision to not join my bosses for the course this year…

I am bummed, and bored out of my skull (I mean, sheesh, outside office hours I am couch-bound agáin, after my fall in January and the bronchitis in February did that to me before), but it was the right decision… And The Kid is thrilled that I will be home this week and he gets to be at home with me afterall… And that’s so totally worth it…

Still, a tiny part of me wishes that in about 2 hrs I’d be in the car on the way to Schiermonnikoog…

I have decided to do the series during the bulbfield-season (March to July) with a 2 week interval. I am calling it Project Dutchy Spring 2010.  I will feature 3 different bulbfields: the first one will most probably have either daffodils or hyacinths early in season, the other 2 I think will have tulips later in season.

Also I will each week feature a few pictures of other stuff that catches my eye while taking pictures of the 3 featured fields. So here goes with the first March edition of Project Dutchy Spring 2010

[CLICK PICTURE TO SEE FULL SIZE]

I made some more pictures than featured in this post. You can see all of them in the set Project Dutchy Spring 2010 in my FlickR account. Also a few of them have been adjusted to black and white and put on my photoblog DutchBitch View.

Enjoy! I will follow up in 2 weeks!

Mom, I don’t think all this working out stuff and the toned muscles on those women necessarily make them look bétter…

Heh… my kid likes a bit of meat on the girls I guess… and he’s also already a master in disguising his opinion in carefully chosen words…

So you 10+ girls… you bettah watch out for this one in a few years!

while being crutches-bound for the next week or so..?

Bad timing…

Very very bad timing…

Yes, I turned 40 only a mere 4 days ago and my body is already falling apart…

It turns out that the pain that made me want to gnaw my foot off in the past week is an inflammation of my ankle joint.  And I can tell you, the pain that goes with that kind of inflammation, it is the fucking worst pain I have felt since I gave birth to The Kid. And I am no wimp where pain is concerned.

Finally, Tuesdaymorning I ended up at my GP for a 2nd visit (as the first time we couldn’t identify the pain and then it subsided for a bit, before it got worse again) and it was clear that ticking all the boxes it was in fact my ankle joint giving me grief. She knew that asking me to go home and put my feet up for a week, would be like talking to a brick wall. So she made me a deal that she’d give me medication to treat the inflammation and give me some better pain relief, and I could go to the office and go about my daily routine, but only… IF…

I would go get myself a pair of crutches and promise to use them whenever I would get up to walk around… So that’s what I am doing right now… Huddling around on crutches, stuffed with anti-inflammation/pain meds…

And the good news? * insert oooooodles of sarcasm* This cóuld possibly be a “one off”. But seeing as rheumatic disease runs in the family on my Mom’s side and the fact that I have before suffered from stiff and tender joints whenever I have a bronchitis… The chances that this is a “one off” are fairly small…

But for now I am ignoring that and hoping that it is a “one off”…

Tomorrow there’s local elections in Dutchyland. In which we vote for our local councils that we have here. I am surely going to vote as I am very interested in having my vote weigh in on some local issues. Like for instance the plans to expand the activities of the local tourist attraction in my backyard: The Keukenhof. Which will go at the cost of the land they are now using for parking… Can you feel that one? Yeah…

I believe in the right to vote. I also believe in the duty to vote, if you are allowed to and capable to do so. I am one of those people who thinks that no matter if it’s local elections or national elections, if you have a voting pass (and thus are allowed to vote) you should vote. And at the very least I feel that if you decide NOT to vote, you have no right to bitch and moan about politics afterwards, which many of the non-voters I know tend to do…

I am not usually an incredibly politically engaged person. It’s not a favorite subject of mine. But I do think that anyone who has a right to vote should at least use that right and thus try to engage in politics at least to the extent that they can make a weighed decision on what to vote.

Because for the 4th time our government tripped and fell before their term was up, there’s also now going to be national elections early June. Many of the people I know are going to vote. But about an equal number of people told me they will not go vote. Because “it makes no difference whether they vote or not anyway, what’s one vote?” – One vote is one vote. And if everyone thinks that way one lost vote turns into many lost votes. Or they won’t vote because “they don’t know what to vote” – Go to one of the numerous voting tests on the internet. Give your opinion on many political and social issues in Dutchyland and it will tell you at the very leást which way you are “leaning towards”.

The reason why this is such a big issue for me and it worries me that people in Dutchyland seem to have an increasingly apathetic attitude towards politics (and this coming from a not incredibly politically engaged person is saying something) is because I see in the polls what this is moving towards: Extreme right wing parties are starting to rapidly move up in the pre-election polls. Which is in a way to be expected. Because they always do when a country sinks into this kind of political apathy. And I seriously do not want to be living in a country that is ruled by an extreme right wing party and have THIS be our prime minister. And trust me, this is not a joke. It is a VERY real possibility that Dutchyland will have an extreme right wing largest political party in 4 months… And it is scaring the shit out of me…

So people, for God’s sake: get your heads out of your asses and get informed on the current political climate and the party programs. Take the internet tests. Get your voting pass. Register and VOTE! For God’s sake: VOTE!!!