Amsterdam in Fog

November 20, 1994

Ater two full weeks on this trip, I can state definitively: November is a lousy month to visit Europe. The sun has been visible for a total of about 15 minutes, and I have yet to see anything resembling a blue sky. Thick gray clouds have covered the entire continent -- or maybe they've just been following me wherever I went.

I dragged my suitcases and computer parephenalia (sp?) into a little Holiday Inn here on the outskirts of Amsterdam on Friday night, and have been resting quietly most of the weekend. No point going out to see the canals and the sights of Amsterdam (which I've seen already anyway), since it's drizzling outside. I went out for a walk around the block this morning during a break in the weather, but have been inside most of the time.

I have Monday off, too, and then have an all-day lecture on Tuesday at a conference center down the street, before flying home on Northworst Airlines on Tuesday night. It will be very good to be home for Thanksgiving after such a long trip away from home ...

Not much earth-shaking news to report from Europe. The hotel in Zurich lost my laundry for a day or so; SwissAir lost my suitcase enroute to Vienna for a day; the computer screen on my primary laptop cracked like a broken window, and I had to switch to my backup; but none of these events made the newspaper. The Europeans seem to have come out of the worst of their recession, but they're still in a state of economic paralysis with their socialized governments finding it harder and harder to compete in the free-wheeling global economy. But the people that I've met here have been very friendly and good-natured, and they're already looking forward to the celebrations of the Christmas season. It seems that little or no work gets done after the beginning of December.

A call home produced the news that the rest of the Yourdon clan is doing fine in NYC -- except for Jenny, who is recovering from a sinus infection and looking forward(!) to the misery of having her last two wisdom teeth extracted in two weeks. David came home from school this week with a straight-A report card and glowing reports from his teachers. Jamie got good grades, too, and is busy focusing on applications for college, and spent last night participating in a school event where he tried to replicate Paul Newman's famous scene from the movie Cool Hand Luke of eating 50 hard-boiled eggs (the report from New York this morning was that he only managed 13 before calling it quits). Toni is finding that our new dog is often much more responsive and attentive than teenage boys, but unlike teenagers, you can't feed it french-fried potatoes: little Max threw up after munching a bunch of MacDonald's best. Ah, well, back to dog biscuits for Max. ...