March 07, 2003 : friday protests

I should just get used to it. I know it's going to happen every Friday and then again on Saturday mornings. The witnesses show up. It stems from my brief encounter with them last fall/early winter. I was expecting a package and so I hurriedly ran down the stairs only to be asked if I was troubled about the events of the world. I don't really remember what I told them to make them want to come back to convince me, but they come, each and every week. Twice. Now I've got it down to where I peek through the windows to the windows across the street which sort of give me a fuzzy outline-reflection of who is ringing my doorbell.

Heleen called me mid-morning to ask if she could come over for awhile and just "hang out." Sure!, I said, and told her to bring along some breakfast. Half an hour later she showed up with croissants and a pastry each.

We hung out for the most of the day, I was working on clearing up the computer and picking up the house. (less of the latter, but still an attempt) She was trying to convince us to go to a Drag King night in Utrecht, and by this time I was sort of convinced we should go. (if Eva got her paycheck on her account today)

Turns out we had three options. Lisa called to remind us that we were supposed to go to Dirk and Sophie's house to give him a lesson in how to update his site. (this is a different Sophie than Lisa's Sophie of last week) We thought this option included dinner and we weren't sure if it would last the whole night or not.

Tom also called to ask us if we wanted to come over for dinner, and, having forgotten about the first option, and still not knowing about the Utrecht option, I told him we'd call back.

Then the Drag King option. Who doesn't want to go see a Drag King show. Apparently some of Heleen's friends are having issues on whether or not it is alter-ego, all-out-transgender, or merely for fun. I imagine it's a combination of all or some of the above depending on who you are. Regardless, it's a good time.

As I mentioned, then Lisa called. Having been reminded of our previous plans, I canceled with Tom and Heleen and promised her that once we get our car (still hopeful) we'll show up unexpectedly in Utrecht and have a great night with her.

I met Eva at the station and we headed to the far end of the street that runs under the train-tracks to pick up the scooter. When walking to the station to meet Eva, I had noticed huge police/SWAT team vehicles leaving the Armory and headed in that direction. I followed them (not on purpose, as it was the way I was headed anyway) and sure enough, under the station, unloading right next to Eva (she was calling me and I was across the street watching her) dozens and dozens of riot police.

We took pictures.

It was a protest by the dock-workers to protest the new harbor policy that says that ships can use their own staff to unload/load their ships. (this is what Eva told me) We had to completely detour our way to the scooter-store and walk across entire lanes that were closed at rush-hour on a Friday. I don't think that anyone was going to be overly violent, because the police vs. dock worker numbered one to one. (it was still pretty exciting!) They had even stopped a tram. I kept thinking, "if I hadn't had to meet Eva, I would have been on that tram stuck there in the middle of a riot and completely confused!" :)

We pick up the scooter, pay the rest of the bill, and ride away. It's a really smooth ride, but there's a bit of lurching. It idles quite nicely, but when we stop for a moment (at a light) it seems like it's going to die right then and there.

We did some shopping at Del Haize and Eva hadn't been there since the remodeling of the wine/entry section. (they are currently changing the look of the lighting) I don't really remember what we bought, but it wasn't much. We couldn't remember if we were going to eat dinner at Dirk's or not, so we snacked a bit, listened to live coverage of various real-time-translated UN security council representatives, and then went back downstairs to the scooter.

(so apparently there's going to be a war sometime on the 17th/18th?)

20 minutes later, after cursing, kicking, and manhandling the scooter, we nearly give up. We come to the conclusion that if we try to start it and it doesn't work, that we have a better chance of making it work if we roll it to a new location. Neither of us is very happy at this point, and both of us become "experts" in how to start the scooter.

Finally, after a stroke of luck/genius, Eva starts the scooter and off we go (having it die a couple of times) to Dirk's.

By this time we're late, and I'm still extremely disappointed in the fact that the scooter doesn't seem "fixed" and I can't seem to get over it. It's not until after a tour of their house and an excellent dinner fixed by Sophie, that I'm ok with the fact that the scooter is going to have to go back into the shop. (read: waste of more money)

After a great lesson in html, Dirk and I retired to the living-room where Lisa, Eva and Sophie were vegging out into front of the TV. We watched Dirk manipulate his cats (sort of like put them in a trance), I ate my apple crumble (I'm not a desert fan, but am attempting to branch out an not be "little miss picky") and I vowed to give Sophie and Dirk a laser pointer for next Christmas. (for the cats)

We made bets at the door on whether or not the scooter would start up. I was trying to be optimistic, and only 5 minutes later we were off in the dark on our way home, both of us trying to convince ourselves that whatever problem did exist with our scooter, it would work itself out and be fine in a couple of days.

IN THE NEWS:
President Bush's budget would produce unyielding deficits through the next decade totaling $1.82 trillion, Congress' top budget analyst said Friday in a report that could help lawmakers trying to shrink Bush's plan for fresh tax cuts. The analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office accentuated how abruptly the government's fiscal fortunes are declining. Just two years ago, forecasters envisioned an unprecedented $5.6 trillion in surpluses for the next decade.

AND:
The U.S. and Britain told the Security Council today that Baghdad continued to pose a threat to the world, despite reports by the UN's two chief inspectors outlining what they said was increased but qualified cooperation by Iraq in the search for and destruction of weapons of mass destruction. In a revised draft resolution that the United States, Britain and Spain put forward a week ago, they set March 16 or 17 as the date for Iraq to voluntarily disarm or face the prospect of war.