Today’s trip to Ikea brought not only the need to take public transport instead of “Silly”, the big silver bicycle I bought at the fietsfabriek before the new year (named for the “silly” little way it sends me to the ground every time the wind blows a little stronger than usual), but also the realization that if I had not had brought an extra tote with me, I would have been carrying back a lamp under my shirt, set of knife sharpeners in my backpocket, and three packs of batteries in my shoes. Everything else I would have had to leave at the cash register after finding out that Ikea has decided NOT to supply their customers with plastic bags for their purchases anymore.

Now I’m as environmental as the next guy and happily supply my own tote going to the grocery store, but this is friggin’ Ikea, and no one wants to find out after spending an hour meandering through a giant warehouse of things you don’t really need that you can’t really take it all home. Honestly, a little warning would have been nice. Something along the lines of, “Please don’t enter this building if you don’t have the carrying abilities of the Hindu god Ganesha” by the ice cream machine would have been nice.

Meanwhile, the Rest of the Netherlands Has Decided to Kick Flooding in the Taco
Since the Netherlands isn’t really a country for warning, the next time Mother Nature comes knocking on Holland’s door threatening to flood (for the country’s overall attitude that a couple of dykes can prove she does not exist), the powers that be have decided to actually let her huff and puff and blow the doors in. It’s a new project called “Room for Rivers” in which the Dutch government is allowing the dykes in about 40 parcels of land that will now become flood zones. They have even convinced inhabitants of these areas to sell their land to the government and relocate. Apparently, even though some of the people who have to move squabble over the cost of their property, the government overall doesn’t seem to have that much trouble convincing them with their superior Dutch logic that it’s what’s best for the country. And it probably is. What other country would come up with a solution like, “Hey, those people are in danger. Let’s go ahead and move them”.