Pollen

When I returned to Atlanta airport from Orlando, I found my car covered with yellow powder. While driving back home, the air was hazy with pollen. The South is suffering from one of the worst allergy seasons in years.

People start showing allergic reactions when the pollen count is over 50 particles per cubic meter of air. A reading of 120 is considered extremely high. Last week, Atlanta's pollen count hit 5900!!

Greg and Sammy have been suffering from itchy and watery eyes, stuffed noses, swollen faces, and had trouble breathing. The spring weather is keeping them indoors.

A presidential visit

I spent most of this week at the CTIA Wireless convention in Orlando. It was the usual pressure cooker of loud music, flashing lights, cheap give-aways and thousands of new products and ideas screaming for attention. As always, some companies try to attract attention with booth babes or even anti-booth babes. Not our company. We drew large crowds and big headlines by having two ex-presidents in our booth for five minutes.

De Flandriens

One of the things I miss most after leaving Holland is professional cycling. Not so much the tv coverage of the actual races. I can probably see more hours of cycling here than in Holland 10 years ago. But the cycling that is in heart and soul of Europeans. Folks talk about cycling. Some people even write about cycling.

My birthday roughly coincides with the start of the cycling season in Northern Europe. Races are held in cold and windy conditions and under grey skies. Henk and Myriam reminded me of the season start in recent years by sending me a copy of cycling magazine "De Muur". I would always read the story of our friend Herman Chevrolet first. This year, Henk and Myriam sent me Herman's first novel: De Flandriens.

Herman is a Swiss born Belgian, who lives and works in Amsterdam. He's a great chef and knows every short cut around Oudenaarde allowing you to see the Tour of Flanders pass 20 times on a single day. While I have not read the book yet, I listened to the interview with Herman on the Spijkers met Koppen radio show. The interview starts roughly 44 minutes into the show.

I will never forget my European heritage.

De kleine van Dorp.

Falun

This weekend, I took a train up to Falun from Stockholm to visit my friend Mats. Two and a half years ago, he and his family moved back to Sweden after having spent a couple of years in Atlanta.

Falun is in Dalarna, the heartland of Sweden. The people love the outdoors, and Dalarna is great for cross country skiiing or long distance skating. While most of the lakes have too much snow to skate comfortably, volunteers are maintaining a 30 km track on the Runn lake. It is a 5 minute walk from Mats' home to the track. So we rented Swedish long distance skates and went for a ride. After the skating, we relaxed in Mats' outdoor spa while enjoying some cold Carlsbergs.