sun 12 aug 2007 17:38:52 — raamgracht
started raining
it was sunny before, but now it just started raining.
two waterhoenen (a kind of water fowl, i don't know the english name for them) are standing on the rudder of the houseboat in front of my place, with their feet just under the water, looking as if they're waiting for a taxi. two people on the far side of the canal are just standing there under an umbrella. a small boat with a few people in it is hiding under the arched bridge across from my window.
it often seems to me that you can watch the BBC weather and know what's going to happen the next day in amsterdam. yesterday it was to be raining in england, so i figured it would rain sometime today here.
and now it's raining quite hard. in dutch they say "het regent bakstenen" (it's raining bricks) where in english you might say "it's raining cats and dogs".
i heard on the news that we should expect the river levels in holland to be quite high soon, because of all the rain they've had up in germany etc. some of the rivers from the middle of europe flow out through the netherlands, because they are so nether.
come to think of it, the water level of the raamgracht looks a little high to me as well. i've noticed lately that quite a few of the boats that pass by here are having trouble making the turn under the arch-bridge 226 across from me. they have to remove the flagpole sometimes to get under the bridge.
kees once estimated that because of how low this city is, sea level is just about at the floor level of my apartment -- since i live one-high (eenhoog). so if everything gives way sometime soon, i will no longer need to worry about walking to the albert heijn supermarket. i'll have different worries.