Should we stay or should we go?

No translation required.

An unanticipated (at least by me) consequence of uprooting ourselves for the move to Amsterdam is that the question all too soon arose: Should we stay or should we go? It arose, this question, and then hung in the air, clouding things. Some people don't mind that--Gideon, for one, prefers to operate in an environment of ambiguity because Gideon is all about possibilities--but I do mind that (and so, very much unlike Gideon, does Felix). I prefer a clear line of sight into the future, and this question thwarts that.

No longer: we have answered the question and the answer is We should go. I can play Lincoln or Douglas, and like them, argue for hours to a no doubt rapt audience the advantages of either wonderful place, on who wants what and the things--and especially the friends--each of us will or do miss when here or there. The truth is we face an overabundance of opportunity, luxury, wonder, and love in both places, lucky people that we are. But the decision, for me at least, is the necessary response to this imperative: simplify, simplify.

As with you, my life has become more complex with the years. One has children and they and their needs grow. One has a career and it and its needs also grow. One has houses and things in those houses, and even they grow and, like children, they bring new problems as they age. Together, it adds up to a life that is fokking druk. Too fokking druk. And when things are too fokking druk they are experienced in a warped fashion, making them less enjoyable and more expensive. Fokking drukness consumes mental space inefficiently, creating an atmosphere of stress that prevents clear thinking, degrades the quality of relationships, and actually reduces lifespan: insult to injury, being too busy will kill you in the end.

What to do? The children, they are keepers. The career too, for I need it to accomplish certain goals, mostly related to saving the world. What I can do without is one of two houses and, oh, half or more of the things in them. And I can certainly do without the bureaucracy and spreadsheets and bits of paper and expensive decisions associated with those houses and those many things. Simplify, simplify.

So we are. The details lie before us but it's a safe bet that as of 1 August familie Shuldiner will be back in the Bay. It is also a safe bet that I and we will be back here in Amsterdam again thereafter, once we get the fokking drukness under control. Please dream accordingly.

Complete this word

In response to the input "t...h...o...u...g...h...t..." my phone suggests "thoughtcrimes."  Whoa.

The Family Christmas Letter, 2018

It's Christmas in Athens, and you know what that means. Well, actually, it doesn't seem to mean much of anything here on the ground, but here on the blog, oh yes, it's time for another of my occasional attempts at humor, the all-time favorite (in the not terribly competitive universe of Brekkie postings) Family Christmas Letter, starring, and in order:

TALIA:

Talia, stymied by the couch buying process in the Netherlands (pick a couch, give them some money, wait for it to show up in your living room...why do they have to make things so complicated?), went into a furniture store in Munich and has since refused to get up. We miss her, but are happy if she's happy. Before sitting down, Talia earned us a lifetime's carbon credits by restoring the creek, completed field work for an advanced degree in herring inspection, and got all caught up on her bathing.

FELIX:
 

Having finished his final year of elementary school, Felix moved to the Netherlands where he introduced bike surfing ("gevaarfietsen") to the Dutch, proof, if such were required, that you can take the boy out of California but not the California out of the boy, also, that he has no sense at all. When not brushing his hair--which is to say all the time--he is busy making excuses, popping Bloons™, and perfecting his impression of Richard Feynman (the brilliant scientist Feynman, not the louche skirt chaser Feynman). Felix enjoys picking up his clothing and coming to breakfast promptly just about as much as you'd expect.

GIDEON:

Shown here robbing a chocolate store--one sample only, Gid!--we have our younger child and his faithful bicycle helmet (he goes through bicycles like I eat potato chips but somehow the helmet stays on). Gideon went straight from second grade to fifth, albeit in different educational systems, and now mutters angrily to himself in two languages, so yes, you could say the move to the Netherlands has been a success. He sleeps in his own bedroom but doesn't like it, and is still, even after all these years, 100% guilt-free.

ALEC:

Alec found his missing hat but even so slept badly last night, so if this isn't funny that's why. When not tossing and turning he likes to collect jobs and debt, the thinking being that one will eventually catch up with the other and isn't it exciting waiting to see which one wins and doesn't that maybe explain all the tossing and turning? Alec travels often, mostly to visit Talia in Munich, and found himself on two (sub)continents he'd never expected to visit this year or any year, further proof that, as he likes to say, too much is never not enough.

THE HOUSES:
 

It was a big year for us mortgage holders and the properties by which we are encumbered. First the house in Cali had to be made ready for renting. This entailed mobilizing earth moving equipment to ensure the place didn't wash downstream while we are gone, and, harder, packing up the house completely, a process we savored over many weeks and that somehow left the space seeming even smaller than it was before. Dispirited, we rented it and moved to Amsterdam. There we embarked on a months-long process to purchase additional space for our apartment, despite the fact that, not having a couch (see above), we don't even use the living room we already have. This section, upon rereading, is sad, not funny, but it is true and sometimes that's reason enough to laugh.

THE VACATIONS:

As noted some screens above, I write from Athens, but as screens go by so does time and I'm actually posting from Meteora, Greece. Unable to pick among a plethora of my perfectly framed shots of the incredible rock formations in and around which we have been hiking almost non-stop for the past two days, I instead offer you this disgusting video of Gideon drinking hot chocolate I took just hours ago.

Now that's fresh! For more from our many picture perfect and enviable in every respect vacations this year, please review my previous posting on Ameland, which really was as wonderful as it looks. For the rest, well, here's a sampling of some ups and some downs, vacations and otherwise, with the by now usual Apple-supplied soundtrack:

Have a very happy New Year!

Fusion Festival

 I'll keep this short: if partying with me for nights and days on end to the very finest techno playing at multiple venues scattered across an abandoned Russian airfield somewhere in former East Germany in the middle of the summer (26-29 June 2019 to be precise) sounds like a good idea then you'd better register to get tickets NOW.

Sinterklas

Sinterklas is here! Well, he was at the kids' school, along with his faithful not-quite-blackface helper, Piet, and, if you look closely, Gid. If you aren't familiar with this Dutch tradition, look it up. If you are, then you will not be surprised to learn I wrote a gedichtje:

Gid, you learn languages so quick
Tell me, boy, what is your trick?
Perhaps you should learn another
Then you'll have one more way to insult your brother
De Sint can speak with you in het Nederlands
Because I read you stories starring Poppejans

Felix, is there anything you can't ride?
I've seen you on both horseback and bike astride
Flying hands-free and unlit in the dark
Terrifying the other riders in the Vondelpark
But I think your very best trick
Was riding the length of the Englischer Garten while sick

Talia, you're the real superstar
Planning everything near and far
Choosing schools, baking cakes
And making sure we get the best interest rates
Most impressive though to me
Was your cooking not just one but two turkeys

Family, you are totally bad ass
Which is why I'm so happy to be with you on our first Sinterklas