Treacherous Ride, Update 2

Cold War and Cycling: new developments in my issue with the city of Amsterdam over last Wednesday's iced-over bridges that cost me two bike crashes--the second also resulting in one or two bruised ribs. I just hear that Het Parool printed my letter in yesterday's paper. I wasn't in Amsterdam yesterday, and the only day the paper makes it to our village is Saturday. But the person who saw it will mail the paper. I can't find any place on the paper's site for letters-to-the-editor, so I can't link to it either. Given that the city claims that crews had been out all night, it's possible that I'm off in my indictment. I've talked to other people who think it possible that when roads are icing over, salt put down, say, in the middle of the night, could be gone by early morning. I still think that's hard to believe in the circumstances last week: snow and sleet coming down in the evening and beginning to stick, followed by below-freezing temperatures. How could salt wash away in these conditions? In any case, while running is very painful at the moment, riding is possible. It's the holidays (St. Nicholas) and we could not fit in a coffee ride this morning, but in the afternoon I did my summer loop to Hilversum to get a Herald Tribune. It's a little ride for the summer, when the Sunday rides are long and manly, "meet-the-middle" coffee rides out of season, but you still need a little something on Saturday. Easy riding, without pulling on the handlebars really isn't so bad. I even took my foot out of the pedal at one point to deal with a chasing dog (that's when he finally backed off, before I could practice the survival skill [that would be kicking the animal before it can jump up and bite you] learned during my days in Southeastern Ohio). With a partly couldy sky with lots of light and dark cloud action, and with the season's low sun, there were some spectacular vistas along the way (Horstermeer, 's-Graveland, Spanderswoud, past my deceased high school Het Nieuwe Lyceum, past the old VARA building, and back by way of Loosdrecht, Loenen, and Vreeland for a grand total of 22 miles).