May 16, 2025

Friday. Left a little before 9:30. Blacksmith. Mostly cloudy and a cool-ish breeze from the northwest. Long sleeves and knickers. In the sun, it was quite nice, but with the sun behind the clouds, or under the trees, it was just spring, no longer summer. De Bilt, around Zeist, past Austerlitz and Woudenberg. Griftdijk and Haarweg extra East-West car traffic. I had not counted with the freeway closure, but in the end it wasn't terrible (other than not getting peace and quiet, the usual state of things there on a weekday morning). On the hill everything was normal, including the hard effort and mediocre time. Another detour behind Leersum, but it led me to do the Langbroekerweg with its forbidding rows of trees on both sides. Then Gooyerdijk to Rodensteijn to Langbroekerdijk, Werkhoven, and Achterdijk. Riding home into the headwind was work. It got sunnier as time went on, but never warm. The drought is now official, farmers are spraying their crops, and Van der Valk still finds it necessary to spray its bushes in the shade. Otherwise, not too many visible effects yet, but with another dry week up ahead, that only seems a matter of time. The news with the talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations. Other than the POW issue, these now seem to be mostly about not alienating the White House (any further). Moscow is not ready to give up any of its objectives, regarding Ukraine or NATO, and it probably still thinks time is on its side. It's quite possible that this is another miscalculation by the boss, since Europe, while still having a long, long way to go, does seem to be organizing for its own defense, including that of Ukraine. For its part, that outcome might do just enough to keep Washington on side, politically and militarily. But there are many moving parts, the most dangerous being both the current administration's unpredictability, and its agenda. A new example of the latter is how it is now actively going after the International Court of Justice, to the point of threatening to block the Court's bank account. As much as Europe and other democracies may try to keep the U.S. on their side, recent experience suggests Washington (and the country) really doesn't see itself as being in the same old club any more.