April 6, 2025

 Left a little before nine. Blacksmith. Very sunny, quite cool. Winds out of the east. Straatweg to Breukelen. Fruit trees now also showing blossoms. Short wait along the Vecht; you see new things that way, such as half-hidden beautiful little lanes alongside the big old houses. Kortrijk, Haarzuilens, Harmelen, Benschop, Polsbroekerdam, Oudewater. Center shielded enough to sit outside comfortably. Lange Linschoten very manicured with its new wooden sheet piling supporting the dike on both sides. Lots more cows out now. Woerden. A guy on a regular bike wearing street clothes (cycling gloves) asked the way to Utrecht. He had come from Hoek van Holland into that stiff, cold easterly wind, and needed to go back there still. Any particular reason? No, he does these outings regularly. In case we thought of ourselves as tough. Kromme Rijn. Lots of light green willow trees, and more and more tulips. Harmelen, de Meern. First they went after foreign aid, but I'm not a needy foreigner, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for migrants, but I'm not a migrant, so I looked away. Then they came for federal workers, but I don't work for the government. Next they came for the law firms and media companies, but I don't care for lawyers or journalists, so I said nothing. Then they came for Medicaid, but I have my own policy, so I let them cut that too. And so on, and so forth.