spring is in the air here in the czech republic.
i slept with my window partially open last night. during the course of the night, however, the wind slowly but surely forced it open all the way. it was nice though. because unlike a month ago, the wind now is chilly but refreshingly chilly. it's not freezing. and when you're nestled under a down comforter plus a blanket and your head is nice and toasty from a winter hat - having shaved my head, i've worn a winter hat every night since then as a matter of health - well, it's one of those super comfortable sleeps. a light breeze blows across your face and stirs you from sleep, stirs you from your nest, you awaken, and then in a moment of passing joy, you realize you can sleep some more.
some people would be annoyed by this. me, i love it. it reminds me a bit of college, when similar things would happen. that and my room (and surrounding neighborhood for that matter) distinctly feels like college property.
i took a lot of photos yesterday because spring is contributing something quite disastrous to this region: water. a lot of water. water in the way of melting snow, pouring down the mountains and joining with rivers and the rivers swelling and swelling...
and so i took photos of the Vltava river, which runs through Prague, yesterday. it's swelling and since the 2002 summer floods, the city has put in place new protection measures. so far the waters have yet to reach the height of the new barriers, but there's a report of rain today and on sunday. if, indeed, that happens, it could cause some major problems.
hungary, slovakia and germany have all been hit by floods. and regions in the czech republic have also begun to be affected. begun is an understatement.
there are photos here.
i wish i could post my own swelling river photos, but they're just too large and the photo editting program (PictureProject) that came with my new Nikon CoolPix sucks and i can't figure out how to reduce the size of the photo (in a memory capacity, not in a screen size capacity, of course). if anybody knows, i would appreciate the help!
anyway, spring is here. the weather has increased by an average of 12 degrees, which helps a lot. but then again, it's making the river flow. for the country's sake, i wish it would freeze again just to halt the thawing of the record snowfalls in the mountains for a little bit. let the rivers subside a bit before encouraging them again.
the world's averaging things out. disaster after disaster. the world wants to get rid of us. it's about time, considering how much we're helping it degrade.
a lot of that sounds pessimistic, but i assure you it's in good humor. i'm having a lovely time here. spring is excellent here. spring is excellent almost everywhere, except maybe the middle east for so many reasons.
i wonder how the kashmiri earthquake victims are faring...? or the katrina victims? or the old and new iranian earthquake victims? (remember there was a massive earthquake there a year and a half ago? you don't? it's not like it wasn't all over the news... for about three days... did you know there was another one in Iran this morning?) i wonder about the tsunami victims, now a year and a bit past their own time in the limelight?
Posted by iain at March 31, 2006 01:26 PM