Gone Fishin'

I felt so much better today after I finally gave up trying to find all of Kory’s things that are in locations he no longer remembers. It’s one thing when I forget where I put something, but it’s a whole other thing to try and second guess a spouse. Talk about stress. But today there was none of that. I was a free agent. I finished my big photo book of our year in Norway and got it ordered and then began the impossible task of filling out insurance forms for Kory’s accident (I’m hoping we get money back for our unused airplane tickets.) I also did a little grocery shopping and ran a few errands. It was good to have some time for myself. Kaleb was with his friend Toben all day and Kory was horizontal, except for the few minutes he dared to go for a walk to see his limits and when he found them he spent the rest of the day in bed.

When I left the house this morning I waved to Kory’s (ex)boss’ wife walking along the sidewalk. When I got to the library I ran in to Tante Kari and visited with her a while. When I was in the mall I ran into Tobias’ mom and Bjørn (Kory’s second cousin). They invited us to go fishing tonight out on their boat, so that was something to look forward to. When I was downtown I waved at someone else I knew and when I stopped at the grocery store I visited with a guy I went to school with. That’s how it is around here. There is no way to go anywhere without seeing a handful of people that require at least a “Hello” if not a full blown conversation about what’s happened since the last time we met. And there’s no rush. It feels like everyone has all the time in the world to just chat and catch up. I love that.

When I got home I called up to Toben’s house and left a message I’d pick Kaleb up earlier than expected because we were invited out on a boat trip. When I arrived at the prescribed time, Kaleb was incredibly upset with me that I came to get him before the day was over as he was far from done playing with Toben. I understood he had expectations of being there all day, but I didn’t expect him to act so disrespectfully to me in the process. (I don’t even want to write down what he did because I’d just as soon forget it, but needless to say he won’t be going to Toben’s house tomorrow as a consequence for his behavior.) He gets so focused on what he wants sometimes, he completely loses his good sense to act proper. He apparently needs a little more training on what to do when the apple cart gets upset. I was quite disturbed by his behavior and even more so that Toben’s mom witnessed it all. Uff da.

After dinner Kaleb and I went down to Tobias’ house to go for a ride in their boat. Poor Kory wanted to come along but that would be about the worst thing he could do right now so he had to be satisfied with seeing the pictures when we got back. Kaleb surprisingly caught the first fish – a mackerel. He didn’t even know he had it on the line as he thought his line was caught under the boat. Another time he had a huge fish on his line and was screaming for help because he was worried he’d lose his grip on the fishing pole, but that fish got away. That’s the story he talked about the most when the day was done. I had my line in the water the whole time but only got one bite, and no fish. Tobias’ mom caught the biggest fish and the most fish and Tobias didn’t fish – he just wanted to be the terminator. He had a knife and he knew how to use it. Bjørn didn’t catch anything either, so at least I was in good company.

The coolest part about the whole thing was being out in the middle of the fjord, watching the boats go by (big and small). It felt a bit like sitting in the middle of a freeway but with the bonus of some nice rolling waves every once in a while. The clouds were already hanging low when we began the trip but slowly they ate away at the mountains and one by one the mountains disappeared as the rain clouds moved closer and closer. There were more shades of gray than I thought were possible, so the whole thing was very dramatic and haunting. Finally when the rains came, Bjørn just put up the cloth cover and we continued on fishing with our poles sticking out of the back of the boat and us nice and dry and warm inside. It was all very cozy and we could have stayed out much later than 10pm but Kaleb was getting stir crazy (see photo of the ride back with him standing on his head and Bjørn sticking his head out of the boat in order to see where we were going). It was all quite memorable, especially since it was my first boat ride this whole year we’ve been here. I think we need more friends with boats!