Kaleb has been hoping for a sleepover invitation all week. Today was his lucky day. Yesterday a friend of mine called who has an 11 year old boy that Kaleb has met once. She invited me over for coffee this morning so Kaleb came along to play with Daniel. They were two peas in a pod and after I had a wonderful time visiting her on her deck with the most amazing view I’ve seen (see today’s photo for a tiny part of it), I had to go home to feed Kory some lunch. Kaleb didn’t want to leave so he stayed on until my friend Tina invited him to just spend the night. It was like he won the lottery. I’m not sure what’s so special about sleep-overs but he was beyond thrilled - so I’m happy he's happy.
When I got home, poor Kory was lying on the couch, all alone and hungry. He asked for so many things the first week he was on his back, he sort of wore out his welcome and now is afraid to ask for anything – even food. So I have to remember to ask him if he’s hungry and I nearly forgot about him today. Uff da. He’s getting so tired of being bored and home alone, but at least there is a TV and a remote control. He’s watching the History Channel and the Discovery Channel non-stop as he’s never had such luxury before, (we haven’t had TV for over ten years) but he’d still rather be out and about. He went back on pain pills today because he’s been moving around too much and the pain returned. He can stand longer than he can sit, but lying down is still the best.
I worked on my digital photo albums again today. I should be getting a commission from the company that makes them because so many people have now downloaded the software and made their own photo books after seeing mine. I showed Tina today how to do it also. The quality of the books can’t be beat, but it does take a little time sorting through all those photos I’ve taken. Now, what do I do with the ones I don’t use in the book….
Odd and Turid had a dinner party to attend tonight so Kory and I were home alone. We popped popcorn and watched a movie – a rare thing in our lives. I had to stay up until midnight so I could be their chauffer (and then was too tired to post the blog afterwards). They usually take a taxi home if they drink wine with dinner, but Turid has been our taxi every year we’ve come to Norway, so I was happy to return the favor. I was a little afraid of driving late on a Friday night without a license though as it’s an automatic $125 ticket for not having it with me. The police set up road blocks often and just check everyone’s ID and to see if they have been drinking or if there are safety concerns with their cars. They don’t need a “just cause” here in Norway to pull anyone over for anything so I’m trusting God to keep me out of trouble with the law for another week as they don’t care about excuses like “my license was stolen” either.
We should be on our way back home right now. I even had an e-mail from a friend telling me she has some fresh picked blueberries just waiting for us, as well as some homemade jam. She hadn’t yet heard about Kory’s back, so I’m hoping the blueberries are still ripe for the picking when we get home. It’s nice we have been missed and it’s nice that people here are already looking forward to our return. I don’t know why we are so popular with extended family members when our immediate families in America don’t even talk to us. Strange. It’s probably because the extended family lives in Norway and real Norwegians are a practical and socialized group of people who always do the right thing, especially if it’s expected of them. And family is pretty important here. Kory has often referred to this country as “Stepford” (taken after the movie “Stepford Wives” where all the wives were perfect, but turned out, they were robots.) Kory said he feels that way sometimes because Norwegians are so predictable and conforming to what is proper, right and practical. If they disagree with something they usually keep it to themselves as it seems their freedom of expression has been lost somewhat in their socialized training. I see both good and bad in that. I think it was good when they had closed borders and they could maintain the life they have created here, but now I think it’s not so good with so many immigrants coming in with different social norms. Twenty years from now the whole of Norway will have gone from the Ballard of the 1950s to the Ballard of today with nary a true blue Norwegian to be found. It’s like some cosmic blender is about to get turned on and another Big Bang might just create an entirely new universe here. We’ll see.
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