A Busy Social Life

Most of my day today was spent being social. The tide has turned. There are several things I COULD have done, but I ran into LizBeth, my ex-neighbor (and bus riding partner) yesterday, and invited her to coffee today. I had to hurry through Kaleb’s school work this morning to get ready for her visit so I was a bit stressed, but it all worked out in the end. She loves our condo and coincidentally, she now works almost right next door. She changed jobs a few months ago and is only working half time and no longer takes the bus. I told her of our plans to use our condo as a business rental for short term situations and she offered to be our “agent” and do what she needs to do to get them rented and cleaned up afterwards. I didn’t even ask her or suggest she help, so I was quite pleased that she thought of that herself because she has a lot of rental experience. She has an apartment in her basement she has rented out for many years, so I was thrilled with her offer. We’ll see how things shake out over the next few weeks after we talk to some companies, but she would be a great help to us if we go in that direction.




One interesting thing LizBeth told me today was that the people who moved into our old place at the Sinking Houses only had a six month contract to live there. Norway had one of the worst winters on record for cold and snow. LizBeth said she couldn’t even let her little girls go out and play in the snow because they would have been lost – it was over their heads. It was also below freezing most of the winter. So I guess the people that became caretakers of The Sinking Houses didn’t know how to care for property the way Kory does, and all the pipes froze in January so they had no water coming in, and no way to get rid of the water in the house because the outgoing sewer drain pipes were frozen solid. They called up the Aalesund Kommune and complained about it, but the Kommune said there was nothing they could do, and there was only two weeks left of their contract so they just needed to deal with it. LizBeth said they dealt with it by putting plastic garbage bags over a bucket, using the bucket for a toilet, then throwing out the plastic bags in the garbage. When she heard about what they were doing (I’m not quite sure how she DID find out about it), she offered to let them move in to her basement apartment, where they are still living to this day – another coincidence. LizBeth was so disgusted with the Kommune that she told the renters they should just deliver their garbage bags right to the Kommune’s office downtown and tell them to deal with THAT. She’s a feisty one, that LizBeth. I like her.



So now we know why no one lives in The Sinking Houses – they are unlivable, as I suspected. The sewer lines have separated too much from the houses and it seems, the houses may be torn down. One garage has already been removed. I know when the Kommune bought that place out from under us, they had plans to do some work on the ground to stabilize it more, but now it appears they may just have to tear down the houses altogether. I’m so thankful God closed the doors on us buying them, but Kory still grieves their loss. He’s not a gracious loser.



LizBeth left just in time today for us to make it back over to our old neighborhood to have an early dinner with Tone and Sabina (Kaleb’s first friend in Norway). It was wonderful to spend the afternoon with them and to eat Tone’s good cooking (she’s a pro at everything she does.)



We came home for about an hour before we headed back to Agape Church to attend a concert by the Watoto orphaned kids from Uganda. Just before we were leaving, Kaleb started crying and saying how much he wished we didn’t care so much about him and his safety so he could have more time to play on his Nintendo and have a cell phone. I’ve told him kids are getting carpal tunnel from too much time on those hand-held games, and they’ve also linked brain cancer to excessive use of cell phones, therefore he has no cell phone and he’s limited to an hour a day (or more if he earns it) of his Nintendo. He was crying buckets and asking why he is so deprived when all the other kids don’t get similar restrictions. He even went so far as to say he wished he didn’t have any parents at all because then his life would be much easier… then off we went to hear these orphan kids tell their stories of living in the streets of Uganda, with no hope, no food, no parents, and how thankful they were for this Watoto orphanage and how it changed their lives. After listening to that concert and watching those kids dance and sing for joy, I think there was a little change in Kaleb’s life as well as he realized maybe he doesn’t have it so bad afterall.



After the concert we went to look at a used dishwasher that was advertised in the paper. The house where it was at was very near Kory’s mom’s childhood home (see photo I took tonight of Solevaag). As thrilled as I was to finally be buying a dishwasher, I was more thrilled that I remember to bring my camera along so I could take pictures of that amazing landscape scene – it’s quintessentially Norway to me and my heart skips a beat every time I see it.



In the photo, there is a cluster of trees on the right side, down by the water. Kory drew that landscape last year with an ink pen, then he hid an image of a Viking ship in the water, that is really only visible if the picture is turned upside down. He longs to be Bev Doolittle, I think. Anyway, his cousins that actually live in that picture, saw his drawing on Sunday and I pointed out his cleverly sketched Viking ship in the water. To our amazement, they said that there actually IS a Viking ship lying in the water in that exact spot. Who knew. Kory sure didn’t.