A Taxing Day

The sun was shining and I would have rather been outside more today, but somehow my time got taken up with Kaleb’s agenda. He wanted to go to our old neighborhood this morning to spend time with Tobias (an ex-neighbor kid), but while he was waiting for Tobias to wake up (that boy sure sleeps in late), he got a call from Andre, asking if he would like to go swimming with him and Toban. Kaleb was all excited about that possibility, and I thought it was a good idea too, until I heard Andre ask if I could go pick up them up and take them swimming. We live RIGHT next to the swimming pool, and they are about a ten minutes drive away. Their parents were working today but they were free from school and looking for something to do with their time, so I agreed to get them after I finished organizing the last of the kitchen cupboards.




While Kaleb was gone swimming, I took advantage of the quiet house to finally sit down and gather information for our Norwegian taxes for 2009. We are late in filing them, but we had to wait to do them until we were here because we needed help with a few things. The government has everything so automated, they send everyone the tax return already filled out, so all that is necessary is a signature, but if there are things somehow the government doesn’t know about, changes are necessary. Kory and I went over to the tax office to ask some questions and file our return. I’m sorry we did. The government’s version of our return showed we would be getting a few hundred dollars back, but as it turns out, they didn’t calculate the rent we received from Tante Ruth, so now we need to pay them a few thousand dollars. Ouch. I was bummed the rest of the day.



Kaleb came home from swimming with his buddies in tow. They hadn’t yet seen our place and they liked it just fine. Everyone thinks it’s so cool that we are attached to the mall and so close to everything. (That’s what makes this place special. I thought it would be noisier than it is, but it’s really pretty quiet, so I’m thankful for that. ) Kaleb was anxious to have his friends taste a particular kind of brown cheese we love. It’s not goat cheese, as I previously thought, so I love it all the more. Whoever thought to put cardamom and sugar in cheese, is brilliant. It tastes like candy and Kaleb could easily eat the half pound block we buy every few days, but I make him savor it and go slowly. Andre and Toban had never tasted it and were very happy to have seconds. Oh man, that stuff is GOOD!



The boys flew paper airplanes off our balcony down to the courtyard below, played a card game and then needed a little more action. They went to the mall with us to buy some groceries, then Kaleb suggested they go home so he could finally go over to visit Tobias. I drove them home, dropped Kaleb off at Tobias’ and headed back home to clean up our deck and plant some flowers.



The 17th of May is on Monday and everyone is working at a frantic pace to clean up their yards, patios and houses, so things are in tip-top shape for this every important national holiday. I don’t want to seem like a slacker and even though no one but us can see our balcony, it must look its best and be as festive as it can be by Monday. No pressure to conform here, no, not at all.



I needed something besides flowers to cheer me up, so I went diving into some farm history books I got from the library, looking for ancestors of my friend Stuart. I found quite a bit of information, which happily got my mind off the taxes we have coming due. Spending time with the dead is always so soothing.



Kory and I had to run Kaleb’s PJs, toothbrush and a change of clothes over to Tobias’ house as he decided to spend the night there. It was good to be back in the old neighborhood (see photo). No one is living in the Sinking Houses anymore. I suspect it is because the ground has gone down so much the sewer and electrical lines that were buried in the ground have now completely separated from the house. The houses are looking vacant and forlorn once again. But the bus stop next to our old house that Kory repainted with a Norwegian flag is still untouched with not one spot of graffiti anywhere. He’s so proud he left his mark on his motherland.