Autumn Bliss

I don’t think it rained a single drop today, although it seemed like it would at any minute.  If I didn’t have a prayer meeting to attend, Kory and I would have certainly climbed a new mountain.  As it was, I spent all morning with those wonderful praying ladies from Philadelphia Church and I’m trusting God was pleased with my choice.  Kory stayed home and worked on the outside porch light fixture.

The porch light has been a major source of frustration for Kory since he’s been unable to find a new “transformer” that he was sure didn’t work.  The other night Are used an electric tester on it and said it worked fine – that it must be something to do with the light bulb, even though Kory bought a new light bulb.  Kory’s been to several stores for weeks in search of what he needs to repair the darn thing and come to find out it didn’t need repairing, so he was all the more puzzled.

After he found out electricity was getting to it, he cleaned up all the connections and put the new light bulb in, which he knew was working fine, and the light still didn’t work.  In his efforts to track down maybe a wiring problem, it was then that he discovered the actual light switch that turns on that fixture, hidden behind the curtain!  All this time he was using the wrong light switch!  So the light worked fine from the start.  I thought that was pretty funny, even though Kory didn’t think so.  At least we can now cross THAT off the to-do list.

We had an appointment today to get our van’s front end aligned since our “new” tires are wearing out at a rapid pace.  Kory’s childhood friend, Helge, has a car repair place and he said he’d do it for about half the price of other places we checked.  So Kory took the van over there and dropped me off at Sandra’s house while he waited for the repair.  I had a need for some yard work, since I’ve been house bound for far too long.

Sandra had some bushes she needed dug up, some paving stones moved and a little tilling of the soil, so I was happy to come over and help out.  I need excuses to be outdoors when it’s not raining and I miss having some yard work to do.  We had a nice chat while we worked so it was a great way to spend a few hours and it’s always so interesting to talk to her and her husband – plus I get the bonus of being able to speak English and to kiss on that little boy of hers.

Kory called right away and said they couldn’t fix the van because the ball joints need replacing.  They are $200 a piece here in Norway but at home we can get them for $50 a piece so Helge suggested we wait until spring and just bring them in our luggage and he can repair the van then.  Good plan.  Helge also invited us over for dinner, so that was an added bonus.

We had an hour or so to kill before the prescribed time for dinner, so after we left Sandra’s we went for a walk on a trail along the coastline.  It was pure eye candy with all the fall colors finally reaching sea level.  They’ve been up in the mountains for the past few weeks but now the temperature is dropping enough at night that the local trees are turning all shades of yellow, orange and red.  Even the ferns turn yellow here.  At home they just go from green to brown, but here, they are a fantastic shade of golden yellow.  We walked slowly along the trail just soaking up the colors.

About a kilometer into our journey we happened upon an abandoned farm with a historical marker on it.  It’s a place they have done excavation work and they know there’s been people living on that sight for at least a thousand years – back to the Viking days.  There are rock foundations still visible from at least half a century ago, so it was a treat to walk around and take a look and imagine what life must have been like. 

There are so many Viking burial grounds around Norway that it’s some tough luck if someone owns land and tries to develop it, only to discover a Viking village or burial ground.  The land must just stand, untouched, unless the owner can afford a full excavation, which no one can.  It’s the lucky person that lives next to such a place since the land will forever be undeveloped.   The place we walked today is currently just used for grazing of animals and is open access to anyone, as is all land in Norway.

Kory has been complaining constantly about his diet and that he can’t eat any good Norwegian food.  He never told Helge he has diet restrictions, so lucky Kory, as tonight Helge’s wife made Faar I Kaal (lamb in cabbage).  It’s a very traditional meal where lamb and cabbage are layered in a pot of water and boiled for hours.  It’s not something I’d eat but fortunately she had lots of boiled potatoes, carrots and cauliflower, and a salad.  Except for the meat, the meal was totally fat free, so Kory dove in and enjoyed himself like he hasn’t done in nearly a year.  He indulged in a little boiled lamb as well, and was very satisfied afterwards.  That’s the third time this week he’s broken his fat free vegan diet.  Lord help us.

Our days are so numbered now but the weather forecast for Greece looks like summer to me, so we’ll forget all about the fall colors by next week and hopefully just enjoy the sunshine and pretend it’s summer.  Even the locals here said this was one of the worst summers they can remember, and we missed the best summer Seattle’s ever had.  Go figure. (Kaleb's face says it all...)