A Very Rainy Day

23 April 2013

The rain came in sheets today, one wall of gray after another.  Now that the trees have been cleared in front of our condo, we can see all the way out to the tip of Sula Mountain, which is a long narrow island that touches the sea head-on.  When the storms rolled in, I watched them slowly engulf the mountain ridge as it moved inland toward our living room window.  It was like a Hollywood movie.  When the entire mountain disappeared and my only view was dark clouds from earth to sky, the rain started battering the window.  It would last about ten minutes, then blue sky appeared for a few minutes before the next wall of water came in from the coast.  The weather provided much of my entertainment today, as other plans I had to visit friends got cancelled because they both had to work.  Life is unpredictable when you are a substitute worker.

Kory and I took a drive into downtown Aalesund today just to see what had changed since we were here last fall.  We stopped at Turid’s art studio so Kory could get a better idea of what kind of bench she wants him to make for her.  I’m so happy he can do that, as she’s certainly done enough for us over the years.  And, it will get him out of the house tomorrow!  He was gone this morning, fixing another door in Tante Kari’s condo, for Odd, too.  He loves doing stuff like that.  I guess he probably thinks I love cooking, too… but I don’t.

We stopped at a few thrift stores when we were in town (no surprise there) and I got a few more things I couldn’t live without.  There is a type of hand embroidery here called “Hardanger”(above) and it’s very intricate and takes a ton of time, but the end results are always stunning.  If a person were to buy a new piece of hardanger it would cost hundreds of dollars, but the thrift stores sell them used for about twenty bucks.  They are even cheaper if there’s no price on them and a man is at the cash register, as men just don’t put a value on that kind of handwork.  If it was something carved of wood, it would be a different story.  So I lucked out today and got several pieces of hardanger for less than two bucks each because it was a guy working there.  I nearly wet myself, I was so excited.  It was well worth the drive into town, even in the pouring rain.

Kaleb attended to his schooling all day, then made a delicious soup for us for dinner tonight.  Kory took the car over to his friend, Helge’s, shop to get the front end analyzed so we know how much work needs to be done before we put new tires on it.  He was able to tighten something or another so we don’t need to order to ball joints, so I guess that was a good thing.  Now we are shopping for used tires. 

We had quite a few discussions today about how we should go about renting out our condo.  People look for places months ahead of time so we have to get that ball rolling soon.  We are not in total agreement on the process we should use or who we should rent it to, so nothing will be happening soon, that’s for sure.

I went for a long walk around the malls today just to get some exercise without getting soaked.  I swear everyone in the mall was pushing a baby carriage, and those things are the size of small automobiles.  They don’t have the slimmed down version of carriages we use in America, they use ones that are of a design that was used about a hundred years ago – a small bed on wheels.  I guess they need all that extra space for all the bedding that goes with the child as it does get cold around here, but still, someone needs to streamline those baby carriages.  There were about five mothers all clustered around talking in the hallway and there was no way to get around them.  People don’t say “excuse me” and try to get by, they just stand there patiently waiting until the conversation is over and then they walk past, as if they have no where to go at any particular time.  It’s another weird dimension here – the blocking of passage ways.

Another weird thing is how many businesses think it’s cool to use English in their stores or in advertising, yet so many of them spell the words wrong (see above!) or use the wrong word altogether.   I guess no one is the wiser, but I have to fight the urge to go tell someone they really should change their sign or display.  But no one has put me in charge of the proper use of English in Norway, darn it.

One funny thing I learned recently is that the lottery system here in Norway runs a little differently than in America.  When a person buys a ticket, they have to fill out a form so the government knows who bought the ticket.  They don’t advertise who wins, but they do send a letter in the mail informing the winner.  One of Kory’s relatives won over ten thousand dollars playing the lottery recently, but he didn’t even know it right away until he was at the bank and saw his balance was way too high.  He inquired if there had been a mistake and then discovered the deposit made by the lottery company, as they just make direct bank deposits to all winners – no matter how much they win.  And it’s tax free!  Of course, for him, he buys about forty bucks worth of tickets each week, for several years now, so it was more like a savings account he put the money into, earned a good interest and got it all back, but still, it’s a pretty good deal to get anything tax free here.  I’m not sure what they do with lottery proceeds though, but I’ll bet they don’t go toward “education” like they do in Washington state.

We had a quiet night in and played Rummikub together as the wind and rain kept us from wanting to venture out and go visit anyone.  The rest of the week is a bit more hectic, so it was good to have a little down time – and we all won one round. 

I love that TV isn’t part of our life, but I love even more than Netflix now lets us stream instant certain programs over the internet and they put Norwegian subtitles on everything they show.  I’m thinking I can spiff up my conversational Norwegian by tapping into that resource from time to time.  Woo hoo.