A Better Day

It was a pretty boring day. Kaleb left before 9am this morning for a sleepover with his “best friend” Toben. He’s been looking forward to it for weeks and couldn’t even wait until his breakfast was fully swallowed before he was out the door heading to Toben’s house. I hope he gets some sleep. I know I will sleep well now that he’s not sleeping next to me, but it sure has been quiet around here, so I do miss him. Kory’s been quiet today, too. He’s been holding still, staying horizontal and pumping up on all the pain pills. He’s taking two kinds from the doctor and Valerian (a muscle relaxer). He said today the pain is tolerable so thank God for that. He is bored out of his mind though and just lays in bed doing Suduko for hours on end. At least he’s not moaning or tossing back and forth like yesterday. I don’t do well watching him suffer.

One of Kory’s cousin’s daughters came by for a visit today. She just had a baby two months ago so we got to meet the newest member of this side of the family. He’s a cutie pie. She already has an almost three year old daughter and she’s a single mom at age 25 – never married. In Norway, it’s one of the best paid jobs you can have. She gets her apartment paid for, childcare paid for, education paid for and two thousand dollars a month cash, all from the government, plus she gets money from the fathers of her children which doesn’t get deducted from her other income. She actually makes more money than most people working full time. She said she knows many young women that get pregnant just because they can make so much money off it. Incredible. Some of the support from the government stops when the child is three years old, so that turns out to be a good time to have another child so the support will continue three more years. She has things well planned out and will have her bachelor’s degree in economics by the time some of her support stops so then she can get a good paying job. She just bought a car, which is a total luxury here because of how expensive they are, but she can afford it. She’s a great mom and her kids have her calm disposition. She was in shock as we explained to her what her life would be like in America if she had two children and no job. She is living in the right country, that’s for sure.

I called the airline today and ordered “assistance” at all the airports for Monday, so that took a load off my mind. Kory can travel in a wheel chair and I won’t have to schlep around all the luggage. I also found out that all the flights we will be taking have plenty of empty seats so there shouldn’t be any problem with Kory being able to lie down across three seats and be horizontal for most of the day. That was a HUGE relief, and a much cheaper solution than flying first class.

Odd came home early from work today and decided to hike up to the top of the mountain behind their house, rain and all. He was gone nearly two hours. Just after he returned, Turid got home from visiting her mother and invited me to run up to the top of the same mountain. I had to laugh and then decline. When we’ve gone up as a family, we take about two and half hours to get to the top and at least an hour to come down. Turid can make it from her doorstep to the top in 39 minutes and then use about 20 minutes to come down. I knew there was no point in me joining her since she’d leave me in the dust, or rather, mud, as it was raining hard all day (besides, my rain coat was stolen!). And I had no motivation to reach the top since there wouldn’t even be a view to enjoy (see photo of the view on a sunny day). But they do this kind of stuff every day to keep in shape - and that’s why they are in shape and I’m not. My only consolation was that we all took our blood pressure today with Odd’s little doctor kit and Turid’s blood pressure was sky high (157/97) and she should probably be on medication. Mine, however was 101/68 with a pulse of 61. Turid said I have the numbers of an athlete. I’ve been told that before. (One time a doctor asked me if I was a long distance runner and all I could say was, “Do I LOOK like a long distance runner?”) It has to be the luck of the gene pool. I then laid on the couch and took a little nap and didn’t feel the least bit guilty about not exercising. At least I didn’t need to eat chocolate today to relieve any stress.

Recycling

The person who used to live in our house apparently liked to drink, as he left behind several bags of “recyclables.” Kory told Kaleb he could take them to the store and turn them in for the deposit. I felt a little funny about it however… being Christian and all… and having our kid schlep a trunk full of alcohol containers off to the store. Had I known how much money he would get, I would have nixed the idea for sure and done the task myself, but today was the day to clean out the garage.

Inside the grocery store is a vending looking machine set into the wall. Behind the wall is an entire recycling center. There is a circular opening in the middle of the machine that goes all the way through the wall so you can see into the back of the store. You set the bottle or can into the hole onto a little conveyor belt (and it has to have the opening facing toward you or it gives a nasty alarm, as we found out), and the can or bottle gets sucked back into the machine onto another conveyor belt where it is spun around until it’s barcode is read. If it’s a large pop bottle, it goes straight on through and sets on some conveyor belt behind the machine. If it’s an aluminum can, or small plastic bottle, an arm comes down and sweeps it into a bin on the left. If there is no barcode or if it can’t read the barcode because the can is squished so that it can’t spin on the conveyor, then it is rejected. A metal arm swings down and sweeps it to the right where it is returned back to you at the bottom of the machine. Kaleb soon figured out that if the can was squished and got rejected, he just needed to set the can in with the barcode showing on the top so the scanner could read it. The machine tallies up all the credit and spits out a paper ticket that is then taken to the cash register and turned in for cash. It took Kaleb quite a while to process all those bottles and cans, but it was not what I would call “work” as he had so much fun doing it. Each can is worth one kroner (20 cents), and each pop bottle, fifty cents, so he made over fifty dollars! What a deal. And outside the store, we were told, were all the recycle bins for metal, plastic and glass (they pick up all the paper in a special bin at your house on garbage day.) We took the wine and whiskey bottles that were left in the garage to the big recycle bin outside and put them in there, only to realize a moment later, that it was a bin to recycle clothes and shoes for children and there was no way to get them back - oops. (We later found where the smaller bins used for metal and glass were located so that shouldn’t happen again.) Uff da.

Our next stop was the bank, and only after looking all over the car for my wallet, did I realize I had set it inside my canvas shopping bag (they charge 50 cents for each plastic grocery bags here) and left it on the floor by the recycle machine! It had about $300 cash, all my credit cards and driver’s license. We made a quick u-turn and went back to the store. Someone had picked it up off the floor and set it on the nearest vacant check-out stand. Everything was in my wallet, untouched, which got me to shout HALLELUJAH! today.

Kory and Kaleb spent all afternoon over and Odd and Turids. Kory helped Odd lower the ceiling in his basement to cover up some electrical wires. (That Kory is a handy guy to have around and there are no other carpenters in the family so I think he might be busier than he planned to be while we are here.) Kaleb spent the time playing with Hege and making “bolle” (bread rolls). I stayed home and had a good nap, got my desk organized, and spent time writing. The house was so quiet with the boys gone - what a treat.

I love how close we are to family here. There hasn’t been a day go by that we haven’t seen at least one of them. The picture today is Odd (pronounced Ode), Turid (Turrey), and Hege (Hay-ga), on their balcony just after dinner around 10 pm Tuesday night. They have provided our “home away from home” every time we come to Norway. Turid manages our condo and does our taxes for us every year too so I hope while we are here we can do enough things to even the score. They all have a heart of gold- for which we are ever so thankful.