Not Enough Time or Motion

I like to think of myself as a time/motion kinda gal. If I’m working on a project, it needs to be moving along at a pretty good clip, or I get very creative or very cranky. Today I had the ominous task of working on our taxes for 2008 and I opted for cranky. I didn’t get far because it wasn’t very satisfying in the “time/motion” department, and I ran out of patience as I need to gather so many little numbers to complete it. I immediately switched over to another of the 71 items on my “to-do” list. By the time I had crossed five items off the list, I had added eight more. That wasn’t very satisfying either. I got smart and at least had Kory make some phone calls – even though he’s not the world’s best communicator and he hates to talk on the phone, I knew the bulk of the time would be on hold anyway, and being on hold in no-way fit into my “time/motion” plans for today. He actually was a tremendous help getting three things crossed off my list by making those painful calls. Kaleb winched when I gave him his own to-do list as he was certain I couldn’t expect him to do all five of those things. When I told him I’d swap any of them for any five on my list, he changed his tune after I read him the items on my list. It was a production kind of day around here with spurts of fits by me when my patience ran thin.

This is an example of how things went. I signed up for Netflix (a movie rental place) so Kory can watch movies while he’s lying around the next four weeks (we are at the half-way-to-healing point today!). After the tedious signing up process, Kory wanted to see a “watch now” movie that streams over the internet right onto the laptop, rather than wait for a DVD to show up in the mail tomorrow. I gave him my laptop and some brief instructions and headed up to my office. He was unable to get it to work apparently because of the same glitch I encounter when trying to open my mail on that laptop. He called me on the intercom so I left my office and went down to hook up Kaleb’s laptop and get him set up on Netflix there. When I plugged in that computer I saw the power cord was from Norway. I found an adapter, but it was too wide to fit into the extension plug along with all the other things plugged into the outlet so I had to find another extender. When I went to plug THAT in, the electrical wall outlet is so old and worn out, the entire extension plug with all the cords just fell out of the socket and wouldn’t stay in the wall because it was so heavy. I had to find a small bench to push up against the outlet to keep everything plugged in. When I set the laptop on Kory’s lap and clicked on “play,” it was obvious the volume wasn’t loud enough for his ancient ears. I went looking for headphones. The first set didn’t work. The second set worked, but the volume still wasn’t loud enough for his liking even with the computer’s volume turned up all the way. As I was trying to figure out why the volume was so low, I bumped the laptop and all the cables were so tight that they came cascading out of the electrical outlet, as the internet modem also came unplugged and fell to the floor. I slammed the laptop shut, let out a high pitched scream and left the room. So much for trying to help Kory watch a movie. I thought it would take five minutes and it was a half hour wasted out of my day.

I had no better luck when I later took the internet modem to my office to see if I could get my trusty old office computer fired up and functional so I could print things. I discovered my printer had been disconnected from my computer and I needed Kaleb’s help to run the cable under my desk to reconnect it. I found out the ink was empty and a new cartridge was needed. The paper was also out of stock. When I got everything loaded up, the printer needed a bit of time to align itself, test itself and clean the roller. When I was able to actually send the 1040 form from the IRS website to my printer to print, it came out with little squares and lines and no words because apparently I don’t have the latest version of Adobe Reader. After installing that update I finally had some luck but then found out I needed to update my version of Windows and my Virus protector software had expired. It wasn’t fun. During the forced technological pauses today, in order to keep the time/motion thing going, I did things like pay bills and get Kaleb signed up for school activities. I had to call a friend to even find out how much stamps are these days, as I had no clue. I also wrote “2008” on all the checks for some reason, as I haven’t written a check in over a year. They seem so archaic, cumbersome and time consuming now that I’ve been paying bills on-line for so long. I also discovered not a single pencil eraser in the house works. They all dried out over the course of a year and none of my mistakes could be removed. Lovely. My mouse clicker takes three clicks to work and my keyboard is gritty. It’s like a bad movie, only this is one no one would enjoy watching.

On the upside, Kory felt well enough (or hungry enough?) he made a simple dinner tonight. Smart man. He knew not to ask.

Home Improvements

Another absolutely gorgeous day here in Norway. Before we got here, the almanac predicted Norway would have the best summer in 150 years, and it seems that may be the case. It’s been blue sky and sunshine almost every day since we arrived. Hallelujah.

Our neighbor girl Sabina came over this morning as we were getting ready for church. It was her 10th birthday on Thursday, so today was her party. She was all dressed up and looked like a princess. Kory invited her to church so she came with us. During the coffee hour after the service a few people came and talked to us and as it turns out - one of them was best friends with Sabina’s mom. She said she got goose bumps when she saw Sabina in church, as she’s been praying for her and her mom for years. Sabina loved being at church and said she wants to go with us again every time we go.

Kory talked to some of the neighbors today – actually, they have been coming over to lend a hand here and there as we work toward cleaning up the yard. One old lady came and helped rake up the grass, another old man came and helped us move some things headed for the dump. Apparently they are all so relieved that we are living here and taking care of these houses. One of them said they were very afraid that “blacks” would be moving in here (that’s what they call anyone with skin darker than a Scandinavian). Norway is required by the European Union to take in refugees from around the world, so they divide them up and make each Kommune take on so many. Since the Aalesund Kommune ended up paying out the land owners here for allowing the building permit on this bog, they are partial owners in this project. The neighbors were worried the Kommune would be placing some of the refugees in these houses, which they may do yet – we don’t know. But at this point, it seems we are the heroes of the neighborhood. (The prejudice in this country toward some immigrants is unbelievable.)

Kaleb was at Sabina’s birthday party for several hours today (there were 12 girls – and Kaleb) so Kory and I used the time to put in a nicer patio in front of our house. Out our living room door we had a step that was a bit too far down for my comfort level, and there were several pallets laid out as the “patio.” That patio wouldn’t have been too offensive in itself, but it was covered by a lovely green astro-turf kind of carpet that was as tacky as tacky gets. So I got the pleasure of tearing it up and we replaced it with some wooden squares people use here on decks that improved the looks of things tremendously. And we moved some decent steps from another unit over to our house so I don’t have to hold onto the door handle for dear life every time I “step” outside. (I’m sure the step wasn’t so far down a few months ago, but remember, we’re on “sinking sand.” Everything looks much nicer now, although not quite up to Kory’s standards, but you can’t be picky when you are a scavenger.

I cut Kaleb’s hair this morning – something I have never done in his entire life – but he needed it. (I wasn’t about to pay $50 for a haircut here.) I bought a ten dollar hair cutter kit before we left home and I’m now sure it was a wise investment. I was a bit nervous, but I think I did pretty well for a rookie. Kaleb complained an awful lot about my technique as he felt too many pulled hairs in the process. After I was done and he saw himself in the mirror he said to me, “The service wasn’t that good, but the quality is okay.” Kory probably feels the same about many other things I do. I’m working on that.