Eating an Elephant

Preparing taxes is like eating an elephant – it’s best done one bite at a time. But then after a while, it gets pretty nasty no matter how small the bites. I had to go slow, take little bites, and face the fact I can’t do it all in one day, maybe not even two or three days. But today I did make some progress, so that was good. I found it much more satisfying however to cross off other things on my to-do list, so that literally ate up the day. Many things couldn’t wait until the taxes were done anyway, like posting an ad for our vacant apartment unit in Seattle. Time is money. I also needed to get Kaleb lined up with a piano teacher for this year before she was fully booked out. I now have 28 things checked off my to-do list and only 53 to go. It was a much better day today than yesterday.

Kory’s back seems to be doing okay as he hasn’t taken pain pills for a few days now. He said he feels a knot in that spot so he’s super cautious when he moves around, but now he’s feeling some tingling in his legs which is the most worrisome thing. I hope there is no nerve damage. For the life of me I can’t figure out if he is getting that tingling sensation because he’s moving around too much, or not moving around enough. I keep reminding him to get up every hour and stretch and tighten his muscles a little, but today was a two movie day (Netflix to the rescue), so he didn’t move much off the couch. He may need to go to a doctor, but he’s not too keen on that route just yet.

Our friend Bonnie came to my rescue and took Kaleb for the afternoon to play with her kids so I had some quiet time in my office playing with numbers and running errands. The tabs for the Lexus came in the mail today so I intended to drive that car into town to get a new driver’s license, but when I opened the door of the Lexus it seemed a mouse might have moved in while we were gone, so I closed the door and I left it in the garage. Maybe there is no mouse (the lighting was bad) and I’m just being paranoid, but I sure didn’t want to find out there was one while driving fifty miles an hour down the street. I took my chances and drove our Honda, with expired tabs, and no signs of mice. It feels good to be legal again – as I now have a driver’s license AND tabs for the Honda. I almost feel above the law.

I called a place in town today to find out about my internet options and I just had to laugh at their automated phone system. I’ve been in that place many times and there is usually just one person, maybe two employees in there. When I called, I got into the voice jail system and had to “press one for…” blah blah blah, “press two for…” something else… and surprisingly there were six options to select from. That office doesn’t even have a place for six employees, I’m sure. It reminds me of the time I was in Norway, trying to figure out which slot to stick the mail into as they all had different labels. The guy told me it didn’t matter which one I picked because they all went into the same box. I wonder if the guy answering the phone at the place I called today changes his voice, depending on which button I push.

When I went to pick up Kaleb tonight at Bonnie’s house, he said he didn’t feel too well. He had been lethargic most of the afternoon, according to Bonnie. I took his temperature when we got home and it was 101 degrees so I checked him for Chicken Pox. I’ve exposed him four times to Chicken Pox in the past and he’s never gotten them. (They call them “vannkopper” in Norwegian – meaning “water cups” because that’s what the spots look like when they first appear.) It’s been over two weeks since he was exposed in Norway so I was sure he wasn’t going to get them this time, but I think I may be wrong. He has one small little blister looking thing on the nape of his neck. Time will tell, but now I feel bad for all the people he’s been around this past weekend, as he’s most contagious before he comes down with them. I do hope he has them though as I want him to be done with them and not get them as an adult. The timing is pretty good assuming I can keep him quiet long enough to get my taxes done before next week, otherwise the bites on that big elephant might be tough to swallow.

(We’ve had beautiful weather since we’ve been home, and only sunshine in the forecast, but I can tell Fall is fast approaching. I took the photo today of Mt. Baker from our deck at 6:30 this morning. The fog settles in over the valley as the nights become cooler.)

Routines

We jumped right into our daily routine today. Kory was off to work at 7:00am and Kaleb and I were out the door by 7:30. Kaleb had his first day of “SFO” today, which is the before and after school program for kids with working parents. It’s mostly supervised day-care where the kids play a lot, but that’s OK by me. We live quite a ways from any other kids in his class so this way he gets to hang out with them after school a bit. The fact they don’t speak the same language has yet to be a problem. One little boy, Morton, just lights up when Kaleb is around and he’s thrilled we are putting Kaleb on his soccer team tomorrow.

I got a chance to talk with one of Kaleb’s teachers today and she said, “He is a very nice boy,” so I’m shouting Hallelujah to that! We love getting those kinds of reports. Kory helped Kaleb with his reading homework tonight and Kaleb may not understand all that he is reading but he sure sounds good – he’s getting all the vowel sounds worked out and will probably surpass me in no time.

The photo today is of my school in downtown Aalesund - we meet in the top floor of the yellow building. I can’t even say how much I love learning the language. Others in the class are really struggling but to me it’s just connecting the dots. If I hadn’t been around the language for so long I’m sure I’d be frustrated and quit, like many do, as the class is moving very fast, but it’s just the ticket for me. I am having trouble sleeping though as all the new words keep circling in my head and my brain won’t shut off, so that’s the only problem so far.

Kory was putting a roof on a house today out on a nearby island called Giske – the flattest place around here so the houses are very expensive (the prices of houses is mostly determined by how much sun they get as the steep mountains can leave you “living in the shadows” your entire life). One of his bosses (Jonathan) is from Sweden and he says that Norwegian construction is of the highest quality – higher even than Sweden. He said Norwegians demand the best of everything and I can see that to be true. New houses all have vents in every room to the outside, as do the windows, because they are sealed up so tight they need to breathe somehow. Odd and Turid’s water tank for their toilet is built in behind the wall so that only the toilet bowl sticks out. I asked what happens when it breaks – if they have to knock out the whole wall to fix it – and their answer is – “It won’t break.” Things are built to last and very, very few things around here are made in China. Norwegians pride themselves on Norwegian made products and they are the best you can buy.

Kory also found out today that Jonathan’s father-in-law worked as the machinist on a ship owned by Stanley Langacre that was used to take Russian Jews out of Russia via the Black Sea to Israel after the Cold War. Kory worked for two years on a tug boat for Stanley back in the 1960s. It’s a small world.

The blueberry season is coming to an end. Kaleb found the mother of all blueberry fields about a two minute walk from our house so I’ve been able to get five cups in about 20 minutes. I’ve been going every day as we so enjoy those fresh wild blueberries (the Vanilla Sauce has been running thick in our house.) Tonight we got to share some with cousins Odd and Rune (Odd’s brother) who dropped by to bring us a bigger coffee table than the one we had. They were impressed I picked the blueberries myself (I didn’t tell them I used this nice blueberry comb that just scoops them off the bush and deposits them into a little container.) They were also impressed that I had cut all the grass around here by myself (that WAS impressive, if I do say so myself). They called me a “bonde kjerring” (“old farm woman” )– a tough old broad, in other words. They ain’t seen nothin’ yet.