A Wonderfully Warm Day

I used today to do many things that aren’t even on my “to-do” list. I thought about writing them on there, just so I could cross them off, but I heard somewhere that’s what compulsive list-makers do. I have enough other compulsive behaviors, I didn’t need to add that one to my list (oh, that’s funny.) So I spent the day doing things like laundry and yard work. Once a year, when the temperatures are hot enough to dry things quickly on the line, I like to wash all the blankets, comforters and mattress pads on all the beds in our house. (It’s kind of like my obsession to dust once a year, whether it needs it or not.) Today just might have been the hottest day we will have the rest of the year, so I had to strip the beds and wash that bedding now! I can’t believe how fast a load of laundry gets done – like thirty minutes! In Norway the machine would go for two and half hours and it only held half as much volume, so I was enjoying that time/motion thing doing laundry American style.

I was looking for an excuse to be outside today because it was so warm and wonderful, so I trimmed back some ivy and set up the sprinkler and periodically moved it around the yard. The garbage is piling up and we don’t have garbage service – Kory always fills the van with the garbage cans and takes them off to the dump about every six weeks. It only costs five bucks, so it’s the cheapest way to go, but not the most convenient – especially since he can’t do it now. All the garbage cans are full but I found one that was full of beauty bark left over from last year when I put a fresh coat of it over all the planting beds. I decided today was a good day to distribute the bark since I need the can for garbage. That was a good work out and a good reason to be out of my office for a while. But then afterwards I really needed to sit down so I used the break to add up the sales tax on all the receipts I saved from last year. I love that we can now deduct sales tax, but I hate that I have to add it all up, and surprisingly, we paid way more in sales tax for the half year we were living here than the IRS allows for a standard deduction for the whole year. I guess it’s worth saving the receipts.

While I was outside today I remembered how much I miss all the wildlife we live with. Friends don’t stop by often because we live so far out of town, so that’s the downside of country living, but the upside is all the encounters with nature. A chipmunk bounced along the fence rail as I was watering today; a rabbit hopped in front of me as I walked down the driveway to get the mail; a squirrel came within just a few feet of us as we were sitting out on the deck; a whole flock of Canada geese flew low over head, honking all the while; a hawk circled out in front of our house; a great blue heron squawked before it landed in a nearby tree, and several frogs hopped out of my way as I moved around on the lawn. We also have song birds galore, the occasional owl and every once in a while, a deer or two in our yard. Most of the eagles have flown to Alaska for the summer, but in the winter they return and eat up all the neighborhood cats. A few times I’ve seen rats, mice and moles in our yard, but thanks to the mole “death mix” I made up yesterday, the moles, at least, might become extinct around here as there were no new mole hills this morning – Hallelujah! I’m also not fond of the slugs or the spiders. I have to walk through our yard this time of year with my hand up in front of my face so I don’t get a face full of spider web at every turn. I hate spiders in my hair – especially since I don’t find them right away as my curly hair provides lots of camouflage.

Kaleb’s been itching his hair a lot today as the two pox on his head are giving him the most grief. He’s still only got a handful of spots on him – not a bad outbreak at all – so I’m thankful for that. I keep giving him Vitamin C, Zinc and Echinacea to boost his immune system, so I think that’s helping. He’s happy as a clam to be “sick” as he is still glued to his Nintendo and I’m sure doesn’t even realize he has the Chicken Pox. Kory talked him off the Nintendo for a few hours today so they could watch a movie together in the cool of the basement.

Kory was up and about a little more today – fixing a few things that broke while we were gone. His pain is manageable but he doesn’t like the electrical shooting sensations he gets down the inside of his leg when he moves a certain way. I supposed he’ll be calling Dr. Odd in Norway to see what he suggests. I’m glad he can at least get his own food now. Yesterday he was on his own and I survived on cold cereal and milk for dinner as I was so focused on getting the taxes done. Today at least I made a real dinner, but then had to clean up the mess afterwards myself because Kory needed to lie down. I sure hope he makes a full recovery because I can see this whole back thing playing out to his advantage from time to time. He’s come such a long way in the domestic department, I hate to lose any ground.

A Funny Language

Inga, my Norsk teacher, went around the class today reading everyone’s homework. I noted she wrote “Bra” (Good) on several papers, but on mine, she wrote, “SUPER” (Excellent). “Super bra” would have been too funny, I guess. She also drew a big smiley face below my paragraph. (You never get too old for a smiley face). It did make me proud. On the bus ride into town this morning I must have written at least twice as much as I had down last night, so she appreciated all the effort I went through and she said it was very interesting to read (as well as mostly correct). Woo hoo. She also complimented me on my pronunciation today and said I was “flink” (capable). I’m having a great time in that class. I enjoy learning the rules of grammar but I also enjoy getting a good laugh out of the language. For instance, if you just say “chew-a-shoe” – you have just said the number 27 in Norwegian. Another funny thing is the saying, (this is phonetic) “Snoop doggy dog.” Isn’t that the name of a rap star or something? But in Norwegian, it means “candy day today” (some kids only get candy once a week – so it’s a common saying) – it’s actually spelled “Snop dag i dag.”

Today in class we learned the crazy system they use here to tell time. The two women from Poland sitting next to me about had a cow over this one. I think Norwegians even wonder the logic in it. If it’s five minutes after two o’clock you say “fem over to” - no problem (five past two). Then when it’s 15 minutes after the hour, you get “kvart over to” (quarter after two). If it’s ten minutes until two o’clock you say “ti på to” (“tee po two” is how you say it), or “fem på to” or “kvart på to” if it’s five or 15 minutes until two. You get the idea. When it’s 2:30, we say “half past two,” but they say, “halfway to three o’clock”, so it takes a bit of getting used to and you can easily be an hour late if you hear “halv tre” and you think it’s 3:30 when actually it’s 2:30. But here in Norway, they don’t just use the hour straight up as the reference point for all time telling – they also include the half hour. So the kicker is, if the time is say 2:20, (or any time between 2:16 and 2:44) they don’t say “20 over 2”, they say, “10 minutes until half an hour until three o’clock” which goes like this: “ti på halv tre.” And if it’s 2:40, they say “ti over halv tre,” (ten past half-way to three). They’ve streamlined a lot of things in this country, but their time telling isn’t one of them.

Kaleb got in trouble a few days ago for being disobedient and VERY disrespectful to me so I took away a few of his privileges. He said to me, “Now all I have to look forward to is school,” so I take that as a good sign. He jumps out of bed in the morning and wants to leave the house as soon as he can (I hope it’s not so he can get away from me). He also loves the after school program, so I say he’s doing fine. He even told me yesterday that when the teacher gives instructions to the class she then tells him in English what she said in Norwegian, but yesterday she said something and when she started to translate, Kaleb said, “I already know,” so I think he’s picking up the language VERY quickly. No surprise there, really. He plays with the American girl, Victoria, a lot at recess. He said they help each other with the language as he knows some things and she knows others. Ironically, her mom is in my Norwegian class.

Kory had the day off today. I think he slept a lot. He said he turned over the long rows of long grass (so they can dry) decorating our front yard but it’s hard to tell (see photo – we live in the fourth house from the left in the center duplex). We need to get the grass picked up before the lawn needs mowing again. It’s been raining this afternoon and tonight (we actually fired up the wood stove as there was a chill in the house) so we’re hoping tomorrow is more conducive to yard work. It was sunny this morning and my teacher commented today what a nice fall we are having this year (it’s still summer by my book, but apparently fall comes sooner here.) One year when we were here for a month in August, we didn’t see the sun even for a day, so I understand her amazement over the weather this year. I think that was the year that Odd said, “Summer came, but I was sitting on the toilet, so I missed it.”