Archive for the ‘Everyday’ Category

02.02 24.09.20

I felt a strong urge to go outside for a walk, like I used to. I am riddled with aches and pains, having another bad day today. When I looked at the clock, it was barely 1am, nowhere near 5am as I had thought. The lack of sleep is not good for my sense of… everything. And then my curtains billowed dramatically, and it turns out there’s a downpour happening, with dramatic foggy rain AND great gusts of wind!

I think I shall have to postpone any walks.

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Also, what has happened to the WP post editor?
Am I no longer allowed to write in block paragraphs?

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Head vice

I’ve been out doing garden work for EIGHT hours. Okay, there’s been several sitting breaks (staring at nothing). And one short dinner break, but other than that, it’s been outdoors and either biking until I nearly fainted (when I got back home), or clipping trees, or planting new tomatoes. Pretty sure I am dehydrated from heat and almost no drinking, ‘cept for a tiny ice latte and two glasses of water. Only went to the loo twice all day, and that can’t be good.

Head is killing me, not with a classic headache but one of those that feels like your head is caught in a vice. Less pain, more pressure.  Slightly dizzy. Very tired.

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Aphids

Spent another 5+ hours outside today. Am I turning into some kind of functional gardener?!  Bad news, though; we have a giant lice/aphid infestation. The fruit trees are so covered that half the leaves on the tree are crumbling inward (before dying) from all the lice, and I saw some rosebushes today with the same problem. Haven’t checked our own. I was never good with roses. Learned how to make clippings from them today, though. And from rhododendrons.

Did some digging under the plum tree, and put a handful of year old shoots in a bucket of dirt, to see if they will take root. That might be fun, if they do. Did the same with some red currants, which I know should work, but will take a bit of time either way.  I should really go ham on that in a few months, after berry season is done.  I would really like to do some plant trading with the locals.

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All the snow has half melted, half frozen.  It’s not quite black ice, but it’s solidly frozen slop.  The plowing edges (thanks, google translate) are starting to turn stone hard, and shoveling now is a bad idea.  Someone please knock some sense into my uncle so that he shovels before everything freezes.

On the plus side, I got fed up parking the car half out on the street, being in the way of the snow plow, so I parked the whole thing outside the public high school and left it there.  If we get freezing rain, I’m gonna regret it.  But right now, it feels great to not feel like The Absolute Worst for blocking the plow.  Hopefully it will do another round tonight, but I doubt it.  I would deliver dad’s old car back to him, were it not for the whole “moving house” business going on.  Sometimes I regret being the designated driver.

The icy ground is very shiny. Dangerous ground, heh.  I managed to snap some pictures earlier while the sun was glowing and lighting up some frozen flower branches, but I haven’t checked them out yet.

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Today is officially my first day of moving!  I am terrified.  My packrat/hoarder tendencies make for a lot of junk to go through, and even more stuff.  This heat isn’t making it any easier.  Starting is always the hardest part, so I am starting by clearing out some of the stuff where I’m moving, which is not mine, and thus much easier to handle.  Hopefully the wind outside keeps up, as anything above 25C is death to me without a stiff breeze right in my face.

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Just as I punctuated that last part and was about to hit ‘send’, a giant airplane cruised over the house.  Like, right over.  Looked like a war-era transporter, doing a sharp turn right over the hill.  I got a couple of pictures as it sped away, but I wish I could have gotten one of the view from where I was sitting, it was eerily close.

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Managed to drag myself onto the floating dock, even without any stairs. (They fell off yesterday). Have only been on one of those a couple times before, when I was a kid.

Seems odd that I should manage to swim out there on such a windy day, when the waves were taller than I am.

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I couldn’t even go outside.  I went to take out some trash, and bring in the mail, and my headache was like “better play dead cuz u’re halfway there”.
So, now I have crashed myself on the couch.  I managed to drink some more water with the painkiller, and made a cup of… well… it started out as lassi (cultured milk with salt and maybe fruit) but I added some oats to it and it’s mostly just mild cultured milk (like thin yoghurt). The salt is barely there, I just need those electrolytes or whatever they are called.
The heat is horrible.
Gonna see if I can handle some chill games while the painkillers kick in.

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10.07.18

We had a thunderstorm yesterday, and it was wonderful.  I went out in a tee as the lightning came closer at record speed, and got caught in a deluge.  The intense downpour only lasted a few minutes, and it’s been so warm that drying off was no problem.  Today it is back to sunshine and summer heat, yuck.

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Today is another sunny, windy day.  Yesterday was another heat record, and I was out all day even though I hate heat and feel like I am melting like a wicked witch every summer.  My cousin was visiting, and keeping her inside where it is cool is an impossible task.  We went sightseeing where I grew up, and entered the stranded submarine; Lemme tell you, submarines get hot when baking in the sun.  But at least the tomato plants are enjoying the weather.

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Jeg har aldri vært så ensom som etter at jeg begynte i „fast jobb“. I tiltaksarbeid, som lavbetalt NAV-slave. Misforstå meg rett, jeg valgte å prøve akkurat den jobben jeg er i, og jeg har ikke lyst til å forlate den nå, for folka der er hyggelige og snille. Men for hver uke som går, kjenner jeg meg enda et trinn ned på ensomhetsstigen, en etasje nedenfor forrige uke i trappa i livets skyskraper. En skulle tro at å tjene egen inntekt, stå opp til fast tid hver arbeidsdag, snakke og synge sammen med kjempehyggelige folk, og gjøre mange av de tingene som driver en fremover, at en skulle føle en form for fremgang. (Framgang? Vet det er en forskjell, men orker ikke Google det nå.) Så hvorfor føles det stadig som om det går nedover?

Jeg tror det var i Kristin Lavransdatter at det stod noe om at en kan være i et rom fullt av folk og likevel være på det mest ensomste, mens det å være alene ikke er det samme som å være ensom. Undset? Jeg har kjent til ordene i mange år, følt sannheten i dem ganske ofte.  Det er et annet sitat jeg hørte for ikke veldig lenge siden som passer enda bedre, det gikk litt slik: Vi bruker opp hver dag på å ønske at det var en annen dag.  Den kjenner jeg veldig på for tiden.

Jeg har kanskje aldri før brukt opp så mange fritimer på dataspill som nå. Jeg kommer hjem, og orker ingen ting. Her om dagen orka jeg ikke engang dusje, enda jeg ikke hadde vaska håret på fem-seks dager, og kommer hjem luktende som et fjøs. Jeg hadde planlagt å dusje, jeg har fått en ganske grei rutine på hvilke dager det lønner seg mtp klesvask, videre arbeid, hår, sengeskift, sånne ting. Men så kommer jeg hjem, våt og kald og så evig SLITEN, full av små og store vondter fra jobb og skuldre som tror at senebetennelse burde være kronisk for resten av livet, og orker bare ikke. Setter meg på senga, kanskje foran dataen, og orker ikke engang se på noe gøy. Setter på noe tankeløst, noe som er helt innafor, men som aldri kommer til å fenge følelser eller sette igang hjertepumpa.

Jeg bor i et rotereir. En bitteliten hule, omgitt av rot og liten plass. Jeg har èn sitteplass, og det er på senga. Den vonde og harde senga jeg ofte angrer på at jeg byttet til, men den forrige var for smal, så jeg vil heller ikke bytte tilbake. Her sitter jeg vondt, og gjør skuldre, rygg, knær, hofte, og høyrefoten med senebetennelsen bare værre. Og så tenker jeg „så sliten jeg er“ og „så ensomt dette kjennes“. Om igjen og om igjen, men orker ikke engang forlate sitteplassen, skulle bare ønske jeg kunne sove. At det var torsdag kveld, den eneste kvelden jeg sover skikkelig, eller søndag morgen, ofte den eneste tiden jeg ikke har noe å gjøre resten av dagen.  Bruker opp hver dag på å ønske det var en annen dag.  Har vondt, men orker ikke gjøre noe annet enn å sitte der. Er ensom, men orker ikke engang tanken på å snakke med noen, ikke engang skriftlig. Orker ikke tenke. Vil bare sove.  Får fremdeles ikke sove.

 

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boo, germs

Holiday germs have successfully infiltrated my immune system for the second time this winter.  Just enough of a headache to be in pain, just enough general unwellness to be incapacitated half the time.  Boo, this!  I am taking a day off work, since I can’t get any sleep.

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New Year’s

It’s the last day of the year.  Less than 3 hours are left, over here, and I feel slightly lonely at the moment.  The others are downstairs, listening to concert after concert on the big TV, while I took myself and the laptop upstairs to be more in peace.  It’s been several hours of this, and it feels slightly… off… to spend tonight separated from people like this.  Had I been home alone, at least I could go out and find a hilltop to watch the fireworks.  I asked if anyone else wanted to go with me to the fortress nearby, that would be a fun new place to watch the lights from, I think.  They said no.  I wish I had better outdoors clothes.

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img_6372Made myself some delicious veggie sushi rolls!  I’ve never made anything with nori seaweed before, so the whole experiment was really all about figuring that out.

I used lots of carrot, paprika, some green onion stalks, fried eggs, and various green herbs from the garden.

What the first roll lacks: Soy sauce, celery, radish (from the garden) and maybe some white onion.

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Note for the future:
Do not prepare rolls when the rice is still hot.  The smell gets a bit strong.

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The second roll has less rice in it, but also a bit more of everything else. Plus the radishes and soy sauce. I also added some sausage on the side to taste. It was all quite delicious, but I still wish I had any kind of celery, and could fit even more carrot into the rolls.

I wonder if portobello mushrooms would be too much at once. Or if I could roll the whole thing without using rice, and rather have that on the side.  To be honest, maybe the whole thing should just be made into bite-sized side-dishes with rice.  Or just a salad.

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I made lamb ragu with macaroni. For some reason, lamb meat is currently cheaper than everything else, including pork and chicken. It tastes amazing, but it feels like eating a fancy steak on cheap paper plates; Something is a little bit off.  It’s not bad, though.  (I think it’s because the taste of lamb reminds me of fancy Sunday family dinners at certain times of year.)

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2017.01.16

I’ve been watching TED talks about “how to interract with Norwegians” and I`ve actually learned so much.  About myself, but mostly about things that I find hard to explain to other people. Social interraction is a whole other language, and it varies all over the world. Less easy to explain than spoken language, but still important.

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Rain, rain, and even more rain.  Truly, I don’t remember such stereotypical dark & dreary autumn weather hitting us like this in a very long while.  This time last year, the sun was shining and the grass was still green and soft.  Now, there are mud patches everywhere, rivers of water through the streets, and gale winds almost every day and night.  Dryness is a rare and distant concept.  I bless my thick socks and numerous articles of wool clothing, and try to keep the chill out of my bones.

Only a week ago, we had orange and yellow leaves! If there is any color left in this world by the time this rain ends, my guess is that it will all be in the brown-to-dirt range.  Isn’t there a scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where the Whomping Willow shakes off a single leaf, and then the whole foliage suddenly drops to the ground, leaving a naked and shivering tree?  It’s just like that.

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I am doing well enough.

Just got back inside from my morning sunrise picture escapade with fingers so frozen I used hot water to warm them AND BOY SHOULD I HAVE NOT DONE THAT.  Sometimes I tend to forget the hard lessons learned in childhood. Pro tip: When you’re really cold, be careful with warming up too quick. It is incredibly painful, and can be harmful in extreme cases. The pain is usually enough of a deterrent, tbh.

 

I am very hungry. Decided that I would try to make oatmeal for breakfast today… if I can remember how, beyond the very basics.

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I turned my hours back around yesterday (to a more beneficial sleeping schedule, that is), or so I thought. Even after a long and very hard day of work (carrying a lot of heavy things from 1 to 10 pm with nary a break), I went to bed around midningt, STILL unable to fall asleep before 3.  And I`m still very much awake tonight. So, I`m up reading. It’s not the best choice, but rather that than the tiny panic attacks that sometimes follow sleepless nights.

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Sometimes, I would give anything to be able to cast a temporary Silencing Hex on people outside. Like, most of the time. Right now, for instance.  Shut up, neighbours! It’s past midnight!  I have some issues with sleeping (and basically living normally) when I hear something (people-related) outside, and weekends are the absolute worst.  When I was home alone all last week, I slept at grandma’s place during the weekend, and it was so great; Only the wind in the trees, some birds now and then, and constant waves crashing in on the shore.  No people stumbling drunkenly through the street, no cars stopping outside at 4 AM.  This weekend, I`m unexpectedly home alone again.  The only good thing is the drizzling rain, which makes most party people loath to walk outside. But those darn neighbours are more active than even I am during the night, with their 8+ noisy cars and weird night jobs.  And talking.

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