Sköldpaddan och jordgubben

[Note: I wrote the start of this on the plane on Saturday, 9 May on our trip from Frankfurt to Newark; I've written the later part today. I think I'll end up writing a few more posts: part 2 on what happened after we arrived in our rental and part 3 with reflections on our overall time in Sweden].  Saturday, May 9th, sometime in the later part of the flight to Newark.  We’ve been chasing the sun for hours, blue tinted through the window. It’s the reverse of watching it set sooner and bounce back up, as it did when I traveled to Finland in the summer of 1991. The clouds are a tapestry of white over the ocean, the map shows we’re nearing Newfoundland. I can now see patches of snow in between the clouds.       It feels odd to leave Sweden just as spring came pouring out in utter abandon. It had mostly stopped snowing most days, and each morning, we woke to bright sunshine (now as early as 3:30 AM on a sleepless night). We certainly didn’t end ...

I'm doing a quick post here; for those on both this blog and the health blog, skip this. But for those just following this blog, here's a quick update. Chris is feeling better after two+ weeks clear of the hospital. He's had his ups and downs, including a couple of days where we contemplated going back to the hospital. However, a lot of rest and not much activity has helped. He had a CT scan yesterday that came back clear, with clearance to fly. Our kids are fully registered in the State College School District- class for them has started at 3 PM, so our evenings have been busy. Will be helpful to be back on the same time zone next week! We're leaving Sweden tomorrow- flight to Stockholm to Frankfurt to Newark. Checked in and ready to go with a lot of luggage and face masks ready. This isn't how or when we'd imagined leaving, but so be it. This year didn't happen like a lot of people expected. I've been contemplating blogs posts I yet want to writ...

This week has gone by in a blur. One foot in front of the next, taking things one at a time. Numerous times, I've gone into a room and wondered why I was there. One day, I put a full glass of water into the cupboard; I had forgotten to drink it. In between, we've been learning new skills like how to sew our own masks; see above for our very stylish colors.  So where are we? We are not having a fun weekend at Grona Lund with Elizabeth's good friend Nora nor are we on a plane from Stockholm yesterday as planned (two alternative realities gone). However, we are scheduled to fly on Saturday, 9 May: Stockholm to Frankfurt to Newark. This was as direct as we could manage while avoiding Iceland (volcanic activity), Atlanta (really, Georgia?), Chicago (adds an extra leg and extra exposure), State College (while flights are scheduled, they keep getting canceled). Hope our planned itinerary works.   Chris is doing better day by day- not a linear path towards progress, ...

One weekend, not so long ago in our quarantine, we were set to have a boring day. It was going to involve sitting on the couch until 1, going outside, and then being lazy for the rest of the evening.  For something new and exciting, though, we were going to go look at herons, instead of going to the rope swing. We were going to watch birds sit, stand, and maybe, if we were lucky, fly.  But luckily, somebody had an idea on what to do. And since I am the person who had the idea, I get to write the blog post.  What we did instead was make a stick house in the woods, which seems to be a Swedish national pastime, and make a stop motion video out of it. It was a fun, interesting, and more importantly, different activity, which livened up our weekend.  Our stop motion video:    Example stick houses all around in the woods (these things are everywhere):          Some are a bit messy in construction ...