It is now 6 months since I last actually worked at the office and not from home. All these months of different routines, of exception, of waiting, have lead to a sort of lethargy. Perhaps some other things, too, have played a part, like it simply being winter. The lengthening days and warmer sun do […]
Happy New Year! It’s funny how much hope is generated just by swapping out a used up calendar with a brand new one. But there’s always hope in fresh starts, and anticipation, in a blank page, a new morning, the first stitches of a crochet hook. My usual New Year’s Eve ritual was ignored. I […]
It’s been almost a month since I’ve been at the office. As it happens, my lunch gang all live near me and today we meet for lunch outdoors. It’s one of those classic April days: Still winter in the shade, darned near full summer in the sunshine. A day that’s hard to dress right for. […]
“Dugnad”. Google translate says it means voluntary work. I live in the land of “dugnad”. It is actually unpaid work, usually for a common cause. (And pronounced sort of like “doog-nahd”.) Dugnad is not always pleasant or even voluntary. Certainly jokes abound about creative efforts to get out of doing dugnad, born out of how […]
Will you look at that? I can’t remember when last my refrigerator was this full! It’s all planned, too. I mean, I have meal plans. The authorities and grocery stores in Norway implore us all not to hoard; there are still regular deliveries. Hence I plan my meals and buy only what I actually need […]
The internet, as usual, is full of advice to those who have to stay home these days, quarantined or just social distancing or because school/work is closed. One suggestion is to pretend you have an invisible coworker and everything annoying is due to that coworker. Dirty dishes left out? It’s the invisible coworker’s fault. Somebody […]
I belong to the generation that followed the boomers. No, not Generation X. That other generation. The small one that is considered boomer but really isn’t. We’re just the tail at best. We aren’t the ones that rebelled. As my high school history teacher said: We’re the nothing-happened generation. There’s a lot of good to […]
I remember strikes used to terrify me. I was so brain-washed by the American view of unions that I quit mine here in Norway once in a panic. I rejoined quickly and have a gold pin for 25 years’ membership and first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to be on a proper strike.As April rolls […]
I read about this very bright object being shot up into orbit around Earth earlier this year, just to twinkle in natural sunlight as an artificial star for a few months. And I noted that it would be visible from Norway on April 24-25 2018. I’ve had this date marked on my calendar since I […]
I don’t often post about politics. Mainly, it’s because I don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand and engage. I therefore understand those who vote with their gut, because I do, too. But I do get impressions from the world around me and right now, it looks like it is reenacting “Animal Farm”. I know […]
Yesterday’s post about a badly behaving co-worker, reminds me of another time a male co-worker behaved badly. In that second incident, a good man made a mistake. I did go to HR this time. I felt he needed to know that he had been terrifying. Norwegian men can get so tall. The guy in this […]
I always joke about how I don’t make threats; I warn. That’s because I don’t believe in idle threats. I think if you threaten somebody, you should also mean to carry the threat out. So I may as well warn. It’s a bit weird to write the above, because I’m a relatively harmless person. But […]
We’ve had one of the wettest and coolest summers ever in Bergen in Norway this year—rainy enough to have us wondering if we will break a record. The current record for the most rain in one summer is from 1964. That’s the record we’re trying to break this year. Actually, we’ve been very against breaking […]
It’s 10 AM and I’m watching a memorial ceremony on TV from Oslo, reading the names of the 77 who lost their lives 6 years ago in what has been called Norway’s 9/11: The bombing of a government building, and the shooting of young people attending a political camp on the island Utøya on July […]
This morning I doddle at home so I can catch the latest news at 7:30 AM. I learn that Pennsylvania has ensured Trump’s win. To my own surprise, I burst into tears. I repair my make-up and go to work. There, I discover I am the office political commentator, being the only American here. “What […]
Here’s a follow-up to my last two posts: The Indians visiting here noted that Norwegians didn’t stay long at the office, leaving to go home to dinner with their families, and that on the weekends, the whole family did things together. The right-wing government insists that Norway wants shopping malls to be open on Sundays. We don’t. That’s one […]
Youngstorget, Oslo When I first moved to Norway in 1969, politics here were so left-leaning that they were approaching extremism. Yesterday, in local elections, the Norwegian Labor party (Arbeiderpartiet) once again became Norway’s most powerful party, and had its biggest win in Bergen since 1967. A fact that makes me happy now, but which was my bane […]
There are two things I need to do, simply because they are important to overall health and sanity. Sit less at computer. Daily spiritual practice of some kind. This computer—and the internet—are way too distracting. WAY too distracting. Hours can pass by and all I’ve done is look at stranger’s pictures, and stranger’s comments, and […]
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
A Roll in the Universe 