and the weeks slip by
I keep meaning to post, but have been busy, so by the time I catch up on reading what others have posted here, on email, in FB, and on blogs I don't seem to have energy left to type. How different this is from when I spent all day, every day on the computer. I am enjoying not being on the computer much, but it has gotten at least one person to ask if I was ok because he hasn't heard from me lately, so I need to resume regular postings.
We have come into autumn here in the north--the trees with leaves are all showing greater or lesser amounts of yellow, and the morning air is kind of crisp. Last week lord_kjar and I managed to start our morning with a run three days a week. This week we managed only two--he wound up working till after midnight on Tuesday, so opted to sleep a bit longer on Wednesday morning, but I got up and went for a trike ride on my own--might as well do something resembling exercise, and, honestly, I like the trike much better than running. But the running is better exercise--I don't break a sweat pedaling, I do jogging, even at our slow speed (the loop we do is something less than 3.5 km (based on my bike computer, taking the paved path, which isn't quite the same as the dirt track we jog, but is close) and takes us 25 to 30 minutes right now, though he says that he has done it in 15 previously)
Why exercise when I am about as slender as I have ever been as an adult? Because I would like greater fitness, too. I am enjoying weighing in at 55 to 57 kg (121 to 126 lbs), and like how it looks in the mirror, but despite seeing the difference in how I look, I don't really feel very different from most of my adult life, when I ranged from 150 to 160 lbs. So, in addition to the morning sit-ups and evening yoga I am trying to add in a few more things than just walking to get to places which are close enough to walk.
Next week starts the Swedish Folk Dance class that lord_kjar and I will be teaching. I am looking forward to it--dancing is fun, and having to explain what the lady's steps are in Swedish will be good for me. I have already been taking care of the email correspondence for the class in Swedish--so far the questions have been "is there still room in the class" and "how much?", so after getting his help editing the answer for the first one I have been able to answer the others on my own (copy-paste is your friend), so they won't know till they meet me that I don't, actually, speak Swedish.
I rather like Sweden's health care system--they are proactive. I only just got my Swedish Personal number a week or so ago (that all important number which one needs to do anything in this country--even registering for a gaming convention requires the number), but in today's mail was a letter from the local health care service explaining that in Sweden one is expected to have a pap smear and gynecological exam every three years, and that I have an appointment scheduled for the 29th of September for mine (please let them know if that date/time doesn't suit and they will reschedule). The fee for this appointment is 150 kr (about €15). The letter explains the importance of the exam in preventing and/or catching cancer or other problems early enough to solve them, and encourages me not to hesitate but just come in. I did nothing whatsoever to request this appointment, I only requested the personal number--apparently that is all that is necessary to get added to the health care system and be given an appointment (at a clinic which is only 10 minute walk from my home, no less).
Today's plan was to do some pre-cooking for the SCA event I will be attending this weekend. It is being held by the next group to the south, so only a 1.5 to 2 hour drive away. The weekend is a "bring your own food" weekend, so we have agreed to share meals with a couple of friends who will be there. I started the day by making a pound cake filled with a raspberry/marzipan blend, and I also turned the rest of the marzipan into balls for the weekend. I then settled into the computer intending to relax with second breakfast for a bit while reading LJ/FB/etc. before deciding what period recipe I wanted to make for food to bring to the event.
That last part hasn't happened yet. I had paged only part way down the most recent status updates when I saw a note from a friend in An Tir commenting on the fact that he had just heard the news of the death of one of his FB friends he hadn't yet met in person and encouraging all of us to cherish all of our friends, because we never know how long we will have them. The friend in question was dorinda2212, who was one of my closest friends when I lived in Atenveldt (between 1986 and 1988). Needless to say, I promptly forgot about everything else I had meant to do, and went straight to her FB wall to read the good by messages that people have left there for her, and to leave my own.
It is funny, she has been someone I have missed in my life for more than 20 years, yet there is such a world of difference between "miss you, look forward to the next time we meet" (especially for a friend like dorinda2212, where we picked up from wherever we had last left off on each of the rare occasions we got to see one another in the years since I moved away) and "miss you, and will never get to see you again". The years were not as kind to her as they have been to me--she lost her first born son to drowning some years back and she has had some issues with her health over the years, yet through all that she remembered to laugh regularly, and was always a delight to visit with, be it in person or over the internet. I am so sorry she is gone, and feel bad for all of the people who were even closer to her than I was, and the pain they feel at her loss.
When he was home for lunch this afternoon I talked with lord_kjar about how nice it was to be able to go to FB and see the many messages people have left for her now that she is gone, and how in the case of another friend of mine who is gone the fact that some of his friends returned to his wall a year after he died to say goodbye again. We agreed that this is one of the nicest things about FB--the fact that death doesn't take away our accounts--it is possible to go back to the account of a loved one and leave them a message, even though they are no longer current in this time zone to actually see and respond to it.
We have come into autumn here in the north--the trees with leaves are all showing greater or lesser amounts of yellow, and the morning air is kind of crisp. Last week lord_kjar and I managed to start our morning with a run three days a week. This week we managed only two--he wound up working till after midnight on Tuesday, so opted to sleep a bit longer on Wednesday morning, but I got up and went for a trike ride on my own--might as well do something resembling exercise, and, honestly, I like the trike much better than running. But the running is better exercise--I don't break a sweat pedaling, I do jogging, even at our slow speed (the loop we do is something less than 3.5 km (based on my bike computer, taking the paved path, which isn't quite the same as the dirt track we jog, but is close) and takes us 25 to 30 minutes right now, though he says that he has done it in 15 previously)
Why exercise when I am about as slender as I have ever been as an adult? Because I would like greater fitness, too. I am enjoying weighing in at 55 to 57 kg (121 to 126 lbs), and like how it looks in the mirror, but despite seeing the difference in how I look, I don't really feel very different from most of my adult life, when I ranged from 150 to 160 lbs. So, in addition to the morning sit-ups and evening yoga I am trying to add in a few more things than just walking to get to places which are close enough to walk.
Next week starts the Swedish Folk Dance class that lord_kjar and I will be teaching. I am looking forward to it--dancing is fun, and having to explain what the lady's steps are in Swedish will be good for me. I have already been taking care of the email correspondence for the class in Swedish--so far the questions have been "is there still room in the class" and "how much?", so after getting his help editing the answer for the first one I have been able to answer the others on my own (copy-paste is your friend), so they won't know till they meet me that I don't, actually, speak Swedish.
I rather like Sweden's health care system--they are proactive. I only just got my Swedish Personal number a week or so ago (that all important number which one needs to do anything in this country--even registering for a gaming convention requires the number), but in today's mail was a letter from the local health care service explaining that in Sweden one is expected to have a pap smear and gynecological exam every three years, and that I have an appointment scheduled for the 29th of September for mine (please let them know if that date/time doesn't suit and they will reschedule). The fee for this appointment is 150 kr (about €15). The letter explains the importance of the exam in preventing and/or catching cancer or other problems early enough to solve them, and encourages me not to hesitate but just come in. I did nothing whatsoever to request this appointment, I only requested the personal number--apparently that is all that is necessary to get added to the health care system and be given an appointment (at a clinic which is only 10 minute walk from my home, no less).
Today's plan was to do some pre-cooking for the SCA event I will be attending this weekend. It is being held by the next group to the south, so only a 1.5 to 2 hour drive away. The weekend is a "bring your own food" weekend, so we have agreed to share meals with a couple of friends who will be there. I started the day by making a pound cake filled with a raspberry/marzipan blend, and I also turned the rest of the marzipan into balls for the weekend. I then settled into the computer intending to relax with second breakfast for a bit while reading LJ/FB/etc. before deciding what period recipe I wanted to make for food to bring to the event.
That last part hasn't happened yet. I had paged only part way down the most recent status updates when I saw a note from a friend in An Tir commenting on the fact that he had just heard the news of the death of one of his FB friends he hadn't yet met in person and encouraging all of us to cherish all of our friends, because we never know how long we will have them. The friend in question was dorinda2212, who was one of my closest friends when I lived in Atenveldt (between 1986 and 1988). Needless to say, I promptly forgot about everything else I had meant to do, and went straight to her FB wall to read the good by messages that people have left there for her, and to leave my own.
It is funny, she has been someone I have missed in my life for more than 20 years, yet there is such a world of difference between "miss you, look forward to the next time we meet" (especially for a friend like dorinda2212, where we picked up from wherever we had last left off on each of the rare occasions we got to see one another in the years since I moved away) and "miss you, and will never get to see you again". The years were not as kind to her as they have been to me--she lost her first born son to drowning some years back and she has had some issues with her health over the years, yet through all that she remembered to laugh regularly, and was always a delight to visit with, be it in person or over the internet. I am so sorry she is gone, and feel bad for all of the people who were even closer to her than I was, and the pain they feel at her loss.
When he was home for lunch this afternoon I talked with lord_kjar about how nice it was to be able to go to FB and see the many messages people have left for her now that she is gone, and how in the case of another friend of mine who is gone the fact that some of his friends returned to his wall a year after he died to say goodbye again. We agreed that this is one of the nicest things about FB--the fact that death doesn't take away our accounts--it is possible to go back to the account of a loved one and leave them a message, even though they are no longer current in this time zone to actually see and respond to it.