Lead

A couple of days ago, on the way to work, I stopped by a workshop to buy some lead. I was surprised to find it was very cheap. I bought a strip of sheet lead, 4 meters (12 feet) long, and 12 cm (5 inches) wide, and I paid only $35.

Lead is a heavy metal. The density is 11 kg per cubic meter, which is almost two times the density of iron. This means that a brick of lead is almost twice as heavy as a brick of iron of the same size.

Furthermore, lead is very soft, and easy to shape. The Romans knew this, 2000 years ago, and it literally killed them. They made water pipes, boiling pots and drinking cups of lead. However, they didn't know that lead is poisonous. Lead poisoning has been proposed as a major factor in the collapse of the Roman Empire.

You may wonder for what purpose I need the lead. I'm not using it in the kitchen.

We live in an area with snow and ice in the winter and frequent rainfall in the summer. I use the lead to cover critical points on the house to prevent water from coming into the construction. Because the lead is very soft, it's easy to cover corners and edges and joints of profiled mouldings.

I didn't invent this myself. This is the way they did it when our house was built 98 years ago. I just do it the same way.

There's always something to learn from the great craftsmen of the past >:)

Another handyman weekend is coming to an end. Nice and sunny, but chill. Next week I'm going north ... I'm going back to Alyosha

(That's my roll of sheet lead in the picture, and a tool to cut it. The tool is for cutting various types of metal, including iron and aluminium. I found that lead is so soft that I could cut it with regular paper sissors. That's what I used in the end, because of the better precision.)

Tagged

I was tagged a couple of days ago, by Liz Fichera. The tagging means that I'm supposted to answer some questions.

OK, I'll do my best. Here we go:

1) Do you think you're hot? If you mean that kind of hot, I know one or two who might say "yes", but most people would say "no", and I don't really care. I'm too old for that kind of games ...

2) Upload a picture or wall paper you are using at the moment. The picture above is what I've used as wall paper on my lap top for the last couple of years. I took it from our backyard three years ago, when we lived up North and the sun was shining 24/7 in the summer (unless it was raining).

3) When was the last time you ate chicken meat? Last week. I'm not very fond of eating animals with a beak. I eat chicken if I get it served, but have never ever ordered it in a restaurant. I usually prefer beef or fish.

4) The Song(s) you listened to recently? Most of the time I listen to black metal and death metal. Today Iæve been listening to Mayhem, Taake (which means fog), and Nile.

5) What were you thinking as you were doing this? I was thinking on my so-called novel that I'm trying to write. There are a couple of tricky parts in the plot, and I struggle to get it tied together in a smooth way.

6) Do you have a nickname? Cold As Heaven, invented it myself.

Handyman

I don't want to brag about this, but I can be quite a handyman, if I want to, and get the time. Not in the winter, then we're out skiing all the time. Summer is my handyman season. Then I swing my hammer and saw.

We live in an old wooden house, about 100 years old, close to town centre. There is always plenty of things to do. Last summer I built a new staircase in front of the main entrance. Now I'm doing the last finish, making the slate tile cover in front of the door.

The main challenge with slate tiles is to cut them to fit. I had to ask my old lady to borrow her angle grinder. I bought it for her birthday some years ago. It's one of the most useful birthday presents I ever gave her.

The staircase is completed, finally. Now I'm planning my next handyman project, not sure what to take first. I'll probably start on the loft, re-doing the floor, and completing the isolation of the roof that I started four years ago.

It takes some time ... but a real handyman is sexy, right >:D

(That's my old lady's angle grinder in the picture. The main challenge is to cut the slate with power and precision, making a nice clean cut, without chopping off my fingers and feet. I stay away from the diamond blades. They are too dangerous, and I don't have proper safety equipment and experience to use them)

Change of seasons

Winter has come to an end, and the snow is gone. Summer is here, at least visiting from time to time.

Last weekend, I cleaned and vaxed the skis and put them away for summer storage, till the snow returns in November.

How many pairs of skis does a family of four need? In our case the answer is 7, for the time being. I want a new pair of carving skis next winter.

By the way, "Change of Seasons" is the name of an album by the prog-metal band Dream Theater >:)

(I took the picture above with my cell phone, after lining up the skis for cleaning. From right to left: Little boy's twin-tip (freestyle) skis, giant slalom (GS) skis, and downhill (DH) skis. Then older boy's off-piste rocker skis and twin-tip skis. Finally my good old GS skis and wife's skis, formerly older boy's GS racing skis.)

Constitution

Yesterday was our Constitution Day, and big celebrations.

In the morning it was the childrens parade, with all the elementary schools in town. Little boy is in 4th grade, and was participating with his school.

Then there was the citizens parade, with all the clubs and associations in town; the Kung Fu Club, Roller Derby Club, pro-football team, Students Society , Gay Association, Lions Club, Moto-Cross Club, Railroad-workers' Brass Band, Together for Jesus, and so on.

Same procedure as every year.

Our constitution is inspired by the French and the US, and builds on the principle of separation of powers; the executive, legislative and judicial, respectively.

Here are some punch-lines from the constitution, written about 200 years ago:
o All inhabitants of the Realm shall have the right to free exercise of their religion.
o The Evangelical-Lutheran religion shall remain the official religion of the State. The inhabitants professing it are bound to bring up their children in the same.
o Jesuits and monastic orders may not be tolerated. Jews remain excluded from admission to the kingdom.
o There shall be freedom of expression.
o Search of private homes shall not be made except in criminal cases.

My parents may have violated the 2nd statement, even though they possibly did their best to obey it (it just didn't work on me).

It's interesting that the most important statement is only six words.

One of the statements above has been removed from the constitution in modern times ... guess which.

(I don't take many pictures on the Constitution Day. It's the same every year, and I've seen it all before. The picture above is from the citizen's parade last year.)

Alyosha

Moscow was sunny and warm when we departed. In Murmansk it was snowing when we arrived. It was right after midnight, but who cares? There's not much difference between day and night at this time of the year.

Yesterday, we had our main business meeting. It was an interesting experience. The guards at the entrance were scary, but polite. The CEO was friendly, but reminded me of Brechnyev. He sat in a big chair behind a heavy wooden desk in his huge office. We gathered around a table right in front of the desk. The leader of our delegation introduced us one by one.

Then we went to action. I spent the day digging into technical details, to decide on what we wanted to purchase, and in which form. At the end of the day, we returned to CEO's office, and presented a list of our wishes, and a proposal for collaboration. I answered some scientific questions, with simulataneous translation to Russian by a guy from our Moscow office.

That's all I can say, but I got some cool ideas, and funny fractions of dialogue, that I'll put into my fiction writing some time.

In the evening, we had a sightseeing around Murmansk, before we met in a nice restaurant, to celebrate the upcoming collaboration with our Russian (maybe) business partner. We exchanged toasts and wishes for the future (with vodka of course), and had a great meal; pancakes with sour cream and Russian caviar for starter, and baked halibut as main dish.

Today, we had a quick morning meeting with another company. I had less then an hour to do the technical study, before we gathered around the table in the CEO's office. He was ahappy to see us, and wanted to make a toast, for our (possibly) upcoming business relations. He pulled up a bottle of cognac and served it in glasses and amounts that are usually associated with wine. With just a cognac for breakfast, we went to the airport and returned to Moscow.

Mission completed, I'm on my way back home, one more flight to go >:)

(On our sightseeing trip around Murmansk, we stopped by the 36m (120 feet) high Alyosha statue, a 2nd World War memorial. I took several pictures with my cell phone, including the one above. Even though we're in mid may, doesn't look much like spring; still snow on the ground, and no leaves on the trees. That's fine with me, I'm used to it)

The S airport

I’m sitting on the plane to Moscow. We just passed, Lake Peipus, the big lake on the border between Estonia and Russia. In an hour or so, we’re landing on the Sheremetyevo Airport. The name is impossible to pronounce. I just call it the S airport.

Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy and Turgenev often did this way. I’m not talking about the airport, but more general. In many Russian Classics, there are characters called Prince F and Countess N and so on. They were probably real contemporary persons, being anonymized in the novels.

Some guys from our Russian subsidiary will meet us at the S airport. Then we go to a nearby hotel, where we have booked a room for a pre-meeting. Tonight we fly north to Murmansk. The domestic flight is operated by an airline called Nordavia. I think it’s a subsidiary of Aeroflot.

Murmansk is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle. In the Soviet time, it was the head quarter and main base of the Soviet navy. Since then the population has declined from more than half a million to about 300.000. Murmansk is a gateway to the Arctic Ocean. The world’s biggest fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers is operated from there.

The main meeting is tomorrow. The country manager will do most of the speaking on behalf of our delegation. I’m only dealing with the technical and scientific part of it. I’m supposed to keep my ears and eyes open and my mouth shut … if I can.

We will see tomorrow.

Change of plans

I'm back in the North. It's nice up here at this time of the year. There's no signs of spring yet, no flowers, no leaves on the trees, mountains still covered by snow. But it's light all day, though the midnight sun is, officially, still two weeks away.

I planned to stay for the entire week, to work in our office in the North, but now the plans are changed. Tomorrow I'm going back South, and then East, before turning North again. I'm going to Moscow, and then to Murmansk, the largest city beyond the Arctic Circle.

I've never been there before. It used to be behind the iron curtain. Now it's part of our business playground.

It's gonna be very exciting. I'm looking forward to it ... more to follow >:)

(I took the picture out of the window in my hotel room 15 minutes ago, an hour past midnight, which is the true midnight, if you subtract one hour for daylight saving time. Anyway, we have a full-day meeting tomorrow. It's time to call it a day)

Grand finale

It was our last weekend on snow this season, the grand finale. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm down in the valley, still good skiing conditions on the mountains.

Older boy was skiing the big jumps in the terrain park, as usual. He brought a bunch of his friends as usual. There was a new jump line in the high zone.

Little boy and I participated the worlds biggest downhill race, with more than 2000 skiers. The race course is very modest and easy, maximum speeds hardly above 45 km/h (30 mph). Everyone can take part in it; kids, parents and grand parents.

The race was great fun. Little boy was very happy with the waxing of his skis that I did the night before. However, this time, I won the family battle. I benefited from being heavier in the flat parts of the course, and beat him with one second.

After the race there was a big after-ski party on town square, with live music and lottery on bib numbers. The 1st price was an Audi A1. We didn’t win but we were very close. Next year we’re gonna get that damn car.

When we got back to our cabin, I cooked Tex-Mex dinner for 6 hungry boys and myself.

(I took the picture above while waiting for our turn to start in the race. It’s little boy with bib 2356 studying a piste machine outside of the start paddock. Big machines are interesting stuff for the kids.)