Back from the underground

We have been in lockdown due to COVID-19 for almost three months now. I've been working from home, from the basement, as an underground man. Today it's back to the office.

It's been weird times. I've been working in the basement, with my computer connected to the big TV that we normally use to watch Premier League football. I need two screens to get my work done efficiently. With no football games there hasn't been much  competition for the TV.

There hasn't been many places to go. No traveling at work, no weekend trips around Winterland. Just stay at home, work, eat, go for an evening walk in the almost empty streets. Fortunately the spring was late this year. It’s been good skiing conditions around town almost till the end of May. I’ve been up there cross-country skiing frequently.

The lockdown has had it’s advantages too. For an introvert the situation is quite easy to deal with. And just in case, to avoid infection, we had separate bedrooms. That’s what I have always wanted. Would be great to have it as a permanent solution, I think.

New times are starting today. Noting will be exactly like before, in many ways, I think and hope and fear. 

(Two pictures, taken recently, with only a week between)

Summer

I'm walking back home on a light summer night. It's cold.It's light. It's summer in the north. It's the summer of the north at it's best. It's been a long day, with meetings at work. then a geology filed trip to watch some black smokers, turned upside down, Like my life feels like right now.

Then a five-course dinner in an excellent restaurant, with good colleagues and friends. I only missed my soulmate, who wasn't there. I wonder what shes's doing right now, if she's wet and thinking of something exciting and fun things to do.

We philosophized a little bit about how lucky we are, Among the 8-9 billion people in the world, we happened to be born and to live in this rich and wealthy country. Life isn't too bad, even is the gearbox broke down on our bus on the way back to town. I could have been worse,

On the way back home, a little bit drunk, I stopped by a pub, to write these silly words. I know I'm a privileged guy, and I appreciate it very much. I just hope my soulmate is doing fine too.

(Picture taken around midnight today, on the way back home)

Summertime

It’s been a busy summer so far. That’s good. It keeps my mind away from haunting ghosts.

We’re painting the house, Little Boy and I. The most time-consuming part is the scraping of old loose paint. When we get as far as the actual painting, we’re almost done. We have a tall house, and I don’t like climbing high. I send Little Boy to the top of the scaffold to take care of  the uppermost part. Sometimes kids are useful. 

In Russia the FIFA World Cup is taking place, with great football games on TV every day. We watch all the games, of course. It’s the only "TV show" I watch.  The semifinals start today. Then there’s only three games left. Very sad. It always feels like drug withdrawal when the World Cup is over.

So far we see some clear trends. The European teams dominate. No South American teams, no African teams, no Asian teams made it to the semifinals.

Surprisingly, Germany was out after the group matches. The Netherlands, Italy and USA didn't even qualify.

Shia is better than Sunni, at least when it comes to football. Out of five Muslim countries, the followers of Ali, Iran, was the only one among the final 16. 

Jesus did better than Muhammad. Egypt, with superstar striker Mohammad Salah were eliminated in the group matches. Brazil and their forward Gabriel Jesus made it to the quarter finals. 

Tonight we watched the first semifinal: France  vs. Belgium 1-0. Both teams had a majority of black and brown players, ghetto boys from the suburbs of Paris and Brussels. Almost all the supporters in the stand were white. They can afford to travel to Russia to watch the World Cup live.

Tomorrow is the second seimfinal: England vs. Croatia. I hope England will win. Football's coming home. I would like to go.

(Picture taken a couple of weeks ago, when we worked on the painting the first two walls)

Just walking around

I'm out walking, more or less at random. Just needed some fresh air, to clear my mind.

It's a nice summer night, but summer is soon gone now. It's getting dark around 10 pm. The long light summer nights belong to the past.

The students are back in town. They make s lot of noise. Get-to-know-eachother parties and stuff like that. Happy young people, new to the town. Those were the days.

There are still some tourists around. The Japanese climb on everything they want to picture; statues, monuments, the rail og the old town bridge. I took a picture too (below), like I was a tourist in my hometown.

I stopped by a bar. Bought a glass of beer, the local beer on tap. I don't like it very much, I prefer the dark beer. Just bought it to remind myself that I really like this town, I like to live here.

It's been a wonderful summer. Who knows what the fall will bring. I'm optimistic >:)

Saving lives

It was lunchtime, and Tom and Anna sat in the grass by the fjord. It was warm, and the sun was shining. They had just finished their sandwiches.

"Everything feels so right with you, so natural, even eating a shrimp sandwich," Anna said. "But now I want the desert”.  

She stroked the bulge on his trousers, and then she opened the zipper to feel his bare skin.

“Be careful”, he moaned, “I don’t want to spill it on neither your clothes nor mine.”

“Don’t worry, I will take care of it”.

She embraced his erected penis with her mouth. Her lips moved slowly up and down the shaft, and her tongue caressed the head. Tom felt relaxed and excited at the same time, lying on his back in the grass. He looked up at the blue sky, through the sparse green leaves of a birch. In a wonderful moment of joy, the leaves of the tree appeared yellow and red.

Anna looked at him and smiled.

“You’re clean now. Nothing was spilled,” she said.

“Thank you,” said Tom.

He put his hand on the inside of her naked thigh and started to explore. She had no panties on. She spread her legs to let him touch her wet and smooth cleft.  She closed her eyes and moaned, and the wrinkle of pleasure appeared between her eyes.

Her body started to shiver. Two ants were climbing up along her thigh. Tom snapped the ants away, saving them from drowning in her ocean of wetness

“We have just saved two lives,” he said.

"Yes, yours and mine."

They were two happy horses grassing on a green field, and with no fence around >:)

(Picture taken a couple of days ago. I don't know who the people are. There are people everywhere, doing all kind of weird things on these nice and warm summer days ... )

Corporate values

It was one of the sunny and warm summer days that are rare in the north. Tom Snare sat in his hot office, trying to solve an equation he had been struggling with for some time.  Occasionally, he looked at the fjord outside the window, where the sun was blinking in the calm sea surface. He wished he could go out to enjoy the sun, but he had this damned equation to solve.

Around noon, Anna knocked the door to his office. He was happy to see her sweet smile, and her green emerald eyes.

“Will you join me for lunch today, Tom?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I’ll get some sandwiches and cold drinks for us,” she said, “and then we can meet down by the fjord.”

Ten minutes later, Tom pulled his ID card at the detector, to open the gate in the main entrance. Then he was out in the warm and pleasant sun.  He walked quickly down to the fjord, to the little cape where they sometimes met.

Anna arrived with sandwiches and soft drinks a couple of minutes later.

They sat in the grass eating, and talking about the sea and the sky.

When the sandwiches were swallowed and the bottles were empties, they lay down in the grass, so close that they could smell each other’s breaths, and hear each other’s heart beats. Tom closed his eyes and he felt Anna’s sweet lips against his, and he stroke the soft skin on her arm. His hand continued to explore under her skirt, and he could feel that she was moist and longing for him.

Tom watched a plane crossing the blue sky when Anna sat down on top of him.  She was wet and soft and wonderful.  He closed his eyes and enjoyed the thrilling flight of the moment. When he opened his eyes, the plane was gone, landed on the airport nearby.

Tom had landed too.

Anna again sat next to him in the grass, fiddling with her ID card. She read aloud the four words printed on the backside of the card:

“Courageous.  Open.  Hands-on.  Caring.”

“We’ve been through all of it now”, Anna said, and smiled.

“Yes”, said Tom, “sometimes I almost believe in corporate values.”

(Picture taken a couple of days ago, by the fjord. I have no idea who the girl in the picture is. She wasn't supposed to be there.)

The land of the midnight sun

It seems like I’m back on my old informal blogging-schedule;  blogging while traveling. That’s when I get the time to do it, when I have the evenings  off, by myself. 

This year I have hardly been traveling at all. Yesterday, when I got to the airport security, I realized how much I appreciate being at home, with just a 10 minute commute to the office (thanks to the inventors of video-conferencing).

This week I’m up north, in the city known as The Paris of the North, and The Gateway to the Arctic.   

It’s quite some time since last time I was here for real. I’ve been here many times in transit. This is the town were I used to board the Antonov-24for Murmansk, when I travelled regularly to Russia. This is the transit stop if you want to experience the Arctic magic. This is where I have boarded vessels heading for the Arctic Seas, and where I slept over when I returned.

It’s great to be here in the summer, at 69 degrees North, well beyond the Arctic Circle. The mountains are still capped with snow, and the birches have just got a slight touch of leaves. It’s not very warm, but it’s light.  The sun shines around the clock. The last sunrise was 20^th May, and the next sunset is 25^th July. Two months of continuous daylight.

My hotel  (and all the other hotels in town) are down on the harbor, with a nice view to the bridge and the Arctic Cathedral on the other side. God present is here too, apparently. Religion is hard to get rid of no matter how far north you go.

The north is challenging for the Muslims. They all died out one summer when Ramadan was in the months of the midnight sun. I’m just joking.  The Muslims up here has a special permit (from God?) to follow the clock-times in Mecca. During Ramadan, they can eat when the sun sets in Mecca. Funny isn’t it?

Religion (all of them) is pure madness. That’s why I stick to science >)

(I took the picture above this morning. When I checked the last link above, I realized that I had basically the same picture 4 year ago. But if you compare, you will see that the weather is better today.)

Fun at work

It's summer, and it's time for fun at work. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Sure, it is. It's not about sex or anything like that, unfortunately. All the girls are gone on vacation, and all the bosses too. No meetings, no phone calls, no mails to reply to.

July is the best time to work. Hours and days undisturbed. Time to do some real science. Just doing the mathematical analysis, with a pencil and a notebook. Great! And in the end, new ideas often end up in the official research activities of the company.

July this year was as usual, at least for the first 3 weeks. Then they called from the Moscow office.

My one-year multi-visa to Russia expires on the 24. August. It's good for another trip to Moscow in mid August. Now I'm preparing for meetings. Bye bye physics, bye bye math. Back to Powerpoint.

Whatever, I won't complain. This what they pay me to do, and the weather is warm and the sky is blue. I plan to take some vacation the next couple of weeks.

Then I'm ready for Moscow. It's a very fascinating city, and always a pleasure to visit.

Maybe I will meet Snowden at Sheremetyevo, if he's still there, in the transit area. I read in the papers that he might get permission to leave the airport. I hope it's true. There are better places to spend the time in Moscow.

(I usually scan my notes and trash the paper original. It's a convenient way to keep track of things, just a file on the computer.)

Amazing glacier

We’re back on the glacier. It’s time for summer skiing. We have been doing this for about ten years now.  In the beginning of the school's summer vacation we go skiing on a glacier.  It has become part of my duty as a ski dad, because my boys are addicted to snow (and I've posted about this before).

Actually, this year it’s only little boy and me. Older boy is running around on his own, with his buddies. This summer they have picked a different glacier. They’re driving down to the Alps, to spend 3-4 weeks on a glacier in Austria.  That’s OK with me, as long as he works to earn up the money himself.

Little boy and I made it simple. We went to the closest glacier, a four-hour drive from home, and we stay in the same camping down in the valley. We plan to ski four or five days, depending on the weather. So far it’s been shifty; partly sunny yesterday, snowy and foggy today, good forecasts for tomorrow.

Being on a glacier is quite amazing. We’re skiing on snow and ice that fell hundreds of years ago. Actually the surface is not that old. The snow we skied today fell last night.

Some years ago I bought a text book on glaciology, to learn about the science of glaciers.

The core of the glacier is old. When the snow is buried it gradually turns into ice that moves by plastic flow. The weight of the ice makes it flow from the top to the bottom, slowly, but steadily, a few meters per year. When pieces on the lower edge break off, the old bluish ice becomes visible.

Big glaciers are very useful for climate research, because glaciers keep a record of past climate.  The ice in the core contains small sealed air bubbles.  This allows scientists to measure for instance the CO2 levels of past times.

There are two main types of glaciers; polar (cold) glaciers and temperate (warm) glaciers.  Polar glaciers are found in the Antarctica and the Arctic (e.g. Greenland). They’re often frozen to the rock surface below. The glaciers on the American and Eurasian continents are mostly temperate.  They’re near the melting point, with free flowing water at the base.

In the upper part of the glacier, the accumulation of snow and ice is larger than the melting (and sublimation). In the lower part it’s opposite. The line of zero net accumulation (over a year) is called the firn line.

When glaciers flow over the terrain beneath, they’re squeezed and stretched such that crevasses are formed. Crevasses can be deep and dangerous. Therefore many glaciers are not suited for skiing.

The glacier where we’re skiing has a nice and smooth surface. There are just a few small crevasses near the top.  That’s the way it was last summer. This year I haven’t checked.

That’s one of the things that make glaciers so interesting. They’re changing all the time. Every summer there’s something different, if you have the curiosity and patience to look closely.

(Some pictures taken with my cell phone  at the glacier. (1) Skiing at the glacier. (2) A cool rock by the edge of the glacier. Great forces are needed to form a mountain range. This rock have experienced both metamorphosis and faulting . (3) At the lower part of the glacier the old bluish ice core is visible.)

Bar math

A couple of days ago I met with some friends and colleagues in a bar to have a beer.  We had a good meal in restaurant nearby, and then we went to another bar for another beer.

We discussed a science problem and some ideas for have to solve it. I found a pen in my pocket, and got a napkin to sketch up the solution. We had a good time with dark beers and some interesting bar math. That’s the kind of things we do from time to time.

When I jumped on my bike to go home an hour after midnight, it was still light outside. It's summer, and at this time of the year it’s not really getting dark at all >:)

(Picture taken with my cell phone in the bar)  

Out of the silence

I’ve been silent for a while, for various reasons. It’s a long time since I was writing anything at all, except technical stuff at work of course.

Before the summer, I filled the last page of my notebook. Like Hemmingway, I buy these small Moleskine notebooks. I immediately bought a new one, because I always want to have one in my bag or in my pocket.

I must admit the I haven’t written a single word in it yet. I didn’t feel like writing, and summer has been busy doing all kind of things:

Vacation in Greece. When summers in the north are cold and rainy, we escape to the south for a while.
Vacation in the mountains. Gone fishing for about a week.

Painting the house. That’s a Hell of a job when you live in a 100 year old house. Hours and days scraping off old paint (of various vintages), before we even get to start the painting. Actually, we hired the kids to do most of the heavy work, in particular the highest parts. I don’t like climbing high anymore, so I sent the kids to the top. That’s what kids are for.

Summer Olympics. Spent too much time watching TV.

Working a lot. July is a great time to work, because everybody else is on vacation. No bosses around, not much mail to reply to. Time to do some science. Great fun.

Reorganization at work. Very good boss replaced by not-so-good boss. Fortunately the next reorganization will come in only 1-2 years (according to statistics).

Now the bosses are back bossing, and I’m writing e-mails and status reports rather than doing science. 

Anyway, I’m out of the silence. Time to find my new notebook

(I took the picture above some time ago when we were painting the house. It’s older boy and one of his buddies working on the uppermost level of the scaffold. Fortunately, they enjoy climbing, because I don’t)

Summer days

The science of meteorology defines a summer day as a day with maximum temperature above 25 degrees Celcius (77 Fahrenheit). That's the international definitions, according to met web sites.

In north we use a more conservative definition: A summer day is a day with maximum temperature above 20 degrees Celcius (68 Fahrenheit). 

So far this summer we've had only three summer days in our town. No swimming in the fjord. Usually wearing a fleece jacket when going outdoor. Some people think it's been a chill summer.

I have a somewhat more optimistic view. I define a summer day as any day with 20 hours of light. We've had many of them, since the mid of May.

And still we're only in July. We might even get some warm days before the fall comes >:)

(A random summer picture from my archives, taken some years ago, on a nice summer day out in the archipelago on the coast, some four hours with the fast catamaran from our town)

Summer in Winterland

It’s June, and there are signs of summer. The trees are dressed in green leaves. I have cut the grass once already.

Last Sunday, we had a nice and warm day. Little boy and I biked to town in shorts and T-shirt to buy ice cream.

Yesterday it was snowing.

Today I’m wearing wool socks.

It’s summer in Winterland.

Summer in the north doesn’t mean it’s warm. It just means it’s light all the time.

The light summers are addictive (and the dark winters too). When you’re used to living in the north, you won’t consider living anywhere else, at least not for a long time.

The nature of the north is like a chubby woman, shaved by the cold and harsh winters, and then in the spring her fur grows back, just as it should, just where it should, leaving the highest mountains bare >:)

 (I took the picture above on a late summer night about a year ago, when I walked across the old town bridge on the way back home from a late night in town.)

Biscuit poker

It’s school’s summer vacation, but parents are still at work, at least we are.

Therefore, little boy spent a week in our family cabin in the mountains, with his grand parents. This weekend we drove up to the mountains, to pick him up and bring him back to town.

When I met him, I asked if he had a good time.

"Yes, we've been on long hikes in the mountains. I found a reindeer antler, and carried it myself, for two hours, back to the cabin."
"Good. We can keep it here, right? We don't need to bring it home?"

And then it was all the regular stuff about fishing, bow shooting, rowing on the lake, rock climbing, tree climbing, making a slingshot from a birch branch, and so on.

Finally, he said:

"Grandpa taught me how to play poker."
"Great. You’re 10 yo, so it’s about time you learn it."
"We only played with biscuits."
"Did you win?"
"I got all the biscuits in the end."

Grandpa’s summer camp is always a cool place to be >:)

(In the picture is little boy climbing an old pine tree outside the cabin. The pines are 2-300 years old and grow very slowly in the mountain climate. I climbed the same trees many years ago, and still do, sometimes.)

Let's go to church

The weather was really bad on the glacier today. It was foggy, rainy and strong winds. We skied till noon and got soaking wet. Then we took a break to eat some food, and skied some more, and got even wetter.

We decided to call it a day, at least insofar as skiing was concerned, and went back to the camping down in the valley, a vertical drop of almost a mile down from the glacier.

"What should we do now?" the kids asked.

They were bored in the bad weather, and I needed to come up with some ideas.

"Let's go to church," I said, "as soon as the rain stops."

And that's what we did, the way I go church of course.

Right across the river from the camping, there is an old church, from the 12th century. It's a stave church, built from wood, dark brown from the tar-paint. We walked around the church, and studied the 800-year-old logs and planks, and the dragon heads on the roof. The kids had a competition about who could find the oldest gravestone on the churchyard.

That's the way I go to church, to admire the architecture and the history. It's nice to have some cultural backup when the weather is bad, and there's some time to kill >:)

(Above is a closeup picture of the church, as much as I could capture from inside the fence with my crappy cell phone camera. Both the walls and the roof are made of wood. The oldest part of the church has been dated to 1158. It's assumed that it was completed between 1170 and 1200.)

Back to the snow

I'm back in the snow, skiing with the kids.

I could easily survive without skiing in June, but the kids insist. They want their summer-skiing this year, like previous years. We go up to the mountains for a few days in the beginning of school's summer vacation.

The kids love it, and I must admit I enjoy it myself too.

Today, we had a great day on the glacier. Nice and sunny weather, and no wind. Now it's time for BBQ at the camping down in the valley >:)

(The picture is from the glacier today on the kids' play ground, the terrain park. It's my good old skis and poles in front of the rock.)

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.)

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.)

Walking and writing

I walked around the town center this evening. It doesn't take long. It's a small town.

From the quay I can see our house, in the hill, on the other side of the bay, the house that we rented when we lived here. It was a nice place to live. The view was fantastic. In the summer we had sun in the backyard for 23 hours a day. It just dropped behind the mountain peaks for little a while. I took the picture in May two years ago, from our backyard, right after midnight.

It was great to live here, and I would be happy to move back some time. The summer was fantastic. I liked the dark winter too, with the northern light. It's not that dark. The sun is completely gone for only eight weeks. Then it rapidly becomes lighter.

Now I'm sitting in my hotel, writing on my so-called novel. I've written 550 words to night. That's not very impressive, is it? I have to speed up >:)