Sunrise/Sunset

For the past couple of months, I've been chasing the sunrise I can see if I'm up early and lean really really far into my kitchen window. If I look way off to the right, down toward the end of the walking path, I can sometimes see what looks to be the most spectacular sunrise. Many Friday and Saturday nights I've told John that we were getting up early, in the dark, to drive the few kilometers to the coast so I could photograph the sun rising over the water of the Oresund. We, somehow, never managed to actually drag ourselves out of bed in time. It seemed pretty hopeless, since we weren't missing the sunrise by a few minutes....it was hours.

But, with the seasons our luck changed. Daylight is coming later every day, and now, we can get up at seven instead of six fifteen. A couple of Saturdays ago that's exactly what we did, crawling out of bed in the dark, throwing on whatever clothes were handy, tossing the dog in the back seat, and remembering to take the camera. (It would have been a good idea to remember to charge the camera battery, I suppose.)

We drove to a parking spot along the beach and waited. I sipped tea from my thermal cup, ready for the big show.....except just like the fireworks when I was a kid in Halifax. The sunrise over the Oresund was a fizzle. The sun came up with a slight tinge of pink over yonder in Sweden. It was the dawn of another overcast Danish fall day. Bummer.

On the up side we were up in time to make it to the dry cleaners before they closed at noon time. The following Tuesday I was up early and stole a peek out the kitchen window. There was the blazing sunrise down at the end of the walking path and John backing out of the driveway on his way to work. I had formulated a Plan B which was that we would make a quick run over there on a weekday since half of us was already up anyway. It looks like if I want this to happen I'm going to have to be in the front seat, waiting, when John gets in the car in the morning because I don't think he's going to volunteer to miss a meeting so I can snap a few pix.

I am still going to chase that sunrise and the pressure is on to get it done before the time changes next week and sunrise falls back another hour. In the meantime, though, I did get another thing on my list of things to do done, last weekend. That was to drive over to Jyllinge to catch the evening sunset over the Roskilde Fjord. We've been talking about that since before summer vacation. We had been out driving around with no particular place to go and were about to turn around and go home.


Instead of going home we turned in the opposite direction and drove to Jyllinge. Turns out it was worth it. The sun was starting to set as we got there, there was a great place to park above the marina, and I took lots of photos.

Look At What I Made In School!!

Last night John came home and told us the next move will be to Abu Dhabi. He doesn't have a date yet, but we're guessing after Christmas because that's kind of a convenient date to imagine. I don't think it has anything to do with what the company might want, though. However....I know how long these things can take and I'm taking late January in the pool....um...not that pool. I guess it's time to make my list of all the things I want to do in northern Europe over the next month and a half.

So, I've been sort of busy. An instructor at Dallas County Community College is attempting to teach me how to draw via the internet. I believe he has met his match! Now the trick to this whole enterprise is to get an A without actually showing any ability what so ever. Let me tell you.....it is taking a lot of time. My only hope is that my willingness to constantly redo, to accept criticism and revise will be enough. I think I've got that part down pat. To accompany the pen and pencil set, I'm also taking something called Visual Design for New Media which lets me use my good old computer. There is something wonderful to be said for "Edit>Undo" and it's cousin "Edit>Undo Delete."

Anyway, this was my first project in VD.... the goal was to portray the concept of transportation with some parameters thrown in, one of which was to generally keep the use of a vehicle to less than 60% of the original image just to make me think harder about how to do it.

Summer Time & The Livin' Is Easy....

The pool is ready!! The water is blue, all the bits and piece are working and none of the floaty chairs have holes in them. Life is good and we realized last night just why it was so important to get that thing done and filled with water again. It looks lovely, and I won't have to go down into it with a can of spray paint to make a decorative yard mural. I've already stuck my feet in....it felt nice and warm.

Or that's what I told John who donned his trunks and actually went in a couple hours after my temp test. He thought it was a little chilly but "Hey!" this is Denmark after all...

Lars never did show up last Sunday to finish the driveway. He eventually turned up on Tuesday and before he got started pressure washing, he went out for the pool chemicals and showed me how to use them. No more Mojitos in the pool, the water is a nice bluish turquoise now. It's had a thorough vacuuming and we are all happy again. John really wanted to have a big party in its honor, but instead we had a few friends over last night for a barbecue. And man it was soooo hot!! It's sweltering here in the land of no-air-conditioning! What's up with that? It's supposed to get up to 32 degrees today.

Lars and his brother left for Thailand yesterday. On one of the many days he was here this week, he took a lot of photos of the backyard and the pool. Doubtless, he is hoping to meet a new girl and he wants to make a good impression by showing her pictures of his house in Denmark....considering his brother showed up one day wanting to show his girlfriend around. Sheesh!

I wish him well but I hope he doesn't give out the address while he's over there.

Here's a little after shot of the pool. What a difference a few weeks and some elbow grease can make.

Mojito Pool

Saturday was our anniversary but we were so tired from yard work that we just stayed home and barbecued some burgers for dinner. Lars came back and almost finished his pressure washing. He just has the driveway left but the pool deck and patio are done. John and I swept it up, got some mulch for the rose beds, finished planting, cleaned the garden furniture and last, but not least, we stuck a full running hose into one end of the pool at 19:20 hours. Woo Hoo!! (Will not think about how fast the water meter is turning as I type this.)

It's almost full. I would say that we'll be able to turn it off early in the morning before I take John to the airport. He's off to Abu Dhabi this week for some meetings. Those of us who guessed 60 hours to fill the pool will be taking home the big prize. I just have to find out where to get the chemicals for it...I think blue water would be much nicer than the green it is now. Does look like a cool refreshing beverage, though.

Dilemmatry

We are less than one day away from our 28th wedding anniversary...and more importantly...less than one day from turning the hose on in the pool. It's finally ready for water!! Well, not officially since the pool guy told Lars that we had to wait 2 weeks for the paint to cure, but Lars figures that since it's been so nice and sunny it should be fine. We're going with his version of the instruction manual.

Guesses as to how long it will take to fill? John's rough calculation of volume and flow rate from the hose (all done in his head) comes out to 31 hours. I think I'll check the flow rate more scientifically and apply a little calculus to the problem to come up with mine....or maybe I won't. I have better things to do.

The backyard is beginning to look spiffy again. We bought plants. Lots of plants for the pots and took advantage of the free compost. Because if there's something for free in Denmark you want to take advantage. I don't care if it is dirt. I want some.

Lars told me the other day that his Dad charged him 1,000 kroner to come with his pressure washer and clean off the patio stones. I guess you can't even get family help for a couple of beers and a barbecued hamburger around here.

A few weeks ago I asked Lars if he was interested in cleaning the grassy bits in between some of the stones. John had bought this special brush for digging it out and I thought maybe, since he wasn't working, Lars would want to do it for some extra cash. He pretty much balked at the idea, saying it was too much work. It was then that he mentioned that his Dad had a pressure washer that he could bring over. The pressure washer, he said would take care of everything (including the dark discoloration of the bricks) with a lot less effort. He did not mention, at that point, that he had ever paid his Dad to do this for him.

Lars never did show up with the pressure washer, so John sent him a text about when he was planning to come. He got a reply that the Dad's pressure washer is broken, so he can't do it.....unless we pay 600 kroner for a new pressure washer. Now, this begs a few questions. 1) Where can you get a pressure washer for 600 kroner? 2) Is this 600 kroner on top of what he wants to be paid for doing the job? 3) Can we take this 600 kroner out of the 1300 kroner he already owes us for the pool paint?

I don't mind paying him to clean the patio bricks but I'm not into buying a lot of equipment I can't use in North America. Since he was only asking for 600 kroner ($100) for a new washer, John was convinced that it wasn't really a new one...maybe a rental...or maybe his Dad's for a fee....suddenly and miraculously repaired. I dunno.

Last night John and I discussed this whole who's paying for what, and when, thing. It came up because he started getting texts from Lars during dinner about buying the pressure washer and how he used to pay his Dad 1,000 kroner to do this. Didn't we think 600 kroner was a good deal. Well....yeah it is....if that's what it's costing including the labor. It's a very good deal. It's just weird.

Trying to pin John down on the details of his agreements can be difficult sometimes. He always figures everything will work out in the end, so he doesn't sweat stuff as it goes along. I wanted to know if I was supposed to pay Lars in cash for cleaning the house this month (he showed up a few times) or was he supposed to be working off the paint money. I never really got a good answer on that one. John said he figured he'd be working off the debt, but I guess what I really wanted to know is what "Lars" thought. Because if he was expecting cash when he got her today, maybe I should have some in the house. John couldn't really tell me what Lars thought.

In the end it was determined that Lars was coming to the house at 3 PM today to collect our share of the pressure washer money. John had a serious of texts with him this morning that determined (in John's mind) that he was coming for 600 kroner. Following John's series of texts, I had my own with Lars and it was determined (in my mind) that he was coming to collect 1500 kroner since the pressure washer cost 1300 kroner.....I guess math isn't his strong suit. This little thumb and finger conversation prompted a phone call to John who was steadfast in his impression that we were paying him 600 kroner. OY!! Confused yet?

Well, Lars shows up a little past three with a brand new pressure washer in 2 boxes. I guess he was able to pay for it up front after all. I have 1000 kroner sitting on the bookcase for him because I've decided to pay him for June's housecleaning and let our share of the pressure washer, which John swears is 600 kroner, come out of the money owed for the paint. (I hope you're keeping track of all this in Excel.) He takes it out back and starts to fiddle with the parts. Before too long, he knocks on the back door and asks me to come out and show him how to connect the hose to it. I take the spray nozzle off the end of the hose, hand it to him and point to the spot on the pressure washer where it attaches. He takes the hose connector off the end of the hose and tries to jam the rubber of the hose onto the nozzle where the pressure washer connects. I start to worry and take over....telling him he has to put the connector back on, showing him how it works.

The hose connector works but the pressure washer doesn't. Lars tries a few things and decides to go back to the store for help. He's gone an hour. When he comes back. it still doesn't work, so he goes back to the store for more help. Eventually, he gets the motor running and he starts on the patio. It isn't very long before he's stopped again. The brushes on the bottom of the patio cleaner aren't rotating, he informs me he'll go back to the (now closed) store in the morning to see what's wrong this time. Before he escapes, John gets home from work, and changes a few parts around so that the brushes turn. Poor Lars has to spend the better part of Friday night working on the patio.

He's coming back tomorrow to finish the job. We're waiting for the mud to dry so we can sweep all that crap up, and Lars didn't take any money...yet. But he sure did a lot a grumbling about how much time he's got invested in this project so far.

Come back tomorrow to see how it all comes out in the wash.....

Visit To The Doctor

It had to happen eventually. I would run out of blood pressure pills while I was overseas and I'd have to see a local doctor. I was really careful not to let that happen in Baku, but I got a little slack with it since I am here in a nice modern country with good social medicine.

There is a cool website in Denmark where you can look up everything medical and health-wise...right down to the set prices of prescription and over the counter medicines. It lists all of the approved and available medications; and you can look up dental fees, too. It even breaks down wait times by hospital and clinic for specific surgeries or treatments, so you can decide where you might want to go. It's all very very efficient...but you can waste spend hours in there just browsing.

Anyway, I made an appointment, via email, a couple of weeks back and Friday was the big day. I think it's been a while since my blood pressure was last checked and typical for me, since I knew it would be checked at the end of the week, I ate a bunch of chicken nuggets at McDonald's , we barbecued hot dogs and sausages twice, and I made pork chops with the canned mushroom soup gravy the night before. Which just goes to show you that it is possible to live dangerously while not breaking the speed limit, or a sweat. Have some salt, already!

Like any new experience, you gotta learn the drill. Learning the drill in a foreign language has interesting moments and the trick is to learn it without appearing to be stupid. First rule of thumb when waiting your turn always direct your attention at the object upon which you are waiting. Daydreaming and gazing at the pictures on the wall will get you a "She's talking to you" from a stranger. I think it was told to me in Danish first but I was too busy with the art work to catch it.

The doctor's office is in a clinic of 3 doctors that occupies a ground floor apartment of a 4 story building. Instead of the waiting and reception area being at the front of the office it's at the back, so you have to wander a bit through some hallways in order to find it. There was a room with some chairs, and across the hall from that there was an office that looked like it was reception. I told the girl in there that I had an appointment (after I figured out she was talking to me) and she took me into the waiting room and showed me how to swipe my health card through this card reader gizmo that was mounted on the wall.

Lesson One....find the right entrance to building, enter, swipe card and take a seat.

I didn't get to take a seat this time because I no sooner had the card back in my wallet, than the doctor came looking for me. What? No clip board? No medical history in Danish? Where was my privacy statement to sign? Never mind that I wouldn't be able to fill out a Danish form anyway and there really isn't any privacy here. I know this because the government sent me a summons to come in for my mammogram. Come to think of it my first communication from the Danish government was the summons I got to come in for a pap test a month after I got here. That really creeped me out! I was so sure I had gotten this summons because I was living in a house registered to the sex trade.

So, the doctor turns out to be a petite gray haired lady wearing a turtleneck and no bra. She was very sweet. She took a smattering of information from me and entered it directly into her computer. I guess they are beyond the file folder here. It's also apparent that what happened to you before you came to Denmark isn't all that important because she pretty much only asked me the reason for my visit, and did I smoke. She asked me where I was from, about the kids, and what had brought me to Denmark. She then takes my blood pressure and it's 160/110!! WOW! That was the highest it had ever been.....ever! I saw my last chicken nugget flash before my eyes. Crap!

The doctor had me lie down on the exam table, told me to relax, and said she'd be back in a minute. I tried but was sure she had gone off to call the government to let them know I needed a saline monitor attached to my ankle. A few minutes later she's back and proceeds to take my blood pressure again. This time it's 130/80. Where it usually is...I'm not dying after all. I'm just chicken. Scared of little grey haired braless doctors in foreign countries! I can haz nuggetz! Okay, every now and again...

Prior to my appointment someone had told me that the doctor would send the prescription directly to the Apotek (pharmacy). But that didn't happen in my case. She printed a slip from her computer and I got to take it to the Apotek of my choice.

I chose the one at the Horsholm Mid-Punkt (central place), took my number as I entered and though I was 7 numbers back in the queue, I don't think I had to wait more than 10 minutes. Kind of a sweet set up. They sell some skin care products and first aid gear, so there was something to browse through while waiting. But the main focus is definitely pharmacy. There were 4 counters set up along the wall, each one manned by a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician (not sure which). Behind them was a big room full of people and drugs.....shelves and shelves of drugs...and lots of people, too.

When my turn came I handed the pharmacist my prescription and my health card. She swiped me again, told me to wait for a moment, then she disappeared into the shelves. A minute later she's back with my meds. They came pre-bottled, so she didn't have to count them out, 100 pills a container. One of them was in an old fashioned glass bottle. Her computer had printed out the little personal labels for the bottles, she stuck them on and handed them to me in a bag. That was quick and I didn't have to go back to pick them up. The best part was the price, though, I paid the equivalent of $60 for 2 kinds of BP medication that will last me more 3 months. That works out to ten bucks a month each! That's incredibly cheap. And no worries about the pills being made in some Chinese backwater factory. If they're not making Legos or blue cheese, the Danes are making pills and colostomy bags. Ladies your HRT is made less than 10 miles from my house. Medical manufacturing is a huge industry here....right up there with Carlsberg beer!

I suppose I should add a qualifier to all this excitement over reasonably priced drugs. This morning we dropped off our first ever load to the dry cleaners. Many of John's work pants were in dire need of a good pressing. My humble iron can only do so much once they've been washed at home enough times. We expected some sticker shock and were not disappointed. Twelve bucks a pair for a grand total of $72 for 6 pair of pants!

Deep End Drama

John is determined come hell or high water to get the water back in "his" pool. He doesn't swim in it. He gazes at it...at night. He finds it very relaxing, and I'll give him that...it is relaxing. Right now he must be as uptight as a cat on a Cracker Barrel veranda. There is no sign of water in the pool. He wasn't satisfied with my attempts to get Lars to empty out the rest of the water, so he took matters into his own hands and worked out a deal.

On Monday night, Lars and John worked together to get the rest of the water out. John's contribution to the effort was to bring home a fancy pump from work that took care of it in a couple of hours. While John's pump was pumping, Lars started scraping. He then came back on Tuesday to prime the spots he painted. So it looked like the pool was going to get a fresh coat after all. What I didn't know, since he didn't want to tell me, was we were going to be paying for it.

Even though I had been harping on the fact that, given Lars' financial circumstances, we were going be stuck paying for the paint.....John kept insisting he wasn't. And "Um....yeah...sure"... was how we left that conversation. I found out that we were picking up the tab as we drove to the ATM machine to get the cash to give Lars. John fessed up quietly under his breath when I asked him why we needed to get money. Here's how John found out he was paying.....

Lars called the pool guy to price paint and was told 4,000 kroner. He called John at work and passed this on, but John said he had to think about it. Lars called back 10 minutes later to see if John had thought about it yet. Lars is such a funny guy!! He tells John he can't afford to buy this very expensive paint. John tells him that he doesn't want to spend that kind of money on his pool, either. A little while later, Lars' calls back. He has found cheaper paint at 1,300 kroner, and he'll order that. It has to be white though, because to get this paint in blue costs double. At this point John hasn't told Lars that we are not going to pay for the paint....mostly because in the back of his mind, John knows he will pay for the paint if it means it gets his water feature back in the yard. And John can be kind of stubborn about something when he gets it in his head. He'll find a way to make it happen.

After Lars ordered the paint, he asks John if he can come by and collect the 1,300 kroner to pay for the paint. It's at this part of the story I began to laugh and instead of "I told you so", I ran with a chorus of "I knew it"s.

Lars was supposed to be here on Thursday but the paint was a day late getting here.
When I came home from the store this morning, Lars was already here...standing in the pool, roller and paint brush in hand. He's wearing a mask with a couple of filters in it over his face, so I figure the stuff must be really smelly.

Fifteen minutes later Lars is out of the pool tapping at the front door. He doesn't feel so good. The fumes from the paint are getting to him. He has a headache, is sweating, feels dizzy, and his throat feels funny. Jeez Louise! He doesn't think he can paint anymore....gosh, ya think so?

He spends some time in the bathroom trying to shake off the effects of the paint. And it takes some time before he feels like he can drive again. When he starts to feel better, he packs up the paint and the rollers and brushes, and says he'll come back another day to take it to the recycling center. One of the cans isn't open yet but, since it was a special order, it's not returnable. He is sure he cannot use the paint anymore and I don't blame him. Forget the paint, let's just fill that sucker and be done with it!

During his recovery phase, Lars informs me that the pool guy told him he would have to use a respirator when he used this paint. He didn't rent out respirators but he could buy one for 10,000 kroner. I tried to find out if he was told this after he ordered the paint or before because if he told him after, then he damn well ought to take the paint back. John could make sure that he did because he's determined that way. But, I was unable to come to a conclusion on the timing...just that the guy told him he needed it. But.....not so lucky for Lars, some other guy, told him he might be able to get away with the kind of mask he tried to use today. You gotta love the wisdom of the amazing "some other guy".

When Lars left here, he went directly to the pool guy's store to find out if he had suffered permanent neurological damage. He called later to say he was coming back tomorrow with a long pole and his mask. Someone suggested that he might be able to do it if he put the roller on the end of a pole and stood outside the pool where the air mix was better. Okay then....

Exhausted from my ordeal and the near death of Lars in the empty pool, I fell asleep on the couch halfway through "Say Yes To The Dress". An hour later there is more tapping at the front door....I grumbled and stumbled my way to the door and there he is....he's got a long pole in his hand and he's ready to tackle the painting again....from the pool deck. Fine.

I go to the kitchen to make some tea and when I come out, there's Lars, roller attached to the end of his long pole, standing and painting....in the pool!! Seriously....what part of "this is bad for you" don't you understand?

I gave up. I sat with my tea to watch "What Not To Wear" taking an occasional peek over my shoulder to see if he was still standing up. I think Lars spent about 20 minutes in the pool then he quit for the day. His new plan of attack is to paint really fast, and get out after 20 minutes. He thinks he can finish the job spending 20 more minutes in there tomorrow. He also said that the paint has to dry for a week, then we can start filling it....a fact that conflicts with John's version of events in which Lars told him you could fill it within a day.

Yes, we have one more week of empty pool. Lars told me he asked the pool guy what he would charge to paint it and he told him 40,000 kroner. WOW! Lars thought it was more money than he could pay but reasonable considering it was a dangerous job and the respirator cost 10,000 kroner. I dunno...the pool guy should have one already. I tried to ask Lars if there weren't any rent-all places here for things like this but he just kept shaking his head, "No". I'm not convinced there isn't. They have internet after all, and cable TV. Why not rent-it places.

I'm getting really bored with the pool saga now. I want it to be over. John has reassured me that he only loaned Lars the money for the paint and that Lars is paying him back. I wonder if that will be before or after his trip to Thailand in July. Say what??? Thailand??? You have no money.

But he does have his girl back...in a couple of weeks Lars, his girl, and his brother are jetting off to Thailand for the "Dane's three week holiday abroad"....bestowed upon all Danish people by divine right....etc. etc. etc. Try boarding a dog in the summer here!

I'm still scratching my head. I sort of suggested that he might now want his mail redirected back to where he lays his head at night. But, no, he was fine with having it come here. He could pick it up every Friday (except he rarely shows up on Fridays anymore). So....does he not want his "girl" to see what's coming in the mail? I think we need to discuss the mail thing one more time or else I can have John set up a dialogue about it. We could probably make it happen if we agreed to pay the Post Office redirect fee.

***After we moved out of the house, John's company had to go chasing Lars for the return of the 3 month's rent damage deposit they had put up when we moved in. He took a while to track down and when they did catch up with him he said.......he didn't think he should have to return it because we had caused damage to his pool by repainting it and used the wrong paint. They nerve of some people!***