The Times They Are A-Changin'

Swedish Whitebeam trees in bloom now in my neighbourhood. (Lots of them!)

Lately, every time I sit down to do something at the computer, it seems that some problem or other pops up. 

The other day (I've already forgotten why or how), I managed to get logged into the wrong Blogger account on the Google browser on my computer, and never got round to blogging whatever it was I then indented to write about. There seems to be so many layers of extra security and pincodes and cross-references and back-up accounts everywhere these days that my aging brain is (evidently!) finding it hard to cope with it all...

So when I started the computer again tonight, I first had to try and sort out the mess it seems I unknowingly created last time. (I seem to have succeeded, for now, but alas I'd not be able to retrieve my steps this time either...) 

That (+ more) reminded me of the Dylan song - but when looking that up on YouTube, I also discovered (or rather, re-discovered) that YouTube has removed Blogger from the symbols of places to easily share to. So I had to get into the mysteries of using "embedding" and HTML view instead. (If I was successful, the video will appear at the bottom of this post when I eventually get round to posting...)

The Times They Are A-Changin' also kind of sums up that the past week or so has been rather full of information about other things about to change. 

Last week I mentioned having been to listen to info about the plans for an old football field in my immediate neighbourhood to be turned into a public park. 

Yesterday I attended another info meeting; this time about plans to install "entrance phones" in the buildings on the housing estate where I live. Last summer, problems in some buildings caused the (municipal) housing company to suddenly, around midsummer, lock the entrances 24/7 - and keep it that way until... February, I think it was, when it suddenly got back to normal again (i.e. only locked at night). 

For me the main problem with the doors locked around the clock was my regular food deliveries. I had to go down (and because of my knee, use the lift rather than walk) to open the entrance door for the delivery guys - but still needed them to help me carry everything all the way up and into the hall of my own flat. So personally, when the doors suddenly were unlocked again some 7-8 months later, I felt only relief. So much easier when no explanations needed every time! 

Now (a few months after the doors were unlocked again) a notice was put up inviting us (I think probably a few buildings at a time) to information about plans to install an entrance phone system. The meeting was held in the basement of a neighbouring building, and I guess we were around 20-30 people. I had looked up some info beforehand about modern such systems, so didn't find it too hard to follow. Apparently nowadays they connect the entrance phone with one's own phone number. So in the future, when visitors push a button with my name on it at the entrance, the call comes in on my cellphone, and after verifying that it's someone I want to see, I can just push a button on my own cellphone to let them in.  Sounds easier than having to go down in person to open the entrance, at least! 

However, the installation of this system will also add an extra fee to our monthly rent. (Which might be considered a problem by tenants already struggling as it is.) So what they're doing now is trying to get the info out to everyone and make sure we understand; and they're also collecting our consent - or not. And it seems they have decided to go democratic on this for each individual building. If 51% of the tenants in a specific building wants the system, it will be installed. But if 51% of the tenants in a specific building do not want the system, it will not be installed there (and the entrance left open in the daytime, locked at night). So in the area as a whole, we may end up with some buildings having the entrance phone system, and others not.

I signed a form giving my personal consent already at the meeting - also weighing in the info I took part of last week, about the transformation about the nearby field to a park, which is likely to bring more "visitors" (not least teens) to this neighbourhood. 

What will become of it all in the end, still remains to be seen - but I'm thinking that either way, The Times They Are A-Changin' ...

I  might add that as far as I can recall, this is the first "info meeting" of this kind that has occurred during the 18 years I've been living here. (Inviting anyone interested instead of just discussion between landlord and representatives of a tenants' association.)

For me, the meeting made it a bit clearer to me what kind of problems started the whole discussion in the first place. It seems that it's people living near the playground in the middle of the estate who have been having the most problems with youngsters not actually living here hanging around there in the evenings, and also entering nearby buildings. 

After the meeting, outside, I got talking to a woman of around my own age who turned out to be my current wall-to-wall neighbour (next entrance). I think it was last autumn that she moved in. (I've never seen her properly, as there's frosted glass between our balconies and neither of us is so tall that we see over it). She's been a much quieter neighbour than the one who lived there before her, so when I understood where she was living, I introduced myself. Someone else had mentioned earlier incidents in our close neighbourhood (including the entrance where she lives) and I felt a bit of time perspective might be in place... I have lived here 18 years, and while there have undeniably been a few scary incidents - seen in the longer perspective, I still consider  it a good neighborhood "on the whole". 

The Times They Are A'Changing

Once upon a time (1624-1998), the town where I live (Borås) had a Regiment (of the infantry kind). When I moved here to live, about 40 years ago, the regiment was still active; but I'm not sure I ever went to have a closer look at the buildings until after they were "demilitarized". But it's not all that far from where I live now, so over the past 16 years, I've probably been walking that way perhaps at least once every two years or so. Anyway I've watched the area change and grow... Initially, just the old regiment buildings converted to house businesses and apartments instead. Then some modern apartment buildings added in between the old ones. And from there it has continued to develop to a whole new housing district... Today it occurred to me that it had been a while since I last checked it out, so I decided to walk that way again and check out the newest additions. Doing so, I realised that now it really must have been more than just one year since I was there last. 

 Just approaching the old main regiment buildings from below, they still look pretty much the same. There are even still a couple of cannons standing in front of the main building, to remind of "old times". 

 

The old entrance gates have been kept, too.

 

But behind the old regiment buildings, there are lot of new buildings now.

 

Still a bit of a mix between new and old here and there...

 

But there are whole streets of new tall apartment buildings added! 

Who are all the people living here?? And do they like it?? I haven't got a clue!! 

Statistics tell me that the town's population has increased by 18.6% since 2000, though - and is now around 114 000. And in another decade, the number is expected to have grown to 140 000 (at least according to Google AI).

On my way home I had to pause at a railway crossing to wait for a train. So did a lot cars (no doubt in a lot more hurry than I was). I did not take any photos of the queues waiting on both sides of the crossing; but they were long... Which made me realised that I also happened to be out in rush hour traffic (around 4 pm) - which is something that I normally have the privilege of being able to avoid, these days.

While waiting, I was also pondering the political changes we've been through since the old regiment was closed in 1998. Back then, Sweden was in a phase of disarmament. Now, we're part of NATO, and in a phase of strengthening our defense again... Not sure if there will ever be a new regiment stationed just here again - but old military training grounds in the area are still being used. (We just recently had a such a weekend when constant shooting cold be heard "in the background" from where I live.) 

 

 

Coping with Changes

  

Ill: Tove Jansson

In coping with various changes in life, I often find my thoughts wandering off to the Moomin Valley and the characters living there. The Moomins were created by Tove Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. She wrote several books about them, and later also comic strips. Drawing the comic strip adventures was later continued by her brother Lars Jansson. Back in my childhood/youth, these comic strips were published in the daily newspaper my parents subscribed to. Later on, I bought some of the comic strips adventures collected in albums. From early childhood I also remember some of Tove's illustrated children's books; and a bit later on in life, I collected her novels about the same characters. 

Anyway. One of the comic strip adventures (by Lars Jansson) that tend to turn up in my head in times of change is one where some strangers turn up in the Moomin Valley, and persuade Moominpappa that it would be a good idea to turn their valley into a "nature park". It also turns out that there are certain requirements to make this happen, though. One of those is that a nature park ought to include "hot springs". So Moominpappa sets out to arrange that - "borrowing some hot water from Gaffsie" (while covering up his intent with lies).

It works, and the hot water comes up at a hot spring outside; but at the same time, Gaffsie's shower stops working, while she's using it. However, when she goes out to investigate, she sees the"hot spring", and decides that this will work just as well for her needs - and just puts up a shower curtain in front of it, outdoors. Her comment: "I have always believed in Providence - although not this much..."

Various other troubles turn up with the idea of creating a Nature Park as well, though; and in the end, it is not approved, and Moominpappa decides to restore things to their natural order - including getting rid of the "hot spring".

 

Of course this happens just as Gaffsie is using the "hot spring" for her shower. Her reaction: "Oops, now the hot water ran out here too! ... But perhaps the shower is working again? ... Providence must really like me!"

I'm sure there are more examples of similar attitudes to life to be found in the Moomin books and comics, but this is a favourite of mine that for some reason I keep coming back to - like when something I've been used to changes, and I need to find new routines... 

Time for a Change

 

 

Waiting for the roofers to get to my building, I've been hesitating about when to do my usual seasonal change of curtains/colour scheme in the kitchen. Still not sure if my building will be next in turn or not; but with this weekend offering sunny weather (and the roofers not at work on weekends), I felt inspired to go ahead and "make spring" indoors anyway - just skipping the window cleaning for now (as there does not seem much point in that if they're soon going to put up scaffolding outside). 

 

Every time I turn on the radio or TV, everything is still about the situation in Ukraine, so I decided to go with yellow and blue this spring... Well - besides being the colours of the Ukranian flag, blue and yellow are of course also the colours of the Swedish flag...

 

 

Ukraine

 

Sweden

 

 

Another place in the flat where I also change colours with the seasons (or whenever I'm the mood for it) is this chest in the living room. The large needlework on the wall hangs there all year round, though. It was made for me by my mum back in the mid 1970s when I moved into my first proper flat (not counting my first year away from home in a small student bedsitter).

The Times They Are A'Changin'

 

On my way home from the city centre on Midsummer Eve, I snapped this photo of an old lady with a walker, moving very slowly into a part of town that is going through a major transformation compared to what it used to be. When I moved to this town to live in the mid 1980s, this was a rather deserted area of old industrial buildings. Now only a couple of those still preserved, while others are being replaced by one 'skyscraper' after the other of new apartment blocks.  

I know nothing about the old woman; but watching her, I could not help thinking that if she has perhaps lived all her life in this town, it must all seem even more strange to her. Even to me (not yet in need of a walker, but recently 'old age' pensioner), the world seems to be spinning ever faster these days, while I keep slowing down...

A couple of weeks ago I took some more photos of what is going on:

 

 

(this photo from back in April, hence no leaves on the tree)

 

I know the population is growing and that we need housing, but I have to say that this "densification" with more and more tower blocks close to the city centre does not appeal to me... In the flats at the top, or facing the river, I suppose some lucky people are or will be enjoying great views. But with so many tall buildings so close to one another now, a lot  of other people must just be staring straight at their neighbours in the next building...

I live in a flat myself, but on the 2nd floor of a 3-storey building, and with quite wide green lawns between the buildings. It's not a high status area (built in the 1940s and the flats rather small) but I keep praying/wishing they'll continue to keep it like this - with low buildings and spacious green areas in between. 

Here I should have some photos to insert for comparison, but although I must have taken plenty over the years, they prove difficult to find in my archives... Oh, found a couple of old ones at last that should prove the point: Distance between the buildings, and a larger park/playground area in the middle of the estate. And plenty of trees and flowers.

 

Linking to Weekend Street

Things Going On

I have learned this week that there are things going on "behind my back" that I did not know about.

For one thing, having a new tablet to explore (see previous post) is very educational. One of my discoveries while downloading and checking apps on the new device is that in Google Photos, I had immediate access there to photos taken with my phone. 

This made me go to the computer later and check Google Photos there as well. Then I got confused at first, because there I found different photos, which seemed to be camera photos I used on my blog in the past - but not the most recent ones, and not those from my phone. A bit of thinking required... 

But then it hit me that I use two different accounts, and each of them has their own set of photos. On the computer I also use two different browsers (to save me from the trouble of logging in and out of certain places). One Google Photos account has the photos from my mobile phone. The other seems to have been collecting photos I used when blogging via Open Live Writer. However, some time back around New Year, I ran into problems with OLW (for some reason, it wouldn't post to Blogger). So I switched to preparing posts directly in Blogger, and have kept on doing that since. And those photos seem not to get stored in Google Photos. (I haven't been bothered to check OLW for a while, but did so just now, and it seems to be working again. But I'm writing this in Blogger as I've kind of got used to that again. Too many decisions just now...) Strikes me that possibly that's got something to do with Blogger leaving Google+ (?). But as I never joined G+ in the first place, I haven't bothered to explore much what's involved in that. (Neither have I tried to dig deeper into which of all my photos from the past ten years that are stored in the Cloud or not...)

Phew. I felt I'd had enough of the digital world for a while and went out for a walk. I decided to walk some streets/paths where I hadn't walked all winter; and it turned out I was in for another surprise. When I last went that way, a certain path down by the river would take me past a tennis court, and a club house. Now both the tennis court and the club house are gone, and at the moment the area looks like an odd kind of desert (with a few park benches planted). But it's probably going to be an open park with generous lawn areas.

Anyway, when I got back from my walk... I was able to access these phone-photos directly from my computer.

 

In the Right Direction

Thursday, 8 March – relapse into winter

“There is nothing wrong with change,
if it is in the right direction.”
~ Winston Churchill ~

Sunday, 11 March – Snow gone, and first snowdrop sighted!

I’ve been finding it hard to keep up with the rapid weather changes over the past week, being thrown back into full winter for a couple of days… But now we seem to be on the right track again! Spotting the first spring flowers today cheered me up!