Slippery Slopes, and Releasing the Gnomes

 

This week, outdoor temperatures have been varying between thawing and freezing - resulting in several treacherous spots like this one. Besides wearing studded boots, I also bring at least one of my trekking poles when going out... There have also been days when I've preferred to just stay in, though!

Wednesday was laundry day, which this time of year means indoor-day, as it's already dark outside by the time I'm finished in the afternoon. Outdoors I think it was thawing.

On Thursday the temperature kept firmly below freezing point. My studded boots are very good on ice, though, if I tread carefully. So as planned, I went out to post my Swedish Christmas cards, and to buy some fruit & vegs in one of the small neighbourhood convenience shops. Went back home with my purchases, and then went out on another round with some things for the recycling bins, and after that I also decided to prolong my walk with a turn around the old cemetery. To get there, I have to pass that slippery slope on the photo above. I stopped for a moment to consider my "strategy", and shift my trekking pole from one hand to the other (to be able to also hold on to the railing when I reached that). Just then, a young man wearing rain boots came sliding by, passing me in a hurry - and was very close to slipping and falling... He managed to regain his balance, though - and then to my astonishment  stopped, turned round and asked if I needed help! I said thanks, but I'll be all right with my walking stick... and he was gone with the wind, slip sliding away along the pavement... It "made my day" though, that he actually thought to stop and ask! But considering his footwear, I think I was really safer just trusting my own equipment... ;-)  I managed a walk around the cemetery as planned, without incidents. (On my way back, at the very same spot, I met yet another young man, more running than walking, and in similar unsuitable footwear, slipping and "almost" falling as well, though...) 

Yesterday the weather had switched to thaw, fog and light rain outside, and I did not set foot outside until just taking out some household waste to the bins at the corner of my building in the afternoon. (By then, nearly all the ice/slush on the street had melted away.)

Instead I devoted a couple of hours to baking gingerbread cookies (dough prepapred the previous day). Only a small batch, but it's worth it even just for the smell filling the flat on the day I bake them...

Later on, I unpacked my box of various Christmas 'gnomes' and Santa figurines that I got up from the storage room the other day. Most of them have more or less permanent spots around my flat - like this 'Santa family' knitted by my mother (and inherited by me). They have chosen a picture shelf on the wall behind my sofa for their Christmas celebrations (pushing a painting slightly to one side).

Another gnome has moved up one floor in a bookshelf next to my TV this year, to keep an eye on a very fancy pop-up Christmas card recently arrived from a penpal in England.

On the shelf below, two 'newcomers' are helping me out this year with the red wooden Christmas tree (of German design), and some last minute Christmas cards. (Barbie and Skipper, showing off some more 1960s clothes made by my mum.)

If they do a good job with that, they may also get to help me with the other tree in a few days - I've not quite decided yet... ;-)  (My 50 cm high tree with lights and various other decorations is traditionally the very last item to be put up, among my decorations.)

Lucia - a Swedish tradition

  

Today is 13th December, and on this day in Sweden we celebrate Lucia (St Lucy's day). I found this short video on YouTube, with a short introduction in English to the tradition.

I haven't been out to see or listen to any live Lucia celebration this year, but I watched one performance on TV this evening (rerun from the early morning, when I wasn't up yet...)

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing...

 

For the 2nd Advent weekend, I brought up my Angels from the basement storage room. The glass angels + matching Christmas tree go under the electric candlestick in my living room:

The rest of them are forming a mixed choir on the window sill in my study.

I've probably mentioned it before, but all the angels are gifts I've received from various friends over the years. The one I've had the longest is the porcelain angel to the left; a gift from cousins of my grandmother when I was quite little, so she's been with me as long as I can remember.

My nativity set is also up now, on its usual shelf in my study.
They're a bit of a "motley crew" as well. ;-)
 

♫ Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King:
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th'angelic hosts proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"♫

(Charles Wesley/George Whitefield)

 

If Not One Thing, It's Another

 

Illustration by AI

 
As some of you may recall, back in mid November I went to see my optician for an eye exam, just thinking that I had noticed a change in optical refraction in one eye. But she detected a cataract, and referred me to an eye doctor. As cataract had so far never entered my mind, I spent the next couple of weeks trying to get used to that idea.

Luckily I did not have to wait very long, as I was referred to a small private eye clinic in our city centre. (They don't do operations but they help with eye exams and certain other treatments, in cooperation with our regional health care system.) I got an appointment there on 1st December. At the end of that, I was again in for a surprise, as the doc's conclusion was that well, yes, you do have a cataract - but the main problem is probably that you also have Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)... (It has another name in Swedish; but both were equally unfamiliar to me.)

... Er, what??... 

... The good news is it's the 'dry' variety (rather than the so-called 'wet' one); the bad news is there's no cure or treatment ...  

 ... Er, what??...

Brief explanation followed - not easy to take in all at once. But it seemed the 'dry' equals slow change (but no cure) whereas the 'wet' is more serious and faster developing (but may be slowed down by treatment).  I was also given a brochure with more info. (And after reading that, I have of course also googled for more.) 

As for the cataract (which I understood to not be very far gone), as that did not seem to be the problem (yet), we agreed to wait and see how things develop. The doc said to contact him again for another checkup in a year or so (which I take to confirm that he does not expect any fast changes). 

Hey ho... It's still a lot to get my head round all at once, when not having suspected any of it myself beforehand. From what I've gathered so far, the AMD diagnosis does seem to make "sense" though (more than the cataract), related to the changes in vision that I'd been noticing in my left eye lately. I also do think it's probably been developing slowly, even if it was only recently that it started bothering me. What happened was that not too long ago I noticed that when looking at the TVscreen with just my left eye, the subtexts on the screen appeared wavy rather than straight, and some letters difficult to see. Watching with both eyes, the right eye "takes over" though, and then I see no distortion. But it's probably still a strain making both eyes tired more quickly.  

For now, the new diagnosis does not really change anything - but it has me in the process of "reinterpreting" symptoms that I've been ascribing to other causes...

Reflections on Dust

 

Illustration by Bing AI

I think it was on Saturday that I walked the vacuum cleaner around the flat, and at the end of our tour checked the bag inside it to see if that needed changing - and found that well, it might have been ok if the dust had been inside the bag (as it should be), but for unknown reason most of the dust this time was on the outside of and around the bag, in the compartment where that resides... Somehow the bag must have slipped out of its right position, so that the end of the hose inside had not connected with it. It's still a mystery to me how that came about. As far as I can recall, it's never happened before. Anyway, the result made me wish that I had had access to a second vacuum cleaner, to be able clean the first one... But I only have the one; which led to a rather complicated and time consuming process of cleaning the inside of the vacuum cleaner with the help of a small dustpan and brush + damp cloths and kitchen paper etc... 

When finally I had completed that tiresome process, it suddenly struck me that hmmm, doesn't this VC also have some kind of filter at the back, which I haven't checked for ages... I managed to find the manual in the drawer where I keep such instructions; and oops, yes, it said that filter should be cleaned every six months and changed every two years or so... I can't tell you how long ago it was since I last did that, as I haven't got a clue... But it was definitely long overdue! (All I can say in my defence is that I'd not been consciously neglecting it - I'd just completely forgotten its existence...) It also proved seriously hard to open the filter grille behind which the filter lives. I managed that eventually, though - and had to admit that by now, the Thing looked definitely more "dead" than "alive"... 

Would I even be able to find a replacement? I searched the manual again and found an article number. On Monday afternoon I put that into Google - and bingo! It seemed they actually had it in stock in a certain tech shop in the city centre. (A favourite of mine since it's within walking distance.) So I was able to reserve the filter online, and go and pick it up there the next morning. 

New filter in place at the back, and new dust bag in front, I took the vacuum cleaner for another walk around the flat in the afternoon. Checked afterwards, and this time the dust seemed to have gone where it should... (I'll probably be a bit obsessive about checking that after every use for a while! Whether in six months I'll remember to check and clean the filter at the back is a different story, though.)

 

On my way home from town this time I walked along/across the South Square, which is lined with old wooden buildings on three sides (the river on the fourth). Part of the square serves as transfer point for some of the local bus lines. (No longer mine, though - alas.)

My reflection in one of the windows on the ground floor of the building above; and buildings across the square also reflected in the background...