bitter sweet snow

The snow has been a hit for our toddler. He is in love with snow.

The first sledding adventures--this season and thus has a memory of-- were masked in muted trepidation. For the record, the Bean does everything with trepidation.

But the follow up revealed that he had loved the thrill of zinging down the perilous hill beside our place.

The hill was truly an accident minefield as the parents had committed some acts of civil disobedience and ripped out as much of the fence themselves --notice I'm not including us in this questionable vandalism--we go out there too late. The new jungle gym and the trees and fixed poles stood stalwart, uncushioned.

Hold your breath. We have no true sledding helmet, so the Bean took a trip on the wild side.

He did some easy runs on his own. In general he was great at steering around obstacles. I tried to position myself in front of the danger areas. That idea backfired. Instead of steering away, he steered for me. Plan B.

His father then took it upon his good self to volunteer to ride with our snow Bean. That felt safer.

Several days later the hill is still a big pull when we pass it on our way back from dagis. However, we never get there within a reasonable time...Because.....

To walk 100m can take as long as 10 minutes. Every snow ball, each snow bank, all covered surfaces must be trampled, picked up, thrown or plowed through. It's painful for a mother wearing the wrong socks.

Walking home from dagis with buddy Elin should take about 20 minutes. Twice it's taken us nearly an hour. They just love the snow.

I'm enjoying the mini-melt we're experiencing now.

And still back and forth on how happy I am to have snow.

second snow

It's mid January and the second snow fall of the season is under way. There's been a good amount of accumulation so far too. Looking out our kitchen window I'd say there's about 4-5 cm on the ground and it's still coming down, though slower.

We'll see if there's enough left tomorrow to get in some symbolic sledding.

Hard to believe I'm thrilled to see a white cover. Feels invigorating.

Hard to accept it's anything but the worst

For over a month or so I've been in semi-denial that the Down's Syndrome rock-out dude from across the street might have died --or been permanently institutionalized at best.

His bedroom window is nearly directly across the street from our windows. I used to watch him daily rock out to tunes likely blaring from his trusty headphones.

A few weeks ago his room seemed to be cleared out and now the blinds have been down and shut since. I never see a light.

There are still the same people living in the apartment. The living room hasn't changed much, though there seems to be some kind of change. The lighting is different. I keep hanging on to the thought that for some reason he had to move.

I don't really believe this. I just want to.

Rock on dude.

myth busting the vasa

There's one topic that makes me geeky. I am a huge fan of the Vasa warship.

It's a great story. It's a phenomenal artifact. It's home is a fabulous architectural structure that enhances the wonder and awe of the mighty ship.

My ongoing affair with the ship continued today. Fred Hocker, archaeologist and composer of the ambitious endeavor of cataloging and compiling the factual documentation of the ship, met with me to discuss the newly debunked myths of the Vasa saga.

Firstly, the Vasa sank because of operational error, i.e. the captain's fault. The captain was aware of the instability of the ship, sailed with the lower gun ports open with near full sail. A well understood no-no of the era. There's oodles of documentation to back this up.

Secondly, the Vasa was not a forgotten and lost wreck. As late as 1839 the wreck was marked on sea charts of the Stockholm harbor. A salvage was requested in the 1920s but denied because of its location in the shipping channel. Divers and others involved in the 20's project were around when Anders Franzén got interested in finding her again in the 50s. Unfortunately they originally pointed out the wrong spot.

Thirdly, Franzén didn't find the Vasa on his own, randomly fishing with his core sampler in a dingy. He was accompanied and assisted by Per Edvin Fälting, who is given credit as the master diver on the salvage. It was Fälting who informed Franzén that he was looking on the wrong side of the harbor and helped devise an improved drag to locate the ship. However, Franzén's core sampler did indeed find the ship and confirmed there was oak beneath the surface.

Finally, the ship was designed to be the size it turned out to be. It was not lengthened nor was an unplanned second gun deck ordered after initial construction. Had the ship been properly ballasted and the captain had had a chance to get to know how to rig it and ship ballast, it would likely have been a sea worthy ship.

I didn't get invited on board again. But I am now in possession of Volume I. That's what reminds me that I'm a Vasa geek.