Father has died

On friday evening at 7:30 my father passed away. Both my brothers were with him during his last days. He died at home which is what he wanted. When I said Goodbye on Sunday it would be the last time I saw my father alive.
I think he had a beautifull death, all things considered. Many things happened during the last week of his life to facilitate his crossing over. On Monday a priest from the Christian Community came to give him communion and the last annointing. On tuesday the monks from the tibetan buddhist monastery in Ithaca came to pray with Father, and on Thursday the Lutheran/Episcopalean church choir came to sing for him. Though he slept most of the time, we had the distinct impression that he participated inwardly in all of these events - in fact he even hummed along with the choir!
When my brother Adam called me on thursday evening to say that the end was near, it was too late to get a flight on friday. I was able to book a flight for Saturday morning and had just gotten up at 2 am to get ready to go to the airport when Adam called again to say that Father had just died. I wish I could have been there for his passing, but even if I had been able to leave on friday morning, I still wouldn't have made it. The trip took 24 hrs.

When I arrived in Cortland, Tormod, was at the busstop to pick me up. It was so good to see him! Beren was also there. On the way out to the farm we had a distressing experience. Tormod was stopped by the police who had been following us for a little while. They took all our ID, and ran a check on it, asked if we had drugs or had been drinking, if we had knives or shotguns or anything in the car. Asked me who the boys were to me etc. We told them where we were going and why but they continued their questions and search. When they were satisfied and had returned our papers Tormod asked the officer for his name. The officer took back Tormod's licence and registration and left us sitting in the car for another 15 minutes. When he came back, he gave Tormod a ticket for having a dealer frame around his licence plate which he claimed was illegal in New York State, in spite of the fact that 8 out of 10 cars have them. So now Tormod has to show up in court on september 11, or pay a fine. I was shocked by this blatent abuse of power. Though I have heard of it, I have never before experienced harrassment at the hands of an officer of the law, and I found it deeply disturbing.

When we got to the farm everyone was there: Adam and Roland, Ilian, who had just arrived from California herself, and Joe, Mother, and the lady who had been present at Fathers death. I asked her to tell us about the moment of death. Mother and my brothers had gone to the theater (to see the Pirates of Penzanze, one of Father's favorite shows) and this family friend, Ann was sitting with Father while they were gone. Mother had said goodbye and even gotten a kiss from Father. Ann said that father was lying with half open eyes, breathing heavilly with that noise in his throat when phlegm gathers there. She had just moistened his mouth, when he opened his eyes wide though looking far away, and stopped breathing. When he started breathing again the quality of his breathing had changed. After she called my brother's cell phone, he stopped breathing again and she sat and held his hand. She could feel his puls gradually fade away. I was so gratefull that she could relate this experience in such detail and feel that she was truly privilaged to have been there.
Father is now lying on dry ice in a casket in the sun room. People can come and read to him or just sit with him. Mother is still sleeping in the next room as she did when he was on his death bed in there. It feels very right to be in the same house with him. Not wierd at all. In fact it would feel alot more wierd knowing his body was in a cooler somewhere.
We have been busy preparing for the funeral which will be on tuesday. Adam has returned home to fetch his family. Roland has made a web site with information: https://sites.google.com/site/lynwillwerth/

On the plane on my way over I read in a little book with quotes about death (by Rudolf Steiner).
He says that when somebody dies it is as thought they have traveled to a far away country to which we can only follow at a later time.
About the attitude with which we think of the dead he says that it is ok to be sad and heartbroken, but that if we wish for the person to come back we make it difficult for them to move on. It is more helpfull if we can accept that the spiritual world has called the person, because there are new taskes for him.

Failing fast

I returned from the US yesterday. We were on vacation in California, and hearing that Father was failing fast we spent the last few days with him and Mother in Cortland. As you know, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in february last year. After numerous complications he seemed to respond to treatment and from July to May had 10 good months. In May he began to experience episodes of weakness and testing showed the myeloma had invaded the central nervous system. This is a very rare complication and the prognosis is bad. Since then he has been getting progressively weaker. He has experienced a rapid decline in the last 2 weeks. From still going upstairs to bed 1 1/2 weeks ago to not being unable to bear weight more than a few seconds with support on thursday. He hardly speaks anymore, though we think he hears and listens. He mostly lies with his eyes shut. Must be fed and otherwise cared for in bed. The worst is that he seems to have a good bit of pain. It was a huge shock to see him like this. Mother is trying her best with the help of hospice. I was there for a few days and my brother Roland has returned from California to stay until the end.
We don't think he will live more than a few more weeks, and we all agree that we will try to make it possible for him to die at home. It is what he wants. Hospice sends an aide 2 hrs a day, and have helped with equipment, physical therapy consults and a nurse is on call 24/7. The church and the waldorf community are ralleying to help mother by bringing food and sitting with Father so that she can get away to swim and do errands.
I have returned to Norway, but will go back on short notice when they say the end is near. I wish I could have stayed on. There is so much I could have done to help!

Mountain getaway, July 10 - 12

Today is my 7th workday in a row. The price I pay to get a weekend in the mountains. The weather forecast was for rain, and Husband, wasn't sure if he wanted to go. But I needed to get away, if only to sit by the wood stove, read and play cards.
The two room cabin, which belongs to MaryAnn and Nils N lies on a point of land that sticks out into the Vinster lake, 1080 meters above sea-level, in the Jotunheimen mountains. There is neither elektricity nor running water and the outhouse is out in the barn of what used to be a summer farm. Up and down along the lake there are still summer farms in operation, milking goats and cows, both of which come to graze on the point of land where Skarstølen lies. It's a wonderfull place for the dogs, as they can run freely around the cabin most of the day, fenced in as they are by water on 2 sides and the fence on the third.

It actually didn't rain very much that weekend, though it was chilly when we arrived. Husband chopped wood and kept the fire going. I made sour cream porridge and in no time we were cozy. Time seems to stand still at Skarstølen. We read, played cards, took long naps and went for long walks. Lucy had her first encounter with goats on our first walk. On the second we saw a large flock of reindeer quite close by. On the open mountain moors, just dotted with occasional boulders Lucy just had to run. She would run and run in a big circle and suddenly she would be out of sight, which was a little scary as there might be sheep in the hollows, and we have no idea if she would try to chase them. She came back of course but we had to put her on a leash where the landscape was so open. Back at Skarstølen the cows from a neighboring summerfarm had gotten in by going between the end of the fence and the water and so we let the dogs chase them out: Lucy on leash, directing Topsy by voice.

We also had some nice visits with MaryAnn and Nils. MaryAnn has made an amazing flower garden with a stone terrace, waterfall and pool, little steps going up and down. It is quite wonderfull. Nils N is getting older, 81 now, and not very good on his feet anymore, but sharp as a whistle. It was good to see them.

Paris

The hotel:
Hotel Eden is in the Pigalle District, walking distance from Montmartre. Our room on the 6th floor was tiny, but clean, as was the bathroom. Very conducive to romance, you had to really cuddle up just to fit into the lift (which only went to the 5th floor). Also the beds were good sized and comfortable and took up about 90% of the room's floor space. The breakfast was simple but good: croisants, french bread, coffee, juice,and yogurt.Our museum pass was only good for 2 days, and most of the museums we wanted to go to were closed on tuesdays, so we spent tuesday exploring the city, then wednesday and thursday morning visiting museums, and all days enjoying the food.


Montmartre:
Tuesday we got up early and climbed the hill to Montmartre. It is true what they say, that when you wander the winding streets of Montmartre you feel like you are in a village rather than a city. There is even a vineyard. The grapes apparently are the source of a rather mediocre wine, but their harvest is thouroughly celebrated all the same. There is also a square with the last remnants of the forest of Montmartre. And of course the Sacre Coer church with a breathtaking view over the city of Paris. We were early enough to avoid the tourists, but too early to avvoid the stink of urine and the litter being swept up and washed away by the street cleaners.


The parks:
We visited 4 parks: Monceau, which is supposed to be the most beautifull in Paris, the tuillere gardens, the Luxenbourg park of literary fame (les miserables, the three musketeers) and the botanical gardens, with their charming little zoo called Menagerie, where many of the birds and animals were kept in old fashioned cast iron cages. Yes, the parks are nice, with impressive trees and splendid statuary, but the actual gardens were dissapointing. The french just can't do gardens like the english. I hate to say it, but the city gardener of Hamar does nicer flower beds. What is most "French" about the parks is seeing the people with their easels and their water colors.

Muse de la vie Romantique:
This was one of two free museums and it was just around the corner from our hotel. It is in a house set back from the street with flowers in the cobbled courtyard where Frederic Chopin and George Sand used to visit their painter friend Ary Scheffer. The museum exhibits personal belongings and portraits of the Scheffer and Sand families, while music by Chopin plays softly in the background.


The north bank:
The perfume museum is hidden in a side street to the Opera. It is the other free museum. I found it to be quite interresting, but ended up having to hurry through it, as it bored Husband to tears. He told me all the other husbands who had been dragged there by their wives exhibited similar signs of boredom. He wasn't terrible interested in window shopping at Cartiers and Dior at the Place Vendome either. Hmmm.

Espace Weleda:
Tuesday afternoon I had an appointment at the Weleda Spa near the Champs Elysee. It was an oasis in the hot and noisy city, with a water fall and plants and a couple of soft chairs in the vestibule. Unfortunatly all the magazines were in french, and Husband hadn't brought a book...but the massage was wonderful. Weleda has developed their own technique for a full body massage of 1 hr and 15 minutes. I chose the rose oil massage. Don't remember if it included the face as I fell asleep toward the end. They served a cup of indian tea with a couple of cookies to wake me up after.

The latin quarter:
Here too, the streets are narrow and winding. The main problem with trawling the streets in Paris is that the traffic is terribly noisy, especially on the boullevards. The famous Champs-Elysee is a 10(!)lane highway, the Arche de Trionph lies in a 6 lane roundabout. Whereas in the rest of Paris lunch is served between 12 and 2 pm, and dinner between 8 adn 11pm, in the latin quarter service is non stop and menus range form 12 to 25 euros for a 3-course dinner. There are crepe places on every corner. Nutella crepes seem to be the most popular judging by the jars of nutella. The favorite fast-food seems to be gyro.

We found the the centaur by Cesar at the place Carrefour Croix Rouge. While looking for it we passed a waldorf toy shop full of wonderfull toys. Made me wish I had grandchildren. Behind the the St Germain church (oldest in Paris) we had strawberries in the quiet Place Furstenberg, one of the pockets in Paris where you can get away from the bustle and the noise of the traffic.


The churches:
Another way to get a break from traffic noise is in the churches which are mostly open to the public. The St Severine church has some very nice stained glass windows. The Madeleine churchis built to look like a greek temple, with a traditional catholic interior. When we visited it was decorated outside and inside with modern religious sculptures - in contrast to the classical and traditional form and decoration of the church itsself.


French cuisine:
On the first day we had lunch in a covered walkway called Gallerie Vivienne. Here is a tea house called "a priory the" where we ate a delicious vegetarian lunch. As a matter of fact 4 of the 5 lunches on the menu were vegetarian. I had the quiche, while Husband had the zuccini stuffed with hot goats cheese. Hot goats cheese has become Husband's favorite french food: he has had zuccini, eggplant and crepes stuffed with hot goats cheese as well as hot goats cheese in salad. Our second lunch was on the Isle St Louis, where a large Salad (his with warm goats cheese, mine with fried chicken livers) cost 13 euros (compared with the 3 course menus for 15 euros that we had in the latin quarter thereafter. It was as part of these that I made sure to order french classics such as snails and frogslegs. When I had snails I had to ask how one was supposed to eat them, and the waiter kindly gave me a demonstration. My favorite desserts were crepe with honey and walnuts and cream puffs filled with ice cream, with whipped cream and hot chocolate sauce on top.


The Museums:
Wednesday we started by taking the metro to ile de Cite, one of the 2 islands in the Seine and the heart of the original city. We wanted to visit St Chapelle, the private chapel of the kings that lived in the medieval castle there (which is now the justice department). We were a little early and sat for a while in the place dauphin at the western point of the island, watching a parisian play with his dog. St Chapelle is gorgious. The stained glass windows are spectacular! One of the gems of Paris. Another museum in the medieval part of the "palace of Justice" is the Conciergerie, a museum that records the life of wardens and prisoners held there during the french revolution, among others, Marie Antoinette. Afterward we crossed over to Ile st louis where we had lunch and walked along the quai. We crossed over and visited the botanical garden and the small but charming zoo. Our next stop was L'orangerie in the Tuillere gardens. In 2 oval rooms the water lily paintings of Monet are beautifully displayed as murals on the walls, lit by natural daylight. These are in my mind another of the gems of Paris. We visited the Louvre also, but it is simply too big, to full, too overwhelming. I prefer the smaller, simpler exibits.

Thursday morning we visited the Cluny museum. This is the 3rd gem. The museum is in what was originally part of a monastery built on the ruins of the ancient Roman baths in Paris. The museum has a wonderful collection of medieval art and items of daily living, and it is not only weapons and armor though there is a little of that as well. There are dishes, jewelry, books, religious paintings, statues and carvings, great carved chests and smaller coffers; one room devoted to gold workings, another to the art of stained glass windows; and tapestries: throughout the museum are tapestries documenting life in the middle ages. And of course especially beautifull are the Unicorn tapestries which are exibited in a room on their own. In the excavated baths is a small section devoted to the Roman history of Paris, with statues and personal items found during excavation.


It was hot and sunny during our whole visit: 90 degrees more or less. On one street corner we saw a beggar begging for food money while his cat and his dog lay stretched out sleeping in the sun. Hot, tired and thirsty we were looking for a likely cafe on the second day, when web stumbled across a Starbucks! A frappucino in the comfort of a couple of cushy arm chairs hit the spot. Though I hate the golden arches, Starbucks is an american institution that I would welcome anywhere. If only they had Starbucks in Norway. The coffee you buy at cafees here is terrible!

Skibladner - my 50th birthday party

We met at the train station in Hamar. Nils N and MaryAnn had come down from Valdres, the other guests were from Hamar or Stange: Andrea, our dog-sitter, whom Husband used to work with at Nøttestad , Nils B, and also Inger and Erik, who used to live across the street from us, but recently have moved into town. And of course the children: Irene, still suffering after her wisdom tooth extraction, Ingvild with her Columbian boyfriend, and Audun who was coming down from Lillehammer on the train we were waiting for. We missed Tormod and his girlfriend sorely. I hope we'll be able to do something nice together to make up for it.


As we were buying our tickets Audun called to say that they had left Lillehammer 10 minutes late and that now they were stopped in Moelv for reasons unknown. Things got a little hectic for me for a while: it turned out that I had written down the wrong number for the cell phone to the ship - I had been given a number to call in case of a delay. Irene called her housemate who got on the internet and accessed my e-mail to find the number. With the right number I was able to call the ship and tell them that we would be about 30 minutes delayed. They promised to wait: "after all," the captain said, "it's Sunday, the weather is fine, we're in no hurry." And sure enough, the ship was waiting when we arrived, the passengers had spent the unplanned docking time swimming off the dock.


The trip from Eidsvoll to Hamar goes up the Vorma river then under the bridges at Minnesund where the Vorma flows out of the Mjøsa lake, and up Mjøsa. There is a stop on the western bank before the ship crosses over to stop in Hamar which is about half-way up the lake. The whole trip takes 3 hours. The weather was hot (80's) and sunny, but with a nice breeze on the water. Dinner was served at 4 pm in the plush dining room. The traditional meal of baked salmon, potatoes with a light sauce, cucumber salad and fresh ripe strawberries with cream for dessert was absolutely perfect. They even crushed Irene's strawberries for her so that she could eat them.


After dinner we hung out on deck, watching the familiar landmarks where we walk the dogs: Store Re, Lille Re, Stange Church and even Hammerstad, where Husband works, pass by. There wasn't any music, but they shot off the cannons about half-way through dinner. All in all a great day with good friends and family!

Styrkeprøven (endurance-test) and O-Festival

My first week of vacation started with the "Styrkeprøve" for Husband: a bike race from Lillehammer to Oslo: 190 km. Husband cycled with the Ottestad Second Bike team with the goal of finishing in under 6 hrs without leaving any members behind. They made it in 5 hrs and 40 minutes. The weather was mixed. Mostly sunny with some wind, and occasional rain showers, even a hail shower. I waited at the roadside in Ottestad (about 1/3) of the way with bottles of juice and water and food to fill his pockets: raisin buns, figs and bananas. Teamwork is the main goal for the Ottestad cycle club. They cykle using a chain technique where they constantly rotate who is at the front. Those who need to rest hang at the back of the chain. The captain organises the chain. When one of the cyclists slid on the rain-slick asphalt and flew off his bike, hitting the divider and breaking his collar bone, the team stopped to make sure he was okay and was picked up by a support car before continuing. When one of the members was almost too tired to keep up in the last long hill before entering Oslo, 3 or 4 teammembers took turns pushing her up the hill so that she would be able to finish with the team.


This weekend Husband and I packed the dogs into the car and went to the Orienteering Festival on the west edge of Oslo (Bærumsmarka). We had rented a cabin at a nearby camp ground. We had great weather: 80's - an unusual treat for Norway. Found some nice walks for the dogs near the camp ground. The races were fun. The world cup was going on simultaneously, and we could follow the commentary and watch the progress on a big screen in the Arena while waiting for our start times. On friday afternoon I ran an A-level course in the womens 50 class: 2,7km. It was a very difficult course. I spent as much time on just one controll as Husband (mens 40 A) had spent on his whole race. In the end though, I found all the controls, finishing in one and a half hours, 17 minutes behind the next to last contestant. However there were 3 that were either disqualified or had given up, and though I considered giving up, I'm glad I finished. Saturday I ran a C-level race, though this was 3,6 km. Though I finished in 50 minutes (nr 38 of 63) I felt I had run a bad race. It seems I should have been able to run faster. Most of the controls were along paths, and easy to find. Don't know why I was so slow. The heat maybe... It sure was great to put my head under the sprinkler at the finish.
The dogs were very good, lying in a shady place and waiting for us while we were out running.
Husband had his debut with A-level courses. In his age group they are much longer and though his placement was about 2/3 down the list still I feel he ran a good race. Friday he ran a 3,6 km course in 38 minutes, finishing nr 50 of 75, 13 minutes behind the winner. Saturday he ran the 4,8 km course in 1hr and 2 minutes, finishing nr 21 of 34, 21 minutes behind the winner.

Summer vacation

Finished the semester today with two breast cancer surgeries. Finally the last 9 weeks of intense praktical studies coupled with work in the ER have come to an end. It was a period of getting up at 5:30 every day, of leaving the house at 6:45 and coming home at 8 pm - mostly because either dentist appointments, orienteering or dog training followed immediatly after work. For 3 periods in the past 9 weeks, I worked for 12 days in a row before I had a weekend off. Almost every week I had a 15 hour workday, when, after spending 7 1/2 hours as a student in the OR, I went downstairs to the ER to work my regular 7 1/2 hr evening shift.

Ahead of me are 9 weeks of summer vacation. Time for the house and the garden. Time for travel and friends. Time to cook proper meals. I started already this afternoon by cooking spoonbread with fried bananas and steamed aspargus for dinner. Then I watered the plants, fed the cockatails and cleaned their cage. In the garden I rediscovered the strawberry plants under the weeds. They are blooming prolifically and I covered them with netting and also wrapped up the cherry tree in netting.

A phone call to Father, and a surprise visit from my brother-in-law and his familly rounded off the evening.

Whitsun O-meet

Whitsun weekend. Lovely warm sunny weather with night-time lows in the 50's, and daytime highs in the 70's! Lilacs and Mountain Ash are blooming, the forrest floor is covered with Arctic Starflowers and violets, bright yellow dandelions dot the lawns. Birds flit to and fro on the business of raising their families and birdsong fills the air. On my morning walk with the dogs, we hear the cuckoo calling and we see a fox cub come out of the brush, and stop to look at us before dissapearing into the wood on the other side of the path...

Since the relative success of running an A-level course in my age group last fall when I managed to complete the course just before everyone had packed up and gone home, I thought I'd try again on saturday. Imagine how pleased I was that I not only completed the course, I was not even last to finish, but actually 3 minutes ahead of the last contestant. This is progress indeed, and I have now signed up to run the short distance A-level course at the orienteering festival at the end of June. Didn't do too badly in Sunday's C-level course coming in the best half (16th of 36) finishing the 3,5 km course in under en hour, and even better in monday's race where I completed the 3,4 km in 48 minutes, and finishing 20th of 39. Tor for his part won 2 4th place prizes over the weekend.

Lucy is a good orienteering dog. She has waited patiently in the finish area where she was tied up in the shade, with a chew bone and her water bowl, sleeping and watching the other people and dogs.

The kids are gone for the weekend. They have taken my car and gone to Oslo to plan their father's 60th birthday party. So Tor Idar and I are alone this weekend. Besides orienteering, I am slowly catching up with the garden, putting in seeds and planting flowers.

50 years - the beginning of the rest of my life!

I see turning 50 as a landmark. The start of a new Era.
The first 20 years of life were my childhood. A happy childhood in most areas.
The next 30 years saw the establishment of my family, the search for love and meaningfull occupation. An area in which I could serve and contribute to society and to the earth. Thus I became by turns a farmer, full time mother and finaly a nurse.

Now, at 50 my parents are getting older and I am aware that I will be facing the loss of at least one parent in the near future. This is prompting me to take a closer look at death and dying in an effort to prepare myself both for the transition of a parent to the spiritual world and my own eventual death. I am thankfull that I have a close relationship with my brothers and sister. I recently had a patient who died suddenly and whose daughters who had had no contact with each other for years started fighting and even hitting each other in the halls of the ER.

My own children are now practically grown, and I look forward to seeing what paths their lives will be taking, and hope some time in the future to become a grandmother.

I still carry elements of my previous occupations with me. I grow an organic garden, and keep a few chickens. I enjoy running in (orienteering) and walking the dogs in the woods. I try to support the health of the environment by buying organic products, now that I have the means to do so.

When I was 20 I had my whole life ahead of me, but no clear idea of what I wanted to do with it. Now, at 50 there are so many things I still want to accomplish and the time to do it all in seems limited. In only 10 - 20 years I will be facing retirement. I want to make a contribution to people in developing countries and experience first hand the life there, either with disaster relief or through some other work as a nurse. To this end I embarked on an 18 month course to become a nurse anesthetist this year. I look forward to this enhancement of my nursing skills.

As I look ahead I hope for a period of increased freedom and mobility now that the children are grown. A chance to travel extensively. Illness is an increasing possibility that can limit my plans for work and travel and I become more and more conscious of the need to take care of my health, and to appreciate the good health that I currently enjoy. Perhaps I will make "Live Slowly" my motto for the future.

I am celebrating the beginning of this new era, not only with a change in career, but with a new dog, given me by my children, a trip to Paris given to me by my husband, and in June I have invited my family and a few close friends to join me for a dinner cruise on the worlds oldest paddle steamer. Today, though, we will celebrate modestly: my husband has made a delicious cake: "After-8 cheese cake", the girls are coming for dinner and we plan to go to the movies in the evening to see "Angels and Demons."


This is my birthday present from the children: Lucy the belgian sheepdog

Back to School

If anyone is following this blogg, they might be wondering why I haven't updated in the past 5 months.
On January 12th my life became incredibly hectic!
I went back to school to become a nurse anesthetist.
I first had 3 months of theoretical studies which culminated in a 4 hour written exam in pathophysiology and microbiology. The results came yesterday. I got a B, over which I am a bit dissapointed. However in addition to studying I have been working part time (50%) in the ER, and spent a month in the USA helping mother and father during mothers recovery from knee replacement surgery.
So between studying fulltime, working part time and spending whats left with my family and socializing a new puppy I have not been blogging much.

Winter Wonderland

It's been snowing for a couple of days now. A fine misting snow started on monday night and continued through tuesday, then got serious tuesday night. Woke up wednesday with about 7" and it has continues all day. We probably have close to a foot of snow now. It's beautiful the way it softens all the sharp edges, Lining the twiggs and branches with white. The lights from the houses with Christmas stars in the windows, golden against the the twighlight world.

I am not taking so many extra shifts now it is Advent. We have hung the advent star in the window, and started the Creche. The advent candles are on the table, a circular candleholder with 4 candles, one for each sunday. I have been ordering presents, and started baking: hutzelbrot and lebkuchen for starters. Saint Nicholas is being rather sporadic this year. He has brought advent calendars to Beren and Tormod in Ithaca, and left a bunch of goodies in Audun's shoes when he visited on sunday, the rest of us are still waiting. Perhaps he's off at the coal mines getting coal for us? I hope not. Course Saint Nicolas day isn't until Saturday, so maybe he'll be visiting our shoes then. I'll put them out, just in case.

Giving Thanks

My job keeps reminding me of how fragile life is. One minute you can be going about your business, next minute you're dead, or someone you love is dead, or dying, or has had their life turned upside down because of an accident or a stroke or something. I keep getting reminded of how important it is to live with the awareness that each day could be your last, and to be prepared for death or disability.

Today we went to see "The Little Match Girl", performed by the dance/drama juniors of Ingvild's High School. It is a heart-breaking story, of indifference, self-service, peer-pressure, the turning from need with the excuse that others surely will care for the needy. Ingvild danced in the performance: the waiter bringing in the roast with a gleefull grin, and the snow falling on the dead matchgirl...

Audun and Irene came to watch the performance as well. Afterward we had our thanksgiving dinner: turkey with stuffing, gravy, corn og the cob, baked sweet potatoes, waldorf salad, brokkoli and brusselsprouts steamed in butter, and cranberry relish. Cranberries were hard to get this year. My regular supermarket couldn't get them, but there's this ethnic store, run by a turkish family, where I go to get Tofu, halva, real greek feta made of goat and sheeps milk, haloumi etc, and they ordered them special for me. For desert we had pumkin chiffon pie and apple pie.

We talked about what we were thankfull for: Husband for his new job, which has made it possible to cut back on his medication. Irene for breaking up with Stian, and finding such a good friend in her new living situation. Ingvild for her Columbian boyfriend, and her job which she loves, we are all thankfull that Father is doing so well, and that Tormod finally got his drivers licence and has made a life for himself in the US. And the kids were thankful that their Father got better after his heart attack. Audun didn't say much about what he is thankful for, but seems to be pretty happy with his life, his job, new girlfriend, red cross youth, and has just aquired yet another elektronic toy: an I-phone. For myself, I am thankful for all of the above and also for the opportunity to start my anesthesiology training in january.

Snøkuten (the snow-run)

After the last few days of pouring rain the snow is all gone. This is what I like the least about November: it is so cold, and dark. All sharp corners (or mud - should it happen to be above freezing. Tonight was the second Snow-run. That's what they call the 4 - 7 mile evening walk/run in a village 1500' above sea level. Not that there was any snow today. The name is because the walk is done one tuesday evening pr month from October to March. It is a sosial event as well as a race. People walk or jog, often with their dogs, sometimes with children or babycarriages. And the racers compete fiercly. Warm juice is served at the end. mmmm. People come from as far away as Oslo (1.5 hrs by car) to participate. Participation in 4 of the 6 events brings a prize. This year it is art. In earlier years it has been pottery. Irene is joining Tor and me for this years walk.

Election night

Driving to and from work is a perilous undertaking - in fog the consistency of oatmeal and roads covered with an icy glaze.

For the first time I was able to follow the presidential election, since I had to work last night. They were broadcasting results on Norwegian Television from 1 am on. Unfortunatly a patient came in at 1:10 and we weren't done with him until 3 am and by that time it was clear that Obama had a good lead. Still it was fun watching the states on the CNN map turn from grey to blue or red as the night wore on. Barak Obama won. I feel optimistic, though the tasks he is facing are formidable. Must say I agree with the Norwegian newspaper (Dagbladet) who's front page said "Puh, we survived the worst president ever".

Our cat's have the right idea when it comes to the weather. I find them curled up asleep in various parts of the house. Fluffy is somewhat put out by the winter weather. When it first snowed she balanced along the fence trying to avoid having to walk in that cold wet yucky white stuff. She is intrigued however, by the bird feeder on the wall outside the kitchen. Perched on the roof above the feeder, she stretches her paws down to see if she can catch one of those delectable morsels, flying back and forth and feeding on suet balls and peanuts. The birds of course seeing that she can't reach them pay absolutely no attention.

Winter came on October 28th this year...

It started on tuesday with a killing frost and just some light flakes in the air. Wednesday it started snowing for real. I spent the morning with a friend in the basement of her house learning to make Siruptynnkaker, a traditional Norwegian cookie. We started at 9am, and when we resurfaced at noon it was to emerge into a winter wonderland. We had 4-5" of snow that day. Then today, the temperature dropped to 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrr. The snow is still there. This is definitly winter.