Mixed Company

Mixed Company, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

Did you know that swans all gather together in the fall and winter? In the summer they go their separate ways and then meet up in the fall. Around Stockholm you can see groups of 20 or so.

Don't Leave, remake

Don't Leave, remake, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

The leaves are beginning to turn in Stockholm. I am told that next weekend, the boater will begin the annual ritual of pulling their boats out of the water for dry storage on the land.

My sister came to visit

, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

What a great time. My sister and her friend came to visit me in Stockholm. They spent 5 days with me and J and then flew to Paris since "we're so close." Fortunately we had pretty good weather while they were here. We kayaked, biked, took a boat out into the Stockholm archipelago, hit some nice restaurants, and got plenty of walking in, especially in Gamla Stan, the old part of Stockholm. Check out the collection here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/question_everything/collections/72157607020055154/ . Some of the photos have the privacy set to family and freinds so you might not see all of thm if you haven't gotten registered as a friend.

Mushroom Picking Season in Sweden

Mushroom Picking Season in Sweden, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

I am amazed by how many folks go out into the forest and pick mushrooms. Chanterelles are very popular but J didn't get any of those from this hunt.

Two weeks ago I wnet on a bike ride - one of my usual routes. I noticed a car here or there parked in a funny place - like they have veered off the road to the edge of the woods. On my way back, I saw folks at those cars, the trunk open and bags of mushrooms inside. This is serious business.

Archipelago Beauty

Archipelago Beauty, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

J and I took a day trip to the island of Grinda. This is a very popular island and it was covered with visitors wanting to get away from the city into nature and quite. The rocks and beaches were covered with flesh covered with sun screen. The Baltic around was brimming with boats of every kind. In fact, the collection of photos has way too many boat photos even after I culled them down!

Click here for little over 100 more photos on Flickr.

Blue in the forest

Blue in the forest, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

J and I hiked approximately 15 kilometers (9 miles) Friday (and we're tired!) in Tyresta National Park. This huge park has several very blue lakes - I did not color enhance these photos. I actually went skinny dipping (a very Swedish thing to do) in one lake: Stensjön.

You can view 70-something photos here.

Skäggdopping

Skäggdopping, originally uploaded by Steffe.

I saw one of these while kayaking near Björkvik in June. I couldn't catch a good photo myself so I blogged this one from Steffe.

In English it's called a Great Crested Grebe.

Bay View

Bay View, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

There is a sub-culture of sailboaters with families. They come here annually during the summer. Many of them have come for lots of years and know most everybody else. They bring a lots of food and supplies on the boat but they also buy some of it on the island (at redicicoulsy high prices). They walk about two kilometers from this bay to a tiny little store to make their purchases. Then a courier driving an ATV with a trailer delivers the stuff to the bay later in the day.

Friends we met on Nåttarö.

Friends we met on Nåttarö., originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

See all 121 photos from the outing to Nåttarö on Flickr.

Clouds floating like boats

Clouds floating like boats, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

If I could do it again....

I'd find an apartment to live in on Lille Essingen. It's a charming little island. Definitely, if I extend my stay, we'll move to a place where we can view the water - even if it's a tiny place. The east side of Lidingö is also very nice. However, that's too far to commute to work in Kista.


if we extend our stay ...
we have to have figure out a way that my kids could visit at least twice a year. Missing them on major holidays is particularly acute.


and, what to do with the dogs???

Good vibrations...

Good vibrations..., originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

J and I went to the opening night of the 2008 Stockholm Jazz Festival. Some friends of ours (Bo & family and friends) saved us some seats). This was a really fun evening. We heard pure jazz from The Rigmor Gustafsson Quartet and the Bobo Stenson Trio. The we heard a top notch should band, Tower of Power, who've been making soul music for 40 years (well some of the original members are still with the band). Finally we heard Mary J. Blidge. My ears are still ringing from that. The base vibrations were so strong it cleaned my teeth.

Photos here.

Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker, originally uploaded by dekayne.

I've seen two of these beautiful woodpeckers this summer. I think they were even more colorful than the one seen here, but that might be my imagination. In both sightings I was riding my bike on a trail in the woods and the bird flies out of the underbrush. They must like to be low....I couldn't have photographed them if I wanted to: they were way too fast.

(Note: the photo is not mine!)

Stockholm to Baltimore to Seneca and back

I went back to the US last week for 7 days. It's been almost a year. What surprises me most is that things I used to dislike in the US I now admire. Similarly, things I initially dislike in Sweden, I now like. Odd how that works.

I flew to Baltimore to meet my daughter and her fiance. We then drove 10 plus hours to Oconee county South Carolina to meet other family members, including J who'd been there already for several weeks spending quality time with her family (and mine). There we celebrated my Mother-in-law's 80'th birthday and gave my daughter a bridal shower. It was family fun for several days. I can't believe how gracious my wife's family was in giving my daughter and her fiance such a nice shower!



One thing that amazed me was the fireworks show put on by Neville's RV campground. It must have cost 10 or 20 thousand dollars. Heck, I don't know anything about fireworks - could have costs anything... It was just as good as the one at Folsom Field in Boulder! But the most amazing thing was that we watched it from a pontoon boat in the middle of a wide place in lake Keowee. But we weren't the only pontoon. There must have be a hundred. Just before dark they all just moseyed out from all directions, stopped and waited on the show. As the show was going on, you could see the silhouette's of all the boats and the fireworks reflections on the water - an amazing sight. I realize that pontoon boating is a sub-culture - just like anything else (like bicycling). When the show was over, the engines cranked and they lumbered off like zombies.

You can see my photos of the trip here. Those of you that are registered in Flickr as family (you have to do that) get to see more pictures than everybody else - I didn't want to embarrass any family members by showing their photos to the whole world. I have a collection of more generic photos for the rest of you.

Below you see a picture of me. Please remember that I was once young, had hair, and some muscle definition. My head looks like a smooth river rock with moss on it. Time changes everything. Oh well. The water was nice.

The Archipelago in a nutshell

The post is really a promotion of a tourist brochure. I like it so much I thought it should be available to my readers.....

To see it, click here. It's a downloadable tourist brochure (pdf) with some great information on the most significant Stockholm archipelago islands and some great photos. Doing the island hopping sounds like a wonderful week long vacation!

As you know from some previous posts, I've done a few day trips and it is very nice to go out on one of the ferry's, tank up with coffee about as thich as coal tar, down a sweet roll or two, get off at the island for the day, explore on foot, by bike, or kayak (or in the case of Finnhamn, a tiny motor boat), and then return on a late ferry where you can sip a glass of wine on the top deck in the open air. Striking up conversations with other archipelago visitors is also fun. A warm jacket is required on the top outside deck, even in the hottest part of summer. Well, the adjective hot doesn't really apply in Stockholm.

I will caution you about the photos in the brochure, though. They were taken on the best of days by really good photographers. I suspect they did some photoshopping, too. There are quite a few rainy days in Stockholm. Even still, I love going out into the archipelago.

Stratified Sky and Silhouettes

Stratified Sky and Silhouettes, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

I thought this was a cool photo so I'm blogging it. This is the Västerbron (west bridge) near my apartment. I cross it every day going to work. This photo was in the late evening around 10:30. I did enhance it a little bit with photshop, that's ok, right?

Vätternrundan Weekend - Motala Rocks

The Vätternrund is a prestigious bike ride of 300 kilometers (186 miles). It's part of the Swedish classic of four events, Nordic skiing, biking, running, and swimming. I did only the biking part June 19'th. I started at 8:32 PM and rode through the night. Eleven hours and 54 minutes later I crossed the finish - a very mediocre time. Next time I'll know how cold it can get ... and I'll take better rain gear. I lost an hour trying to warm-up. I found some plastic bags that bread was in at one of the rest stops which I used over my soaking and freezing feet.

Riding through the night worried me. I thought I'd get really sleepy or I'd crash because I wouldn't be able to see the rider in front of me (while drafting at a pretty fast pace). It turned out that I could have gone without lights, but lights were a help (and they are required). I also didn't get sleepy. Watching the three-quarter moon glimmer on Vättern and later the sun rising over it was absolutely stunning.

The rest of the weekend was spent sightseeing all around Motala. A Swedish friend and his wife and young son took me to Motala, I stayed with his parents and they treated me like a king. Great food! They cheered me at the start and at the finish. They drove me around showing me the special places in Motala. Watching the boats climb a hill though the lock system on the Göta canal was fascinating.

Motala is a picturesque town of about 20 thousand. The annual ride they've sponsored since sometime in the sixties now draws almost 17,000 riders. This does not include the shorter rides they sponsor on the previous two weekends. This is a big event for any town and it's especially big for a small town.

Where am I?

While my wife is out-of-town I decided to explore more of the Stockholm archipelago. Back in 2000, on my first job assignment here, I visited quite a few islands including Sandhamn and Möja. This past weekend I decided to go to Finnhamn to kayak. P., a buddy from work, was visiting on a business trip so he joined me. This is a story of us being lost and found and lost again and found again.

We wanted to rent kayaks but they were all rented out. (I did call twice to reserve the day before but the line was busy or so they said.....) So we rented a tiny motor boat with a 4 horsepower motor. After having a 20 minute ordeal of getting it cranked, off we go, hugging the shoreline of Finnhamn. By following the shoreline we reasoned there'd be no way we'd get lost. We also had a map but the coves and bays were hard to correlate with the map. Some places were difficult to see whether they were part of the island or maybe another island really close. We concluded, too, that the map simply left off some of the really small islands. That should have been a clue.

Two hours later we are tolally confused. Where was Paradise Bay, which we were told was very beautiful? Had we somehow missed it? Did we miss a channel somewhere? Finally, in desparation we went up to a house. The owner came out and met us at the dock. He was a bit incredulous when we said we were lost and trying to get back to Finnhamn where we started. He laughed and asked us to look behind us: "there's the Finnhamn dock hardly a half a kilometer away." We looked at the map in amazement. I thought we were on the opposite side of the island and P. thought we were still in another place. Wow.

So we decided to stay "close" and just park the boat on some of the small islands and explore them on foot. Nice and safe.

After several islands we decided it was time to return the boat. The person that rented the boat to us said there was 4 hours worth of gas. We checked the tank when we left and it was full. Apparently though, he was wrong. The motor went silent and we were sourrounded 360 degrees by islands that all looked the same. No distictive landmarks and all the houses we saw were the classic Swedish red with white trim. The only possible markers were two signs that had "8" on them and a red bouy and a green bouy.

So we called the phone number written on the life vests. I happened to mention there were two signs with the number "8" on them. "Ahh!" he says. "You're 200 meters from the rental dock. Do you have the oars?"

Yes, we had oars so we rowed in. Again, we were amazed that we could be so lost when trying not to be and yet be so close to where we wanted to be.

I think I need a Garmin.



You can find photos (more than you probably want to view in my Stockholm Archipelago collection. Within the collection, you'll find Finnhamn where I got lost. You'll also find Ornö where I spent three hours biking around. The other sets within the collection represent other trips or just the boat ride itself going out into the archipelago. Kayaking in Björkvik was nice, too.

I finally saw a Moose!

DSC_0090, originally uploaded by etilfors.

A fellow bicyclists showed me a riding trail through a forest yesterday morning (my commuter bike is almost a mountain bike so I can ride dirt roads and not-so-rough trails). Riding through the forest, we came upon a meadow and he spotted a young female moose. Despite being young, she was large!

One of my goals was to see a moose in the wild while in Sweden. That's done.

The photo is courtesy of a colleage. It's a moose that lives on the archipelago island where he has a cabin.

Still trying, paunch and all

Still trying, paunch and all, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

May 31 was a beautiful day for a bike ride. I did the "Destination Nynäshamn 130 kilometer ride in 4 hours and 15 minutes by drafting every rider I could. The fast riders finished in a little over 3 hours.

The ride route went out into rural Swedish farmland and forest. It was very beautiful.

Right after the start, another rider noted my Colorado jersey. It turns out we have a common friend in Boulder, Colorado. It is a small world.

Because people click on color

Because people click on color, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

J and I took a short day trip to the island of Fjäderholmarna. It's a 30minute ferry ride from Slussen. The ferry also stops at Nacka Strnd and it was nice to see the place I worked in 2000.

Fjäderholmna has a small museum of old, and I mean old, boats. I've been told that one of them is a reconstuction of a viking boat which was fould when construction crews found remants of 13 such boats while excavating for an underground garage. The authorities asked local craftsmen to build replica's using only the tools available during the Viking era.

There's also a glass blowing shop where you can buy grossly overpriced glass made on the spot.

We enjoyed some snacks in the sun while we were there. There's a fine restaurant on one end of the isand and also a whiskey distillery!

All in all, this is a great place to show first time visitors to Stockholm when there's not enough time to explore further into the archipelago.

Blues in Stockholm

I've found another little Stockholm jewel. The first was the Fashing jazz bar where world class jazz artists frequent. This jewel is called Stampen (Swedidh for stomping, or dancing). It's in Gamla Stan, the old historic part of town. J and I decided to have some fun on our 31'st anniversary and decided to try Stampen.


We first had a nice dinner at the Krypin which included reindeer. Then we strolled over to Stampen. It turns out we were an hour before the show and the place was mostly empty. We heard the show was going to begin at 10 PM so we sat at the table closest to the stage. This turned out to be the best seat in the place. Any closer and we'd have been on the stage.

While waiting we met a nice Swedish grandmother who lives in London but comes to visit her children every few months. She said she always visits Stampen when she's in Stockholm.

At 10 PM, the band comes out and says they'll mix up some Swedish and English ("for the tourists"). The front man, Bill Öhrström, was (and I guessing) in his mid-fifties but still had the energy of a young man and was amazing.......so into his music, it was as if a switch turned on when he gave the signal for the music to begin...stomping, jumping, singing, and playing the harmonica. His enthusiasm created fun for everyone.

After a few songs J and I happened to look behind us. The room was packed with standing room only. Yet we had comfortable seats right at the stage's edge. Wow.

Missing Colorado...

My friend Art sent me a photo he took on one of his Colorado bike rides this spring. This photo captures what I miss about Colorado - the stunning beauty and the great bicycling roads (and tolerant drivers). My Sweden rides aren't bad though (when the weather is nice). The Colorado rides can be at or above timberline as Art's was. Mine are at sea level. I ride along water decorated with white sails, Art is riding among 14,000 foot peaks decorated with white snow. Plus, there are hills in Colorado so the climbing muscles get a workout. I do miss those hills (and the descents!).


As you can see from this blog and my Flickr account, I often take my camera with me in Sweden. I haven't yet hooked up with a bicycling group so my rides are a little more casual - I can stop for a photo anytime. One of my standard rides includes a short ferry ride between two islands. That's where I see the sailboats most. The photo here shows a bunch of sailboats preparing for a race.


The photo to the right is farmland near Drottningholm . Farmland is also a familiar site on my rides: forest, farmland, and lakes. Also beautiful but I prefer the Rockies.

The last photo is taken on a bridge in the small town of Ekerö. I've taken many photos from this bridge of boats going underneath. It's a good way to glimpse "boat life" in Sweden. It is unbelievable how many people boat in Sweden! There's also a huge variety of boats. Check out my boats until you're sick of 'em collection in Flickr.

Third try - more blue, more silver

Third try - more blue, more silver, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

I often check the photos on the Flickr account to see how many times they have been viewed. Many show zero or once viewed. It helps to have good keywords so people doing searches can find them. I find that photos of dogs, cats, and girls in bathing suits can get a lot of hits, especially if the keywords are judiciously selected. Sometimes, I find myself a little too obsessed with seeing how many times photos are viewed.....I happen to like the original of the photo here a lot but it got very few hits. So I tried to make it more eye-catching by enhancing the colors - more blue in the sky and more silver in the water. It's still not as spectacular as the real life shot, which had the added advantage of the feel of the wind and the slight acrophobia of being a few hundred feet above the cold Mälaren water.

Kayaking on Enhanced Water

Kayaking on Enhanced Water, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

This is another colleague, Paul,from my home office who has also taken a two year assignment in Stockholm. Mother's Day weekend, my wife, Paul, and I went kayaking. In this photo I took some liberties with color enhancement - the water is not really that blue. We stayed near the shore just in case we capsized - hypothermia can render you helpless in 20 minutes or so.

From my photos you can tell that I've taken to kayaking. It's perfect blend of exercise and exploration. My old back sometimes needs a magic dose of ibuprofen afterwards, though....

Fountain in a roundabout

Fountain in a roundabout, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

What you do not see in this photo are the hordes of people taking in sun on the many benches between the fountains and the large building in the background. This area is what I consider the center of Stockholm, where the city hustle and bustle is maximum. You should also note that the red bus is run on ethanol to minimize polution. Swedes are very serious about being good environmentalists - I admire that about them.

Cold and wet...

Cold and wet..., originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

There are blooms all over Stockholm now. The plazas and shopping areas have giant cement pots/planters that are full of annuals and brought in on trucks and forklfts. Plus there are numerous flower gardens maintained by the city government. The cool wet spring and summers are perfect for some kinds of flowers. I suppose the long days don't hurt either. One thing I can confirm, the flowers are yet another reason to celebrate summer here because it was so so so dreary in the winter.

field of color

field of color, originally uploaded by dukematthew2000.

This photo, taken by one of my contacts in Flickr and posted here with his permission, shows how pretty some of the Swedish countryside is. This one is from Skåna in southern Sweden but it could easily have been on one of my bike rides out into the countryside around Stockholm. I think the yellow is dandelions but, hey, they are prettty when they are yellow and so many.

Dukematthew2000 has other good Sweden photos. Check out his Flickr collection sometime.

Weekend from Heaven

This weekend, Mother's Day weekend, was absolutely beautiful. When the sun comes out and the air is warm, the Swedes and everyone else come out to relax in the sun. Every open meadow, pier, or flat rock has somebody on it enjoying the rays from 93 million miles away.

The weekend was unusually busy, too. Most weekends in the winter were pretty quiet. This one has been busy from the time I left work Friday. First, we met a colleague at a restaurant. He'd brought us some things from the US and J had gotten he and his wife some things they missed from when they lived in Stockholm last year. We had Thai food at a great little Thai place on Kungsholmen called Mamadou's.

I took a 70 kilometer ride with a colleague, Mark, on Saturday morning. Mark showed me a new route, a place where he trained for a very long ski race called the Vassaloppet last winter. He'd train on roller skis on the bike paths in the dark wearing a headlamp.

I did not carry a camera on the bike ride and I really regret it. The cherry blossoms were maxed out and the fields were abloom with flowers (mostly dandelions but still pretty). I did have a small problem: a spoke broke on the rear wheel so even after I tried to true the wheel, it still rubbed the brake all the way back. I took it into a bike shop and we found several more spokes on the verge of breaking. It's all because my chain got wedged between the spokes and the rear cassette. Of course, the bike shop did not have the "competition" spokes I use and naturally they can't get to it for another two weeks. So this week I'll try to find another bike shop to do it quicker.

Bike ride done, I met another colleague, Paul, who's moved to Stockholm from Boulder and is still awaiting his family. J, Paul, and I went kayaking for two hours. We had smooth water, no wind, and Spring bursting everywhere.

J had been invited by one of the members of the American Women's Club had invited us on a 2.5 hour dinner cruise - an old diesel ferry that left the City Hall on lake Mälaren to Drottningholm palace, where the King and Queen of Sweden live, and back. The boat is the Prince Carl Philip. By an amazing coincidence, we had one of J's old High School acquaintances on board. It was very nice to discuss the old times and places. After the boat ride we went to the apartment of one of the members of the American Women's club. It was hospitable for them to invite us into their home; it was fun!



Sunday, Mother's Day, arrives and J and I take a nice little stroll to Långholmen, a small island just a quarter mile from the apartment. I took lots of pictures of the boats in the narrow channel between Södermalm and Långholmen: I call it "Boat Street." Then we went to Östermalm to shop for shoes. Okay, maybe not the whole weekend was fun, but most of it was. After that fatiguing experience, we came home and I decided to write this blog.

The bottom photo here is of the fountain in the center of the roundabout at Sergel Torg. In the winter it's a dry and dirty. In the nice months it's white water everywhere, as shown. Plus the city puts out flowers everywhere. They bring in the giant pots by truck (and forklift) which are full of flowers and they have folks come around weekly to water them. Then, in the fall, the trucks return to take them away.


As usual, there are more photos on my Flickr pages. Please leave comments! You can also click on the links in the text to get more.

Fun Weekend....

My street on a beautiful day, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

This weekend has been just great. Saturday I went on a long bike ride and met some members of the Fredrikshof bicycle club and got invited on some of their club rides. Then Saturday evening J and I went to see the new Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman movie called The Bucket List. Excellent movie. We're still talking about it.

Sunday we decided to have breakfast out so we rode our commuter bikes to Slussen and followed the bike path along the shore to the Grand Hotel. There we had an elegant breakfast with great views of the ferry boats. Then we strolled all around the Stureplan area and later we met some folks at the beautiful horticultural gardens and restaurant called Rosendahl to discuss the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. He's an amazing guy with an uncanny ability to integrate the wisdom from all religions, history, science, and psychology and articulate it in a very compelling way. I am sure certain religious figures will malign him but they would be demonstrating some of his points about ego if they did. Anyway, we sat outside in light jackets (it's still a bit chilly) and discussed some of his ideas. "Tolle" groups like these are all over the world. There's a web page to assist you in finding them. No, it is not a cult and it's not a new religion. It's a way of thinking about your spiritual self and Presence with that which is Sacred.

Church, Death, and Bicycling and I'm not Sambo

Salems Kyrka (Church), originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

J and I have had several encounters with the Swedish medical system now. In general, I'd have to say it's a good system (but neither better nor worse than the US system). Both systems have their strengths and weaknesses. One thing I definitely beleive is that one should not believe the statistics oft quoted in the media, by politicians, and by other agenda toting individuals.

For example, we often hear that there are "47 million un-insured Americans" which works out to about one out of every eight Americans. If you remove the 12 million illegal immigrants, we're down to 35 million. Remove those that are economically able to buy insurance but opt not to (for some strange reason) and you're down to around 32 million. Consider that 47% of those reporting "no insurance" are only temporarily without insurance (they'll be back on an insurance plan within a quarter), and we're down into the 20's. I suspect that if you consider that many opt to make payments on a big screen TV, a motorcycle, or some other toy rather than pay for insurance and the number take another big cut. I wonder whether the survey question would deem someone wanting breast implants but was not covered to be "un-insured." Remove the prostitues and drug dealers whose employeers typically do not provide insurance, we're donw to the real number of truely poor. Ahh, but I digress....

So here's the real reason for this blog post. Thursday April 13, I started feeling like I was contracting the flu around 3:00 in the afternoon. I told colleagues I needed to go home early, which I did do. Once home, I laid down on the sofa and did not get up till the next morning at 9:00. All through the night I had cold chills and occassional sweats. My joints and muscles ached. I was not nausous and had no cough ot sore throat.

I drank a cup of coffee, while still lying down. Shortly after I felt a sharp and intense chest pain just under the sternum. It lasted 20 minutes or so and really scared me. I had several more episodes. Finally, J convinced me to go to the doctor around 11:00. By then the pains had stopped but while walking to the doctor, I had another. I had visions of dying on a Stockholm street.

When I got to the doctor's office and stated I had chest pains, I expected "emergency" treatment since I'm an over-50 guy. Instead, I took a number just like everyone else and waited...about 30 minutes. Now I've been to the doctor twice before and J's been to the doctor a several times. Not once have they weighed us, taken our blood pressure, pulse, or temperature - all standard practice in Colorado. (This keeps costs down and they don't need to worry about zazillion dollar lawsuits.) This time they did take my blood pressure. The nurse wrote it down on a post-it note (although my file was up on the computer). Later I saw a doctor and he listened to my heart, took some blood (to detect a heart attack and other things), and had me do an EKG. Now my opinion about the lax attention was changing. I was beginning to get very thorough attention.

After all this, he said he could find nothing wrong with my heart and it was probably a viral thing compounded by my heightened exercise (because I'm training for a 180 mile bike ride in June). However, to be cautious, I needed to go to the hospital for observation. "Don't walk." he said. "Take a taxi or ride the bus." I would have been taken by ambulance in the US at a cost of another zazillion dollars. Anyway, once at the hospital, the quality of care takes another step up. I was admitted to the cardiac unit and the competence of the nurses and doctors was much higher. They took blood every 5 hours, more EKGs, an ultra-sound image of my heart, and more listening, thousands of questions, and finally an EKG under physical duress (a stationary bike). Negative. They can say with 99.999% confidence it is not my heart, not a heart attack, not angina, not pericardisis, not any arterial blockages. Whew! They agreed with the first doctor that it was due to a viral thing coupled with exercise.

Since then I learned that a friend came down with the flu the day I was admitted to the hospital. She was in such discomfort, she too, was admitted to the hospital. However, the thing most notable about her condition was that she was also having some intense chest pain. Only she's around 30 and so they didn't go the "possible heart attack" route.

The odd thing is that in Sweden and in the US there will be no way of correlating her condition with mine unless we saw the same doctor or unless there was an epidemic. We have the technology, I wish we'd use it. Maintaining privacy would be relatively easy to do.

One thing I made official at the hospital: I am not a sambo. I had to answer the question "Are you single, married, or sambo?" Sambo mean co-habitating with someone esle, presumably of the opposite sex. I think "sambo" os a contraction of some Swedish words, but don't recall what they were. Sambos are frequent in Sweden. However, this is not indactive of loose morale values. Indeed, I think the Swedes are very moral and compassionate and truely caring for others. They are not hypocritical (at least that I've seen). So sambo's are not causing the decline of morales or anything dire.....

I was told there's also "mambo" which means "still living with mom."

The photo above is from my bike ride last weekend, a true test of my heart. Riding past, I thought that the week before I might have been in a grave like one of those in the photo. Ahh, but I escaped. Oh, death also reminds me of a movie J and I just saw. The Bucket List starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Five stars in my book....

Excursion to Ireland

, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

J and I took a little excursion to Ireland last week. We drove a car down to Cashel in County Tipperary and stayed at one of the best bed and breakfast, The Hill House, we've even been in. It was built in 1710 and has quite a colorful history. The photo above, of the Rock of Cashel, is taken right out the front of the B&B.

We then drove down to County Cork and stayed at Clonakilty. From there we took short sightseeing tours along the rocky colorful coast, often on one lane roads where somebody had to find a wide place in the road when there was oncoming traffic - the occasional car or tractor.


The funny thing about driving in Ireland is that the passenger does the driving. To adjust for this little idiosyncracy, they all drive on the other side of the road, too.

Ireland is rich in scenic beauty. In fact the scenic beauty is so plentiful that sometimes they squander it away with litter and such...but not often. I have stored some pictures on flickr but the pictures, many of them, are hazy because it was hazy. We were lucky to not get rain. However, we did get howling winds, which the photos don't really show.

Never too old to soak the sun

Never too old to soak the sun, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

The Swedes are an outdoorsy people but when the sun comes out, they tend to enjoy it. This photo is of two elder Swedes enjoying the brief break in the rainy weather to sit on a bench. I somehow think it ironic that these two elders choose a church graveyard to soak up the sun.....

Longskating -- Långfärdskridskoåkning

One of my colleagues, Eje, shown in the lead position in the photo, is an avid long skater. The photo was taken by Gregor L. and is available in the original size here. Long skating is known as långfärdskridskoåkning in Swedish. I asked Eje about his hobby and here's some info he provided:

The poles are "ice probes", which are used to check the thickness of the ice, but also used as support when stepping over wider cracks in the ice, and as normal ski poles on bad ice in a tough headwind.

Drafting, like bicycle racers or race cars do, is very common in head wind, but as you see on the flag I am carrying the picture is taken in downwind, hence people spread out and don't draft.

In all normal cases the safest spot is the same track. That is, every skater follows the leader, skating over the same ice. Ice that is so weak that it might break has a "critical radius" of half a meter, hence it doesn't really matter. However, a group of skaters in high speed on thin ice pulls a big wave, to avoid that you would normally skate with some meters distance, but the same track.

Weak "black ice" sometimes experiences a wear effect, hence it could be advantageous
to skate your own track some meters away.

We carry maps, GPS, compass, the lot. Navigation is very similiar to what you do in a boat doing 10-15 knots, but like in orienteering it all becomes more difficult while doing physical exercise.

The speed and distance varies a lot depending on the skill of the skater and the ice of the day. Stronger skaters do day tours well over 100 km every year, when conditions are really favorable.

Groups I lead ofte do distance between 40 and 80 km in a day, the shorter in December/January due to thinner ice and shorter daylight. Speeds in excess of 30 kmph are common among the strongest skaters, I normally try to offer
my groups a very constant pace in the region of 17 (headwind) thru 23 (tailwind) kmph, which is normally very appreciated, rather than short sprints.

A lot of valuable skating time can easily be wasted probing thin ice, passing difficult cracks or walking on land between lakes. Hence I rather skate around all problems, again often very appreciated in groups I lead.

Ice is a very special material (the only having material lower density in solid form than as a liquid?), and I could talk forever about it...

You can see a 7 minute video of Longskating by clicking here. I got this video by searching YouTube - it is not of Eje.

Cold and Blue

Cold and Blue, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

I took a bike ride this weekend and rode in the snow. It was under freezing but a beautiful day otherwise.

I ride a mail train, mamma -- Bob Dylan

I ride a mail train, mamma -- Bob Dylan, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

We've had snow the past week. It's been the coldest of the entire winter season. In fact Easter day was the coldest since last summer.

Stockholm is deserted this Easter weekend because many Swedes have gone skiing or elsewhere. Most businesses in Stockholm are either closed or on shortened hours.

The photo above is of the train yard just outside the main (I think) post office receiving and distribution center. If you send me mail or a package, there's a good chance it goes through here.

This week...Like a Rolling Stone

Is it wrong to enhance?, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

This week J and I joined the American Women's Club (spouses were invited) to see the new movie "I'm Not There." It's the new movie about Bob Dylan, my all time favorite music person, with Kate Blanchett playing Dylan in much of the movie. The showing was at a small theater in Östermalm - a funky little place that oddly did not sell pop corn (so I ate a bag of chocolate balls like it was pop corn).

The movie was bizarre. I know a lot about Bob Dylan and know a lot of his songs (not just the hits). The movie pulled from events in his life and the dialog wove in phrases from his songs, interviews, etc. If you don't know much about Dylan the movie will be very weird. Many people in the theater walked out. If you do know a fair amount about Dylan, the movie will still be bizarre and weird but you'll see the creativeness of the director and want to watch it again: there is so much symbolism you miss a lot.

J and I met at the movie since I was coming from work. While waiting on me, she saw a man enter the theater with a large trench coat and two electrical wires coming up out of his collar into his hair. The wires were scotched taped to his neck. She called me wondering if she'd just seen a terrorist. Hmmmm. She saw the guard and told him. He basically reacted with a roll of the eyes and a hmmm. I suspect he thought "you Americans think everybody is a terrorist." Must have been some sort of medical device....




This week also provided a few cracks in the pewter sky so we could see some blue sky and white clouds. The photo above was taken from the Tranebergsbron (bron means bridge in Swedish) on one of those nice days. These boats are interesting to me and you can find multiple shots of them on my Flickr account.

Tree line

Tree line, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

One more from photo from the France trip, then I'll resume Sweden photos. This photo was taken on the approximate 1 mile hike from St. Benoit to the Loire river. There were graveled trails between the agricultural fields, often along irrigation ditches throughout th area. I generally think mountainous areas are the prettiest but the flat Loire vlley had a special beauty, too.

Quiet street in Saint Benoit

Quiet street in Saint Benoit, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

This photo really captures St. Benoit. It's quiet. It's old. Colorful shutters are common. Many folks use bikes like the one in the photo to run errands.