warm weather

We've been enjoying unusually nice weather here for the last week. In fact, I think it's gone a whole week without rain. It's been clear and sunny with highs between 24-27 C (75-80 F). While this would hardly be worth a mention in Southern California, it's really exciting in this part of the world. This is the type of summer weather that Swedes long for all year. At first I didn't get it, but now I'm beginning to understand how people just want to drop everything and bask in the sun at the beach, lake, or pool. A lot of people seem to think that it's simply to hot to do anything else, but for me, I'm finally in my comfort zone.

Today I took my daughter to the town pool after work/daycare as I have several times in the past week. She really loves playing in the water, and she usually finds some friends at the pool too. She's gotten over her aversion to putting her face in the water, but for some reason she refuses to jump in from the side of the pool (this from a girl who is normally fearless). I usually slather myself in sunscreen and sit in the shade with a book. At this time of year, most Swedes are tanned like George Hamilton since they've been wearing bikinis since May regardless of the weather, but I'm still blindingly white (still a noticeable improvement over the fish-belly white that I turn in the winter). That's okay though, I'm used to not fitting in (in so many ways), and I've learned to be comfortable in my own (rather pale) skin.

Anyway, today I was forced out of my spot in the shade by a group of boys smoking. My guess is that they were about 12-13 years old. And they did this right out in public without anyone even batting an eye at them. I went and asked the personnel at the pool if this was okay, and they said it was. As long as the kids weren't smoking in the changing rooms, they weren't supposed to do anything about it. Isn't there a minimum age for smoking? Obviously some kids do smoke this young, but I would at least expect them to be sneaky about it.