Black Friday

In the US, Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving which is the start of the Holiday retail season. Many refer to it as the busiest shopping day of the year, and while it may feel like it, total sales are usually higher on the Saturday before Christmas. Last year, a Walmart employee was trampled to death by a mob of eager shoppers, and two people were shot to death in an argument at a Toys R Us. Even though there were great sales, I usually avoided shopping on Black Friday when I was in the US because I don't like the crowds.

In Sweden, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, nor is there anything special about shopping the following day. This year I decided not to celebrate Thanksgiving either. I really love Thanksgving: both the food and the social aspect of it, but it's too much work to cook all that just for us. I even like the idea of taking a moment to be thankful. I've tried to incorporate thankfulness into my every day life.

Every year I help my daughter go through her toys and decide what she no longer wants. The stuff that's in good condition, is not battery operated, and does not require reading, gets wrapped up and given to the local newspaper's collection for underprivileged kids in Poland and Lithuania. Some of the other stuff is clearly ready for the trash. My problem is I don't have a good solution for the rest of it, and it's beginning to stack up.

This year it turned out that we were actually shopping on Black Friday. The company where my husband works is trying desperately to save money, so they've put restrictions on travel and overtime. Because of late phone meetings twice per week, my husband gets his 40 hours in Monday through Thursday, so for all of November, he's had Fridays off. (In December he can work all week because the holidays will keep the total hours down.) We still don't know if he'll be going to Japan in December or Miami in January. I'm really ready for some sun, so I hope that he'll still get sent to Miami and that I'll be able to tag along.

So anyhow, we did some shopping errands on Friday. I've been thinking of getting a new camera, so I went to the camera shop to compare. Sure, you can read about the features online, but it really comes down to how the thing feels in my hand. Some models are simply too big for my hand and heavy, and if I'm holding the thing for a 10 hour wedding, that makes all the difference. The sales girl was not particularly knowledgeable, but what really struck me was what a pathetic sales person she was. Sales is looked down upon in Sweden, thus not many people make the effort to be good at it. Pretty much the extent of her sales technique was to unlock the cabinet and hand me the cameras that I wanted to try. I quickly concluded that I wanted the Canon 50D which costs over $1000 just for the body. I practically begged the girl to give me any reason why I should buy the camera then or from her, but she just stared at me. I'm not in any rush to buy the camera, so I'll do some comparison shopping.

So far so good...

I finally got my flu shot on Monday afternoon. My assigned time was between 3 and 7 PM, so I showed up at 3. I'd heard a lot about vaccine shortages and delayed deliveries, so I figured my chances were better if I showed up earlier rather than later. There was a line to show my invitation and ID, then another line to get a number. Then I was told to wait in a hallway with about a hundred other people. Some of these people didn't look so healthy. Most of the people were talking to each other, so the noise level was high. There was a "now serving" number display on the wall, but it wasn't working. A nurse stood in the doorway and called out numbers, but it was pretty much impossible to hear unless you were right next to her. I was torn between not wanting to miss my number and wanting to stay where the there weren't so many people.

When she did call my number, then I got to go into the room, take off my coat and sweater, and wait in line again. Another nurse mumbled something about right or left. Was she asking if i was right or left handed, or if I wanted the shot in the right or left arm? She asked again, and I still couldn't understand. I was having a bad tinnitus day, so this was really frustrating. I chose to say that I'd prefer the shot in the left arm. A quick jab and I was done. Despite all the waiting in line, the whole process took only half an hour.

I'd heard a lot about side effects from the shot. Most of the people I'd heard about felt bad within 12 hours, others more like 24. It has now gone 48 hours, and I'm still doing fine, so I guess I got lucky. About an hour after the shot, I got tired and a slight bit dizzy, but that only lasted a couple of hours. The first night my upper arm where I got the shot was a little tender, but it didn't affect my sleep. By last night my arm was more sore, and both shoulders were stiff. It was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side. So I'm glad I got the shot. I hope it works, and I don't get the flu.

Treed in (like snowed in, but with a tree instead of snow)

A storm blew in last night. The wind was 25 mph (11 mps) and temperature 46 F (8 C). With wind chill than made for 37 F (3 C), but that doesn't take into account being pelted with rain and wet leaves. Overnight the storm was estimated to have gusted up to 56 mph (25 mps).

This morning we discovered that a tree had broken and fallen over our driveway. My husband was out of town on a business trip, otherwise he would have discovered this on his way out well before me. The first few calls I made weren't so promising, and I realized that I wasn't going to be able to get my daughter to school any time soon. I called the mom of one of her classmates who lives around here, and she came and drove my daughter to school. If I'd had that thought sooner, I might have caught her before she left to deliver her own daughter, but luckily she didn't mind making an extra trip.

Soon the message I left for our neighbor farmer was heard, and he sent one of his workers over with a tractor. It took only a couple of minutes for him to use the tractor to push the tree off the road. A little while after that, my internet connection started working again, so we're good.

Complaining about the weather

I've been trying hard not to complain about the weather all the time, despite the fact that the weather often gives me so much to complain about. November is the worst thing about living here. It's almost always cloudy, with fog, drizzle, rain, or sleet as variations. It's dark, and it gets darker every day. The temperature hovers a few degrees above freezing, not counting wind chill, and it's often windy. When it's very windy, it gets cold in the house (don't worry, we have a fireplace and space heaters.) Mud is everywhere and will remain until it freezes. We usually try to go visit California this time of year, but that won't be happening this year. So I've decided that I'm not going to let the weather get me down anymore. It is how it is, and being unhappy about it isn't going to make anything any better. (I can't, however, promise not to complain about the weather anymore, because I think that may be one of the national pastimes here, and I wouldn't want to be left out of the primary subject for small talk.)

Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago before the fall colors blew away.

Vaccination aggravation

My daughter finally got her H1N1 flu vaccination last week along with her classmates. She was the first to complain that she wasn't feeling well, and I have to wonder if the expectation of side effects was worse than the actual side effects. Less than an hour after her shot, the school called and asked me to pick her up. She said her arm hurt, and she had a headache, but other symptoms were harder to verbalize. One of her friends developed a fever a couple hours later, but she did not. The next day, she said she still wasn't feeling well, so I let her stay home. Besides a sore arm, she seemed fine. Her school reported that a lot of kids had stayed home that day. I hope that she at least doesn't get the flu.

We don't call it swineflu around here, since this is a major pork producing area, and we wouldn't want any negative associations. They want people to call it the new influenza. Whatever. New flu or old flu, I don't want it. Even knowing what my daughter went through with her vaccine, I would still get mine in a heartbeat, but I have to wait my turn.

The Swedish government ordered 18 million doses of vaccine, enough for two doses per inhabitant, all free of charge. Vaccinations were supposed to begin the first week in October, first with the risk groups, then children, young adults, etc in order by age. First the vaccine was delayed due to packaging issues. Then there were delivery issues. Some areas got the vaccine, but not others. Some of the areas had plenty and were sending it back because people didn't want it. In other places, a hockey team managed to get themselves considered a risk group in order to get vaccinated first.

The flu is spreading like wildfire through Sweden now. I guess one advantage of living so isolated is that I might have a chance of avoiding it long enough to get vaccinated. At the rate they're going, I fear flu season may be over by then. Yup, our taxes at work.

The wonders of the internet

Yesterday I received a comment on a post I made last month about my old violin. I was feeling sentimental as I wrote it, and thought that maybe there was a slight chance I'd eventually find the violin's current owner. I never imagined that the violin's original owner, for whom it was made by her uncle Lloyd, would write to me. But that's what happened. So for anyone who read my original post, you might want to look back there now, and read the comments. I wonder how she happened to find my post, and how she felt about that. I hope she writes again. I'm reminded of the movie, the Red Violin, and I'd love to know more of this violin's story.