There aren’t many pics of the girls in this post. Sorry. But they’re hardly ever around, and you can’t take pictures of people who aren’t there.
There’s always a period of overlap between dumping all the pics off my phone and getting them sorted, uploaded, and then arranged into a blog post. Sometimes it’s just a day or two, sometimes a week.
At the end of the last post (Vacation Part 2), I said “I’m proud of myself for getting these two vacation blog posts done so quickly. I’ll reward myself by waiting until after Trine’s birthday for the next one—and look forward to posting so many happy, healthy pictures from the next six weeks that it’ll be as nauseating as Turkish food.”
You may recall that by the Sunday after our return from Turkey, Trine was hospitalized with salmonella and covid and both Maddie and I had also contracted covid—and we were pretty sure I had salmonella also.
I’m happy to report that we got over all that. But we’ve got a few pictures from that period.
First, a picture Molli’s Lucas text us to announce that while up at his mother’s summer house, Molli had lost at. . . well, hell, I forget what children’s game that is: Uno? Ludo? (I assume his sending us the picture and message was the settling of a bet.)
Remember these?
That’s Maddie’s test. Here’s mine: proof that, as it turns out, I wasn’t immune to covid all these years after all.
And although she was in rough shape, alternately sweating out her fever or shivering from its effects, Trine was keen to let us all know that it was really a lovely hospital and, all things considered, her room offered all the modern conveniences (included a digital meal menu).
I had to spend my first week back on the job working from home, and then on my first day back in the office my bike slid out from under me as I took a turn on a slick surface, and next thing I knew I was sprawled on the ground with my airbag helmet inflated around my head. And a hell of a bruise in my gut: I’m thinking a handle must have slammed powerfully enough into me during the fall to cause internal bleeding. (Nothing too serious, just a big welt that took its time going down, and about a week of tenderness in the area.)
Annoyance: Hövding, the Swedish company that makes those cyclist airbags, went bankrupt earlier this year, so insurance couldn’t replace it (as they normally do). I’m back to an old school helmet.
The Olympics wrapped up with the Danish men’s handball team winning the gold in an absolute blowout win (39-26) over Germany. It was Mikkel Hansen’s last game: handball’s Michael Jordan or Tom Brady is finally hanging up his trademark headband.
It’s not often Denmark gets to humiliate (ydmyger) Germany, so I thought I should add a copy of my old employer’s headline into the permanent record.
Mandatory Didi romp shot from Hareskov.
The glorious summer biking commute is on the brink of losing its charm: the sun was barely up for my first couple of weeks back.
Aunt Deb send me a scan of this pic of Bub and Sylvia Lewy (Nana’s parents) on a canal tour boat in 1965.
It’s such a joy riding through Hareskov now that the repaving is done. It’s smooth as silk!
MADDIE’S FIRST DAY OF GYMNASIUM!
Pics from Mormor (Vibeke). . . I can’t remember where they were, but as with the pics the girls sometimes send us, I figure there’s significance in there somewhere, and this blog is for the girls so it’s nice for them to have pictures of their grandparents out and about with their friends in locations they may recognize even if I don’t.
August 20, and the sun is harder to find on my morning commute. . .
One weekend in late August I brought Didi down to visit Maddie at Shelter 214:
She just sat and stared at Maddie while I drank my (excellently poured) coffee.
Maddie found a moment to come out and reward her for her loyalty.
. . .But then I couldn’t get Didi to leave!
Seriously, I’ve never had to forcibly drag her away from anything like I did that day. She just didn’t want to leave poor Maddie back in that scary building!
August 27:
I attended a business thing at the Dansk Industri center, and afterwards there was tapas and cocktails up on the roof. This is the building that abuts Tivoli, and is across the street from the Rådhus, so the views were fantastic.
On the morning of August 29, I came across three fawns—or maybe two fawns and their mom—down on Søndersøvej. I took about thirty pictures, while riding, and this zoomed-in shot is probably the best of the bunch:
I had actually come across them on Søndergårdsvej, just before the turn into Søndersøvej, but in running away from me they chose the same direction I was riding. It was kind of glorious riding along behind them, like I was part of the herd. Until they veered off into someone’s yard: I didn’t think it would be appropriate to follow them there.
Another morning commute shot: I just loved the way the sun was bubbling up over this house:
Ditto here: same morning, I think, and just a little further down the road.
Our friends Geoff and Austin are coming out to visit in October, and since a work function took me by the little mermaid I thought I’d get a picture of her to show them and say, “If you really want to see here, there she is. . . or you could just take this picture and say you took it.”
Something nice happened the Friday before Trine’s birthday: summer made a late surge!
That Sunday I drove up to Strömstad Spa for the annual conference I hadn’t been to since before covid. Drove with Mads in his girlfriend’s car that lacked air conditioning. Not ordinarily a problem in Denmark or Sweden in September, but man, we were sweltering the whole ride up.
We stopped for lunch at some kind of Swedish diner chain.
I include that image only so I can explain that the schnitzel dish I ordered said it came with a salad. The salad was literally, no exaggeration: one half of a small leafe of romaine lettuce, on top of which were arranged one thin slice of tomato, one thin slice of cucumber, and one ring of one thin slice of onion.
Talk about shrinkflation!
Anyway, my room at Dialogkonferansen was lovely:
And Strömstad was also lovely (as always):
There’s always a costume party, and this year’s these theme was “come as your favorite decade.” My colleague and I went with the 1960s, and I think my costume was actually the scariest disguise I’ve ever worn.
These are really me:
I actually took a selfie back in my room at the end of the night because it was so damn good to see my own face and hair again!
The Strömstad Ferry!
(It got very windy on the penultimate day of the conference and the ferry was closed. Mads and I had to walk around that little bay, which added half an hour to the walk from the spa hotel to the one at which we were staying.)
More pictures of pretty Strömstad because it always makes me kind of homesick for New England:
Oh! And while we were up there, suddenly autumn arrived. Hardcore.
We drove up in shorts and arrived drenched in sweat. On the trip down, we were in sweaters and cold.
The morning of Trine’s birthday:
The next day I had to wear gloves, and it was dark all the way into the office.
But autumn has its rewards:
I know I mentioned Trine’s birthday, but it was a busy Thursday evening so we just had a little family dinner to mark the occassion: the real festivities were held on Sunday and therefore won’t appear until the next post.
And that’s it.
We’ve got a very busy fall ahead of us, all four of us. Molli started a new job the last week in August. Maddie’s started gymnasium. We’ve contracted with some landscapers to “do” the back yard and the alley behind the house (work doesn’t begin until mid-October, but there’s a lot of prep we’ll have to deal with beforehand). We’ve also got a busy social calendar. . . so it’s nice to know that Trine and I will have a couple of days in early November to catch our breath down in Portugal.
Now it’s just the silly stuff. There were too many good bits of netsam this month to choose just one.
I love literal humor.
And I also love trompe-l’oeil pictures:
I have no doubt there will soon be AI services that will take any image you want and convert it into something like that. Which means they’ll need a name. Squinties?
“Look, babe, I made a squinty out of one of our wedding pictures!”
Could be a thing. You never know.
Literalism and careless typing collide:
And of course, visual puns are always a hit with this family. . .
See you in October!
