It’s the last day of July and the first day of my summer vacation. I have 4 full weeks stretching out in front of me. There are already several things booked on the calendar (next week is pretty full) and my to-do list is quite long, though at least half of it is actually for Anders to do. 😀
Last year I took 3 weeks off in August but I worked an entire week’s worth of it anyway, as there was so much to do. I’m going to try very hard NOT to do that again. I learned my lesson, believe me, because by mid-September I was feeling super burned out. We have started the rotation schedule again since mid-July but because everyone is gone on vacation, no one has been bothering to go into the office. I could have, but it was just easier to continue working from home the last couple of weeks before I was off. I expect we’ll be doing rotation until the end of the year, and then, depending on the pandemic and circumstances and vaccinations, we’ll finally be able to work in the office full-time…if we wish. I think one thing the pandemic has showed us is that we are just as effective, if not more so, working from home. I personally hope to be able to work a couple of days from home every week. We’ll see.
Anders still has two weeks of his vacation left. He is finishing the porch, putting the glass windows in the two extension sides that he built last summer. We bought blinds for the porch as well, and once I have washed all the windows and those have been put up, the porch will be officially done. We aren’t traveling anywhere, so it’s another staycation for us this year. We are going on Monday up to Osby and ÖstanÃ¥ with Anders’ sister and her husband to meet up with their cousin Marie. ÖstanÃ¥ is where Anders’ mom was from. We have a book about the village and its history. There’s a class photo with her included: first grade 1935. She’s on the far left of the photo, standing in the back row, wearing a flowered and checked dress with a huge white Peter Pan collar, a pixie bob of white-blond hair and a very truculent look on her face. She’s in the class photo of the sixth and seventh graders of 1941 on the opposite page as well, but it’s harder to tell it’s her. She looks like she was half the size of most of her classmates!
On Tuesday we’re taking my car in early to get the windshield repaired (or replaced) since it has a bunch of dings in the glass that we need to get fixed if we’re going to sell it, which we’re considering doing, as we are planning on buying an electric car as soon as we’ve arranged the finances. On Wednesday, we’ve got a bank appointment in the morning (to arrange the aforementioned finances, plus talk about better savings alternatives, and set up contingency plans for finances should something happen to one of us) and in the afternoon I’m going to Emily for a massage. And on Thursday, Camilla and I are taking Debbie out for the day for her birthday expedition that was put on hold when Camilla went into the hospital. We’re going to WallÃ¥kra for lunch and a ceramics exhibition (with boutique) and then to Tomatens Hus to buy tomatoes and possibly other fresh farm produce and then to Landskrona to the Art Museum. If we have time, there are couple of other boutiques we plan to stop at, but we’ll see how the day plays out.
Next week is my birthday (eeek). I will officially be a year older than my dad was when he died, and for some reason, making it past that is more emotionally fraught than I had expected. The day after my birthday I finally have an appointment to get my IUD removed…which is two years overdue, due to several reasons. I thought the healthcare clinic would send me an appointment time after the 5 years were up, which they didn’t, and then I kept forgetting, and then the pandemic hit, and I wasn’t going to deal with anything medical that wasn’t an emergency, but it’s been weighing on me for quite awhile now. I am (understandly) nervous about it, because of what happened last time.
Anyway, it’s past time to be making dinner so I need to go figure out what we’re doing, and see if Anders wants to cook a HelloFresh meal or what. We are a couple of episodes in to a new show on Netflix that is really good: Lupin. It’s in French and subtitled in Swedish, so I really have to pay attention. Only 11 episodes, which is a bummer, but it looks like a 3rd season is planned.