Monthly Archive: July 2026

28
Jul
2026

ALWAYS THE GOOD THINGS

Last week of July, and it’s already starting to feel a littly autumny, mostly because it’s cooled down, there’s a lot of rain and cloud cover, and the leaves are all falling from the trees (probably due to the heat we had and the drought). I would like it to stay sunny a bit longer, please. Today is my mom’s birthday. She’s turned 85. I’m calling as soon as I get done writing this because that will, I hope, have given everyone enough time to get up and dressed and all. Though it IS 1:39 pm there, so it oughtn’t...

21
Jul
2026

SUMMER DAYZ

I am having ZERO luck luring the neighbor’s cat over to be petted. He’s a very friendly cat…from a distance of about 3 feet. Any closer and he turns and casually strolls away, just out of reach. It’s so frustrating. Pspspsp doesn’t work, neither does mrp, or mrrrp, or scritching at a cushion. I suspect if I could get down on my knees or sit on the ground he might be persuaded, but I can’t and sitting in a chair, or innocently leaving the screen door and porch doors open, hasn’t worked either. Curses, foiled again. Today was simply stunning....

19
Jul
2026

DO YOU SPEAK BOOMER?

Anders and I watched Project Hail Mary last night, which I had seen in the spring, but he hadn’t. When we were done, the bronze World Cup match was just coming up to the halftime mark, and England was leading France 4-0. 0! What the hell, France! We were both boggled. The last 4 teams in this year’s World Cup are the top 4-ranked teams in the world: Argentina, Spain, France, and England. There has been quite a bit of controversy about the fact that these 4 teams were seeded into the groups in such a way that they could...

18
Jul
2026

SOMEDAY TODAY WILL BE LONG AGO

I met Debbie and Camilla today down in Falsterbo at the Photo/Art Museum. We walked through 2 of the smaller exhibits (Kristian Schuller and Agneta Gynning) and then had lunch in their bistro cafe. We sat for a long time afterwards just talking. It hurts my heart to see how sad Debbie is, and nothing we can say or do really helps. Especially with something that will never stop making her sad, and never stop feeling unfair. I brought both of them bags of potatoes, carrots, and onions from our garden, which Anders dug up for me this morning, and...

13
Jul
2026

ONE DAY, THEN THE NEXT

It’s Karin’s birthday today. She’s turned 27. Isn’t that crazy? We spent yesterday celebrating her, and driving around southern Skåne. Anders and I picked her up with Martin and Theo at Malmö C at 11 pm and then we drove out to Kivik and had lunch at Bhures Fisk, which is a well-known seafood restaurant. It was sunny and quite warm but by the coast there was a rather chilly breeze blowing, and I actually wrapped myself up in a blanket as our table was outside and since we weren’t in the sun, I actually got cold. Karin didn’t want...

11
Jul
2026

3 THINGS

3 things I’m enjoying right now: Our own produce, including cherries, cucumbers, potatoes, and tiny baby carrots Sunny summery days that so far have not been too hot (except once) Re-reading old sci-fi and fantasy favorites 3 things I am thinking about rather too much of the time: Aging My weight Work, when I’m off The last 3 really good NEW books I read recently: The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor 3 recent addictions: Anton Berg’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt bars Chewy strawberry balls Fresh fruit 3 things on...

10
Jul
2026

SUMMER SERENITY

I don’t really mind working the summer months, though it’s not fun watching almost all of my colleagues take off for 3 or 4 weeks of vacation at the same time. Because I took 2 weeks early, the rest of my summer vacation doesn’t start until the beginning of August, though honestly, I’m considering changing to taking all the Fridays during the fall off again. Even if I take the 2 weeks in August, I can still probably take off most of the Fridays in the fall as I will still have 2 weeks, plus another week of rollovers that...

06
Jul
2026

PARTIES AND PROVISIONS

And suddenly half the year is gone. That means the light is receding as well now, and the days are growing shorter, but la la la la I can’t hear you. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter if it’s always cloudy anyway, and we’re back to cool temperatures and lots of rain. We actually got SO lucky this past Saturday for the 4th of July because the entire week had been forecast as rain, and as we got closer to the day (and the big party we were hosting for the AIC), we were watching the weather changing while biting our nails....