Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
3:14 PM
Not much happened this week, a couple of high pressure meetings at work and then hours of sanding therapy to relieve the stress. As my 8-yr old mind remembers the story, my father made me sand that pinewood derby car for hours and hours until it was smooth as glass. Since it was pine, I'm surprised we really got it as smooth as it was. So, now, I sit in the TV room upstairs with my knife and some sandpaper, rubbing out the rough spots of my day. I'm sure Kathy's not thrilled with the bits of trash, dust and debris around the house from my projects, but she's been extremely patient with me on it. In response to Dad's question, basically, I rough out the form with a band saw that I bought at the Swedish Harbor Freight tools, smooth out the big bumps on a table-mounted belt sander, and then do the rest by hand.
This weekend is the famous market in Jokkmokk, north of here. I don't think we'll make it this year. There are projects to do, at home and at the home of friends. Then church, some UFC fights and the Superbowl.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
7:05 AM
It's another cold week, snow and wind. Kathy's off to go park the car in the public underground garage again to let the ice melt off again. Spent most of the weekend in the house, trying to stay warm. That gave me more time to play with my next project.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
6:27 PM
Some friends and consultants from the U.S. and U.K. were in town for a project this week and we experienced some of the worst weather I've seen since we got here. On Tuesday, the winds kicked up, blowing about 30mph for the next 2 days, the snows came and the temperature has dropped from about 0°C to -20°C. We have snow drifts about 2 to 3 ft high all over town. The size of the storm was not necessarily new, I've seen worse going over Donner Summit. But this was the first since we've been here and definitely the longest lasting I've seen.
Work goes on ... and on ... sometimes you wonder if you're making any progress. I've been labelled troublemaker at work. We have to generate monthly reports, documenting our progress on our various projects. A couple of other people in the group were sent back their reports with the comment, "please revise your report and make it look like Matt's". I don't know the Swedish translation for "kiss-ass" but the sentiment is the same.
Then last weekend, it was our family's turn to shovel snow at the church. Daniel and I spent an hour before church, shoveling the parking lot and breaking the packed snow off of the sidewalk. The same co-worker came to church, saw the clean sidewalk and pulled me aside to let me know that he wouldn't stand for the type of behavior. He wasn't going to be shown-up at work AND church! It was all in good fun.
I've attached a photo of my next project. A consultant friend has offered to trade me some exotic woods for a knife. So, this time, I'm going to try and make two identical handles of the same pattern of the last one I made. The woods are lemon wood and a dark mahogany, which I hope will be a good combination. The blades are a little smaller with a little bit of a drop point.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
9:19 PM
By the way, I received a birthday present from my parents this last week ... I really liked the Harley t-shirt from Reno. There's a guy at the office that is a huge Moto Guzzi (Italian motorcycle company) fan and he get's very wound up when I tell him that Harley's are better. He also happens to be a VP in the company, so it feels sooooooooo good when I can get him fired up, simply by wearing a t-shirt.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
7:03 PM
Ok, this is the last set of photos of the knife, I promise. It's been a very busy week, between regular work load, people coming up for job interviews, and speaking with lots of vendors. Even placed a call for Mr. Daniel Blattman at Michelin in South Carolina to discuss tire, but he was too busy to take my call.
The knife is nearly done, it feels like the more I work on it, the more I screw up the finish, so I decided to just end it. A lot of lessons learned, let's see if the next one is any nicer.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
6:14 PM
Though the photos don't show it, I finally changed the date on Kylie's camera. This is the scene about 11:00am outside of Pajala, about an hour inside the Arctic circle. I wasn't exactly the most observant today, couldn't sleep last night, finally catching some zzz's around 3:30am. Then had to get up at 5:00am to drive a consultant up North.
I had to pull over at the marker/rest area demarking the Artic Circle for a cat nap on the way home. I had to laugh because even though it was -4°C outside, I wasn't cold. Even this morning, I managed to walk out of the house without a coat, it was so warm that I didn't notice.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
11:32 PM
Ignoring the dates on Kylie's camera, this is my winter project. Apparently it's a standard rite of passage for teenage boys in Sweden to make their own knife, kinda of like making a metal trunk handle in Mr. Cannon's metal shop class.
I've seen some really nice knives here. I found a couple of books and websites that have tutorials on how to build one ... and being an engineer, I just assumed that I could make one by following the tutorials.
I got some nice blades from the Wirtalas for my birthday and ordered some wood from Nordell Knives in Ljusdal (where Grandma Dee is from and Dad, Dan and I found the shop this summer).
The wood is alder root with ebony ends, a strip of black leather is on the front end. Because I don't have my drill press or other tools that are in storage in Houston, I used a Dremel to drill the space for the shank of the blade. Predictably, the hole deviated and as I carved the handle, I cut into the epoxy pocket. To cover the mistake, I added the piece of reindeer antler. This is from the antler I found while hunting Ripa with the Wirtalas this fall. I tried some rudimentary scrimshaw but that looks like it's going to need more practice.
It's not a bad try but will have to come up with something better for the next one.
I took a long lunch break today to go find some ultra fine sandpaper for the knife. I parked the car and walked some 200 yards from the parking lot to the shop. In less that 10 min, my ears were burning and aching from the -28°C air ... I think I got a bit of frostbite burn on one ear. It doesn't look bad now but when I got back to the office, it didn't look good.
I made the mistake of looking at the weather in Houston for next week, +15°C ... how sad. Even more sad, I was happy to see that it will be +1°C next week when Adam comes up here for a job interview; would hate for him to think it's always this cold!
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
6:16 PM
It was -23°C this afternoon as I left the office (about -9°F for all you non-metric folks), cold enough that the doors to the car were frozen shut. Who was the first man to decide to live in this weather??? Probably the first guy who thought it was ok to soak fish in lye and then eat it.
I decided to work on the blog again this year. Part of the reason I stopped was that we ran out of exciting things to do ... ok, at least all the NEW sights and sounds within a couple hours' drive of the house. There's still plenty to do and we keep busy, it just doesn't sound as fun to write about.
Work is still busy but it finally looks like some help may be on the way. A couple of friends are on their way up this month to interview for the jobs and hopefully their ready to move up here. If not, I don't know who else to ask! Any mining engineers looking to move to Sweden???
Kids are still on their holiday break, they go back on Monday.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
8:14 PM
I guess the kids got sick of waiting for summer to come. Note that they are both barefoot, in shortsleeves and there are still snowdrifts in the background.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
8:01 PM
I hear it's just like all other hostels, but it would be worth the experience, right Mom? This is an old jet they converted into a hostel next to the Arlanda Stockholm airport, next to the SAS Radisson.
Come on, a romantic night with Jim & Nancy in a hostel ... Sarah, you can pick up a stewardess costume for Mom!
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
8:17 PM
We tried this one out last night. I bought it at the Swedish version of Harbor Freight Tools. Not the best quality piece of equipment I've ever bought, but it did the job. The maiden voyage was with entrecote roast (rib eye!) with two different pork roasts. Turned out great.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
5:11 PM
This week was a major milestone for us. I have a job offer in Grand Junction, CO and it was pretty attractive. But Kathy and I discussed it and we just felt like we had unfinished business here in Sweden. Don't know if it's because we had originally planned to stay two years (I hate it when I do things like that!), could be that we enjoy some of the financial benefits that we're receiving in this job, could be that we like the travel that we've been able to do since being here, or it could be that we've made some good friends. Don't know exactly, but neither of us could really decide. So, I asked the kids to think about it this week and let me know if they wanted to go or stay. As we drove home today from church, it became apparent that they had all reached a consensus, let's stay. So, for at least the next year and while work will continue to let me stay here, our address will remain: Luleå. And just to remind myself that winters are not my favorite time of year, here are a couple of photos of the house today, 29Mar2009!
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
6:35 AM
Ok, I'll admit ... I'll watch just about anything with Christopher Walken in it, including "Balls of Fury", easily the dumbest movie I've seen in 5 years. However, this one is weird on so many levels, can't get enough!
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
4:37 PM
Most of Luleå and the surrounding villages are situated on spits of land between fingers of the Gulf of Bothnia, part of the Baltic Sea. As such, sometimes, getting from one side of town to another requires a long drive to the next bridge and then backtracking. One of our friends, the Näslunds live in Boden, about 25 minutes north of our house. Since they are on the same side of the shore as us, it's easy to get there. However, if you want to go from their house and on into town, you have to drive farther up the road, cross the bridge and then come back on the other side. There is a ferry that runs back and forth during the summer and during the winter, there's an ice road.
While it's not the craziest thing we've ever done, it does remind you how different things can be up here. I forgot to report about this one, I think. Last January, when we made the trip to Kiruna to see the ice hotel, we considered driving farther north over to Norway. As we left town, it started snowing heavily and a sign announced the highway was closed at the border. So, I pulled over into a snow-covered parking lot to figure out what to do. ´Dan and Kylie had revealed how afraid they were of driving on an ice road and how unsafe they thought it was. When we pulled into the vast parking lot, stopped, and turned off the engine, they both took their headphones from their ears and their eyes from the video iPods to ask where we were. Not thinking, I said that we had accidentally driven on to a frozen lake bed and we were trying to figure out how to get off safely. Suddenly, they sat up and looked worried. I rolled down the windows and said, "can't you hear the ice creaking beneath us?" Kathy jumped right in when they showed their disbelief, "can't you see the sign over there that shows snowmobiles aren't allowed here? That means it's unsafe to walk on!" The sign is really to tell the snowmobiles not to go bombing throught the parking lot, but not because they're in danger of falling through imaginery ice! About this time, the kids started to panic and wondered outloud what we were going to do. I suggested that we should stop moving, I'd get out and walk back to town and go get help. When I opened the door to go, I think both of the kids were about to cry! So, I said that we would go very slowly and try to leave... they shouldn't move suddenly and not keep very still in the back. As we drove out, the snow creaks and squeaks under the tires very loudly, so I told the kids it was the ice cracking below us. They bought it without question until we got out on the highway and we told them what had really happened. I thought the funniest part was that they didn't even notice the streetlamps in the middle of the parking lot, the whole reason they were able to see the snowmobile signs in the first place! I guess this is one of the joys of parenthood, having a couple of rubes to play simple practical jokes on.
This last photo is actually taken from the rest stop on E4, Grundvik, I think...but not sure.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
4:21 PM
This is a series of commercials by a Swedish telecom, Telenor. They all deal with this imaginary Swede learning to do business in other countries, learning all of the subtle nuances in each location. The American one, "When they ask how you are doing, they don't really want to know how you are doing" and learning all about "casual Fridays" made me laugh the first time I saw it, even though I still don't understand everything I hear. The Japanese one appeals to the kids because of the fart noises. And the Middle East one, well... "do you have Facebook?" is very timely.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
3:50 PM
It has been quite a while since I sat down and added to the blog. Part of it has been that our lives have been pretty quiet of late with very little that would be of interest to our friends and family. We stay busy but not much to report about. The other part is that I'm generally a lazy person and anything that requires maintenance and upkeep, well.... I find reasons not to do it! Just like everything else in my life, I'll commit to being better about it, at least until I slack off again.
We have a new American missionary and he took note of the strange sounds coming out of the other church members last Sunday. Since he's nearly finished with his mission, I doubt it's the first time he's ever heard them, but suspect it's more that he's never heard it used so much. This roughly the equivalent of "dude" in American-speak. There's another variant that sounds like "yah" but said with a short inhale instead of an exhale. It's my understanding that this is much more prevalent in the North than in other areas of Sweden.
There's even a beer commercial which shows the multi-meaning of the sound ... just like the Budlight "dude" commecial a couple of years ago.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
7:12 PM
Kylie sang in an Interfaith Choir at the Kulture House on Sunday. I've got to hand it to her, Saturday was a 4-hour practice session and then on Sunday, we dropped her off at 3:30pm for the practice while the show didn't start until 6:00pm. The show went well and Kylie seemed to have a lot of fun. We all had to smile a little when they broke into a couple of Southern Baptist hymns, "I'm not going to hide this light of mine..." and others. It wasn't the singing that made us laugh, it was the accompanying dances that made us smile.
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
7:07 PM
This last Sunday, Dan was ordained as a Teacher in Luleå. He already wants to know what his hometeaching assignment is, how disappointed will he be when he finds out his companion is his dad?
Posted by
Guano & Associates
|
Posted in
|
Posted on
6:52 PM
Tonight after work, we drove over to the ski hill down the street. Dan and Kylie rented skis a couple of weeks ago for the whole season and Kathy and I rented just for the night. Total cost for 4 lift tickets and two ski package rentals was less than 500SEK. That's less than $100! Even Kathy got up the hill, she hasnt' skied since our honeymoon, and we all know how well that episode turned out. Daniel takes to skiing like a natural. Kylie, well, she has an interesting style. It's not that she can't ski, she does very well. It's more than she doesn't like to stop...she just points her skis downhill and keeps going. Even when she gets to the bottom of the hill, she just keeps going, through the deep snow, into the storage yards. At one point, I saw her laying on her back, in the deep snow, with her skis pointed to the sky. And, the old fat guy only fell once and that was while trying to stop and help Kathy.
We skied for 2 hours and then took the 5 min drive home. Before leaving, we bought the family season pass, 1500SEK... less than $200!!!!!
I've finally found something that's cheaper in Sweden than it is in the U.S.
