Back issues

Most of this year I have had back problems. Especially the last three weeks. I got treatment by chiropractor and massage therapist, but there are few improvements. One week I had to stay at home three days, which hasn't happened in many years, regardless of the reason. My father came to visit one day and he bought groceries for me. It's problematic for me to stand up so I don't cook much. I have noticed that  microwave meals are not particularly tasty. 

At work there is a re-organization going on. My department will be joined with the bookbinders and digitization staff. We don't really have that much in common with them but that's not the biggest concern. All the bosses will have to re-apply to their jobs and others can also apply. The descriptions of the different departments left a lot to be asked for. They had completely forgotten my department, we were not even mentioned in the job ads. Of course we objected to this and the library boss came to a meeting, where he simply admitted to the mistake. We were asked to write down all the issues and describe what we do. I have spent weeks writing these documents and have now handed them in. I really hope this will help.

One Saturday in January my father and his girlfriend treated me to my Christmas present - a dinner at an inn.The food was incredible. I had shrimp toast, meat and veggies, and for dessert pannacotta with salt caramel. A truly great present.

I have had my third shot of vaccine. There were some side effects but they didn't last long. The restrictions in society are now removed. Covid is not seen as a threatening illness anymore. Some of my family members have had it and say it's like a bad cold.

Christmas and New Year's

This Christmas was unusual, since I stayed at home. My father and his girlfriend came to my place for Christmas Eve. We had a very tasty lunch with meatballs (made from moose meat), sausages, roasted ham, pickled herring and some Danish cheese. The cheese was a big hit, it's strong in flavour and smell (to the extent that you need to wrap it in several layers of plastic). At 3 PM it was time for the Disney cartoon special shown on TV every year. My father's girlfriend had made cake for dessert, a sponge cake filled with fig jam. I served it with whipped cream. Very nice. There were no presents given this day, since I had already handed them over. I gave my father a cushion I had made myself and a bag with deli groceries. His girlfriend got a toiletry bag I had made from the same fabric as the cushion. This was the first time in years that I brought out the sewing machine. I also made curtains for a friend and mended a pair of pants.

At work the number of requests slowed down at the end of the year but the returns increased. On the 23rd we were two people in the stacks and it was no problem making it. The present from work was a gift certificate, which I still haven't used. We managed to have a Christmas party in a restaurant (where we were the only guests). It went well, we just had dinner (great food) and then went home before 9 PM. 

New Year's Eve I drove to the summerhouse, where my mother and her boyfriend were staying. We had a tasty chicken meal with chocolate mousse for dessert. At midnight we went down to the beach to look at the fireworks. They were not so many this time, but still worth seeing. I spent about ten days at the summerhouse and did very little. My mother gave me a towel set and a bathroom mat as a delayed Christmas present. I gave her a pair of scissors. On a related subject, she gave me a much needed haircut also. We kept busy with a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces, image was views from Skåne. We visited a few people also but kept the distance. The fleamarkets were open on the Saturday so my mother and I went there but found very little.

The first working day this week was terrible. Many people are sick and the number of requests were higher than ever before. I was told there had been problems the previous week also. This Tuesday I had to get treatment by the chiropractor because I had taken it too easy at the summerhouse. My back crashes if I don't keep active. 

The 4th wave of the Corona virus is spreading fast in society. Many of my colleagues were sick over the holidays, and some are still absent. One colleague got really sick from the 3rd shot, so he is also at home. 

The only other thing worth mentioning is the fact that I finally got a designated parking space at my place. It's very practical because it's very close and I don't have to remember were I parked my car... You will be surprised to know how difficult it was sometimes to find it in the mornings. Apparently, grey color is very common in cars.

Excessively decorated tree

I did go shopping on Black Friday. It wasn't too crazy but still an ordeal. I got some small things at ridiculous prices, which was the idea. 

The first snowfall of the season was in the beginning of December and caused a great deal of problems here. I decided to stay at home one day when the forecast said heavy snowfall and severe traffic issues. Right now it is above zero degrees again and all the snow has melted. It's raining instead. Quite boring, in my opinion. 

At work we have started the Friday morning breakfasts again, which is nice. I'm back to full time also. Today we will have a Christmas party at a restaurant. It has been uncertain if we could have a party this year but the university said ok. My department is arranging it but we have kept it simple. The dreaded virus is spreading faster in society and I wait for the third shot of vaccine. I still don't know if I will be able to get to a Christmas celebration anywhere, we'll see what happens. My apartment is decorated in the seasonal style with an overloaded tree, candles and figurines. It looks great.

For many years I didn't think there would be any emigrants on my mother's mother's side of the family but about ten years ago I found out that my great grandmother's uncle left for America in 1879. His name was Andersson, so he was not easy to find in the US census records but he ended up in Minnesota, like so many others. I did the research but never contacted any relatives. Just recently, another relative here got interested and saw my research, and he decided to contact the living relatives in the US. He managed this thanks to social media and is now in contact with some of them.

Visit to Borås

I'm still working part-time but it can be debated what counts as work. If someone calls me after I'm supposed to have left the building, I answer. Also I answer e-mails. I have had to spend two afternoons in meetings that were important, even though I shouldn't. One afternoon I drove to Malmö City Library to look at a book collection they were discarding. I picked out about 12 books for my library. Driving in the center of Malmö in rush hour is not something I will be doing again soon. It was absolutely terrible. Despite these ordeals, I managed to visit three charity shops also to get more books. Soon after, someone contacted us to say she was clearing out her mother's house and asked if we wanted the books. I went there during my working hours this time and picked out a few, mainly on local history. 

At work I have shown parts of the reference collection to new staff members. Most of the time, I have desk duty or retrieve books. The weeks around Halloween were stressful with too few staff members. The Thursday just before, I got desk duty because a colleague was sick, but could only be there until 10 AM, then I had a meeting. After a quick lunch I drove home. Just minutes later my father came to pick me up and after 3 1/2 hours we arrived in Borås. I stayed with my mother and her boyfriend. Friday my mother and I went to a few second hand stores. In the evening my father, sister and her family came over for the usual taco dinner. Saturday morning I watched when my niece trained figure-skating and then went on to the second hand store where my mother volunteers. Bought more books. For lunch I went with my sister, niece and father to a farm in the countryside. We had a tasty tomato soup in a room decorated for Halloween. Lots of cobweb, pumpkins and skeletons. In the evening my father treated us all to dinner at a restaurant. The up-scale bacon burger was very good. After a very nice weekend my father drove me home on the Sunday. 

Another Sunday I visited my colleague Maria. She asked for help reorganizing her family history documents and photos. We sat in their screened-in porch and sorted through hundreds of items. I learned after a while what her relatives looked like, so I could sort the photos in piles. We also got the old folders exchanged for new ones and wrote explanations on the envelopes. One particular photo caught my eye. It was of the students at a house-keeping eduction in Lund 1911. Maria's great grandfather's sister Alma was on this photo and to my surprise so was my great grandfather's sister Olga! Incredible that there would be such a connection. Since Maria had duplicates of this photo, I received one. In all, a very nice visit. 

Even though I work too much, I have had time to update my genealogy files. I have added more generations on the family tree I keep at MyHeritage. Last week there was a new match showing up on my DNA-profile. It was a rather close match, a second cousin once removed. I have never heard of this woman before and when I reviewed her family tree I couldn't see that we are related. I actually did research on her tree to make sure she hadn't missed anything but it's correct. In my opinion there could only be one explanation here - her father cannot be the one she thinks it is. I hope that she has figured this out herself so that I don't have to be the one telling her...

Research and shopping

The first two weeks I worked full time and had lots to do. The second week I attended five meetings, for instance. After that, I have taken leave 50%. This is because I have too many vacation days left. Despite this, I'm in the building anyway to do personal projects. There is always some research to do. Last week I got a surprise visit from my grandmother's cousin and his wife. I hadn't seen them in over a decade but remembered that they have been at the library before. They have been to the hospital (next block over from here) quite a lot since the wife is undergoing treatment. We have met and talked several times the past two weeks and also had lunch together. On one occation the wife told me that her brother didn't know who his father was. These cases can be very complicated but this one was very easy. Her brother  happened to be noted in two different birthbooks; one contained the information and the other one did not. He was grateful to get the information but sadly his half-siblings are deceased by now. 

The weather is slightly colder and darker, just like normal. On weekends I have visited fleamarkets in all directions. Five of them were new to me. Bought some designer egg cups in one place, they didn't know the value of those so got them cheaply. One of the clothing chain stores where I could go shopping went out of business earlier this year but have restarted in a shopping center nearby. There is also a newly opened second hand store in the same area, and I have been there several times already. Many activities are starting again, since the restrictions are no longer in effect. A vast majority of the residents are fully vaccinated. This week there is a choral festival in Lund, and I listened to the Cathedral boys' choir yesterday at lunchtime.

Back to work

I had six weeks of vacation in total and there was not that much done. It's still difficult to travel abroad, so I remained for the most part in the summerhouse or its vicinity. One Saturday I was the guide at the cemetery tour at my birth town church. 16 people showed up, which was surprising since it was cloudy and had just rained. After two hours of talking most of the attendants walked over to the local school building. They had a reopening after renovating. For being such a small village they had lots on offer; coffee & cakes, popcorn, chocolate raffle, icecream, face painting, grilled hamburgers and games for the children. I talked to several people there and ended up getting research requests.

I have also done some short visits to other towns (with or without my mother), bought two tops at my cousin's clothing store, picked mushrooms, watched sports on TV, solved a large number of crossword puzzles, cleaned my car and visited most fleamarkets/second hand stores within a 40 minute drive. I have bought quite a few books for the library. At one place we bought very nice fabric, and my mother made me a pillow case and a kitchen curtain from some of it.

One Sunday we went to Ronneby in Blekinge province to visit one of my mother's friends. We toured the local fleamarket and then had a buffet style lunch. We also went for a walk in the pretty park where there used to be a spa facility.

Occasionally, I have spent some hours at work to do research, and I also went to the regional archive a couple of times to use their databases. The research for others is sent off now. 

The situation at work this Monday wasn't crazy but I was told I had been missed. Last week they had apparently been only two staff members in the stacks. That is definitely too few. I have so far been able to wade through the enormous amounts of messages but only taken action on some of them.

Visit to Hanö

The first Saturday on my vacation I went with my sister, her husband and their daughter to an island off the coast of Blekinge, Hanö. It's a small island with a dry and stony landscape, where the wind is always blowing. We went on a guided tour of the lighthouse at the top (about 60 meters above sea level). It was a nice excursion. On the way back to the summerhouse we stopped for a large icecream in Åhus.

Tuesday last week I had to go back to work temporarily. The language library delivered 160 boxes with journals to our storage, and I was there to open doors and give advice. This time they had hired a moving company to get the boxes in and then the faculty library staff did the shelving. It was raining very much so the floor got wet but apart from that it went well. I kept busy shelving other books and searching for books suitable for an upcoming exhibit. In the afternoon I returned to the summerhouse.

I was all alone the first week, since the others were in Borås. I spent my days driving around the area of northeastern and eastern Skåne, visiting lunch restaurants, cafes, icecream places, antique book shops, flea markets, thrift stores, consignment stores and malls. So far I have bought a nightgown, a blouse, a top, a cardigan, a scarf and many books for the library. One day I also went to my birth town cemetery to spray some of the gravestones to get rid of the moss and lichen. It has been very nice to be on vacation at this time, when most others are working. The number of tourists everywhere has gone down dramatically. 

This Tuesday I returned home to do laundry and because I had to hand my car in for the annual service. This evening I will return to the east coast again.