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.

Soon vacation

It has been a long and tiring summer in the stacks at the library. Mostly because of the hot weather. The summerworkers have been efficient and got many projects done. Today we had chocolate cake to see them off. 

My vacation starts now, at least in theory. Already on Tuesday I have to go to the storage to receive a shipment with journals from a faculty library. It's easier if I don't have anything else that day. 

The Olympic Games just ended. I didn't watch that much because of the time difference. Sweden got three gold medals; show jumping, pole vaulting and the discus. 

Most weekends I have visited at the summerhouse. The activity level has been rather low. We did get to a few fleamarkets and also a historic mill where they baked bread in a wood-fired oven. I spent last weekend at home, going on a road trip on the Saturday. I went to a total of seven fleamarkets, some of which I had never been to before. The results were meagre, only a few books for the library.

The weather is cooler now, thankfully. The ocean temperature is lower also, sadly.

Hot weather

Some days have been terribly hot here. More than 30 degrees. It has been just awful to work in the stacks. This is an old house and the heat stays in for a long time. The air conditioning leaves a lot to be asked for, definitely. I have been sitting at someone elses desk often, since the climate in my office is too hot. The janitors bought more fans but it really doesn't help. When we have desk duty, we have to leave the desk occasionally because it's difficult to breathe there. 

The summerworkers are busy putting old material into new boxes, shelving and also retrieving. The number of requests is low right now. The regular work takes perhaps a couple of hours each day. The rest of the time we engage in different projects. I have added extra dissertations to our collection and continued weeding the reference collection. Since there was time, I have also given three lectures. The summerworkers listened to the talks about biographical works, reference books and card catalogues. 

One Saturday when it rained I went to Ikea in Helsingborg. I bought a new desk, which I have wanted for a while. The box was very heavy and I could just about squeeze it into my little car. The material was solid wood so it was a challenge to assemble it also. It took most of the Sunday. It turned out great. 

The past two weekends I have visited at the summerhouse. My mother and I went on a flea market round, since both the ones in Åhus have reopened. There was a line at both places to get in. We bought quite a few useful things, like plastic boxes, new garden chairs and a rake. I bought books for the library. This past Sunday we went to the market in Kivik. It is one of very few markets held this year. We bought some small items.

Midsummer

It's now July and things have slowed down somewhat at the library. We do get the visitors who have personal projects and this is also the time when we hear some rather strange questions. Recently, one person contacted us and by the way it sounded, she wanted us to do the research for her. We said no. 

The book moving project at the storage ended after almost three weeks but they didn't get to finish it. We will have to continue another time. This summer we have three summer workers. There is a long list of chores for them to do, both at the main building and the storage. They also have desk duty every day. 

Some weeks the weather has been really hot, the highest temperature was 32 degrees. The worst part of it was over a weekend, so I sat at home and did very little. I have a sun deck chair on the balcony, which is nice. There are no flowers in the flower boxes this year. Instead I planted dill, basil, chives and brussels sprouts. I have already made use of most of it. 

I made the Midsummer weekend longer by taking two extra days off. My sister and niece joined me at the summerhouse the same day. We had a very good time. We went on an excursion to Österlen one day and my father came to visit also. It was not the warmest water in the ocean but we jumped in almost every day. My niece did not hesitate, she loves taking dips in any pool/lake/ocean/river/any body of water big enough. Midsummer eve was not really celebrated, since there was no maypole but we had lots of good food to eat. The herring was mandatory, of course. The rest of my sister's family came down to the summerhouse in time for the weekend. 

Last week I got the second shot of vaccine. This time the side effects were not as bad as the first time (which is unusual, I hear).

Storage work

I spent the last three weekends in May at the summerhouse alone. I took extra leave also, so it was long weekends. It was great! I did some excursions to the Österlen area (southeast Skåne) and around Kristianstad. In Tomelilla I bought some clothes. I went to a large number of second hand stores and got some small things. At the book flea market in Hässleholm I got 22 books for the library.

The first cemetery tour of the season took place 22 May. It was a very nice day. Two of the eldest residents in the parish attended and they had lots of information to share. After about two hours I was exhausted and tried to make people stop talking but success was limited. They continued talking out in the parking lot also.

For the past two weeks I have been almost all work hours at the storage. We hired three movers to continue on the project we had to interrupt in March. We need to move some science journals to make room for new issues. While there, I have done a lot of shelving. I have also retrieved dissertations for the Law library. It ended up being eight boxes and I also transported them.

My back crashed once again. This time I bent down to pick something up from the floor. That's all it took. After two visits to the chiropractor it is better.

We received an extra gift from our employer to thank us for enduring the situation here. It was a gift certificate. There was also some cake on a few occasions; once to see off the student workers and once to see off a colleague who got another job. 

The weather is really nice, about 22-24 degrees and mostly sunny. Too sunny for my taste but I work indoors at the storage where there is 18 degrees all the time so I'm not complaining yet. 

My mother and her boyfriend are back at the summerhouse for the season. Both of them are now fully vaccinated.

Ascension weekend

The month of May was pretty cold until about a week ago when the weather changed. It is now about 18-20 degrees and mostly sunny. This past weekend was long because of Ascension Day. I made it a little longer by taking the Wednesday off. I spent five days at the summerhouse alone. I went to several second hand stores, visited my cousin's clothing store and had a very large icecream in Åhus. Several purchases were made; books for the library and clothes for me. As a preparation for the upcoming cemetery tour, I went to the cemetery to spray some gravestones to remove the moss and lichen. Some stones were covered in moss and I had to use a scrape to get the worst of it off. The visit to the summerhouse also included watering the plants and mowing the lawn. In all, it was a very nice mini-vacation.

Monday I got my first shot of the Covid 19-vaccine. No side effects so far, only the arm is a little sore from the injection. Today I picked up my new glasses. This time I ordered three pairs; two normal and one pair that is to use in front of the computer. They all seem to function well.