[Photos taken 12 – 30 September 2023. Posted online 06 June 2024. We still have high winds, but thankfully very little precipitation, at least here in the south…]
Finnur’s twisted foot finally healed enough that he could start walking around without support. Thus it was time to restart the build-a-garbage-bin-shed project, which had of course expanded into a resurface-the-old-deck-first project.
My left shoulder finally gave in, and I was diagnosed with muscles-on-strike in my lower left back, which was causing all sorts of unalignment. After the physical therapist had rolled his eyes at me enough times as I detailed my unwise gym escapades, I took a break from the group classes. They’re just too much fun, and I tend to do too much.
Complicating my recovery a bit was taking on screwing duties for the deck, but that was just too much fun not to do (also mostly using the other arm!). I also began attending weekly classes in (contract) bridge, met up with old friends, went out on walks/jogs, and marveled at the autumn colors as they began appearing.
Tuesday 12 September 2023
Here we go again, starting off where we’d left off before our trip to Finland.
Wednesday 13 September 2023
I made it out for a jog while Bjarki went to guitar class!
Oooh, some autumn colors creeping in!
Paths between trees are a balm for the soul, and soft to jog on. Highly recommended.
That evening I joined a few friends, and showed up for my first ever (contract) bridge class (the card-game)! I believe this is called “stepping outside your comfort zone”…
The book is written by one of the great Icelandic bridge players.
What you use for bidding, every player has one of these. I went mostly to see what all the fuss was about, and I can now totally understand how this game can grab minds. It’s part coded communications, part jigsaw puzzle, and just a dash of luck for added excitement.
The biggest surprise was that the games were all pre-dealt and from the book. They were numbered, the book had an optimal bid that we were meant to find out by ourselves, and my table seemingly successfully played three out of four.
Thursday 14 September 2023
My work-building, with the easily identifiable big red heart on top. My office was by then on the ground floor, under that third openable window from the left.
We’d scratched our head over how to place the fourth corner support for the shed. We ‘d discussed just screwing it to top of the deck, but in the end we decided to dig a hole, and connect it to the deck support beams on either side.
I was the hole-making-master, as usual.
Finnur hand-mixing cement.
With every passing day, we lost 3 minutes of sunlight in the evenings, so soon working late stopped really being an option. This is at 20:45.
Friday 15 September 2023
According to my physical therapist I had an impingement in my left shoulder, that had left everything swollen and angry. I was not supposed to lift upwards, so my lovely brother brought in the safety squat bar.
Animated gif of squatting with safety bar (wait for it to load). I still have a ways to go to improve my squatting technique… My old ankle breakage limits my ankle mobility somewhat, which is an extra challenge.
That’s a lot of two-s!
Saturday 16 September 2023
View from exactly where this blog post is being written, but the insides have been moved around a bit.
I had a curious situation going on with one of the cars, where the tire-tread was still deep enough to be legal, but the edges were so dull that the traction was pretty terrible. I decided to try CostCo for new tires, and it went pretty well.
Why mess with perfection? It’s been a while since I’ve seen AS/400 in the wild, but apparently it’s still going strong, all these decades later!
Take two at getting paint to match the wall in Emma’s room. It was as unsuccessful as the first attempt. I started mentally accept that I would have to repaint the entire wall…
Sunday 17 September 2023
(Hopefully) picked up a few universe karma points by helping friends move a family member.
Back at home, Bjarki had been roped into lending a helping hand.
Emma was in dire need of new winter-boots, so we went to the mall… Those are not winter-boots!
Also not winter-boots, but potential shiny-shoes. The shoe store runs somewhat regular discount days, so it’s often worth it to just go and find stuff that fits, and then wait a week or two until they go on sale…
Monday 18 September 2023
What says “16 year old male” more than grip strength gear?
Tuesday 19 September 2023
I decided to obey my physical therapist and lay off going to group classes for a bit, because I always ended up doing something stupid, and re-injuring my shoulder (it still remains fragile, but more pain-free than not). So instead I tried doing stuff on my own, calmly.
Animated gif of 6 x 15 kg “zombie front squats” (wait for it to load). It’s a version that requires less lower mobility, but you can still totally see my heels peeling off of the floor… The upside is that I’m managing to drop down lower than before, but I suspect my glutes are also cheating.
Thursday 21 September 2023
A new subscription fruit-box arrived! It felt like a very suburban thing to participate in.
Saw an interesting vanity plate, while stuck at a red light.
The menu system of electrical cars is somewhat convoluted and finding the really important settings can take a bit of work. Here I was trying to help somebody that had just bought a similar model to ours.
The deck had reached the poles!
As we were in touching distance to the corner poles, we were sad to discover that we hadn’t managed to space the deck so that the wood hit them correctly… oops. We took a day or so off to ponder what to do about it.
Friday 22 September 2023
A can suspended in plastic at work. There were fridges on every floor with a selection of free canned drinks.
The rainbow-street downtown. The tall “signature” church is behind me.
Meet-up with fellow students from the EE undergrad at the University of Iceland, back in the day.
The food was good!
The view from where the toilets were hidden on the 2nd floor.
Saturday 23 September 2023
The view from the bedroom at 21. So dark, so soon!?
Sunday 24 September 2023
A whole-wall-painting in progress. A helpful paint-store employee had explained to me that with the every-10-years-or-so change in chemical-composition of the paint and dyes, I would never get an exact match to the old paint.
The drying bane-of-my-existence wall.
After much pondering, we decided we’d have to re-screw the deck with a different spacing-plan. In most places I’d only screwed one of two screws in, so we had wiggle room to move the timber around. I had a lot of fun screwing in the rain…
Morale-boost in the form of banana-bread by the girls.
Tuesday 26 September 2023
Out for a jog during Emma’s piano class. I think this bridge is due to be replaced…
Pretty river is pretty.
Lovely forest is lovely.
Uhhh… what’s that doing there? Turns out a big road project was about to get underway, and that whole area by the big road was about to be dug to pieces.
Back at it…!
Wednesday 27 September 2023
Back out for a walk, while a kid had a music lesson. The autumn colors had arrived for real!
Somewhat eerie light.
Even more reds.
A cat guards his kingdom…
Thursday 28 September 2023
Physical therapy exercises are seemingly all about tiny weights used in nefarious ways.
Trying out the recumbent bike at the gym, where I wouldn’t need to move my arms. The “I’m biking through some area” videos can be a lot of fun, but I still did not fall in love with this type of biking.
My boss had a fun-budget to spend, so he invited his group to Fly-Over-Iceland, and then to pizza for lunch.
Which one do you recon is the troll?
Slight progress began to be made on the pile of stuff ejected from Emma’s room. I’ve found that I need significant time to charge up the keep-recycle-trash-decision-batteries before tackling piles like these.
Friday 29 September 2023
Slow but steady progress!
Meanwhile, our backyard got in on the autumn-color-action.
The house behind us also changed colors!
Saturday 30 September 2023
Just making sure the three bins would comfortably fit inside the shed-to-be!
About to visit some friends for brunch.
Returning a shelf I’d bought to put on Emma’s desk… It didn’t quite fit.
Hopped on over to Ikea to get another type, and some extra things.
Ikea’s Christmas stuff had arrived!!!
I’d been asked to photograph a wedding the following day, so the big camera came out to play. Here’s Anna doing some of her university homework, I think this was circuits?
Bjarki heading outside with a friend.
Finnur de-meat-ing the chicken.
Emma’s hair being about the same color as her door?
The Ikea-fication of the desk area nearly complete!
