[Photos taken 20 – 31 May 2024, posted online 11 September 2024. Bjarki sprained his shoulder at parkour practice yesterday, we spent a lovely few hours at the ER to get a diagnosis.]
In a fit of activity, I dismantled the old veggie-box lids Finnur assembled a few years ago, that had sadly collapsed. Anna wanted a more accessible design, so we we went about designing, and building version two of the veggie-box lids.
In that spirit, I spent the last week at Controlant burning through a lot of energy, to finish what I’d decided I should finish. This was mostly fueled by eating ridiculous amounts of 85% dark chocolate.
After my last day, energy was still running high, one could even say there was a bit of a disconnect between body and mind, which promptly translated into lifting too much at the gym, spraining my back. In retrospect it was good that I essentially got sent into mandatory rest, I might have crashed and burned even worse if I hadn’t. Oh, and there was yet another eruption, and we secured a new home for mom!
Second Whit Sunday (Public Holiday) – Monday 20 May 2024
With the newly built lidded-veggie-box-top frame.
The day began with the disassembly of the old frames. There were two of them, both with a wooden base, and plastic-piping to hold up the acrylic fabric. One of them is visible lying on the deck up on the left.
Anna adding cardboard to the quite stinky compost now easily available from the city, as we’ve started sorting bio-leftovers into a separate bin.
The wood from the old frames. All of this got used to build one top.
The screws from the old lids.
Some math was used to optimize the usage of wood.
Anna’s cake in a mug to re-energize.
Yours truly using machinery, and safety equipment.
I decided this was a now or never situation, so I went out again after dinner, to staple the acrylic into the frame.
All done! Only three more to go…
This summer was wet and rather miserable, so neither the strawberries, nor the leeks, really ever got anywhere.
One of my long-term goals is to prettify the area around these boxes, it’s a bit of a (huge) mess.
Putting all the equipment back inside, since I didn’t know when I’d continue on this journey.
Tuesday 21 May 2024
More green grass appearing!! (The greenery on the near side of the fence is fake-turf…)
My company partnered with a “self-care” company, allowing each employee to book a certain number of appointments free of charge. I decided to get as many deep-tissue massages as I could fit in. It was lovely! (The table had a jar of coconut oil, a model of a shoulder, candles, lighter, and a speaker.)
Wondering how waterproof the acrylic is… rain seemed to make it through in the end.
I have a couple of items from Nike that just work for my body. Sadly, anything that works for me seems to get quickly discontinued, if my fruitless internet searches are anything to go by!
There was an ex-California-ladies sewing club that evening. We began by taking a refreshing walk. It was quite chilly!
A path into an old lava field.
Marveling at the view.
Some people have managed to travel more than others!
Wednesday 22 May 2024
I gave a little off-boarding-talk to another team at work, and they had home-made cookies, and candy. Oh my!
Anna started her summer employment in a health-related QA department. First time she gets a badge at work!
Finnur was still in California, so dinner was a lazy sushi affair. Due to the building getting knocked down, this place was about to close!
Most convenient fast food in the area!
We stopped by at Costco on the way back. Marveling at the kinds of things they pull in.
Friday 24 May 2024
There was a loud windy storm that night, and when we woke up, we discovered that the veggie-box lid had blown open. Tsk, tsk, no good!
Short term solution, before heading to my last day at Controlant.
Let’s go do this.
I got a farewell breakfast buffet. Awww!
Post-lunch, a trio of cakes also appeared. Awwww!
My replacement named this elephant Hrefna, in my honor.
The weather kept being wild, with wind and rain…
By 3 in the afternoon, the new windows had begun leaking… It felt apt, somehow.
I spent the day chatting to everybody, and nothing got done. It wasn’t until people had gone that I managed to hammer together the last of the things I wanted to get done, and left the office at a little past 7 in the evening.
Goodbye Controlant! Three months later, the company would shed a further 150 people. I’m glad I left before that culling, the first one was hard enough.
Saturday 25 May 2024
Dropping Bjarki off at competitive programming practice.
First day of unemployment! (I had a whole month of summer vacation left, so I was technically on vacation, but who cares?)
First order of business: Unload the to-do list for the first floor and garden, from my brain onto some other form. I have all the lists, I’m just not great about actually doing any of the tasks.
First adulting task: Cleaning the stinky garbage bins.
Still had a lot of nervous energy, so I went out on the e-bike.
We have such nice paths in our “backyard”.
Ended up on some iffy-path, which led me to a horse-only-path, oops! Strava doesn’t have path-quality/type info!
On more familiar territory.
A favorite path of mine.
Maria’s cave.
The Strava recording.
Breaking all the fajitas rules for dinner.
Sunday 26 May 2024
My “exciting” to-do list for the day.
The weather was amazing!
This would have been a great day to sit outside, except …
… for this queen wasp that kept circling, looking for a place to make a home.
Instead, I vacuumed. So sad.
Tidy living room, check!
Realizing there wouldn’t be more frosty days, I took the studded tires off of the gray bike.
Goodbye! For now…
Ugh, something was bent very much out of shape. This was beyond my fixing abilities, so to the shop it went.
Emma and myself arriving for dinner with friends.
Leaving a few hours later… Finally the cat okey-d attention.
Awww…!
Monday 27 May 2024
We looked at another apartment for mom, a strong contender. Its storage layout made us laugh out loud, though. Whaaaaat? The upside to these weird side spaces is that they don’t count towards the total floor area.
I had nothing to do so I went to the gym early.
I was following a program, sort of, but somehow I decided it would be “a good idea” to follow 3 x 120 kg deadlifts with another 3 of 130 kg. The first two of those went ok-ish, on the third I lost my stable core and strained my back. Boohoo.
So, my technical learnings from this back-strain was a) 1 x 130 kg is ok after 3 x120 kg, 2) I’m “ripping” the bar too much up with my upper back, as opposed to lifting it, 3) I’m not actually using my butt-muscles much at all!!?!
Anna evicting a stray spider, as I lay on the sofa, feeling sorry for myself, knowing I’d be sore for a while.
Tuesday 28 May 2024
Summer suddenly in full swing!
Our daffodils had also gotten out of the ground!
Not much to do with a sprained back but read books…
Wednesday 29 May 2024
Around noon that day, yet another eruption had begun out on the Reykjanes peninsula. This time around I innocently asked if we might perhaps invite ourselves over for dinner with our friends that live close by (Finnur was still in CA), and they said yes! This is us leaving the edge of Hafnarfjörður town (after I took a pain-killer), and driving toward-ish the active volcano.
We were a bit late getting out of the door, so we didn’t stop on the way, I just took a few photos as we whizzed past on the main road (Bjarki was driving). It was pretty impressive!
Our saint of a hostess!
A little over two hours later we said our goodbyes, and drove to a nearby lookout point, where I set up my tripod and camera for a bit.
The volcanic activity had died down a whole lot, although there was still a bit of red visible from a distance.
A bit of bubbling.
Feeling somewhat underwhelmed, I took a cute photo of the kiddos instead!
Thursday 30 May 2024
Finnur arrived from CA earlier that morning, and made a triumphant return to the kitchen, as head-chef, much to everyone’s relief! I played sous-chef on the BBQ.
Friday 31 May 2024
The apartment we’d liked, with the crazy storage, was suddenly ours! We got keys and took mom over to what would be her new place.
Big change coming!
One of the winning factors was this service center that is two houses away, where older city-dwellers can come over and buy lunch and access other social services. This one is very fancy, being quite new! Big relief all around, and thus endeth May!
