Blowing A Fuse

   

“Sometimes, a series of temporary overages can weaken the fuse's filament, which means you could still blow a fuse without exceeding the amperage rating. Some fuses are designed to withstand a number of brief overloads before blowing, but others snap quickly after one sustained power surge. When you blow a fuse, it is important to unplug all of the appliances and devices from that circuit before installing a new fuse. The energy required to restart those devices may cause yet another blown fuse.”

I blew a fuse the other day, turning on the microwave in the kitchen. At first I thought it was a general power-cut but then I noticed the light was still on in another room. So I had to check the fuses. That, my friends, is easier said than done. WHY do they put the fuses UP THERE?! I have a step-ladder with a handle to hold on to, but I still don’t like getting up on top of it. And even doing so, I had a hard time seeing which fuse was broken, or what the little notes said. I’ve never had reason to look before because this is the first time it ever happened while I’ve lived in this flat.

The idea of using the camera, unfortunately, did not come to me until afterwards. (As a blogger, I’m rather ashamed to admit it. I don’t even have a picture of the blown fuse.) Of course the first fuse I took down turned out not to be broken, and having nothing to do with the kitchen. It just meant I had to go through the process of resetting the VCR and the DVD player afterwards…

Well, I got it sorted out eventually. Fortunately I did have some extra fuses. And I even knew where. I am that kind of person. (I.e. I usually do not wait until I’m completely out of something before I buy the next package – whatever it may be.)

However, I am NOT really fit for jobs of this kind – the kind that literally have to be done “over my head”. Fixing that electric fuse meant that my body kind of blew one instead. With loud complaints from my bad neck-shoulder-arm.

So I’ve had to cut down a bit on computer time (among other things). Shouldn’t really be doing this post either, I suppose... But I was checking the internet trying to figure out what made that fuse pop in the first place, because I really hadn’t been doing anything unusual at all in the kitchen. And then I found the text above: “Some fuses are designed to withstand a number of brief overloads before blowing…” I guess that might be it.

And then it struck me that the same is true about people, physically as well as mentally. Well, some of us, anyway. We might be able to deal with “a number of brief overloads”. But then… out of the blue, as it might seem… we reach a limit, and something snaps…

I doubt I’ll manage to completely unplug myself, but I’ll try to stay off overloading for a while.

An Ordinary Day

Above and below: Traffic pictures from the local newspaper.

Yesterday we had a snowstorm again. I did not have any plans to go out anyway, so I just stayed in, and wasn’t really much bothered. I was rather surprised to learn in the afternoon that it had been so bad that it brought a total stop to all the bus traffic in town! It did not look all that bad from my windows. I could see there was a strong wind, but the layer of snow was not very thick. But apparently the roads were really icy, and lots of road accidents were reported from all over the area. And in town, the busses were standing still, and people had to walk, or call for taxis, or stay where they were.

Today I had a lunch date planned with a friend. Doesn’t happen too often and I was looking forward to it. The storm has passed, and the snow was thawing again this morning. I was all set on going out for lunch. But it was not to be. My friend woke up with a cold and called to cancel. So I guess I’m in for a less exciting and much more ordinary lunch today: Soup from a can…

Better get used to it, I suppose. All of it: Snowstorms, colds, cancelled plans, and canned soup… It’s winter.

 

Season Moving Fast

'

I’m walking slowly
through a season moving fast
the leaves are falling

            ♥ 

Scroll down or click here for my previous post today:
Permission To Move Hell

About Haircuts and Years Gone By

 

Earlier this week, I had an appointment with my hairdresser. Mentioning this to a male friend, he kind of assumed that meant ’an afternoon out’. I replied that if you include the time it took me to get there and back, which means a bus ride one way and quite a long walk back afterwards, it could be called that. The actual “hairdressing”, though, is usually a pretty quick and straightforward thing with me. About half an hour if I go to my usual hairdresser. With my neck-and-shoulder problems, what I need is a hairdo that requires a minimum of daily effort to keep up; and which also does not suddenly turn into complete chaos after six weeks. Hence, I’ve given up pretending that my hair is really gorgeously thick, or naturally curly, or quite the same colour as twenty years ago.

I know I’ve not been too generous with pictures of myself on this blog (or any other blog, for that matter). I’m usually behind the camera, not in front of it. One sharp-eyed reader with good memory recalled in a comment to yesterday’s post (where you did get a glimpse of me) that in my previous blog header I had appeared to be brunette. And now - subtly implied - I was not…? I had to laugh… For one thing, the picture referred to was from the early 1990s. For another, it was taken against the light so really just a silhouette, not revealing details. That’s why I thought I could get away with it… (LOL)

For you who might have forgotten, or joined me since I last changed my header, here is the picture I used:

 
1992 – south coast of Sweden near Ystad

Some years back, I had a “Memory CD” made from a choice of photos taken with my old Olympus camera (including the one above). Here are a few more:

 
1984 (age 28), in the flat where I was living then.

1988, on the west coast

 
1992, I think… (town of Borås in the background)

  
1995 - 40th birthday, with friends

 
50th birthday (taken by friend with her camera)

 
2010 – up to date, in my study.

I’m still trying to persuade myself some days that that’s ash blond, not gray. (Cameras can’t be trusted, right?)

Oh, who am I kidding…

PS. Two posts today. Scroll down or click here for the other one.

Quotation of the Week (39/2010)

"Life is like a bag - it's empty and meaningless unless you fill it with something."

~Hans Alfredson~
(Swedish comedian, actor, writer and film director, born 1931.)

This quote is well-known in Sweden, but perhaps no where else (?) – until now! ;) The original context is a sketch performed by Alfredson in 1962, in which a church bell ringer comments on the new vicar of the parish, and quotes from his sermons about Life.

It popped up in my memory earlier today as I visited GB’s Eagleton Notes... And still lingered with me when I sat down again later to find a Quotation of the Week…

The picture is from one of my (I think maybe total of three or four?) park bench lunches this summer. The last time was actually Sunday a week ago. One of those rare warm and sunny days that sometimes come along just as you thought there would be no more days like that. (… or not until spring, anyway!)

Quotation of the Week (36/2010)

“I think there will always be a surplus of longing in man. That nothing will ever be quite enough.“

~Johannes Anyuru ~
(Swedish poet, born 1979)

 

“Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavor and human creations.”

~Albert Einstein (1879-1955)~

Photo: Small Tortoiseshell butterfly © DawnTreader 2010

Quotation of the Week (35/2010)

The Sun shines and warms and lights us, and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes, and silly people.

R.W. Emerson (1803-1882)

For the times they are a’changin’…*

From the patio outside the “assisted living” place my dad will be moving to – shortly. Exactly how shortly is still not 100% clear, which is causing us some trouble.

We have to wait for redecoration to be finished before any stuff can be moved in, and stuff has to be moved in before dad can be moved in… Well.

 

When all is in place, including dad, I expect it will be as good as can be, when life is no longer as good as it was, and help is needed with things you hoped you would never in your life need help with. Still a place to call your own (with some old things to hopefully remind you of who you are), right inside a bigger home (unit for 8), right inside an even bigger home (complex containing a whole range of similar units with different levels of care), right in the centre of a village you know better than any other place. Or at least used to.

Most likely I won’t be around in Blogland as much as usual over the next couple of weeks, because what little energy I have will be required elsewhere.

The weather is not being very helpful. It does not show on the picture above, but going out to the village by bus yesterday (which takes me just over an hour at best, and often an hour and a half, one way), I also had to fight storm winds and torrential rain showers.

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
* For the times they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan

Turn Around

Within walking distance from where I live there is a little park which in my own mind I call the Butterfly Park, since last summer I got to see and take photos of several different kinds of butterflies there. (I’ve only been living in this part of town two years, and it was only last summer that I started bringing my camera on almost every walk.)

Earlier this summer I complained (I think it was in my other blog) that there didn’t seem to be any butterflies around this year. But now they’re back, and I’m very happy to see them.

Yesterday it was raining most of the day, and I was having a rather miserable day from ache-and-pains point of view. (Actually, to be honest - from almost any point of view.) 

But in the afternoon I managed a short walk in between showers, and then I found this beautiful peacock butterfly in the park, performing a little “dance” for me – slowly turning around on top of a white cone flower, with its wings spread out (probably to dry!).

~♥~♥~♥~

Putting the pictures all in a row for this post, and writing as far as the paragraph above, the hymn “Lord of the Dance” came to mind for me.

I was reminded that I’ve always been curious about the origin of this song. So now I looked it up.

It has sometimes been said that this is an old traditional hymn, but it was written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1967. However, he adapted the tune from an older American Shaker dance song "Simple Gifts"; and the lyrics follow the idea of a traditional English carol, "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" which tells the gospel story in the first person voice of Jesus of Nazareth.

Before I started this research, I had already put down Turn Around as the title of my post.

When I looked up the Simple Gifts lyrics (which I can’t remember ever hearing), this is what I found:

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free,
’Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
’Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain’d
To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Does that fit my turning butterfly, or what?!

"Simple Gifts" was written by Elder Joseph at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine in 1848.

Below is a YouTube video of Lord of the Dance performed by the Dubliners; and the lyrics to that.

Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he

I danced in the morning when the world was young
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame
They ripped, they stripped, they hung me high
Left me there on the hill to die

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body, they thought I was gone
But I am the dance, and the dance goes on

They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that will never, never die
I'll live in you if you'll live in me
I am the Lord of the dance, said he

Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he

Quotation of the Week (33/2010)

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

In Wonderland

 
A labyrinth

In Sweden we have a popular Summer radio program which has been broadcasted daily between mid June and mid August for over 50 years (since 1959); each day with a new host, who gets to talk about just about anything - usually based on their own life - and pick the music themselves. Not unlike blogging, actually…The hosts can be more or less well known authors, journalists, politicians, scientists, actors, athletes, businessmen - whatever.

This summer I have not been listening very frequently, but the other day I happened to listen to a culture journalist and critic, I forget her name but she was of Finnish-Swedish origin and had studied at Oxford University, England.

A hole

A theme she kept getting back to was Alice in Wonderland; following the white rabbit (intuition), and falling from one world into another, where the perspective is completely different and other rules apply than the ones you've previously been used to. She compared this not only to her time at Oxford, but for example also to her teenage experience of a church camp, or (a bit later in life) taking part in a game of live action role-playing.

All part of learning to look at things from different perspectives.

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in the movie I’ve not seen yet

She also touched on the aspect - and in my own mind this was one of the things I kept pondering about afterwards - how falling down the rabbit-hole can also be used as an image of falling into depression; suddenly finding yourself in a world where nothing makes sense and everything gets twisted out of proportion. The first thing that happens to Alice in Wonderland is that she finds herself shrinking one minute, and taking on giant proportions the next; while (or perhaps because?) all the normal points of reference are suddenly just not there any more.

  

"Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!"
– Alice in Wonderland Ch 2 -

I can’t recall when I first read the book, if in my childhood or later on in my teens. Either way, I’m left with a vague impression that back then I just found it a lot of nonsense. Re-reading it now as a grown-up, in English, I find it making more “sense” with every reading… Hm!

---

Scroll down to the previous post for this week’s
Booking-Through-Thursday Question.

Behind The Iron(y)

 

It all depends on how you look at it, really…

If you’re wondering, dear reader, what on earth inspired this post, the answer lies in a challenge.

---

A Hazy Shade of Winter – listen to it at YouTube

Time, time, time, see what's become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the salvation army band
Down by the riverside, it's bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned
Carry your cup in your hand
And look around, leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That's an easy thing to say, but if your hope should pass away
It's simply pretend
That you can build them again
Look around, the grass is high
The fields are ripe, it's the springtime of my life

Ahhh, seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me
At any convenient time
Funny how my memory slips while looking over manuscripts
Of unpublished rhyme
Drinking my vodka and lime

Look around, leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Look around, leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground...

Quotation of the Week (31/2010)

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

~ R.W. Emerson ~

Resurrection

Now where are all these people headed on a warm summer evening?

A graveyard chapel? You must be kidding?
Doesn’t really look like a funeral…

Actually it’s rather the opposite of a funeral.
More like a Resurrection!

Guests of honour arriving from the past: A 19th century district judge with his wife, greeted by a woman journalist from their own time; she too brought back from the dead to do one more scoop.

Must be an odd feeling looking at one’s own headstone…

So, what’s going on? It is a live history lesson: a guided tour around a 19th century graveyard. Represented by actors, some old prominent citizens are brought back to life for a short visit, to be interviewed and tell us a bit about their own lives, and the history of the town.

The resurrected old car they arrived in. (No use asking me for car details; I don’t have them.)

Another guy risen from his grave – local artist and art teacher John Hedaeus (1872-1967). I managed to find only two of his paintings on the internet. He also did some paintings in churches.

Left: Watercolour by John Hedaeus
Right: Oil painting by John Hedaeus

 
Another (less well known) artist, son of the journalist who was our guide for the evening, also turned up to “surprise his mum”, and escort her back to their own grave:

 

Actually three more people were “raised from the dead” on this Tuesday evening, but I think I’ll let these photos be enough for one blog post.

However, with a theme like this I can’t resist also “doing a Ginny” at the end (referring to my friend of the blog Let Your Light Shine), and finish off with a Bible quote:

“… we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.”
2 Corinthians 4:14