Uh oh Shaggy

One of the interesting things we have noticed here in Norway is the crossing guard apparel. It didn't become obvious until our third or fourth evening here when 3 or 4 dayglow apparitions appeared on the street. It was like being in a Scooby Doo cartoon. Seems that when people walk in the evening or even early morning they don the day glow vests to warn traffic that they are in/near the road. Makes sense. We also came across this when we encountered groups of school children. I guess they want to keep the kids safe and make it easy to spot them if they wander off. Imagine the reaction you wold get in an American school if you went in one day with a crate of day glow vests, handed them out to everyone and told them they would be wearing them while at school or walking to and from school. Imagine also...why we don't.

Spot the outsider. Click the picture to get a closer look.

Did I mention the chickens?

Is it possible that in only 3 months I have run out of material about Norway? Nah....I think it is probably just my brain that is low on material. We only have 2 weeks left here in Norway and then it's on to the Netherlands. It is probably a little too early to write an "I'll miss Norway" post, but here is a preview of the next home on our list.

I think if you look carefully you can see a windmill in the distance. Should be interesting. If you recall from a much earlier post....chickens will factor into this exchange. Chickens.

Larry-isms

I've been holding on to these for quite some time and now I'm hoping that by bringing them to this forum I can collect more.

I've been referring to Larry'isms with my family for many years and when I use one I tell them they just got "Larry'ed". Just so you understand and so that I don't get sued. I don't think my Dad originated all of these phrases or invented them, or owns them. Think that will keep me covered? These are words and phrases that he used when I was growing up to accomplish various things. I'll give you a couple and my thoughts on them and you can pass some back to me. I promise I'll credit you in the book when I publish it.

1. - "Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?" - now I know my dad didn't originate this one, but he had like 3 more answers to the question rather than the "Not if it's in cans" one. I lied. I don't have many thoughts on this one except that it would make me roll my eyes each time I heard it. Ok...here's one of the Larry answers. "Not if it is as green as you are"...followed by some fake laugh.

2. - "I didn't ask you if it was yours" - this particular Larry-ism is actually a tool every parent uses after saying that they would never use it when they became parents. My dad just used it with particular effectiveness. I remember being stumped for a response when he fired this one at me. It usually went something like this: "Jon....pick up those toys" - "But Dad...those toys aren't mine." (whiny voice) "I didn't ask you if they were yours, now pick them up" - Game over.

I think I have more....but I really only recall them when I have some childhood flash of them being used.

Quiet day in Norway....had to, it rhymes.

Someone pointed out to me that we always seem to be describing one adventure or another and wondered what exciting thing we were doing this weekend. Well....this weekend was probably one of the most exciting ever. Hold on to your seats, gather the kids around the screen....you're never gonna believe it. We played cards, drank some coffee and went for a bike ride. I know what you are thinking. Where do they get the energy? I have to tell you I don't really know. As I was shuffling the cards yesterday I was wondering the same thing myself.

We actually sat out in the neighborhood circle with a nice hot cup of coffee and played cribbage while Sam played with the local children. We talked with a couple of neighbors and had a nice day with some very nice weather. Starting Monday we only have 2 full weeks here, so the stories are going to get progressively boring. Look for exciting titles like: "Washed the car!" or "Did a bunch of laundry". Fun huh? Here are a couple of pictures. I'll save my bike riding experience for another time. Think lots of hills and mind the extra 45 pounds on the back of my bike....I'm

talking about Sam you smart alecks.

100th entry

Being a data geek I'm obligated to post this information. This blog has been operational for 115 days and this is the 101st post.

There have been 2,012 visits from 6 continents and suprisingly about 30 countries.

The most telling statisitic is the visits from the States. These are the visits I attribute to people checking in on my dad. There have been visits from 32 of the 50 states.

After typing all of the above I'm obligated to tell you a story about why those numbers are probably spread far and wide.

Throughout my life, everywhere we have travelled, my dad always ran into someone he knows. One time he was visiting me in Florida and staying in a place my in-laws had on Pine Island (click it to see where). We drove to a teeny tiny location at the tip of the island called Bokeelia. As we are preparing to enter a small restaurant I hear the usual, "Hey Larry!". Never fails and it never surprises him. 99% of the time it is someone from Deere and Co. that he used to work with. This has happened to him / us more times than I can count. Vegas, St. Louis, Chicago, Florida, I forget where else, but it is pretty cool. I'll include my mom in this observation also because the above happens for a reason. My mom and dad are good people who have taken time in their lives to get to know people, make them their friends, and have memorable interactions with them. I won't be surprised when someone taps me on the shoulder during this trip and asks me, "Aren't you Larry and Wilma's kid?" I will proudly tell them that I am.

Testing, testing...

Tests for yesterday went fine. No results, but sometimes getting through the tests are the hardest. Mom says she thinks Dad was nervous or worked up about the PET scan, but he won't tell you that. This upcoming Tuesday is chemo again. Funny how things that happen every two weeks have such different feelings. It seems like payday takes forever to get there, but chemo seems like it is always happening. I can't wait until it is over and I'm not even going through it. It's possible that the doctor will have some news from the tests Tuesday. Prayers....start praying.

Lillehammer - part X

Above, the streets of Lillehammer. We arrived Saturday afternoon and wandered around for about 30 minutes before they basically closed the entire town. All the signs said closing at 5:00, but they all closed at 4:00. We think they decided to get a jump on Daylight savings time for their own benefit. It was weird though.

I took this picture out of the train. You can probably see the dirt on the window. The entire train trip was filled with these sights. Crystal clear streams that you could see the bottom of even from the train. Very cool train bridges and tunnels.

Ummm....this is just me. I'm kinda of a big fan of the Olympics and couldn't pass up the chance to get a photo with "The Olympic torch guy". I'm sure there is a way cooler name for him.

Get a room

I thought I would put this up here as an excuse to get a couple of pictures in. After I took the picture shown here I found out an interesting fact about this lighthouse. Actually I found it out when I tried to open the door. Jen yelled at me as I tried the door on this place (I think it is a guy thing)and told me, "Stop that....what if someone is staying there?" It occured to me that she might have mentioned that this lighthouse was some kind of funky hotel room. Check out the link to see the rest of "the room". The web site this links to is pretty cool all by itself.

Molja Lighthouse

What's a henway?

I've admitted that I struggle with the language. Norwegian, French, Spanish, keep listing them, I don't speak any of them. I feel bad about this, but not as bad as I feel about not understanding one of the main languages here is Europe. President Carter tried to get me to speak it, but the metric system in America went the way of his presidency. I probably get the weirdest looks when I try to speak measurements. 85 degrees? I watch peoples eyes go wide when I tell them the temperature at home in Tampa, until they realize I'm talking Fahrenheit. I can't even explain what a mile is because I'm not really sure myself. I think it's something to do about the number of paces a Roman takes. Don't get me wrong, I think that the U.S., Liberia, Belize and Myanmar should hold fast and force the rest of the civilized world to come to us. Hang in there Myanmarians! We are with you. Seems the only language I have in common with everyone on the planet is time. If they change the clocks somewhere, I'm screwed.

I pity the fool

I was talking with Dad yesterday and he said that my mom was trying to come up with some good April fools jokes to play. I'm not sure who she was going to play a trick on, but it reminded me that she used to like to get us as kids. I think her dad liked to try to get her also. I'm not trying to pick on her, but I remember her tricks used to consist of "There is no school today kids". Ok....we were old enough to know about April Fools Day, and we weren't getting caught with that one. It seems now that the smarter move would have been to allow her to win that one and take the day off school. If anyone got busted on an April Fools joke leave a comment and share. I read an article yesterday about Bolivia protesting that the U.S. was forcing daylight savings time on them and they were mad. I got halfway before I figured out it was a joke. Soon I'll be telling the kids there is no school on April 1st.

I'll have fries with that!

Quick story from our trip to Lillehammer the other day. It seems our loud kids gave us away again. Some guy at the table next to us has a fork full of sausage, raises it in the air and says, "Breakfast of champions, hot dogs huh?" That was his way of introducing himself as a fellow American. He caught up with us later, asked where we were from and what the heck we were doing there. It's funny that other people that are there from the same place, can't imagine why you would be there. This guy had mixed feelings about living in Norway. He was traveling with his teenage son and thought his kid was picking up some bad habits. Apparently working at McDonalds in Norway is more lucrative than in the states and his son was aspiring to do so. I won't even quote the salary he mentioned for McDonalds workers here because he seemed mildly crazy. He disappeared soon enough. I hope the Norwegians don't think we are like that guy.

Not much to see here....

I talked with mom yesterday. Dad is doing ok and is headed to breakfast this morning, she didn't mention with who. There is really no change, just waiting for more chemo, tests and the ever looming PET scan on Thursday. I talked with him briefly about their trip to Alton a day or two before. He seems in good spirits. Soooo....all in all an uneventful update for you. Thanks to everyone for checking in here and thanks also to those of you who are involved in the day to day lives of my mom and dad, helping them out. The only thing making me homesick on this trip is seeing them and wanting to help out. More later.