Winter Begins

The leaves are beginning to fall.  I’ll be sorry when they all fall off.  That means I will see more of that ugly Tine creamery building.  On Wednesday we had rain and high winds.  A few of the trees are now bare, although some are still green.

Nothing unusual this week: just one funeral.  I spent the week getting prepared for the organ recital I’m giving on Sunday evening.

Nikolai, the child of Ann-Kristin & Trond Edvardsen, turned 5 on Thursday.  (I rent their basement apartment).  On Saturday they invited me to a coffee party to celebrate the event.

Well, there’s never a dull moment at organ recitals.  The weather turned quite cold, the high was only about 42 F.  The church was so cold Sunday morning that they tried to heat the place up with space heaters, but it kept on blowing fuses.  The organ recital began at 7:30.  Everything was going well until we had a power failure.  Jon, one of the employees of the church, tried to fix it but they ended up calling an electrician.  After about a 45-minute delay I played the rest of the program.  Fortunately, everyone patiently waited while the problem was fixed.  

Sunday (10-10-10) the sun rose at 7:45 am and set at 6 pm.  Total daylight is 10 hours, 15 minutes.

Week 41: winter began.  Sunday morning there was a dusting of snow on the mountains.  It looked liked a sprinkling of powdered sugar.  Each day there was a little more snow.  On Thursday, the 14^th of October it snowed.  According to the Old Norse Calendar this day is the first day of winter.  Like clockwork winter began in northern Norway.  Most people now have their winter tires on.  Quite a few years ago tires with studs were outlawed in Massachusetts.  The headline in the Boston Globe read, “Stud tires out”.

On Friday I had two funerals: one in Sandnessjøen Church for a 65-year old woman, and one in the chapel at the hospital for an infant that was stillborn.  This last one was so sad, of a life never lived.

I’m having a few problems with my macbook (computer).  It wouldn’t connect to the internet.  (All the other programs work fine).  I took it to a shop.  They looked at it and made some adjustments.  It does seem better but every once in a while I lose the signal.  I know the problem is with the macbook.  My iphone and ipod work perfectly fine.  I may have to get a pc.  Macs are not much in use in Norway.

Saturday I met Vera and John on the south-bound Hurtigruten.  They began their journey in Kirkenes and saw a part of Norway they hadn’t seen before.  If the weather had been better we would have taken the ferry over to Dønna and driven up to Dønnes and over to Rølvaag.    But it wouldn’t cooperate.  Instead we drove around Alstahaug: over the Helgeland Bridge, down to Søvik and Alstahaug Church and Museum, and back to Sandnessjøen on the valley road.

On Sunday Vera sang at the two services that played for: Sandnessjøen at 11 am and Alstahaug at 6:30.  The 11 am service was well attended.  They had presentation gifts for the 4-year olds.  There must have been about 120 in attendance.  The evening service was very sparsely attended.  In any case, Vera sang beautifully for both services.  The song was “Det er makt i de foldede hender” (There is strength in folded hands).  Monday morning they caught the 7 am bus to Mosjøen and from there the train down to Trondheim.  It was a short visit but at least they got a flavor of Helgeland.

Sunrise on 17 October is at 8:10 am, sunset at 5:40 pm.  Total daylight is 9 hours, 30 minutes.