It's time to close the blog

After 14 years and 1,435 posts, I think it's time to close the blog. When I started, blogging was a new thing. Linking to albums on the web was about the only way to share pictures widely. Today, technology has moved way past these humble beginnings.

The house is all complete, I don't have any more building projects; we are just enjoying our life on Aspö. Since I retired, we've also moved into a set schedule; summers in Aspö and winters in Florida. I don't want to fill a blog with the social calendar of a retired couple.

I've had a great time working on this house and this blog. We've literally built ourselves a new life on a beautiful little island. Thank you for being along for the ride.

Marathon day!

It was a perfect day for a run, the weather was good and I had a great support team in Sooz and Marcia. The number of runners were a bit smaller than usual because of the change in date. But it was plenty busy, believe me!

I finished in 4:26 which was pretty good for being 62 years old, although, to be honest, I was trying for 10 minutes quicker than that. I was on track but faded a bit towards the end. I am definitely feeling it in my legs today!

Running around Aspö and going to Nämdö on the weekends was a great experience. I definitely know both islands and my neighbors a lot better because of my training runs.

That makes 4 Stockholm marathons for me. My next one will be in June 2029, so mark your calendars now!

A quick running update

I've found a great alternative for my long weekend training runs. On Saturday mornings, I can take the Waxholms boat (or our own boat) to Nämdö and run there. 

There's a gravel road that runs most of the length of the island, so it's easy to run a few laps to put in the miles. As a bonus, I can stop at the little grocery on my way home and pick up whatever Sooz needs for the weekend!

Although the boat trip is an extra complication, the run is much smoother and faster than going around Aspö and its construction.

Strandbaren Idöborg

 

One of the new additions to our archipelago is Strandbaren restaurant at neighboring Idobörg.

The restaurant is part of an expanded facility which has recently been redeveloped. The food and service are excellent!

Wednesdays are "jazz nights" in which local combos entertain the diners. We've been quite impressed with the skill of the young musicians. They've all been different but all very good.

The Waxholm boat allows us to sail over for dinner easily, although we like to take our own boat as it is just a five minute jaunt away.

The Migrations Agency

 

The biggest personal impact of Brexit on us was our loss of citizenship in the EU. We were able to stay in Sweden for up to 180 days with no issues as UK citizens. However, since the UK made the decision to leave the EU, we can stay only 90 days.

Fortunately, there is a way to apply for a longer stay through the Migration Agency. 

Sooz and I completed an online form and paid an application fee earlier this month. Last week, we had an interview in Stockholm with the Migrationsverket. Essentially, the Swedish government wants us to show that we have a reason for staying longer than 90 days, and that we have the means to take care of ourselves while we're here. Thankfully, we are able to pass those tests early. 

The interview itself was quick and professional. The department is obviously very efficient because we received a letter in the mail today, saying we had permission to stay! We both even received an official card showing our status as long-term visitors. Very cool.

I'm not yet sure if we have to go through this every year, but even if we do, it's a pretty simple process to complete.

The Stockholm Marathon

The Stockholm marathon is typically run at the end of May every year. I ran it in 1990, 2000, and 2012. I had entered to run it in 2020, but the race was cancelled along with pretty much every thing else last year.

It has been rescheduled for this October, in the anticipation that covid restrictions would be lifted in time for the race. 

I've kept my place in this year's race, and I am starting to train in earnest. It is proving a bit harder than I had thought, however. My age has something to do with it, of course; I'm well over 60 these days.

The biggest problem is the state of the island's path. Over the past 18 months, Vattenfall, the electricity provider, has completed a project to remove all of the 70 year old electricity poles from the island and instead bury the electrical cables. This will make our service more reliable and less costly in the long run. However, in the short run, our little path has become a construction site with lots of damage and wear from all of the machinery needed.

The good news is our path is being rebuilt, and the completed stretches are in great shape. The bad news is that lots of work remains to be done, and I find myself running laps over an active construction zone. I am going to have to manage this the best I can in order to be in shape for the race!

Home Sweet Home

We've made it to our house, and on Midsummer Day, too! I'm happy to report that everything here is in excellent shape. You could hardly tell that we hadn't been home for over 20 months; a bit of vacuuming, window cleaning, replacing of batteries, and we were all set.

I can also report that our fiber internet is up and running. I had made an account with Net At Once because they were willing to send me a monthly invoice. All I had to do was plug in my router, and I had an amazingly fast connection in 10 minutes. Bliss!

We made it!

Our welcoming committee!

It was a long journey, with lots of moving parts: flights from Florida to Dallas to Paris to Stockholm, covid tests in Texas and Paris, wearing a mask for 24 hours straight, and most unnervingly, getting through immigration control twice!

But everything worked out perfectly, and we made it smoothly and safely to Marcia and Rutger's house. We will head to our house on Monday. We can't wait! 

A change in fortune?

Even though Sweden is still keeping its borders closed for non-EU travelers, other countries in the bloc have opened up to vaccinated Americans. At the urging of a friend, I decided to write the Swedish consulate in Miami about permission to travel, and received an unexpected answer.

We were told by the consulate that we could enter the EU via a country open to Americans, get a covid test in that country, and then travel onward to Sweden from there! That seems like a pretty big loophole to me, but I have it in writing from the consulate.

So... we've decided to give it a try. We are going to fly to Paris this Saturday, and then onward to Sweden. Stay tuned!

Not good at all.

I've avoided posting about Sweden's response to the coronavirus over these past months. Suffice it to say that it's been much more relaxed than its nordic neighbors, which has caused comparatively more deaths:

The news in the US has had many stories about the "Swedish model." Those news outlets against public health restrictions applaud Sweden's relative lack of rules and mandates, and the freedom it affords. Others point out the much higher death toll as compared to its neighbors and lament the additional deaths caused. It pains me to see Sweden used as a political football.

To add insult to injury, Sweden announced that the travel restrictions in place until May 31 will now be extended to August 31. This is a real body blow. I was really pinning my hopes on a change in the travel policy today. As things stand, we won't be able to get to Sweden for there more months—assuming we could travel even then!

Not looking great

The vaccine rollout is continuing but much more slowly than any of us would like. Sooz got her second dose on time but I am still waiting for mine. Sweden has just barely started its vaccination program:

The summer season is only a couple of months away, and there's no clarity at all about traveling. Well I take that back, there is clarity: we would not be able to travel to Sweden today. Let's hope things move quickly over the next few months!

Sooz has her vaccine

 

With a little bit of luck and perseverance, Sooz was able to get an early appointment for the coronavirus vaccine. I'll have to wait a while longer myself as I don't yet meet the age cutoff. 

Things are still very new, but so far, so good. We were impressed with our county health authorities. 

Let's hope this is the change we all need and we'll all be back to normal soon!

UPDATE: It's the next day and Sooz feels good with no side effects. Sadly, it appears this day is going to be remembered for something far more serious.

No improvement yet

The US has maintained its morbid lead since my last post, although both Sweden and the UK are doing their best to catch up. The one glimmer of light on the horizon is that a vaccine may well be available soon! Let's hope that allows us to put this terrible year behind us.

Things aren't looking any better

 

We've felt pretty safe here in Florida; we are able to do most things outside thanks to the weather. But it's not looking good in general. It would be great to be back in Sweden or the UK right now, for many reasons!

We're not going :(

 

During our road trip, Sooz and I talked a lot about still going to Aspö this summer. We both desperately want to be there. We've been to Sweden at least once every year since 1988!

However, there are a lot of things to think about, not least the growing number of cases here in the US. Everyone is worried about this virus, and the news is full of terrible stories both here and in Sweden. And, if we were to travel, we would essentially be using a bit of a loophole, by using both passports.

In the end, we decided not to risk it. We don't want to be those people stretching safety rules and common sense just so we can enjoy our little island. 

It's terribly disappointing but it's also the right decision.

Road Trip!

Since air travel is pretty much shut down these days (and of uncertain safety as well), we decided to take a real road trip for the first time in our 33 years of marriage. We've been gone for almost three weeks, putting 3000 miles on our car, visiting our friends and family in Michigan and Minnesota.

On the way home, we took a detour to Clear Lake, Iowa, home to the Surf Ballroom, the venue of Buddy Holly's last concert. Just outside of the city is a small memorial at the site of his tragic plane crash. 

Surprisingly, the Surf was open and we were able to visit. It's wonderfully preserved, and still an active venue for artists all over the world. I was able to go up on the stage and stand where Buddy stood in his last hours. It was quite the experience.

Should we stay or should we go?

 

I've been watching statistics on Covid closely, trying to decide if we should try to go to Sweden this summer. Although travel is banned for US citizens, we could use our UK citizenship to fly to London and then on to Sweden as EU citizens. Sadly this is the last year we could do that, as Brexit takes away our EU membership at the end of the year.

Right now, Sweden and the US are pretty similar in Covid cases. It's interesting that the case rates are similar since Sweden appears to have far fewer restrictions than many parts of the USA.

We will keep a close eye on it over the coming weeks. Covid aside, I'm not looking forward to a hot Florida summer! I'd rather be in temperate Aspö. (Plus I'm itching to try out the new internet!!!)

The internet is in! Really!!

Good news from Annika and Olle, the internet fiber has been installed in our house at last. The junction box is in our bedroom so all I need to do is find an internet provider and hook up my wi-fi.

There's a big range of internet providers available. All of them are faster and cheaper than what I have in the USA.

I can't wait!

Covid

Things have moved fast since my last post. 

The Coronavirus has taken hold in the USA, and our governor has declared a health emergency. Most businesses and indoor activities have been stopped.  

The President has also banned travel from Europe to the US, which of course impacts our ability to go back to Sweden this summer. 

We are dual citizens, so I assume we could fly from the US to London, and then onto Stockholm as UK/EU citizens. 

We will keep updated on the rules, and how the US, the UK, and Sweden are faring. For now, we will stay safe at home. Scary stuff.

Christmas and tendon repair

It’s been an engaging couple of months! We had a wonderful Christmas. Marcia and Rutger joined us and Grant for the Christmas holidays. It was nice to enjoy a warm, palm-tree holiday for a change. 

Sooz decided to have ankle surgery to correct a long-term niggle, so she has been in a walking boot the past couple weeks. She will be ready to scamper along the archipelago soon enough, though. We have enjoyed watching our stuga through the webcams. I am hopeful we will have our internet cables in place for this summer!

RIP Buddy Holly. 61 years.

Hello from our new home

It has been a whirlwind few weeks, that’s for sure. We left Sweden to go straight to our new home! Sooz and I wanted to retire in a place that was on the east coast of the US, warm in the winters, and had an active downtown so we didn’t have to drive everywhere. We found that Sarasota, Florida fit the bill perfectly.

 

We bought an apartment right downtown in a building that was under construction. Our timing was just about perfect, as we were able to move in early November. Lots of things have come together in these past few weeks; we bought a car, signed up for doctors, dentists, etc., had our goods delivered both from our London home and all our stored stuff from Dallas. We also had to buy light fixtures and shop for furniture. I also had the Shelby shipped down so, for the first time since 2014, we are reunited at last. So not that much really! 

 

It’s only been a little while, but we like our new city so far. It’s different to Aspö; our new home is in a high-rise, very urban, and it’s darn hot outside! It will be nice to have the best of both worlds: busy Florida winters and cool Swedish summers.

Falling way behind on the blog, sorry

It's been a fantastic summer. Eventful in some ways, and completely non-eventful in others! We have just finished nearly 6 months here on Aspö. Next comes a totally new adventure back in the USA.

I promise to catch up as soon as I can to talk about all of the changes in our lives and what's next for our Swedish home.

In the meantime, I've finished a summer photo album with all of our highlights. I'm happiest about our project to extend our roof. It projects out another meter now so it balances with the deck, and provides us a lot more rain cover. I've updated our header photo to show the new roof, I think it looks great.

I'm also happy with my gutter installation at the back of the house. I did that one all by myself! We have two 200 liter tanks to capture the runoff, and they fill up quickly with even a short shower. That water will come in handy for watering plants, washing the deck, etc. We won't need to use well water for those uses anymore.

Lastly, the cable for our fibre internet was dug just before we left. All we need now is for the fiber to make it up to the house, and then it can be installed inside readily. Fingers crossed!

The second month!

Time is really flying, it’s hard to believe we’ve been here two months. June was as busy as advertised. We started the month at Marcia and Rutger's for a celebration for Camille’s graduation, and then an extra day in Stockholm to visit Margaret and Janne. 

In preparation for Midsummer, Sooz made an enormous order with the food delivery service MatHem. Ordering heavy and bulky stuff to be delivered to our dock makes our subsequent grocery bus trips much easier to handle. I did the same with our Systembolaget delivery; we had our summer booze sent to Guns Livs on neighboring Nämdö, and all I had to do was to drive it over on our boat.

Speaking of deliveries, I made a big order from our local lumberyard on Djurö. My big project this summer is to extend our roof overhang. When I built the house, I made the long deck two meters wide, which was a great idea. However, I left the roof overhang at one meter, which was not a great idea. I spoke to Wille about extending our roof another meter to provide more cover. He advised me on the supplies I needed, and I made an order from Djurö. Wille is coming out at the end of the month for a few days to get this done. Lots more on that as we complete the work.

The biggest delivery, though, was Marcia and Rutger arriving on midsummer along with Grant and his girlfriend Kelley! They made the trip all the way from Boston to spend both the holiday and my 60^thbirthday together.

We had a fantastic time. The weather cooperated wonderfully and I had a multi-day birthday celebration with my family and friends.

To end the month, Sooz and I saw Bob Dylan at the Globe arena in Stockholm a few days after. Quite the fun and celebratory month!

The first month

We arrived to Aspö as planned on May Day, Wednesday the first. The good news is that our shipment arrived into Stockholm as planned on the Monday. To our surprise, though, the delivery boat jumped the gun and took our stuff to the dock on Tuesday. And of course it was raining that day! 

Thankfully, Ronnie covered up everything with a big tarp so we avoided any water damage. Wednesday was a tough day for me, schlepping all our boxes to our house without Olle and Annika's planned weekend help, but thankfully it all ended well. We spent the next few days unpacking and finding places to put all of this new stuff!

The weather for the rest of May was fairly dry. It was a lot of fun seeing the island become green over those warming weeks.

Sooz is working with Olle and Annika to plant a bunch of vegetables. We'll keep an eye on the crop during the week since we're "residents". Sooz has planted radishes, carrots, zucchini, rocket, lettuce, and cucumber. We can learn from Olle as he has a green thumb! Soon, we hope to be able to add some of our crop to our dinner table.

My most urgent project was to clear up the two big fallen trees. Rutger and Olle helped me with the main trunks and I spent a few days cutting up the trees and hauling them downhill. I spent a more few days cleaning up the rootlumps as well, cutting back the big disks of earth and roots that the fallen trees pulled up.

Sooz and I found a decent rhythm for groceries and errand-running: we take a 7AM boat to Stavsnäs and a noon boat back. This gives us a couple of hours for grocery shopping in Gustavsberg. Sooz gets groceries and I hit the building stores. The busses aren’t too full mid-week so we can take all our stuff back without too much drama.

I have to say the first month has moved by really quickly. We’ve had decent weather and have kept pretty busy. June will be busy, too! 

I’ve moved to Instagram for posting photos, using the hashtag #huslangford on all of our house-related photos. Clicking on this link should show them online; I keep these updated on a regular basis.