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.

Tomorrow's the day!

We have a jam-packed few days ahead of us. Tomorrow, we arrive in Stockholm and spend the evening with Marcia and Rutger. We have a taxi to take all our collected luggage out to Stavsnäs and Aspö on Thursday. I've turned on the heat pump, so with some luck, the house will be nice and cozy when we arrive.

The big news is that, on Friday, Lote the delivery boat (pictured left) will arrive with our 30 boxes of stuff from London. Olle and Annika have said they'd help with the carrying. With luck, we will be all settled by the end of the day.

Just to make things even busier, we are going to leave Aspö Saturday to attend a 30-year celebration party for the job that brought us to Sweden for the very first time, way back in 1989. It will be good to see old friends, and to relax after the move!

Getting closer!

We're in Sweden this weekend, visiting Margaret and celebrating Marcia and Rutger's birthdays. We will be taking a tour through the USA the next couple of weeks for a few visits before we return "for good" to Sweden on May Day. I still have to settle the shipping of our goods from London, but we expect they'll follow a week or two after.

One thing we wanted to do yesterday was to meet with Skatteverket, the Swedish tax authorities, to apply for extended residency as we are planning to stay the whole summer. I received advice which indicated we could be "secondary residents" of Sweden as long as our house was not our primary residence for the majority of the year. Thankfully, that's exactly the case, so I didn't expect any problems.

The tax office interview wasn't as smooth as I had hoped. The good news is there are no issues with our physically being at out little stuga for 4 or 5 months as we have planned. The bad news is that it looks unlikely we will get our personnummers made active.

As I've written a few years ago, most everything in Swedish society, big and small, hinges on one's number. We can get by without one, but things are a lot more difficult. I am hoping against hope that the authorities will look kindly on us!

March weather

We've had a good month. It's been getting warmer steadily, and we had a bit of rain as well. This is exactly what we want for March!

April will be the last month without us in residence. We will at last arrive at the house for the whole summer on May 1st!

Sooz and I are meeting with the tax authorities in a couple of weeks to set up our residency. It should be a straightforward process, but we shall see. Stay tuned for updates on this subject!

Cashless Sweden Pt. 2

I've posted a few times in the past about the move away from cash in Swedish society. It is harder and harder to spend our kronor these days. The airport and Stockholm city center are still cash-friendly, but it isn't easy to spend money in the archipelago.

This article from the Guardian shows very clearly how efficiently cash has been left behind in favor of digital alternatives, for better or worse.

Cash has been replaced by credit cards, of course, but also Swish, a payment system which links one's bank account, allowing super-simple transfer of sums back and forth. It's become a verb now: to 'swish' someone a few kronor.

Those of us without national ID numbers, though, can't register for Swish. I still havehope there will be some way for us to be part of the Swish system once we start spending more time in Sweden this summer!

I will keep my readers informed on how I get on.

Our summer plans

It's now the home stretch of our move from London. In early April, the movers will be picking up our goods and sending most of them to the US. Then we'll be on Aspö for at least the next five months. Bliss.

We will be sending a few things to Sweden as well. It's been an interesting calculation because we want to take advantage of bringing lots of goodies to the house. On the other hand, we don't have that much room in our stuga!

The other calculation is that we're going to be living differently this summer. Living there for a number of months rather than vacationing for a couple of weeks means we'll need different clothes, different food, different priorities in how we will spend our time.

I will be writing more in the next few months about the move, and how we adjust to a full-time Swedish life. Stay tuned!

February's weather

It was very slowly warming in February. We are looking forward to a surge in warmth in March!

The wind gauge isn't working, I believe it's a casualty of the huge storm we suffered in January. I also don't believe the rain gauge is completely accurate, either. I've seen a few days of snow lately, which isn't being measured fully. We can use all of the precipitation we can get!