For anyone who hasn't yet heard this soulful dole from this grand man in the land of coal here you go.

Might it be the most impactful track of the year? The one to finally ignite a revolution? To open some eyes? To change the world? To at least stir some temporal worldwide unity, sense of community, and make us all care a bit more about our neighbors? I hope so. This feels special... also. Also.

Alllright back to the North again.

But not North of Richmond! Don't fret! Just up to our own land, to our home land, to our closest counterpart here of coal land, to the cold land - it's becoming now, where I turn from a kid to a grown man. It's homely when it's summer. When the snow rolls in it's a bummer. It denotes that the time is over, and we bow for home and closure. With honor hold our composure. Which sucks man total disclosure.

See y'all in a month! Crops are growing. It's going well.

I'm off! It's time. Summer's nigh. The sky is gray here yet I eye the sky. The sun glimpses briefly - summertime in sight. Which is exciting! Good times. Dives. Delight. Thought I'd have time to write this too, think I just might...

Been through some furious final moments in the garden, washing, dishing (dishes - washing), wishing (wisdom), squashing (fried squash with garlic - delicious), lots of bread, little chicken... no chicken I reckon but put yourself in my position in kitchen. No chicken. Been eating whatever remains though, freezing whatever's not eaten, vacuuming and cleaning, drying herbs, prying dirt, packing bags and scheming, tired for no reason...

I thought I'd start reviewing the books I've read a while back. Have had a bundle of literary drafts lying in wait for a year or so now, thinking I'd conjure up some cover images for them, but at last I decided just to post 'em. Before I fly off for summer. Best siphon off some my unposted material as to let me feel a bit more at ease when I leave.

I'm writing those in Swedish too occasionally, when the books are. Might start doing that more often. Feels suitable to follow suit with the language.

Haven't been blogging much this spring, but I have been posting a last-minute batch of drafts just now. I have movies scheduled for most of my vacation - just finished revising 'em till the end of July. Hope I get through a few more before I jump off today. Should suffice at least until I'm back long enough to revise and schedule more - for a day and a half in early August.

Took a lot of time that scheduling. It's so much easier to publish reviews in batches. I will not be doing this one-review-a-day thing next year.

S3C popped up with this nice surprise just recently too! A copy of my movie list with appended scores from IMDB and RottenTomatoes. And more. Shall do something with this after summer - much obliged @S3C!

Following up on that series of unfortunate events detailed in the spring post earlier: The puppy died.

Apparently it probably had an autoimmune disorder, and caught some nasty virus that had it developing abscesses all over it's body. It had a good appetite but kept losing weight, and was in constant pain, growing weaker and weaker, so big bro & co decided to put it down. :/

Our water pump up North apparently just broke down too. Not that it compares to that loss of life, but these things really just keep happening this year! And the warm air pump here is not fixed yet - they have no time to troubleshoot further until August at least. The hexalist I maintain on NG got locked today too, right when I was about to post my final summer update. Managed to get it unlocked again but that was quite a scare.
A potential seizing of a legacy that's been kept for twenty years...

On the bright side those airport strikes I mentioned earlier were cancelled! Should be all good for the trip tomorrow. And I posted that update. All good there too.

In regard to games (I'm all over the place with this post I realize - gotta write about the things I've gotta write about) I played some TaskMaker at the start of May, Serious Sam at the start of June, now I'm on Venetica, start of July. I hope I haven't lost interest when I get back cause it really is a pretty cool game. Very atmospheric.

Site idea till after summer: Add a span class for rhymes, to surround spontaneous rhyme-related bits in posts that I give the 'rhyme' tag, so that these spans can then be styled on the rhymes tag archive specifically, and thus highlight said rhymes only when you're browsing that particular archive. Elsewhere on the site they would have the same formatting as surrounding text.

Other site idea: Add links to Books and Movies in the top menu specifically, instead of having this collective Reviews category? I rely on the /movies URL on a few places, so I don't want to create a /reviews/movies structure as to move them away from the main page and blog.

The problem is that I do want movie-related posts to show on the main page too, but not movie reviews specifically, lest they flood the page. Adding the Reviews category for movie reviews specifically temporarily ammended this issue, but it's messy. I don't like having two categories on posts. Need to figure out a better way. To be continued...

Another one: Let you click on an image in a lightbox to open it in it's actual size in a new tab, or if possible zoom in and move around in the existing view. As it is some images actually shrink down if you open them in full due to the lightbox interface adding extra padding around the image/keeping it proportionately centered on the screen.

That's all for now y'all! I'm out of both time and words so I'll take my leave. Traditionally as may be perceived, from the city streets to the green green fields, to the outest reaches that I can reach. To live the loudest where you don't hear a peep. To seek enlightenment and light and retreat. From all that riles me up in this pot of boulders - come back stronger and not a lot of older - when autumn rolls in and we're hot but colder.

See y'all in October.

For a short span of time I had a real professional camera at my disposal, a Nikon D500. Took just one image to test the shutter count before I sold it - a seemingly non-mentionanble photo of the room I was in.

It's nothing special, but just look how warmly it rendered this room.

The right equipment really does make all the difference.

Simple motive. Surprisingly nice device.

Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

AKA at time of death.

Cherish them good peeps when you can! Even if they annoy you; even if they're not perfect.

We're only mortal after all. We only have so much time to do so.

Maybe they'll even live a little longer if you do.

If not at least the memories that linger will be true.

Love is life.

Adieu.

A Bob sure does know some stuff, and contemplate some stuff, probably thereby in time growing to know that stuff which you might find unusually enlightening and have potentially permenantly alter your perspective of personality, ambition and life, like this little bit right here...

I'm waiting on a welder. A propane implementation for our air heat pump. Apparently it's been leaking - probably lightly over a long period of time. There was barely any coolant left. I wonder how much of a fire hazard it's been during that time. Right now plenty of windows are open - and there's a device in the washing room to erase any trace of potential propane that may there linger - we have additional ventilation in the washing room too. But during winter the windows definitely aren't so open.

Have we lit any matches there recently...

We've had an issue with odors seeping in via our neighbors too. The best way to troubleshoot such an issue is to light a special kind of match close to wall and ventilation - coincidentally very close to the propane-leaking air heat pump - and see where the smoke goes...

I got up at 7 AM today for the cause. The troubleshooting. The fuming looming. They had two big-ass fire extinguishers with them for worst case scenarios, and I'd cleaned out the washing room yesterday, which was a big-ass job. Wealth accumulates. A wealth of dust. A wealth of items. Cleaning utensils pots paper and boxes full of empty glass jars in abundance.

It's currently 10 AM, and they're still working the issue. I didn't expect it to go on this long.

Since I abide my time upstairs as they do their bidding in the downstairs area - wary of whatever hazardous gases may seep through those rooms - I've been impressively productive this fine morning. And since the sun is still on the bedroom side of the house (just across the hall, a few meters away, but still) the computer area's remarkably airy and cool, still. This is the usual time I rise. Around ten. A little earlier more recent weeks.

It feels good. To maybe not be up with the sun, but to be up, and cool, and managing. Early enough to feel good about it.

I meant to write up a post about how haywire this Spring's been earlier.
I asked a friend a stupid question yesterday - been overthinking mortality in lieu of mom's ongoing heart palpitation issues post-covid. They're doing better though, and I'm feeling better today. Watched a video of a nurse-in-training who'd managed to make a Camper out of a Camaro, and boiled shrimp from the backseat. It looked a little cramped, but also tasty, with sesame seeds noodles and some extra spice...

Maybe this Spring isn't so bad after all. It's all relative.

Celebrated Midsummer with relatives last Friday. Celebrated a cousin's 30th Birthday this Monday - bestowed upon him a promised round of Minigolf at this place, one of the oldest Minigolf courses in Sweden, with an adventure golf course and a normal one, and an unlimited number of rounds for the same entrance fee on a good day. Looks promising.

The Poland trip was nice too - taken earlier with that same cousin.

I do mean to post a recap eventually - hopefully before Christmas.

I also managed to time in the best weather ever on my two trips up North so far. Not a cloud in sight. Sunshine all day all night. And relatively warm water, but cool enough that it'd be refreshing after a session of body-building ardor in the advent garden.

Here's a list of unfortunate events thus far this Spring though - I scrawled them down earlier so I might as well post 'em - though better to move on:

• Mom caught covid. Still has heart palpitations and a loss of taste a month later.
• Dad caught covid after her. He's doing better.
• I caught covid first. All good now though.
• The cousin I went to Poland with caught covid too. His mom had a stroke. They're doing better.
• Air heat pump broke. We've had issues a couple of months now - hopefully this'll get resolved today.
• Car broke down earlier this Spring - fortunately right by the repair shop. They replaced the fuel pump for the third time within the last
  ~2 years. For free, since the last time they replaced it was a month ago. They'd forgotten.
• Car broke down again one day before the drive North. Had to be towed to a repair shop - apparently a hose to the fuel pump had come loose - lost some fuel.
• Car was still not running perfectly during the trip - which made it a somewhat nervous trip. Tried adding a bottle of fuel injection cleaner along the way and eventually it seems that might've fixed this!
• Car is difficult to start sometimes after fuel pump issues, seems like the ignition cartridge may need replacing too.
• Greenhouse collapsed entirely this winter. Neighbor let us know. I've picked and vacuumed most of the glass shards, at least some ~50 kg glass. The partially intact frame remains. We ponder potential uses or dismantling actions this summer.
• The car battery on my little VW Polo did not survive the winter this year. Ordered a new one - it arrived this Monday - hopefully I'll get that car going again on the next trip.
• Had to cancel six flights due to those covid and heart palpitation uncertainties (four of mine) and move a hotel booking to October.
• My work days were cut in half from May to August - at least - we'll see then. Company finances are strained and uncertain.
• Train issues, strikes and delays all Spring - due to limited staffing they'll have replacement buses from the start of July until mid-August. I'm fortunately away most of this time - or working from a distance, but the one day I will have to commute in it'll take ~5 hours back and fourth. Airport trips have become a bit more difficult too.
• Airport strikes may happen just in time for my main trip. Hoping they come to an agreement before then.
• Big bro's girlfriend broke her shoulder.
• Big bro and girlfriend bought a new puppy that does not get along well with their other dog, and it seems she's allergic to it. Thus the puppy cannot stay.
• The puppy developed difficulties moving around. Apparently it's sick. They know not with what. It may be genetic. It cannot be returned to buyer. They're insured for 100,000 SEK and have used up a third of that on treatments thus far...
• I broke one of our lawnmowers. Metal handle just snapped in half.
• Broken bee glass, broken umbrella foot, broken zipper on my favorite jacket, broken other things, I thought our freezer up North was broken too... had just missed a switch there though! Whoop. Though all newly stocked freezer contents simmered in room temperature for three days and spoiled.

I was hoping to attend some Gröna Lund concerts this Spring/Autumn, but by means of budget I think I'll skip those this year. The artists aren't that great overall, and MGK plays on the wrong day, though I would have liked to see Trippie Redd. Plus commuting time there suddenly doubled due to those limited staffing issues/replacement buses.

One of their rollercoasters just derailed and one gal died too - something that has never happened before, not since Gröna Lund first opened way back in 1883! Nor in (the current owner's) Park & Resorts proud and safety-attentive something like fifty-year history!

They still have no idea why or how it could happen.

The Swedish Krona is currently at an all time low compared to the USD/EUR - which will further impact import prices and finances, but interesting things are happening in Russia, with the Wagner Group potentially dissenting, and the weather's been beautiful - barely a single drop of rain for a month or so here - surrounding lawns are parched and yellow.

I've watered mine though. I tasted my first home-grown strawberries (Fragaria × Vescana actually - it's a hybrid between regular strawberries and smaller 'wild strawberries') yesterday - we have those too, and it hasn't been too hot for comfort thus far.

I sleep alright. My bedtimes are improving. I do alright in daytime too. I've eaten out a few times (did I mention Bro Park?), cleaned up the house, packed my stuff already - mostly, have plenty of fresh Moroccan mint in the garden and a commercial haircut for a change - presently I feel good!

It is raining up North, and our crops there are as of today finally all planted and ready - some actually sprouting already. I did my bidding while I was there, managed most of the groundwork - recovering parents are busy fixing the rest for the next week or so, and then...

Fingers crossed everything goes as it's supposed to now!!!

Hope my flight leaves as it should. Hope I'm on it. Hope I don't catch something before then (I have been feeling something...). Or after, for that matter.

At least I'm getting a tan man. At least I'm moving. At least I feel good. So maybe things aren't all bad. Maybe things are turning around after all.

This spring blows. But the wind blows too. Through the windows June... I'm heading back to fan land.

And I'll dig dirt till I can't stand in that grand land.

Yeah.