The weather these last two weeks has been chill. Real cool. Waters in the lake mysteriously crept down to around 11C, especially during the latter week, when clouds consumed the sky for four days straight and we ran out to relish the ressurection of Ra on the fifth day. Hellalooyeah! It hasn't rained that much, though. All rain's been much appreciated; time taken to rest and rejuvenate. Play games. Spend time inside. Typical early Autumn weather.

I've been in a melancholy mood lately, fretting on the change of setting that's bound to happen in a few days - I booked my flight for September the 2nd. I've done much (a summer summary's hopefully coming up shortly after I return... or else I'll probably never get around to it, like the last couple of years) but there's always more that's yet undone, that I wish I had time for. Or maybe had time for that I didn't use quite as efficiently as I could have. But like the wise people say, better live in the now and plan ahead. *paradox*

We're in Kalix for the day today, a rainy day, and will shortly after this post take a quick shopping tour searching for shorts and rainsuits and enjoy the second official (but probably more like fifth) schrimp sandwhich of the summer. We haven't been here as much as usual, which I suppose has been due to the mostly awesome weather - flaring sunshine and lake-willing waves of heat - that have both blessed and pestered us for the past month and a half. Compared to the usual; luxurious 'vacation' time I've enjoyed the past few years this one's been drastically shortened, a mere two months instead of three. That's a full third of free time sliced away (!), or ION: only 1/6th of the year compared to a previous 1/4th. Where did that /5 go? It doesn't really feel that much shorter though, tis mostly noticeable in what's been done and left undone.

So... what else's been going on? Swimming, packing, doing some much-needed sorting through the storage facility our attic has become over the year(s), bike-riding, hiding from sudden thunderclouds (the lightning's been nervously near our house a few times), eating; trying to get into a habit of jogging; playing my keyboard for the first time this summer; composing a very quick bad quality recording yesterday; chopping stuff; mowing grass; weeding; most of all: picking berries. We've filtered through all red and black current bushes in the past two weeks, taken a few tours of blueberry and lingonberry picking, along with every-other-daily ransons of rasperies and for a while also late strawberries. The strawberries are all done for now though, the current-bush-leafs are yellowing and the rasperries are taking longer to ripen. Most of our crops are being harvested, and we've waged war against the overwhelming armies of voles that are raiding our rows of potatoes, carrots and turnips. During the earlier phases of summer there weren't that many of them near our vegetables - we caught maybe one or two each day - but now the traps snap frequently at a pace of at least 5-10/day. A few wild hares have been nibbling away at our black currents, but they can't do any major damage. We've fenced in mostly all endagered crops. And I've taken some great pictures hare.

Otherwise hmm... fishing, painting (in short sessions on a few rare entirely-sunny days... August isn't the optimal time for this busieiness), writing maybe a bit more than usual - apart from the daily poems I'm still well overdue with onsite, and yesterday we made some pizza. Woot! It's been a good two weeks, and I'm now closing in on my final days up here in the nourishing Norths. Did I mention I booked my flight for the 2nd, September (in four days!!)? We didn't get much cloudberries at all in Kangos. We waded through a great many marshes, but barely scraped together enough for a couple of jars of jam. We picked some blueberries though, fished some; had a good time for the few days we were there, and then drove back. And here we've been. And here's last weeks. Next one'll be from Bro! Probabilitalily.

It rained. It poured. Lighting soared. Thunder crackled and shook our floor and all sleep was devoured.

We had our longest power outage yet at the start of the week before this one, almost half a day. The edible content contained within our freezer box container started to thaw, we saw, and so we've been eating previously frozen contents like crazy. Mostly fish. Probably an unnecesary precaution, but you never know! We've also fished, a bit.

Thunder's been around a few times, intertwined with bright light and heavy sunshine. We had short bursts of thunder and rain for two nights at the start of this week, regular spectacular unusually warm sunny summer again for a couple of days, and yesterday one more burst of devestating power-outing electricity. All in all we've probably had a double dozin power outages at least, though most of them not longer than a few minutes. Swims in the lake are a frequent routine; it seems the previously partially quenched heatwave won't be giving in anytime soon.

As far as I know the largest forest fire in modern-time Sweden is still raging in the South (we might've been better prepared for it if our prime minister hadn't sold out most of our military helicopters to the US just recently - at no profit), and despite all rainy weather the ground is dry here as well. I took a trip to the end of the lake yesterday and realized that the stream transporting lake water down to the Kalix river was all dried out, small yellow flowers already blooming amidst the dried seaweed on the stones. As far as I know it's never been dried out before, and yet the water level isn't much lower than usual. Apart from drought, the garden's flourishing, almost too much, and for the last couple of weeks we've been harvesting almost more vegetables than we can hope to eat, salad a common topic for lunch; dinner - and it looks like everything short of tomatoes, potatoes and onions will be picked and devoured way ahead of schedule. Usually most crops ripen in a steady stream throughout August, but this year a great deal of them are already done. There's so much sun.

In other news: wasps are invading the house. We usually open the windows and let them out, but this year they're coming back with a vengeance. I killed 7 yesterday, another 2 this morning, and was having a rather sleepless night until I switched rooms - one after another they ferociously buzzed into the indoor atmosphere, attacking any visible light source and potentionally anybody nearby... like me, peacefully reading the routine bedtime comics. So I eventually switched rooms and woke up 4:30 to the beep of smoke alarm batteries running out and the buzz of yet another wasp. Appearantly there have so far been 25,000 wasp remediations in Sweden, this summer, another effect of this whacky weather. All the while Southern Europe's still flooded.

We are today embarking on a short weekend (and then some) trip to Kangos with the intention of picking cloudberries, maybe blueberries too, though neither of them seem to be doing that well this year. We embark nevertheless with great hopes and ambitions; I'll be back in a week or two, to type and book a flight. Here be last two weeks.

These past two weeks have been intense: a blazing summer sun sizzling on the rooftops every morning; more swims in the lake than I can count. I've spent a couple of days with a buddy, and three days partying hard during the celebratory series of days when my mom turned 70 years old (Happy Birthday!). First day we celebrated within the family, swapped presents and savored an imaginary cake baked for the next day; the following two days guests came pouring in with an abundance of gratitutable gifts and high spirits... and ate a total of three pies, three cakes, one large (and hellishly expensive) smörgåstårta (a sandwhich cake - translation nae available) and mounds of watermelon, ice cream and sallad. Twas a blast! My sister flew up for the occasion as well; stayed a week.

In other news the plantations are flourishing, and for once we have more salad than we can possibly eat ourselves - or even give away. Ditto with strawberries, they're flowing into the freezer at a scary pace, even though we eat mounds both for breakfast and desert. Berries are ripening in the woods too, and we're leaving for Kangos later this week. The public computer in the library is booked all the time, thunder; lightning struck down a few times and passed by drearily near - short rain sessions on the storm's tail, but otherwise it's still as steamy and sunblazed a day(s) as ever. And that's all I have time to type today. Have a contunually awesome session of summer days and here's last week.

This week blew by in a blast of sunshine (and it's not over yet)!

I'm in for a short visit to Överkalix today - another premiere for this year - with little time left as I write this late. But it is; this week was great. Especially the waking hours prior to today's date!

Here's last week.

I didn't post much last week, just something about a file, and something just before departure... up North! To the wild and free! To where I like to be! To the wide and debris-free where I don't need to strive to breath! Where the air is clear and I'm never in despair or in dire need of a quick promenade just to sight my feet. Yeah. Next post might be a while away btw.

The flight up was booked: full. I arrived at the airport an hour too early (communal traffic was unnaturally fluent - I just missed one train) and a mere hour and minutes later I was up here - enjoying the feats and finesses (and lack thereof) - that this amazing place always brings with it. The first day was rainy and restful, but since then the sun's been gazing down mercilessly over shriveling plants and crisp green lawns. Last night the temperature didn't drop below 23C even indoors.

I've been repairing stuff and painting window frames, swimming around and hiding behind strawhats and long sleeves to fight what at the start seemed like an inevitable burn, but now appears a potential tan. I'm a son man. This latter half of last week. The former three days I was Southbound, cleaning the house in a haze, vacumming the last dusty grains at way too late, past midnight, checking my flight check-in in sight before bed bug bites I was too tired to fight. But wait... every day's been great.

We're in Kalix today mostly to buy a pump, to bring up water from the lake, 6500 liters/hour, and ease the fight we previous years fought against relentless draught, bringing up 2-300 liters on dry days by hand. Waaay too much. All that energy we'll now be able to spend on less routinous; more rewarding tasks! Woot!

I took my first swim of the year a couple of days ago, first in the lake; a few hours later in river - visiting my good buddy Andreas for the first time this year. I've eaten my first Shrimp Sandwich of the summer here in Kalix today, attained my first splinter and driven around on lazy summer roads for the first time in way too long. Life moves at a pace of its own, far from effortless, where rest's a reward many steps from stress. Happy Summer people!

Here's last seven-day stretch.

So I watched one more anime episode after all, Hunter X Hunter episode 135. And I thought One Piece was heartfelt... this series might move past my all-time favorite if it keeps going like this! Intense. And shit, I watched the last episode of One Piece too, which turned out another suitable place to end so that was OK. Good thing there was no Naruto this week though or I'd have probably watched that as well. Vacation's coming up though, so soon these addictions will begone again!

In other news: the week has been busy. Two work days, though one was canceled last-minute. Took a trip to the city on Wednesday, ate a huge pizza, had a good time. Took another trip in on Friday, to a Fish spa (it was a gift!) and another restaurant, passed by my cousins place to fetch leftover food just before they rode up North. I'm usually way ahead of them, but this year's twisted. Took a long walk with a buddy this Saturday, and between these bouts of unusual high-level recreation I've been sorting files like crazy, posting old shit and hoping to get things sorted and old projects finished before I leave. As always it feels like I've been leaving way too much till last second. Why don't I ever start with stuff like this in good time?! Or do I actually have more time to focus on these things now that work and studies are both done for this semester...? Either way, what I don't finish now I'ma finish as soon as I get back. And if I don't need to do it, there's no harm in abandoning old projects, life is priorities, no need to keep and do everything. I need to tell myself that more often.

This week I've posted 11 movie reviews, 8 batches of game screenshots that have been lying around forever, an old TM2 review, a few old artworks, an old Maxthon Test, another Musicalish and a bit about GOG and Unity.

Next week... there will be no weekly post, probably, cause I probably won't be visiting a public computer that soon. I'll post something before I leave though, and hope most of the tasks I've set out for myself before then are accomplished. Even if they aren't, I know everything will be quickly forgotten as soon as the plane hits the sky. Just three days left now! Here's last week.