Thoughts on masks

I am not a poet and haven't tried to write any poetry or should I say faux poetry since I was in college. You will then hopefully forgive me for putting this piece out.  It represents some feelings I have had as the Covid crisis intensifies again and as the arguments over masking continue to rage.  

                                                  Thoughts On a Mask 12/27/21

Behind the cloud is darkness--

Even as eyes flash alive above.

I search for the hidden secrets   

Of hate or love,

Of joy or sorrow,

Of fatigue or desperation,       

Or perhaps nothing at all.

A vacuum may lie   

Under the skin of gauze.

Or is it fear?

The disease days

Press down endlessly.  

Specters in white 

Concerned and pale

Wait for the waning. 

When the cloud will pass,

When the cover can leave.  

When a cry of victory can rise.

 

Will the darkness remain?

Still, but within us,

and not in the mask.   

 

Jim De Young 

Viveca Sten Murder Mysteries #4-8

 

Viveca Sten is a top selling Swedish author who has set her books in the city of Stockholm and the hundreds of islands that compose the Stockholm archipelago. I review Book one last month (Still Waters) and since then I have read and enjoyed several more of her Sandhamn mysteries. They have interesting characters, they evoke Swedish society, and especially the nature of life on the islands that I had never heard of before.   I was going to wait until I read the full series before putting up more comments, but I think I need to move on to some other unfinished books by other authors that are waiting in the wings. So take a peak at my thoughts on four more of her books. 

In #4 Tonight You’re Dead a sadistic drill sergeant in the 1970’s abuses a group of recruits in the Swedish Coastal Guard.  Sten never quite manages to explain why the killer wants to murder all the members of the platoon when the real villain is the Drill Sergeant who trained them. Detective Andreeson is not even fully recovered from his last case before he has to find this villain. I never did get a full l understanding of the whole issue.  All told a bit disappointing that is only partially redeemed by Nora, Detective Andreeson’s childhood friend, finding a new lover to replace the hyper-controlling husband she has divorced.  Her move to independence still seems to be inspired by Ibsen’s Nora in A Doll’s House.

Book #5 titled In The Heat of the Moment and is also disappointing. The death of a young Midsummer Night party goer and drug addict seems to go nowhere with most of the prime suspects seeming to be rich, hapless, drunken  kids. Detective Andreeson and his crew don’t really solve anything as the resolution appears to happen to them rather than through their investigative efforts. Nora’s affair with Jonas, her new squeeze, is put on hold as her ex-husband Henrik seems to have had an unexplained attitudinal turn around after the young woman that engendered his divorce takes a runner on him .

The critical societal issue of adolescents who steal, party, drink themselves into stupor, take drugs, and have constant sex while their moneyed parents remain unconscious and generally unconcerned, not grappled with in any serious way. It is just depicted. I give this one a bare two stars.

In Harm’s Way (Book #6) gets back on track.  A crusading journalist is found dead in the snow just a few yards from the saving comfort of the Sailor’s Inn on the island of Sandhamn.  Motive is key here and Andreeson and his cohort dig into the past to find that the victim’s estranged husband has been in a fight with her over the guardianship of their daughter.  Deeper digging into the growing problem of conservative political thought and anti-immigrant sentiment in Sweden also begins to impact the case and ultimately leads to an exciting conclusion. In a clear reversal the appealing secondary plot line dealing with Andreesen’s friend Nora’s marital and workplace issues finds her new relationship with lover, airline pilot Jonas, seesawing between the new more caring former husband Henrik. It is clear that there is more to come there.  

Book #7 In the Shadow of Power continues to show some back on the track power. It is a year after Book #6 and Detective Thomas Andreesen is having doubts about his career. He has had an offer to join a private security firm and is torn between more money and regular hours and his gut feeling that he is doing an important job for society.  Nora and flyboy Jonas are now living together and have a blended family including all of their children from former marriages. 

Enter the specter of a prosperous business tycoon with anger control issues, a drug habit, and an overall abrasive personality. He has amassed his fortune in other climes and is now looking for a big killing in Russia that will finance his huge new mansion to be built on the island of Sandhamn.  The long-time residents of the island do not take kindly to this noueau riche bully.  

In spite of their disapproval of the man and his project, the locals all turn up at his gala housewarming party. The mystery deepens when a fire reduces the property’s guest house to rubble and turns into murder when an unidentified charred body is found in the ashes. That brings both Detective Andreeson and long time Sandamn resident Nora into the picture. Before this knot is untied there is plenty of excitement and violence. This one rises to a four out of five on my scale.  

Book #8 In the Name of Truth finds Nora in the throes of a major legal case and looking forward to wedding Jonas. Meanwhile, Thomas, who has re-united with his former wife, Pernilla, is having conflicts along the same lines that ended Nora’s marriage to Henrik. It is the modern question of which spouse’s job is more important, which job takes more time away from family responsibilities, and how does pay differential impact everything?    

Into this difficult personal dilemma pops a possible abduction of a young boy from a Sandhamn sailing camp. Thomas is mucho distraught because the boy is about the same age as his daughter.  The story cycles between Nora’s court case and the potential kidnapping until the two cases begin to show connections to each other.  Although the coincidences seem a bit too strained at times, the characters remain interesting and the ambience of the Swedish islands and their watery surroundings evoke an emotionally compelling presence.

Sten’s work is uneven at times, but since you can read them for a song or even borrow them free on Kindle, I have no problem in recommending that you dip into them.

 

 

 

 

  

THE GREAT MOVE

From Garrison Keillor comes the saying, "Serenity at 70; Gaiety at 80."  My wife and I are making an attempt to fulfill that thought this year. We have just deserted our big blue monster of a house in Monmouth, IL  along with all the winter travails that go along with it.

Our new home is a two bedroom apartment at Grand Living at Indian Creek in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  

Iowa wasn't really on our bucket list for exciting retirement abodes, but the time seemed ripe to move nearer to our daughter and to move while we were not facing a major health event. If you would like the new address or phone numbers, please e-mail me at dramajim@gmail.com

If this satisfies your hunger for knowing where we live, you can quit reading now. 

Continuing to scroll will get you more details of our new residence. Grand Living at Indian Creek is a 160 unit senior rental community (no lease or large un-refundable contributions required). It is located on the eastern side of Cedar Rapids, IA.  It has a 24 hour staffed desk at the entrance. Under current Covid rules all staff are  masked and residents are asked to be masked when not in their apartments or eating in the dining room.

To the right of the main entrance is the library. It holds a nice collection of current and classic fiction along with biography and travel books. You can read in the room or take items back to your apartment without charge. There is also a little corner where a jigsaw puzzle is waiting for completion.   

Straight ahead from the reception desk is a public living room where residents and their guests can relax or chat.   

Outside of the double doors at the back of the public space is a patio with tables and chairs. It looks  a bit bleak now, but is a cheery and sunny place to sit when the weather is nice. As you can see the back of the building faces a wooded area.

Also on the first floor is a large meeting room.  It is used for various group activities, meetings, movies, and performances.  It is equipped with a large video screen, some lighting, and a good public address system.

There are two dining areas on the first floor.  Below is the formal dining area for dinner. 

That's where we enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner with a neighbor who also supports our favorite football team.

There is another more informal dining and gathering space. It has not been used for meals during the Covid shutdown, but still does house coffee and social gettogethers as well as some craft activities, 

Finishing out the ground floor are offices, a beauty shop, a fitness center, and an open space for classes such as Yoga, Tai Chi, and Balance. 

Now that you have your bearings you can take an elevator to the fourth floor and visit our apartment. Exit the elevator, walk past a public room that contains a TV and pool table, then down a long hall to this door.

And that's where we live now.

Here's a little look at what we saw when we first looked at it. This is from the kitchen area looking at the living room.

Here's the reverse looking toward the the kitchen.

A close up view of the kitchen after we started to add some clutter to give the space a more lived in look

The kitchen area and island gets plenty of natural light from the screened patio doors that lead out to a small balcony.

The balcony has room for a small table and a couple of chairs. Standing there you can see the rear of the building and 

and also look out at a wooded area. What looks like a dirt road is actually a little walking path that belongs to our building. 

I took this shot on that little path a month ago.

If you look carefully just behind and to the right of the bench, you can see another visiting deer.  

 

From that path you can look back at our whole building and even see our balcony on the far left of the fourth floor. The fenced area is part of the memory care unit.

Back to the interior now. Here is our living room after it was furnished with a new recliner sofa, a new TV, some new tables, and some older items brought from Monmouth. 

It was inspected and found satisfactory by both our daughter and our son and his family when they visited from Finland in October. 

That's our daughter Amy with her little niece Selma. 

The living room has a neat gas fire place and provides a good space for our TV. You will note that the it is playing a Green Bay Packer game. Go Cheeseheads! 

A nice new side table has proved to be just the right spot to display some of our Southwestern pottery and other items from around the world.

The living room is large, comfy, and full of light during the day, but the master bedroom looks elegant too.  We treated ourselves to a new bed after over forty years and some new chests as well.    

The master bath is roomy with a double sink and walk-in shower. 

A huge closet opens off the master bath as well. 

The second bedroom has been converted into my office and study (though Jan has user rights as well).

There are just a few other areas.  Alongside of the the front door is a space for a table and a knick-knack shelf.  There is also a small coat closet in that space.   

As you move past the entrance area you look into a strange little windowless triangle space that the sales people called a den.  We have converted it into a little nook for Jan.  It contains her laptop and her parent's antique desk along with some long term storage.  It still needs some pictures to make it more homey looking. 

Another small space contains my mother's antique chest and two pictures given to us by our artist friend--George Olson. 

And that is that. We are enjoying our new home, the many activities, the caring staff, and the wonderful friends we have already made.   Come visit us if you are in the area.  

t

Car Talk

 

A bit of retrospection about changes in cars over the years

A writing prompt about car keys jumped out at me this week because the one thing notable about car keys is you don’t have them anymore.   You have this funny little fobby thing that never leaves your pocket but still unlocks the door then starts the engine while you push a button on the dash. You can never lose your keys again, but heaven help you if you lose your fob.

This got me thinking about how many changes in cars we have lived through or at least know about.  The earliest vehicles didn’t have keys either. I wonder if horseless carriage rustling was considered to be a problem back then.  Come to think of it, early autos didn’t have starters either. You had to turn the engine over with a crank. My grandfather also told me that cranks could be so cranky that they could snap back on you and break your arm. Thank God Mr. Ford or Mr. Olds or someone did invent an electric starter that got its turnover power from a battery.

It’s a wonder, given the nasty habits of cranks,  that when some bright engineer decided a bit later that an automobile could use some windows to  keep the  dust and the weather out that a crank was the proper method to open a window.  Cranks hung on a long time after that.  

The first family car I remember was a pre-war sedan my dad bought around 1946.  It had cranks on the windows and a manual transmission with the shift lever located on the steering column.  It also had a clutch on the floor.  Most kids today if asked about a clutch would think you are inquiring about a group of birds.  Happily our old friend the clutch has gone the way of keys and cranks.   Shift levers, of course,  have been around since the beginning. They started on the floor, then migrated to the steering column, and finally, when automatics came in, sort of settled down to the center console along-side the drink cups. Have you ever had the experience of trying to change to reverse only to find your hand in the Pepsi or hot coffee?  Not pleasant.

There is a final change to discuss that may be the most important of all. That first family car of ours did have a radio. It grabbed on to a few local stations and the sound came out of a tiny tinny little speaker in the dashboard. Later cars had radios that added the FM band, but soon there came the addition of an eight-track player. Eight-track lasted about sixty seconds before it was replaced by the cassette—which lasted a bit longer. When the CD player and stereo began to be installed in cars that little dashboard speaker became obsolete. Speakers began to multiply like rabbits. Suddenly there were speakers on both sides of the dash and speakers in each door, and speakers in the back seat, and something called a woofer (not a giant Doberman) pushing out heavy bass from somewhere in the trunk.  Most of us know these musical setups from the vehicle next to us at a stoplight that is emanating sounds so loud that they make our teeth vibrate. I have always wondered what it must be like in the interior of that car.

I have not forgotten that today our flivver has a GPS screen in the front seat that will answer your cell phone, find and direct you to any address in the country, and beam hundreds of channels of entertainment  to additional screens in the rear seats so the kids can watch a movie or play video games.  This has eliminated that age-old child’s whiny question “Are we there yet?”  Now what comes from the back seat is “Can’t Aunt Ida hold dinner until we find out if the SUPERLORDS have saved civilization as we know it once again.”    

I don’t mean to make too much fun of the changes in cars over the years at all. The mechanical improvements and computerization have been a boon.  I know that our old pre-war Ford needed a quart of oil at every fill-up. Dad always carried a case of motor oil in the trunk along with tools and an innertube repair kit since tubeless tires were still in the future. No older vehicle ever had air conditioning other than cranking down the windows. Nor did an older car have a moon roof on it so you could push a button and pretend you had a convertible. And finally, who could have imagined that one day we would have a car that could parallel park for us.   

Jim De Young   11/30/2021

  

 

We Get a Visit from Finland

 The national news has now covered the re-opening of Trans-Atlantic air routes. Pictures of reunions of friends and families who had not seen each other since the Covid lockdown began have now been on TV and in the newspapers.  None of these stories featured our son and his family. They deserve recognition now as they visited us from Finland a few weeks ago.  When we last saw them in the flesh our granddaughters were 4 and 7 and guess what! They have changed a lot in two years.

As at least some of you know, our son David married, Lotta, a lovely Finnish woman and they have brought two beautiful little girls into the  world and our lives. They are named Frida and Selma and will have the starring role in this post.  David works for the Kone elevator company in Helsinki and they all live in a suburb of Helsinki called Espoo. Here's to their visit and to the two main photographers--Lotta and Grandpa Jim. 

On both ends of the trip David and family ended up in downtown Chicago for a few days. They marveled at the wonders of the El. 

   

They enjoyed a marvelous Halloween Parade.

And along the way they made friends with Chicago's finest,--even getting a best costume prize on one excursion

That looked like fun, but for us the excitement began with the engine light of Amtrak's California Zephyr coming in sight as we waited on the platform in Galesburg, IL.    

The train pulls in.

There they are.

And here we all are.

Grandma gets to hold a little hand once more.

With the rental car collected, we headed to Monmouth for our first meal together.  It was a celebratory one  topped out by a special birthday cake as both of our granddaughters had just had their birthdays.

They are now 6 and 9

The girls loved the glorious ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  None of the Finn's had ever had or seen one before. 

There wasn't much left after we all tucked into it.  

After arriving in Monmouth, David began going through material that he had left in our attic when he left Minneapolis to take up residence in Finland. There were also plenty of books and records that he had to decide to preserve or leave behind for us to dispose of. 

The weather was so nice that we were able to enjoy a sit down on our lovely front porch.  

Our first sightseeing trip took us to Peoria to see the Dinosaur exhibit at the Riverfront Museum. 

On the way back we made a stop at the Wildlife Prairie Park where we saw the bison and   

 rode the train

All along the tracks there were blow up figures for Halloween.

Some decorations were too skinny to be blow ups.

It was a long day, but a nice snuggle under the covers in momma and poppa's bed was just the ticket for Selma.  

Monmouth was also "craft central" and all the tables in the house were stacked high with projects. 

Play dough was a popular choice.  

I'm not sure how Frida made this one but I think Van Gogh might be pleased. 

Much of the output ended up on our refrigerator. 

This happy ghost was my favorite.

Our next excursion took us to Camp's Orchard and pumpkin patch a few miles outside of Monmouth. Frida, Selma, and Amy wished everyone a Happy Halloween.

The orchard had a nice pumpkin patch.

 Selma, our little pumpkin, is always happy to put on a big smile and pose. 

We rode a wagon pulled by a tractor out into the apple orchard. 

The apples were everywhere and red and ripe.  

This young picker loved his job. 

 

Of course our little leapers preferred the Jump Pad.

Selma is still smiling.

Frida looks so grown up  in this photo. It is hard to believe that she made her first trip to the United States when she was literally a babe in arms.  

Trip number two, given our closeness to one of the great rivers in the world, was to the Gladstone Lock  and Dam #18 on the Mississippi.  It is less than thirty minutes from our house in Monmouth. Grandma and Selma loved to look at all the pelicans fishing around the dam. 

  

They are just little dots in this photo, but 

they are impressive when you see them closeup.

We were lucky to catch sight of a tow heading upriver and toward the lock.  

We all had a closeup view of the barges being pushed into the lock chamber by the tow boat.

  One of the lock keepers rode a little tricycle along the side as the barges were being squeezed in. 

 

The locks have been totally fenced in since the 9/11  attacks, so after the locking was finished, we walked downstream a bit so our Finns could tell everyone in Helsinki that they had dipped a toe in the "Big Muddy." 

All this running around made everyone hungry and that cried out for some vittles at our very favorite  restaurant in Galesburg-- The Landmark. There was plenty of time for snaps and selfies while we waited for our food. 

I like this one of David and Lotta

And here's our all grown up Frida again.

Selma is looking a bit more pensive than usual. 

The next day we all drove to Cedar Rapids, IA. Our daughter Amy lives there and Grandma and Grandpa have just moved there.  Their new digs are at the Grand Living senior community where they have a bright and and roomy 2BR apartment on the 4th floor.

 I am planning to give everyone a full tour of our new home at a later date.  Right now the emphasis will remain on the Finns with just a little tease on what is behind this door.   

Amy and the girls did think it was a "too cool." apartment though.

There was plenty to do in Cedar Rapids other than visiting our new abode. We had a yummy pizza party at Amy and Todd's house that even included roasting s'mores around a fire pit. The girls did a lot of swimming at the pool at the Hampton Inn where they stayed, but Halloween continued to call, so we struck out to visit another pumpkin farm. 

There was another hay wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch

This time Grandma and Grandpa stayed behind while the driver chatted Amy and the girls up. 

Luckily Grandpa had his big camera along and was able to snap a nice closeup of three of the sweetest human beings on this planet. 

I trust you noted that the wagon was pulled by a John Deere tractor.  These are the iconic machines in this part of the world. There was another more vintage John Deere on site that could be used for pictures. Frida jumped on and loved getting some early driving practice. 

We checked out a few other animals on display  

and then had the girls pose for a true American Gothic photo. Grant Wood was a Cedar Rapids resident and had his main painting studio there. 

Another big trip while in Cedar Rapids was to the Children's Museum in the big mall just outside of Iowa City.  Amy and the girls had a ball while David and Lotta shopped. 

 

They checked out all the teeth.

Then took over the bank. 

 

Plenty of sipping went on.  

Ice cream was on the menu as well.   

Hanging out was also a popular activity.  

Then a bummer. All too soon we were back at the Galesburg train station waiting for their return train to Chicago.

ALL ABOARD!

We waved a final good bye from the platform and this was how it looked from the train as it pulled out of the station.  Two days later Finn Air carried our visitors non-stop back to Helsinki and their home.   

We  love you so much Frida and Selma.  We can't wait until we can hug you again.