Thank you to friends and family

It was a nice and fairly quiet day, and it was just perfect

for me, here and now.

It is getting colder

During the colder weather I strive for the temperature

in my apartment being around 20 degrees Celsius.

My philosophy:

I feel really miserable if it is much colder.

If it is much warmer, the electricity bill will be very

high, and too hot makes me drowsy.

Today it felt cold. Checking the thermometers in

the different rooms, I discovered it was now around

17 degrees Celsius.

I brought out one of my two radiators and officially

started the heating season.

Autumn rain

Tonight it has been raining.

The sound coming in through my windows reminds

me of autumn rain back when I went to highschool

in Moss.

Back then I usually used my bicycle.

I dressed up in my Helly Hansen's rain suit - orange

pants and orange jacket, and I wore "sailor boots",

low Wellington boots, in such weather.

How did my schoolbooks get to school dry?

Was the rucksack enough?

I don't remember.

But I do remember the feeling of bicycling in the rain.

What should I do less of, and when?

Yesterday I had a "thinking-about-my-life day".

Sometimes I do this as a Mindsweep , noting down

whatever comes into my head.

Yesterday I was just thinking and thinking.

It is a different challenge for somebody who likes

to get things down on paper right away.

I remembered something I worry about:

Somebody I know is still driving a car at the age of 80.

When family members talk about this with

the person concerned, he gets very defensive, pointing

to the MD's recent approval. He is of the firm

opinion that he is still capable of driving.

Driving of course gives this person the possibility

to get out and do what he has done a whole life.

Not driving would mean a great change in quality of

life.

Then I look at myself, and wonder in what fields of

life I myself am of the firm belief I am still fully capable,

but that in fact I may not be so.

What should I do less of?

Worth thinking about.

Remembering my friend G.

Today I have been sitting here, going through my inbox

and checking the emails I got from G. since January 2010.

In one of his emails he refers to himself as "your friend

and informal career advisor". I like that description.

Most of the emails give me links to articles he had read

in the field of our common hobby, but now and then

other subjects would pop up.

Sometimes he wrote like a big brother, a mentor, trying

to give me more selfconfidence.

I made an eight page text listing the articles and some

of our comments, and sent it to his wife, who is now

a widow, and to some common friends.

I think the four hours I kept doing this, was a kind of

personal goodbye ceremony , a virtual funeral.

I miss him.

Email on Friday, dead on Sunday

My friend G. sent me an email last Friday

with a link to an interesting article he had read

and that he thought would interest me.

On Saturday he was at home when he suddenly

called out to his wife, before losing consciousness.

On Sunday he was dead.

He was a good man.

Opening my inbox, I see there are hundreds of emails.

Many of them were just like the last ones -

links to interesting articles he had read.

We shared a hobby. Sometimes I have been able

to help him a little with his projects in that hobby.

His wife told me this morning that he liked to read

my blog, so I hope I gave something back to him too.

Every time I have visited my other country during

the last three and a half years, he and his wife made

the effort so that we could meet.

What made G. such a special person for me?

I will think more about that later.

For now, blessed be his memory.