Andrew is in Denmark this week at a wind conference, so naturally Inara and I are partying like it's 1999. Fortunately, my mom has been here for a couple of days to reign the shenanigans in. It's been really good for my sanity to have someone here to help with Inara and chores. She's learning so much right now and it's cool to realize that she actually understands a ton of what we say to her and that she knows how to do a bunch of stuff.
Some pictures from the last week and some more from Easter:
She was playing by herself in the living room when I came in and this was the look I got for disturbing her while reading.
She no longer accepts being fed and demands to handle the spooning herself.
Cupboards are now an easy match. Who knew trash bins could be so intriguing?
In Sweden it's tradition to dress up as an Easter witch and here on the island you also parade through town in your getup and get rewarded with an Easter egg at the end. At least if you're a kid. Luckily Inara can't have candy so we got her loot.
We also went to a non-traditional international Easter potluck. This is what the table looked like:
A bit of a change from eggs, pickled herring, and potatoes which are standard fare here.
Seems Inara has Idaho in her blood. Andrew let her take her pick out of all the potatoes in the bag and she carefully selected the biggest, best looking one. After that it was her favorite toy for about three days. But really, potatoes are all Idaho kids play with, right?
Clutched to her chest
Also, we went to an Easter party the other day and Inara was sitting at the bottom of the stairs when a Frenchman walked past her and up. She watched him very closely, paused, and then climbed up them herself. I guess she figured if a Frenchman could do it, so could she. We had never seen her do anything like this before, but she did it twice - really fast the second time.
So the time has come again that I, Andrew, post. I realize this is why most of you follow the blog and apologize for the long delay between posts. I have been busy doing stuff, let's just leave it at that.
So as I'm sure you're all asking yourselves in your myriad of languages, "Why is Andrew, who is great, posting today? He must have something really good to say."
To which I respond my dear readers, you are correct. I have recently scaled a 80+ meter (240 ftish) turbine and have captured the event to share with you.
I shall begin on the ground.
For those that cannot read Swedish this sign says "Welcome to the Grötlingbo wind turbines. Please climb
them and throw rocks down." Seriously who leaves a gate open with a sign only in Swedish before
something that could kill you? In the US people put "peligro" and "achtung" on signs.
Here is a movie of my class standing by the above sign while an epileptic films the terrain and turbines.
Yes, enough of scenery let's get to the action.
There it is. Just asking to be climbed.
Meh. Not that tall. But it is shiny.
ACTION SHOT!
I peed on the tree to the left of the shadow.
This wasn't some old fashioned turbine, it was a big new sucker. It even had an elevator (not pictured because this post isn't about the people who took the elevator to the top like chickens. To you chickens who read this, bock bock.). The elevator was two person and very slow. Oh did I mention this was a race against the clock? It was. To climb the turbine it had to be off. Something about...blah blah...dismemberment...electrocution...didn't really pay that much attention. Anyhow when a turbine is turned off people are losing money. Money the university had to pay them, so the ascent must be done as quickly as possible.
That's where the climbers came in. Unable to abide by the interminable ride on the elevator, and ever aware of the ticking clock, three brave souls climbed the full 80 meters to the nacelle (the box on the top of the turbine).
Here we see the first of the climbers, Nikolaos the Greek. The harness was cutting off blood flow to his brain. He doesn't normally look like that.
There are unfortunately no pictures of my heroic climb up the turbine as my camera was sent up the elevator. But rest assured I climbed the full 80 meters faster and with more grace than the others, hitting my head no more than 3 times.
This big blue thing is the generator. It is where the magic happens.
Oliver and Niko up top. Oliver is suffering from oxygen deprivation.
I think I saw something interesting?
I enjoy pointing in pictures. It gives me something to do.
Nice broad gesture here. I could be indicating the Baltic sea, or possibly the row of turbines on the horizon, but I'm not. I'm stretching.
Okay. So I wanted to walk around up here on the top of the nacelle. They told me not to. I told them I hadn't ever fallen off a turbine before. They still said no. I said I would stand in the middle and not jump a lot, just spin my arms like a turbine and make whooshing noises. Still no.
The blades were pretty dang big. Skit stora in fact.
The nacelle was surprising spacious. Nearly the size of our first apartment. Seriously.
I begin my heroic descent.
Well there it is. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Expect another post tomorrow or Sunday. It has been a busy week for our exploits.
Yesterday was our 7th wedding anniversary so we went out to dinner. We brought Inara since she has always been pretty good to bring to restaurants, but it seems the days of her being entertained by a napkin for 20 minutes are long gone. We pretty much took turns scarfing down our food while she led us around the restaurant. We discussed how many decades are likely to go by before she one day takes us out to dinner as recompense and agreed on a minimum of two. It was not that bad though, the food was quite good (Lebanese) and I was happy to spend the evening with my two favorite people.
And now for your viewing pleasure, some pictures from the ipod dating back to fall last year.
