A Roll in the Universe

So, I'm busy downloading old photos from my Flickr account because Flickr is being sold and I'm tired of dealing with various TOS. 'Sides, I'm paying for Dropbox. And digging through the old stuff, here's one from 15 years ago: The weekend I was a professional astrologer. Giving an astrological reading at the Bergen New Age Fair (Alternativmessen) 2003 First of all: Dig the Mac laptop! The toilet lid, as Norwegian Mac afficiendos called it. Heh. I still have the striped knitted cardigan behind me. Handknitted by a dear no-longer-with-us friend who picked quality wool and did quality work. I shared the booth with the blonde Tarot reader in the corner. Haven't stayed in touch. If you dig into the links to earlier pages, you'll find where I wrote about the weekend I spent at the New Age Fair 2003 in Bergen and some other astrology stuff. I never stuck with it. It turns out I don't find people all that interesting. Let me rephrase: I like helping and ...

I like that the word "parallel"—if written in a sans serif font—contains a parallel. What also contains a parallel, is astronomy and from there, astrology. Keep reading if you want to see me attempt to explain the tilt of the planet. First of all, let's get one thing in our heads: All the planets, except Pluto, revolve around our sun on the same plane. Now add to this the fact that the Earth tilts about 23 degrees and this is the reason for seasons. I once really messed explaining this to the point that I called the other person stupid. But I was the stupid one, so let's see if I finally have this straight (hah!) in my head. This is, of course, far easier to understand visually, so grab something and hold it at a tilt and then move it in a circle parallel to the floor, keeping the same tilt, i.e. the object is tilted the same way as you see it all around the circle. You'll notice that at one point, the bottom is closest to the center of the circle and the to...

There are some real-life genies: Ones who can give you exactly what you want, without any effort on your part. Like my hairdresser. I think the modern term is "stylist" but my hairdresser doesn't style the rest of me—just the hair. But he does do magic with that hair. My hair has its own version of stubborn: Ruler-straight and baby-fine, it will not hold a curl without chemical help, and it won't even stay put in a ponytail. Within half an hour I have strands of hair gleefully escaping whatever I tried to hold them with. But my hairdresser makes me happy with my hair. He finds ways to cut it to take advantage of what it is. And it is shiny and gorgeously mousy brown. No, wait, he once told me it is ash brown and one of the best hair colors out there. He's less than two years older than me. I keep wondering what I'll do when he retires. I'll finally have to go find another cutter and that isn't easy. He has employees and some of them have had the opp...

Most folks think of migratory birds returning from their winter in Africa or some place as the sign of spring. For me it's the screeching gulls. Gulls and April arrive at the same time. The moment April's lawns are no longer covered in snow, the gulls return from whatever open water they've been hanging out at. Squawking, screeching and calling, they start their racket (courtship, it's called) at around 4 am in the morning and pretty much don't let up until their babies can fly. So basically all spring and summer. I know that for many people, this means interrupted sleep for a few months. For some reason, I can sleep through gulls crying at godforsaken predawn. Some magpie trying to chatter-warn a cat will wake me up and keep me up, but gulls yammering away at each other soothes me. Herring gulls are losing their coastal habitat so they come to the cities. Here, there are flat roofs, often with gravel, that mimic the lost nesting areas on the coast. So up on ou...

I could give you all kinds of astrological reasons for why my flow suddenly choked, but suffice to say that the communication planet Mercury is slowing down to turn around and right itself on Sunday. Until then, I shall amuse myself—and hopefully you, too—by wondering about the "false friends" language has. Things that look related or alike, but do not mean the same thing. Take "glimmer" for example. A word that means faint or wavering, especially of light. The dying beams of your flashlight are glimmering. Then there's the Norwegian word "glimmer", which means brilliant or excellent or brightly shining and flickering. Both the English and the Norwegian word have made the rounds but started with German. At what point did the English version come to mean faint rather than bright? Anyway, if someone tells you you're glimmery or something like that in Scandinavia, beam brightly and steadily with pleasure. The Daily Prompt: Glimmer

When I read that Bergen was getting ready to celebrate 950 years in 2020, I suddenly felt old. I remember when this plaque was new: Stones from all the counties of Norway were used to create this commemorative plaque for Bergen's 900th anniversary in 1970. The caption reads "1070 Bergen City 1970 / Norway's cities lay down these stones". (The number of cities has increased a lot since 1970.)

It arrived. The one document that makes everything irreversible. It makes me catch my breath. I get emotional opening the thick envelope from the US embassy in Oslo. They returned my passport, canceled. That's what makes the envelope thick. The rest are slim papers: The actual Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States, with several sheets attached. The first one tells me my options if I want to reconsider my loss, and the next ones are a set of the paperwork I signed at the embassy, now embossed with the embassy's seal. My eyes skim the papers, seeing dates. Renunciation date. Processing date. Dates that show actions and decisions. Final acts. Final decisions. I tear up again. Also in the envelope, a receipt I am to return in an enclosed envelope, confirming receipt of the other stuff. The instructions say to return this receipt as soon as possible to complete the renunciation service. I have to buy stamps. But first, I need to breathe. However much I...