Newsletter 2019Before writing this newsletter we read our latest four newsletters. In summary, we have a really good life, we have invited many people to play Cards against humanity, and we sound unbearably bouncy. We noticed that not many people have actually come to play cards with us, so we would like to invite you all again! We also want to assure you that we are not always bouncy. Many days the best part of the day is when we old people slouch on the couch while the young men sit in front of their computers, each in their room and not a single meaningful word is said. 2019 began with a Strauss evening at Malmö concert scene. There were gentlemen in smoking or tails and nicely dressed up ladies. After a beautiful concert parts of the orchestra provided us with amazing live dance music, and the entire family took part in the walzer and polka dancing. In order to show off our nice clothes even more we attended a banquet where smoking was required at a spa-resort in the southernmost part of Sweden. Easter holiday in Italy can also be recommended, perfect temperature and not too many tourists. We enjoyed lemon, churches, serpentine roads, more churches, good food, churches, an ancient spa (bagni Regina Giovanni) and more churches. The best ice cream is not found in the large gelaterias with 30-40 kinds of brightly colored, artistically displayed ice cream. Aim for the small sterile gelaterias with all the ice hidden in sanitary steel buckets. The best ice cream can be found by walking to the Vatican, take left and then get a little lost. After a day in Rome we drove south to the Amalfi coast. We also enjoyed Pompeji with huge amounts of old stones shaped into beautiful old buildings. After about three hours Axel grew tired of stones and went to Sorrento for ice cream. The rest of the family enjoyed with the stones another couple of hours.  In the summer we took a small road trip in Sweden. We found many hidden small hotels and good food. Dancing all evening outdoors in Bingsjö was just as enjoyable as it was 20 years ago. The copper mine in Falun is amazing! It has an essential part in Sweden’s development into an industrialized country. Technical inventions and the destruction of nature have been going on for a thousand years there. We dropped Johan off for one week of black-smithing for beginners. This autumn we were invited to Miki’s vineyard in Hungary for grape harvest and good food. It was very nice but I think Miki was a bit disappointed in our harvesting capabilities. The trip got even better as we stayed a couple of days in Budapest, looking at beautiful buildings, bronze shoes and churches. Ruda spa,, with a roof top jacuzzi and a grand Budapest view was very, very nice. This year we have converted an un-loved room in the basement into an electronics work shop. We threw out and gave away a huge pile of ”treasures” that have accumulated these 20 years. A logical explanation for the huge amount of stuff must be that some of it has reproduced biologically. I don’t know where it all has come from if that is not the case. Now the room is filled with computers and small electrical things, but some people say that the very small distance to the beer is the best part of it.  At the end of the year we visited relatives in Seattle. We enjoyed the Christmas turkey, Christmas ham, Christmas cabbage rolls and Christmas snaps. We also met the newest second cousin. Visiting Facebook in San Francisco and New Years in Las Vegas was all wonderful experiences. We saw the Golden gate bridge, Muir woods, Ghirardelli, beautiful nature, oil fields and Death Valley. We did not see any churches. As usual, Las Vegas was a mixture of everyday insanity and grand delusions, now surrounded by a cloud of cannabis smoke. Swedes are usually dressed in heavy winter coats, hats, scarves and gloves when the temperature is just above freezing. Other people in Vegas preferred short skirts or shorts, short sleeved tops and sandals. We felt very foreign. For this USA visit, Axel dreamt of having breakfast at a real diner, dinner at Hell’s kitchen Las Vegas, and visiting as many guitar shops as possible. We did it all.  
Johan is now 16 and attends first year of senior high school. He studies natural sciences with extra physics, and enjoys himself a lot. He plays the computer and the French horn, and he has learned that the French horn is best cleaned using the garden hose. In the summer he attended black smithing for beginners, and came home with hooks, nails and first degree burns. He dreams of owning a castle with lots of land attached where he can practice his hobbies without disturbing anyone.  Carl is (of course) still at Axis, pondering what the next step after the radar should be. In parllel with working at Axis, He and Kersti have founded a company called Almisten. It was supposed to be Almspecialisten, but the hour was late and Carl was tired and he registered the wrong domain. The company offers 3D-printed mounts for the smallest Axis cameras. Johan and Axel do the CAD and Carls is the product manager. A gigantic company in Belgium manufactures the parts. See more at www.zebramount.com. Kersti is (of course) still at PHI. She makes fewer but longer trips and was already twice in the USA last year before the Christmas trip. She visited Minneapolis and Ann Arbor. Minneapolis has the beautiful Stone Arch Bridge, built in the 1860s for trains to pass the Mississippi. Down town Detroit is fascinating with a mixture of ruins and luxury buildings.  Latest update: March 12, 2020 |
