I took the bus to the city today, for the first time since I went to sign the lease.  I waited this long because of the two colds that came one after another.  Knowing how it feels to have people sneezing and coughing on the bus during a Babykilling Flu pandemic, I had no wish to give others the same offense without dire emergency.

Now that I was no longer sneezing, I went to get a couple errands out of the way. It rained pretty hard and just kept raining.  Kristiansand was on the fringe of the rainstorm, it had done some serious damage in the United Kingdom from what I understood on the radio (I only heard fragments).   The bureau of hydrology had sent out a warning for western Norway from Sogn & Fjordane (the province where I grew up) to Vest-Agder (the province where I live now) with warning of 5-year or even 10-year flood.

I am not sure if you use these same concepts in English, so let me elaborate.  It means that the rivers are expected to swell to a size that is on average seen only every 5 or 10 years.  There are even higher numbers, like 100 years flood, which is generally considered a risk to life and entire communities, while 5 or 10 year flooding only represent risk of minor property damage. (Well, unless you are foolhardy, which is not uncommon in Norway. Heroic Viking spirit and all that.)

I was tempted to go to Møll and look at the river that passes ten yards from the Moth-house.  But I doubt it would impress me.  By there, the river has more or less reached sea level already, so it is more of a strong current. And the riverbank is high enough not to worry, and the house even has no basement.  (Which was a disappointment, but not today.  And with the heat pump they are currently installing, I am not worried about the summer heat anymore.  So much for being energy conscious.)

Turned out I had not brought with me more money than I need for the errands, well not enough to go anywhere at least.  I could withdraw money from the bank, but that is something I try to minimize for the rest of the year.  I happened to find a few 1000-kr bills at home recently (that would be reasonably close to $200 each) so I think I will use those first.

Besides, I had not brought with me anything.  I want to make each trip count by bringing some object from Nodeland to the Moth-house. A bag of books, for instance, or clothes.   This also has the benefit that I can more easily see what I want to throw away – basically anything not worth carrying is not worth keeping (not counting furniture etc obviously).  I did this last time I moved, except I carried things to the apartment I did not move into.  Hopefully better luck this time!

In my carrying bag I found a book I had put there just before my vacation began: “Forgotten Truth” by Huston Smith.  I had put it in my bag and forgotten it.