Posts by Chuck Curtis
This morning Izzy and I went to the park at Skansen and spent a few hours walking around until we needed to find a place to thaw out. We headed back to the hotel and the Mall of Scandinavia where Izzy wound up getting a chance to meet Anna Swenn-Larsson, a Swedish skier that won the bronze medal at the 2026 Olympics. Below are some pictures from the walk around this morning.
Izzy has sportlov (sports break) this week. It is a week off of school designed to encourage outside and healthy activities. It originated in the 1940s during a wartime rationing of coal to save on school heating costs, but over time became more associated with outside activities (according to Swedish Radio). Izzy and I took the opportunity to take the three hour train trip north to Stockholm for two nights. Susanna doesn’t get the week off of work, so she is holding down the fort at home.
We arrived just after noon today and walked around Riddarholmen and Gamla Stan before heading to our hotel in Solna (next to the Mall of Scandinavia). We finished the evening enjoying dinners Susanna’s sister’s family (Rebecka, Max and Agnes)
Here are a few pictures from our walk around today. The bay around Stockholm is frozen for the first time in years. We saw a large group of ice skaters enjoying the clear weather. We even saw someone riding a bicycle across the Riddarfjärden.
To be honest, I’m getting tired of winter. Of course, a long, cold winter is something that I expected moving to Sweden. It has been a bit more difficult to find the motivation to get outside the past two weeks. It isn’t totally hopeless. The days are getting longer, and I get some motivation to walk with Hoagie. However, I found a bit of a cheat with him; I take him to the woods behind the apartment, and if no one is around I let him explore a few minutes off leash. It saves the walk tot he dog park. I keep telling myself that I’ll get back to he longer evening walks when it warms up. So, please hold me to that promise.
Anyway, despite my complaining, I did get some time to enjoy the weather this weekend.
Yesterday Susanna and Izzy met Hoagie and I in Rottne and we stopped by the Stockekvarn swimming place (on the eastern shore of Helgasjön) on the way back home to do some ice skating. I built a skating aid for them to practice with and they got to enjoy a not-crowded day skating on the lake. Hoagie even got some off leash time when the other skaters left, but was cold and ready to go home by the time we left.
This morning Izzy had a friend over and we all went to the mall for a few hours. This afternoon I dragged Izzy with me to the Helgö Naturreservat which is also on Helgasjön. We walked for an hour or so exploring the area. Hoagie had some time to run off the leash, but eventually I decided there were too many other hikers around and leashed him for the second half of the walk.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
I should try and remember to double check measurements before purchasing parts for old tools. But I probably won’t in the long run. A month ago I decided ripping hardwood by hand sucked, so I started using the tablesaw available in the shop next door. However the machine is old and the blades have been well used. I was starting to get burns on the wood I was cutting plus the blades they had were more geared for sheet goods and not solid lumber. I talked to the owner and he said I could put a new blade on the machine.
I looked the spare blades he had. They all were well used (the space had been a production shop for IKEA in the past, so no surprise that the blades had been well used). However the cases for the blades told me the size that (I thought) I needed. The blade boxes stated 350mm in diameter with a 30mm bore. The blades had been sharpened several times, so measured around 345mm in diameter. I stopped by the local woodworking store and picked up a 350 mm CMT rip saw blade.
However when I tried to put the blade on, it didn’t fit. I got the micrometer out and measured the arbor (and the actual blades that were on the saw). I needed a bore size of 35mm. The local woodworking shop didn’t have a blade in stock with that size (at least they didn’t online), so I had to do a search online. I found a company in Germany that had blades in stock. So that seemed like an easy fix. That evening I had one on order and expected it in late last week.
Shipping (or receiving packages) in Sweden has been a learning experience. Amazon deliveries are pretty consistent. The rest, not so much. The shipper website said it was delivered to a pickup point on Friday morning. However the website didn’t tell me what pickup point it was sent to. I looked through my previous orders and found one that had used the same company to ship from Germany. They used another company to do the final delivery in Sweden. That second company’s website told me to go to a grocery store in the southern part of the city to pick up my parcel.
On Sunday, Izzy and I drove to the grocery store. They couldn’t find my package with the parcel number that I had. So back to the internet to search for my package. Anyway, on Monday, I printed out the page with the shipping status and package numbers.
We’re still down a car, so yesterday I took the bus down to the grocery store and there my package was. A short bus trip back and I had the blade at home. This morning Hoagie and I took the bus up to Rottne and finally I have a new blade the tablesaw. And it fit, though I had to adjust the riving knife back as far as it would go.
With luck, tomorrow Susanna will have a new car and I don’t have to juggle the bus schedule every day. I still have 8 one-day bus passes that I need to use in the next month, so no matter what, I won’t be driving every day.
I was finally able to get back into the shop today.
Last week was a pretty slow shop week. Izzy was sick the second half of the week, so I had to stay home with her. She’s feeling mostly better today, so I was able to get to the shop. Susanna’s car is still with the mechanic where they are trying to diagnose some sort of electrical problem (or declare the car dead), so it was back on the bus to Rottne with Hoagie. The bus schedule doesn’t give me many hours at the shop, but it does help me get some exercise walking to and from the bus stop. Plus it is better than being stuck at home.
Today I finished throwing together a bench to support the planer. I built the bench out of scraps so it is pretty ugly. But it works. I think I have enough of the workshop built out, so I’m in business. At least this week. Next week is winter sports break for Izzy, so I’ll be out of the shop for the week (but we are visiting Stockholm for a few days, so that will be a fun adventure).
Today the sun came out and it warmed up a little bit (though still below freezing). Izzy was finally feeling good enough to get outside for a short hike. So, this morning the whole family agreed to go for a hike (with some members less excited than the others). We walked downtown, caught the number 4 bus to Öjaby, and walked to Dragsåsen naturreservat. The nature reserve sticks out into Öjabyviken (Öjaby bay) in Helgasjön (Lake Helga). The lake is frozen and we passed an area where a family had shoveled the snow and was skating on the lake. Hopefully Izzy will get the opportunity to skate on a lake some year, it is a pretty cool experience.
A little farther down the path we found a place to walk out onto the lake. We explored a bit while Hoagie had a great time running around on the open ice. He loves running in the snow. Izzy was the most adventurous of us and walked on the ice a ways along the shore while the rest of us walked the path and while Hoagie ran like crazy up and down the trails and hills. If only we could live every moment as carefree and excited as Hoagie is when he is running through the woods.
After a short walk, we crossed the bridge to the southern most part of the nature reserve. The snow had piled fairly deep on that section of trail, so we decided to wait until warmer weather to explore it fully. At least the humans did. Hoagie was having a ton of fun running through the snow piles and he explored a lot more of the southern island than we did.
Overall it was one of the more scenic hikes I have done in the area. It was way more interesting than the loop at Hissö that Izzy and I did on another windy day earlier this winter. It is a very short hike (under a mile) and we spent a lot more time walking to and from the bus than we did walking the trail.
