Del 6, och annat

Hyresvärden och Thomas har haft lite kontakt, och igår skulle de träffats för nycklar och kontrakt. Men än en gång dök han inte upp. Men, men.. det är iaf inget bråk för tillfället. Det är skönt..

Jobbet
På jobbet går det framåt, även om det är lite struligt. Vi har äntligen hittat ett kontor, och det är bekräftat att vi ska flytta in där 2/1, ungefär. I Företagshuset i centrala, centrala Varberg blir det :) 25 kvm, vitt, fint :) Kontraktet skrivs snart, och inflytt kan bli så tidigt som i mellandagarna.

Det är ett kontorshotell (alltså gemensamt kök, fikarum etc) i gammalt tufft hus, med en otroligt imponerande trappa. Måste ta bild på den sedan :)

Det verkar även fixa sig med pengar, även om det går långsamt så går det framåt.

Das Boot
Das Boot var riktigt najs! Det började med att jag kom upp till Stockholm runt 13. Där mötte Zwenzzon och gange mig precis vid tåget. De är så gulliga! Sure, det var säkerligen mycket pga timingen: deras tåg kom in på spåret bredvid 5 minuter före mitt tåg ;) men jag är övertygad om att de hade mött mig oavsett :)

Nedanför trappan på centralen stod Emelie och väntade på oss, och vi drog hem till jolt (i lägenheten han nu flyttat från :)) för att göra oss iordning, lämna saker, packa om, fixa och dona och hänga innan det var dags att dra till båten :)


Jag och Mlemlan, och jolt

Jag, Zwenzzon, gange och en tjej som heter Karin hade en hytt längst, längst ner under bildäck, bredvid motorn. Hela hytten skakade, vibrerade och lät dygnet runt. Jag tror att jag fick sammanlagt 1 timmas sömn den natten, högst.

Gange och Karin i vår hytt -->

Banden jag såg var Mustach, Dia Psalma, Covenant, Alice In Videoland och Lillasyster.

Lillasyster var bra, jag gillade kommentaren "Vi försöker verkligen att inte vara ett coverband" innan de spelade "Umbrella" ;p

<-- Martin i Lillasyster/LOK

Jag skulle egentligen ha mött upp Martin (sångaren, förut i LOK), men jag hittade honom inte efteråt, och ville inte leka Groupie och leta som en galning ;) Han fyllde år, så jag (och andra) började sjunga för honom - det verkade uppskattas iaf :)

När jag såg Covenant senare på kvällen hade jag jättekass inställning, för att alla sagt att de är så tråkiga/dåliga live - jag tyckte att de var jättebra faktiskt. Sångaren kunde faktiskt sjunga. I liked. Trots att jag är långt ifrån synthare.

De fick lite extra poäng av mig när jag såg sångaren studsa i publiken när Dia Psalma spelade nästa dag ;)

Att se Dia Psalma förresten, var fantastiskt. De var inte extremt bra live eller så, men det var alla fjortiskänslorna i mig som väcktes. Det var underbart att höra gamla låtar man hört och sjungt med i så många gånger förut. Underbart.


Zwenzzon och OpenTokix

I övrigt handlade det mest om att hänga med underbara vänner (Emelie, jolt, zwenzzon, OpenTokix och gange), träffa några nya (Karin, Hellboy och nok), mysa, dricka, festa. Det var charmigt att folk hade små korridorfester, själv låg jag i korridoren med täcke och kudde och Rubiks ett tag, mindre charmigt att många rökte överallt. Urkk.


Hellboy, Nok och ett sött fyllo

Gange blev lite av en kändis på båten, men så är det när man är klädd som en pirat och går in i alla hytter och festar med okänt folk i ett dygn :)

Hur roligt det än var, så var det extremt skönt att komma hem till syster på fredagen och byta om till myskläder och kolla film med hennes Eric. Aaaaahhh..

På lördagen drog jag, syrran och Eric till Erics föräldrar. Jävlar vilka härliga människor! Pappan berättade om sin utvandring till USA, som han fortfarande minns i detalj trots att han var 6(?) år. Han flyttade tillbaka hit när han var i tonåren, utan att kunna svenska eller veta något om Sverige.

Det ska bli intressant att vara hans bordsdam på systers bröllop :)

För fler Das Boot-bilder: http://pics.catindra.se/v/pahitt/20071206/

World's Strongest Dad

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars - all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much - except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;" Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an Institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want To do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore For two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"'

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," One doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago." So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like", Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

See the video.

Article was originally written by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. Video courtesy of youtube.com.

May your day, be a Shay Day

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. 'I believe, that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the way Shay'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!'

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

Del 5

Han kom förbi, och det mesta i lägenheten är fixat.

Tyvärr inga papper eller nycklar (Thomas har inte fått fler än en nyckel till nya lägenheten, så jag kan inte få nån än), men han skulle komma förbi ikväll igen sa han.

Han var väldigt trevlig och skämtade och drog in mig i skämten med. Kändes bra, men vi är ändå på vår vakt.

Får se hur det går ikväll.

Imorgon åker jag till Stockholm för att vara med på Das Boot och för att hälsa på min syster. Kommer hem igen på måndag. Hoppas verkligen detta med Hyresvärden är lugnt medans jag är borta, så Thomas får må bra.

Del 4

Idag hörde han av sig, och lät tydligen relativt trevlig.

Han kommer förbi nya lägenheten ikväll och ska fixa vissa fel, och ska samtidigt prata hyra och kontrakt etc. Jag ska vara med, som stöd och hjälp att komma ihåg vad som ska frågas om.

Han bekräftade även att städningen är fixad och att räkning kommer.

Hoppas det är löst efter ikväll. Alltihop.