timing is everything

I have said before that I lead a charmed life, but, really, I do. Just little things like starting my research to do 3D geochemical modeling of an ore deposit region in northern Sweden right after a student from Germany has just completed a surface alteration map of the same region. Today was a meeting at the mine headquarters wherein he presented the results of his work, so, of course, I drove down for it.

Normally when I head down to the mine I leave around 07:15, and get there around 10:00. Today's meeting was scheduled for 10:00, so to play it safe I left at about 06:30. There is much less traffic on the highway at that hour than there is 45 minutes later, so the trip went smoothly and quickly (helped by not having to follow any snow plows, unlike the last trip, where I got stuck behind three different pairs of working plows and had to wait till they decided to pull over and let the long line of cars that had built up go past them). I do confess that having started early, and making good time I stopped twice for naps. One short five minute nap at a petrol station just outside of Skellefteå (where I also made use of their plumbing facilities). 30 minutes later, when on the smaller highway out to Boliden itself I got stuck behind a truck that wasn't doing the speed limit, so I pulled over and took a ten minute nap to let him get well ahead of me.

Worked like a charm--when I started driving again I was able to use cruise control all the rest of the way, and arrived on site at 09:00, which gave me time to return the samples (which I had brought back to Luleå with me so that I could cut pieces off of them to have thin-sections made for them) to where they needed to go before they are sent away to be crushed for their whole-rock analyses.

It was a very good meeting, and the student was delighted that someone is carrying on with the next logical step from his research so soon after he did his work. After his presentation I stayed long enough to have lunch with him and the exploration geologists at the mine and work out a few details about my upcoming plans. I got back on the road early enough that I was able to go to the office for a bit, and I am glad that I did, because the woman over in the grants office at the uni had sent me feedback on the application draft I had sent her, and it is very useful commentary indeed. Therefore I packed up my computer and brought it home so that I can make some progress on the application this weekend, in between the SCA meeting, the birthday party, and our normal Sunday folk dancing. Not to mention simply spending time working on projects with my sweetie.

In other news--last week saw some major progress on my fur lined hood--the furs are mostly assembled--I am on the very last gore. Then it will be a relativity simple manner of assembling the bits of wool and attaching the lining to the hood (plus or minus decorating the hood itself--it will look good plain, but I am also tempted to applique a bit of coloured wool onto the black hood...

I am also getting better at reading in Swedish. The other night I was curled up with a kid's book I have read many times before in English (but not for years and years) and after a while I noticed that I had achieved that delightful effect wherein one is so absorbed in the book that one is no longer aware of the printed words before one's eyes, one is simply part of the story. I love that feeling, and think it is cool that I can achieve it in Swedish, however briefly. Now if I could only get my understanding of the spoken language to catch up with my ability to read! I am reading aloud another Swedish book to lord_kjar, which will help that goal, since he is under orders to correct my pronunciation at least once a sentance if it needs it (and it usually does--there are ever so many different ways some letters can sound in Swedish, and I tend to guess wrong which it will be this time).