It's been a while.

Last spring was spent with my mother's estate inventory. In principle a simple matter, but something new kept turning up all the time. Finally the lawyer was able to send it to the tax office in June, and I happily passed on the papers to the banks. However, Danske Bank wants also my father's extracts from the population register, which we supplied them with after his death. Unfortunately they're missing, and so I had to order new ones from the various parishes where he has been registered. The last one came yesterday, and now I can forward them to the bank. At the same time arrived a request from the tax office for my mother's receipts for tax credit for domestic help; the deadline was yesterday. But anyhow, I'll fetch the receipts from Lahti, copy and send to the tax office, and hopefully they'll accept them. At worst, I'll have to pay back even the previous year's tax credit... There's no end to paper work, and expenditure.

Last winter I started to wonder why nothing worked the way it should, and checked my bhukti. I discovered it had been Rahu, which "reattaches the mind to stress and worldly concerns," since late October. That seemed to explain a lot. In the spring I decided to buy a hessonite ring, which is supposed to help with problems caused by Rahu, from a web shop where I had received excellent quick service and a good product earlier. This time, however, I got nothing: no ring and no reply to my emails, but at least I got a refund from PayPal in July.

When I came to spend my holiday in Lahti, first the washing machine stopped working, and then the lawn mower. Strangely enough, when my father died, the previous washing machine and the TV failed. When my mother bought a new washing machine, it turned out to be too big for the bathroom door, and the frame had to be pulled down. Now my worry materialized: the frame had to be pulled down again to get the old machine out. But now I have a new small washing machine. And a Fiskars reel mower, which I'm fairly happy with.

I had planned to paint the house myself this summer, but when I looked closer it became clear that more than paint was needed. I had started to explore painters when a firm phoned offering face work, new windows, roofing, etc. I asked for an offer on painting, which was higher than I had expected, but now the house has new paint, fascia, gutters, and drainpipes.

So, a lot useful things were accomplished, but not much fun. I did go to the market in July, though, and to the library, but that was the extent of my amusements.