#clatterbane ventures forth

[clatterbane]

It's definitely more people now. I just got here early.

The opening act has been out, and now we're waiting for the main attraction.

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My first trip out to pick up some food by physically walking my ass into a Max. Wild Friday date night, as suggested by Mr. C!

I did take the chair out to the parking lot to get in the car. But, hoofed it from that point on with my new leg and cane, and now considering letting the food bag have my seat for the short trip back to our apartment after we park again.

[clatterbane]

Isopods duly collected--Proper Swedish Style! 😁

That package is pretty unwieldy but light. It's tiny critters and a 12.5L (like 3 gallon) plastic storage bin for them to live in, boxed up together. Rigging it up like that worked out surprisingly well. I do love those stroller hooks.

Also, the way I was really not looking forward to rolling out to pick up those packages? I did decide to take the opportunity to try out that newish phone mount on the road, so to speak, and got some video footage basically just vlogging "Wheelchair User Runs Errands in Malmö's WORST NEIGHBORHOOD!!!".

(Where people were...going about their own business while noticeably foreign? And occasionally offering to help me as the only real interactions period? If anything, IME other immigrants out in public can actually be less reserved about that here.)

Gotta say, one random lady was determined. I was chugging along up a bit of a slope, and did get a surprise push from behind--in spite of the big package in the way and no visible push handles! Startled me some, but hey. She was pleasant enough about it beyond laying hands on someone's chair unbidden in the first place, and backed right off once I was over the hump.

Anyway, that footage should also give a good opportunity to practice my editing skills while i'm at it.

I would have expected to feel more self-conscious about going around out in public rocking something like this:

(Yeah, that's it in my seat in the first pic that I accidentally took as video instead.)

But, I don't think anybody even really noticed it for the chair. And, if they did? They may have just assumed it was a disability aid. 😆 Better than thinking I'm doing it for TikTok or whatever, honestly.

What did get more looks at all was adding some Loud American commentary that I just couldn't resist at a couple of points. But yeah, that was probably more the sudden unexpected English at enough volume for the mic to pick it up over background noise outside around a shopping center on a pretty windy day.

(In other language-related news, I did manage at one point to get brain scramble going to the point of whipping out some Denska monstrosity of a response to some lady helpfully trying to hand me a produce bag when I was looking at some vegetables. German started coming out and I did a quick mid-word correction to Swedish. But, whatever came out of my mouth seemed to satisfy her? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Don't think her first language was Swedish either.)

At any rate, I am home now WITH everything I went to get. And had a pretty good trip out to do it. It was my first day out of the season that I didn't even need to carry a jacket along.

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Back prowling the park and environs, and much better prepared today!

Mushroom update! I did actually try haggling off a little piece at the bottom right, but they do need at least a day or two before they're ready. I am indeed planning to risk Random Urbanish Park Tree to get enough for a little soup, if they're still there. May carry along a little better knife for the job, since this isn't the UK and nobody was even paying attention to my nerdery.

I could have (responsibly) grabbed a few nettles elsewhere if I'd gone remotely equipped to handle nettles. Those do not seem to be nearly as common sprouting up everywhere as in southern England.

I did actually pick up those stray paper plates today, because they were still there. (And repeatedly rained on. 😑)

The woods haul. We've got a few handfuls of leaf litter from different places, some prime rotting sticks--the smallest chunk is at the spongy stage--and even a couple of small rocks! I did not go crazy grabbing leaves, because it's not like they're a scarce commodity. And the isopods haven't even been shipped yet. 😅

Plus some bonus bark spotted after I took that one. That section of bench was dirty before I got there, btw.

Not sure what they're off of, but AFAICT all the trees hereabouts should be isopod friendly. Pretty sure those sticks and leaves are off some combination of beech, aspen, and birch because that was pretty much all there was in the little fringe of woods. I think I saw a hazel or two. The bark may be off park trees with where it was lying. I didn't feel like comparing textures right then.

Some kids were probably wondering wtf I was up to back in there, but the only other people paying any attention were some jackdaws.

I wasn't trying to take their bugs or otherwise bother them, so they really dgaf what that human was up to. We should all be more like the jackdaws.

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It was a nice enough afternoon and I was going sort of stir crazy, so I at least had to pop over to the park.

...where I also had to take advantage of my great newish technology, and head "offroad" some.

Yeah, someone had a paper plate malfunction by those benches. I probably should have picked those up, but my gimpy ass did not.

One benefit to being a middle-aged AFAB creature with a cane: nobody is likely to assume you're a creeper if you take a little rest break on some benches by the playground.

I also had to head for for whatever passes for woods near our house.

Even that little foray up and down that pitiful little slope DID help demonstrate why this "starter" foot and ankle that I'm still on currently is not what they were recommending if you were planning to go on uneven terrain at all. 😒 (Which, that barely even counts.) Imagine stomping through the woods on a pretty well rigid doll foot and ankle, and you're pretty close. I am in better shape to fight the pegleg to get around now, but that basically was what it felt like.

I did choose not to venture down and back up the other side of that tiny ridge.

Hopefully they will actually swap this setup for the more "advanced" foot and ankle that they originally said I was going to get, since I can tell this custom socket isn't fitting right anymore. (Surprised it took that long to start causing problems, honestly. Especially in the beginning, it apparently isn't unusual for people to at least need serious adjustments every couple of weeks or month until their leg settles in some.)

Anyway, I at least did get up close with, like, fallen branches and shit. Because of course I was also scoping things out with that in mind, there are indeed also plenty of seemingly suitable leaves and sticks and bark pieces and stuff to keep my intended fancy isopods well supplied, within easy gimping distance of these apartments. They should be good with any of the common local tree species, AFAICT. And I seriously doubt anybody has been spraying that stuff down with pesticides.

I haven't been getting out nearly enough, for a variety of reasons I don't need to vent about now. But, it was good to actually get out and quite literally touch grass (and trees, and...) today. My mental and physical health both kinda need more of that.

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It was our 20th anniversary today, so Mr. C and I ended up going out for dinner at my suggestion. Real romantic ambiance here: a mostly-Chinese buffet place. 😅 Neither one of us is into the whole romantic gesture thing, but we're both all for a good buffet.

This one was...not really that. It may be better for the apparently higher traffic (and also significantly cheaper) lunch buffet, because most of the hot dishes had been sitting out too long under heat lamps tonight. Their rice sitting on warm in one of the big inset rice cookers was not even that good. Lunch is when he's been there a couple of times before. It was my first trip. First buffet run anywhere since we moved, for that matter.

It was still a pretty enjoyable evening. I found an uncomfortable amount to chow down on anyway--even if a lot of that did consist of one braised pork dish and some cabbage salad--and it felt nice to get out to eat like a normal person and all. He seemed to be enjoying the actual food more than I did, which was good in a way.

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One good thing that came out of today's early morning trip out for more bullshit bloodwork: I found some promising-looking vegetables, which are pretty exotic by local standards but remind me of home! One of the benefits of living in an immigrant-heavy neighborhood. (Doesn't really matter where from IME, just as long as it's got longer warmer growing seasons there.) Hasty lap shot of today's haul when I was about to head home.

Much better view after getting home! Some nice young examples of one common Middle Eastern variety of summer squash, along with some okra. Which was borderline overgrown by my standards, but it didn't feel like it was going all tough and dried out yet--and it's the nicest fresh okra my admittedly near-hermit ass has spotted in years.

On the way home this morning, I got Mr. C to drop me at the nearby shopping center, so I could pick up an Instabox package (shoes) and enjoy the weather and a little exercise while "strolling" the rest of the way.

It was still early enough that at least half the businesses weren't even open yet, but that also meant that things were enough less busy that I felt like I could get in more easily for a better look at a couple of stores I'd wanted to check out more. One of them a halal butcher shop with attached fruit and vegetable shop just across from there, obviously run by the same people. Both are usually mobbed enough that I haven't felt like shoving myself in--especially with the chair.

The butcher side was still not looking so accessible, even with only a couple of other customers in there, plus a few workers finishing getting things set up for the day. I also figured that I didn't really need to go on an early-morning meat buying spree in hot weather--much less when my backpack was already completely full of shoebox, and carrying capacity was already pretty limited. So, no meat for me.

The other side did, however, lure me over with some gorgeous plums. Which sadly turned out to still be so hard that I noped away from those. Yes, I am that produce prodder, and I can be particular. Was hoping they would have some nice leafy greens out front today, but no such luck.

But, then I did spot the okra and then the squash.

I didn't grab much today, since I am the only one in the house who really likes either thing. Plus the okra was running the equivalent of US$7.69/kg, or roughly $3.50/lb. 😓 Squash was $2.90/ or $1.30/lb by comparison. I got away at about $2.50 for both of them together, which really wasn't at all bad by local standards. I am also cheap as hell sometimes and also still mentally comparing with prices on locally grown squash and okra in a much more rural area 15-20 years ago when I was last buying anything back home.

I am also now lowkey pining for some Floyd County peaches, and J. Random Farmer's cantaloupes that he's selling off his truck by the road. Then there's the fresh just-picked regional variety corn. 🙄

If that okra is any good and I see more there in nearly as good a shape, I may have to pick up enough more to try pickling a few jars of it. That's one thing that I do miss sometimes, and I don't really want to try with the frozen stuff--which is usually better for cooking than what I see fresh anymore.

The produce side also carries a bunch of dried fruits and nuts, and some other loose bulk goods including some interesting-looking Afghan brown sugar in like fist-sized chunks which I'd never seen before, but made me think of panela or jaggery. May need to try me some of that.

Also looks like the place to go if you want a sack of pumpkin seeds or similar at reasonable prices! Today I did not, and also did not particularly want to carry that home in my lap because that would have been the only place for it.

Their produce is all out front, but I did go ahead and bull my way back through the rest of the store to get a good look at the dry goods. Needed to shove a couple of obstructions out of the way in the narrow aisles, but I was the only customer in there at that point and idgaf. It was well worth a look around. May need to go back another morning after a few things that looked good.

There is also a spice shop a couple of doors down, which always smells heavenly to go past but is usually so packed that even Mr. C hesitates to peruse it on foot. There were few enough people in there too that I had to roll through and case the joint. Did look and smell like some quality stuff at decent prices. Also some pretty good looking bulk bin dried fruits and nuts and other snack items, and some assorted Middle Eastern sweets. I didn't buy anything there either today, but will probably need to make a morning raid on that too before too long.

But yeah, the day was not all bad. I also got to see a delightful young Boxer out for a walk on the way home.

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Continuing on once I actually found Plan B's entrance, things thankfully got less crappily exciting from that point on.

There was some continuing awkwardness, having to try my horrible broken Swedish on more people while already pretty stressed. I finally just had to switch to English at a few points, which is embarrassing but thankfully this is one of the best countries that particular brainfail could happen in.

I did locate an accessible bathroom right across from the ticket counter/coat check, and had to get one of the employees to unlock it. On the plus side, it was probably the cleanest club restroom I had ever seen, what with it mostly staying locked and all. Somehow I suspect that was the one staff's been using. A suspicious pool of water on one side under the sink, but that was easy enough to avoid. The actual fixtures didn't look too bad.

Minimal scrawlings, even.

I didn't even try venturing into the main ones off the club part proper, but they did look more like I would expect through the open doors.

Guessing that's meant as a joke. After all, this isn't Parliament!

At various points over the course of the evening, several people did try to talk to me, and probably thought I was some extremely unfriendly asshole. While I was mentally bluescreening with language period, and mostly just trying to make as graceful a getaway as possible. Badly. Good thing I will likely never see any of them again, and wouldn't recognize them if I did. Shit still gets mortifying, but once again I did survive and will probably not just avoid the place forevermore.

Anyway, once I got in, it looked like there were maybe 20 people there. A couple of others on wheels, so I felt slightly less conspicuous.

At least we know where to find some water. Thankfully, I had also stashed a bottle in my under-seat bag, because I was too brainfried to try and shout any bar orders in Swedish the whole night.

But yeah, there's a divider between the bar and the stage area. Popping around the corner:

I think that's Bloss from here in town? Idk. I remembered the bill as 3 bands total, but it was apparently 4 and this was the first act up. Just really getting started as I rolled in.

Less deserted than it looked at first. That was still early, with a lot more people showing up later.

I did stake out this relatively secluded Nerd Corner over to one edge, sort of between a pillar and that speaker stack shown earlier.

Suddenly much taller!

And I seem to have reached the photo limit.