The local food places do not open until 11 a.m. or noon on Sundays. That works on this weekend since today is the day that the Finnish people parade their finely polished family, city, military, and farm vehicles through the streets in a tradition following an old Eastern Bloc tradition. Mobile air raid sirens accompany platoons of motorcycles, police vehicles, and regular vehicle traffic along from the big island through Kokitie to downtown.
My supervisor, H., and I rode by this parade en route to one of the yacht clubs on the interior side of the big island where Hannu's 30-ft boat is dry docked for the winter. Hannu has been a mechanic of sorts all his life and follows in a strong family maritime tradition, through which he met H. After replacing and overhauling the engine and related systems, today was the day to strip 35 years of varnish and stains from all the wood above deck. Following a nice lunch of dry breads, spreads, and non-beer marine beverages, we took to work on the wood. The port railing was easy to strip after we had all learned how not to sand down the starboard railing. (By easy, I mean "required 2 hours anyway because of the various winches and other attachments bolted through the hull that were too bothersome to first remove.") The boat would be ready to launch in a week or two.
As the afternoon closed, we biked our way to the sea side of the island to gauge the ice. We found almost none. Touring the island also provided an opportunity to investigate the city's experimental architecture neighbourhood which mingled with well lit woodland pathways. Some new apartment blocks were coming up, along with new schools and other civic facilities. Opposite the channel, an ex-harbour around 2 km from downtown Oulu was being relaimed. The region rises abour 1-2 cm pper year from the ocean, making it increasingly difficult to navigate large vessels, or to tack the smaller ones.
About the Sauna: Sparking wine before, 55 degrees C during, sparking wine after, it's a good thing. In particular, the practice of going outside to the sun room, and then to the other outside in the backyard, is new to me. It's an invigorating experience. Then we had a delicious dinner of salmon ("smells like fish") and mashed potatoes and too much ice-cream (caramel and chocolate), followed by a 4 km bike home for me.
30 minutes later, it felt like the hangover that would not end, nor be thrown up.
AC: +1
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