I needed to go to the tretton37 office today. Last time was in September I think?

My back has occasionally been acting up still, so I didn’t dare to commit to cycling all that way, especially since cycling involves (1) bending at the waist and (2) pushing with my legs, both of which have been a bit problematic recently. So, train and tube it is.

I left home early to avoid the worst of the morning rush. I wouldn’t quite describe the train as crowded, but definitely not empty either. And those who were there didn’t seem to be thinking much about social distancing or any such thing. Less than half the passengers were wearing masks. And people were squeezing past others (and me) in the narrow aisles without any second thoughts, and likewise on the escalators.

I guess if you have to be on public transport every day because you cannot work from home then after a while maybe you simply stop worrying, because you run out of worry.

This was my first time in a crowded indoor space in months, so it was also my first time wearing a face mask for real. It didn’t feel like I had expected.

I had expected the bands around my ears to be uncomfortable. I usually hate such things. I only ever buy sunglasses with straight arms to avoid pressure behind my ears. But I didn’t even notice these.

I constantly noticed the mask itself, though. It comes up high enough under my eyes that I see it all the time. And especially when I tried to look down. When I wanted to read, I had to hold my magazine up high to see it properly past the edge of the mask. And when I tried to use my wallet to pay, and when I touched my key fob to the door pad, and so on.

If I had to do this daily, I’d probably try to find a different make that didn’t come quite as high up on the sides. But now it’s not worth the bother.

It got steamy inside the mask when I took the stairs fast.

The office was mostly empty. A handful of people were there but the overall impression was of abandonment.

I left in the early afternoon to avoid the rush hour again and finished my work at home. The whole commute felt like so much wasted time. 40 minutes there, 40 back, all chopped up into little pieces so I can’t even do much with the time.

The snowdrops in central Spånga have been out for a while already, by the looks of it. I haven’t thought of looking for them until now.

It is lovely to see them, but spring in February is still wrong.

It didn’t take long after the snow thawed until the first spring flowers showed themselves.

I like winter aconite. The bright yellow is so cheery – and they’re the first sign of spring.

(Not our garden. We don’t have winter aconite. We’ll have to hold out until the crocuses appear.)

The only times I leave the house these days are for walks, and for grocery shopping. Even the trips to the supermarket are tinged by guilty feelings.

Both supermarkets here in Spånga try to guide shoppers towards less busy times. I still mostly end up shopping during the red periods but even then Coop is never what I would describe as crowded. I rarely pass close to other people, because the shop is laid out like a circle: enter at one end, loop all the way around, pay and exit next to the entrance. In ICA I often have to step aside into an aisle or otherwise walk uncomfortably close to people, because their layout is more tangled.

It is mandatory for shops to limit the number of people inside based on the available floor space. I think it’s one person per 10 sq m. ICA takes this half-seriously at best. There’s a sign that only 40 people are allowed inside, but there is no way to know how many are there, so I’m not sure what the point is. Coop on the other hand has a nifty system: they use the number of baskets to control the number of people. Every shopper has to take a basket, and when the baskets run out, you know the limit has been reached.

I’m picking up the cardigan again, after a break to knit two pairs of socks. I want more socks but I also want a cardigan. The socks are small, easy wins and I’d been putting off this larger project.

Working on it again is a pleasure. I’d forgotten just how soft the yarn was. If I could choose, I might never wear a cardigan in anything other than alpaca or mohair again.

I notice the same with other activities I enjoy. If enough time passes, I forget just how much I normally enjoy them. I wonder if there is a term for this. Sort of the inverse of the Pollyanna principle.

The snow is melting at an impressive pace in the warm rain, and apparently the weeds beneath it are already ready to go.

+4°C feels much warmer in February than it did in November. I go out dressed as I was back then, and before long I’m unzipping my coat and peeling off my gloves.

Eric and Ingrid are playing a racing game. They both play a lot of fast-reaction games like FPSs, so they’re quite evenly matched.

I think this was it for this winter. +4°C and everything is thawing and dripping.

I wasn’t going to invest much in workout equipment at home. Costs money, takes up space. And besides, I liked cycling to and from work, and Friskis & Svettis group workouts, so medium term I intended to go back to that. What’s the point in buying stuff I’ll only use for a short time. I’ll just buy a kettlebell.

Fine, a single pair of dumbbells as well, then.

But the short term stretches out longer and longer. I find myself enjoying workout videos more than I expected, and they’re doing wonders for my well-being. I can picture continuing like this – working from home most days of the week, doing a lunchtime workout every day. Plus Ingrid has also started working out, so the equipment gets much more use.

Oh well, let’s get a gym mat, then. And we really need some more dumbbells in lighter weights.

There is still a real shortage of gym equipment. Vinyl dumbbells in suitable sizes are sold out in most places. I finally found a place that had what I wanted. A week later I got an email telling me that the things they let me order were not actually in stock after all and could they perhaps tempt me with some completely different things. No thank you.

I nearly ordered dumbbells from Germany but shipping chunks of iron across half a continent sounds like such a waste that I’d rather do without. After much creative googling I finally found another Swedish shop that had what I wanted.

I ordered my stuff, and waited. Two weeks later I still had nothing. I sent an email, then called and left a message, then called again. The company seems to be totally ignoring me. And now I saw their Trustpilot reviews and they seem to be a bunch of scammers.

It’s not the loss of a few hundred kronor that bothers me most, but the endless waste of time. A month after I decided to buy dumbbells I still don’t have any.

The dumbbells in the photo are our oldest ones. Unlike the newer vinyl-coated ones, the paint on these flakes off and the iron underneath rusts. But if this order also doesn’t go through, I’ll give up on the vinyl and just buy whatever I can get.

I knit a scarf out of sock yarn because the yarn felt so soft and I was afraid it would wear out in no time if I actually used it according to the label.

But I kept wondering. Maybe I could use it for a pair of really, really soft and cosy socks as well?

I used some of the leftovers to darn the heels of another pair of socks. Those patches are all fuzz and lint now. The yarn is too loosely spun so it doesn’t even wear through. Rather it slowly unravels and falls apart.

I no longer wonder. This would be a terrible yarn for socks.