1
My mother sounded better when I just called her to the hospital, so we can assume the worst is over by now. Obviously the blood clot was caused by the hormone treatment she had been having. She should be home in a week if there will be no surprises.
2
I talked with Tuomo of I Was A Teenage Satan Worshipper at Yo-Talo. I was embarrassed on hearing that the Tigerbombs guys had been checking this blog and noticed my remark on their vocalist's looks at the Tampere POP entry. Aargh, me and my big mouth again. My flippant comment was out of line -- my apologies. I don't want to appear as any cyber-bully or anything, since bullies are people whose target I also was when I was younger. Besides, I tried to emphasize the fact that I've actually learned to like the music of the Tigerbombs more as I've seen more gigs from them.
I guess I'm always surprised by the amount of people actually reading this blog, since I rarely receive any feedback from them. I think keeping that distance is largely intentional on my part since I can live without any wise-ass remarks from snotty-nosed 15-year olds; therefore I've never set up a guestbook for pHinnWeb, for example.
3
I was truly flabbergasted by Lordi, Finland's candidate winning the Eurovision Song Contest and found it hard to believe when I heard about it from some people last night. Well, what a laugh: another proof that Finland is the village idiot of Europe. Which is not such a bad thing.
[More]
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Saturday, May 20, 2006
A Blood Clot/My Mother
My mother is in hospital: a blood clot in her lungs. Yesterday, when she and her man Rauno were on their way to practise with their amateur theatre group, her pace had slowed down as they were walking and she had started to breathe heavily, so Rauno had called an ambulance. The paramedics put an oxygen mask to her, and hurried her to the emergency from which she was moved to TAYS, the general hospital of Tampere.
She called me this morning and, still breathing with some considerable trouble, told me they had been having tests on her, found the blood clot and put her to medication. She has to stay in at least a week, she told me. I was relieved that her condition was not so bad that she couldn't have been able to call me herself. Still, some worry remains somewhere at the back of my mind even though I keep telling myself everything will be fine.
My mother will be 60 in November and she has suffered from heavy overweight for years, so it's understandable she has all sorts of ailments, but I suppose it's not easy for her or anyone else to get used to this new situation, to accept that she has to move at a slower pace now.
She has always been a very temperamental person -- heavy both physically and mentally, I'd say -- both prone to moodiness and angry outbursts affecting everyone around her when things do not go her way (unfortunately I seem to have inherited these sharp edges of her) and a tendency to introspective brooding and a care for her close ones which may show itself as endless worrying; also being quite impulsive at times, to the extent which can make life a rollercoaster ride to her close ones who want things being more secure and stable.
Well, she is far from dumb but being from the North of Finland she obviously is more a "nature child" than the people of the more steady temperament here in South; not able to beat around the bush or having much understanding towards some people's innuendo and stealthy behaviour. She's like a big bear, capable both of great anger and great tenderness.
She hasn't always made life easy for me, and I consciously have had to keep some distance to her sometimes because she's a kind of mother whose presence can be just too overbearing (to prove that I'm not some "Mama's boy", for chrissakes). But I suppose that's one part of everyone's growing up when you are going to find your own identity, something that makes you your own person and not a replica of your parents. I worry and care nevertheless.
[More]
She called me this morning and, still breathing with some considerable trouble, told me they had been having tests on her, found the blood clot and put her to medication. She has to stay in at least a week, she told me. I was relieved that her condition was not so bad that she couldn't have been able to call me herself. Still, some worry remains somewhere at the back of my mind even though I keep telling myself everything will be fine.
My mother will be 60 in November and she has suffered from heavy overweight for years, so it's understandable she has all sorts of ailments, but I suppose it's not easy for her or anyone else to get used to this new situation, to accept that she has to move at a slower pace now.
She has always been a very temperamental person -- heavy both physically and mentally, I'd say -- both prone to moodiness and angry outbursts affecting everyone around her when things do not go her way (unfortunately I seem to have inherited these sharp edges of her) and a tendency to introspective brooding and a care for her close ones which may show itself as endless worrying; also being quite impulsive at times, to the extent which can make life a rollercoaster ride to her close ones who want things being more secure and stable.
Well, she is far from dumb but being from the North of Finland she obviously is more a "nature child" than the people of the more steady temperament here in South; not able to beat around the bush or having much understanding towards some people's innuendo and stealthy behaviour. She's like a big bear, capable both of great anger and great tenderness.
She hasn't always made life easy for me, and I consciously have had to keep some distance to her sometimes because she's a kind of mother whose presence can be just too overbearing (to prove that I'm not some "Mama's boy", for chrissakes). But I suppose that's one part of everyone's growing up when you are going to find your own identity, something that makes you your own person and not a replica of your parents. I worry and care nevertheless.
[More]
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Lapua
On Tuesday we paid a visit with my brother to our grandfather, who lives in Lapua. Lapua is a small town (pop. approximately 13,000) situated in the region of Southern Pohjanmaa (Ostrobothnia is the ancient Latin name for the region). I was born in Lapua myself, though I have lived in Tampere since I was one year old, after my father came to study at the University of Tampere.
The town of Lapua, despite its small size, plays quite a part in Finnish history. Locals are deeply religious, conservative and patriotic Protestants, and the town was the place where the fiercely anti-Communist, right-wing "Lapuan Liike" movement was born in the 1930s, headed by one Vihtori Kosola. Other well-known Lapua natives are, among all, Finnish ex-Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki (who had to resign in the stir of controversy in an affair called "Iraqgate"), the notorious artist Teemu Mäki (still best known from his art video where he slaughtered a living cat), and the actor Esko Nikkari, also familiar from Aki Kaurismäki's films. It's obvious Lapua is known for people who like to make ripples. Lapua is also the home for the world-famous Lapua Ammunition Factory. In 1976 there was an explosion at the factory that took the lives of 40 people. From Pohjanmaa there was a large immigrant movement to America in the nineteenth century (when the great starvation years took place) and early twentieth century, so I have some distant relatives also in the New World.
Despite the bold reputation of Pohjanmaa people, my grandfather Aarne Rautio is a kind and modest man; even a saint-like person if I've ever known one. I feel guilty that I don't visit him as often as I should, especially now when he became a widower in 2001. My grandmother Helvi Rautio was the strong-willed matriach of our family. She was from the Finnish region of Savo and was married during the war to my grandfather. The relocation from Savo to Pohjanmaa did not take place without any friction. In Finland there's some tribal mistrust between people of different provinces and regions, and for example, the people of Savo are often especially maligned as being crooked and self-serving people, though dynamic, humorous and playful too. And the Pohjanmaa people are considered very proud, bold, straightforward, patriotic, conservative, with a lot of entrepreneur spirit -- and stiff.
Before she died, my grandmother often told me her hard-time stories about how she was mistreated in the Rautio family in the 1940s and 50s, by her mother-in-law et al. I think those experiences made my grandmother a bit hardened and bitter person, though she and my grandfather always treated me like a little prince. When I was a child, I spent many summers and holidays with my grandparents in Lapua and they grew very fond of and attached to me. They lived in a house in the middle of forest of Rautakorpi, and it was all quite secluded. There were rarely any visitors, and I spent a lot alone with my own games, reading books and watching their small black and white TV that got its power from a car accumulator: they didn't have any electricity and used gas for cooking and to light up the place. Now it feels very idyllic, but I often wonder if all that seclusion didn't have some effect at least of me becoming more a loner type than a socializing one. Nevertheless, those are my memories, things that were to make me what I am now.
It is said that the notorious puukkojunkkari ("knife fighter") Antti Rannanjärvi would also bear some relation to our family. Puukkojunkkarit, or Häjyt, were a bunch of rogues who terrorized the Pohjanmaa region in the 19th century. Especially restless was the decade of the 1850s. Antti Rannanjärvi's best known associate was a man called Antti Isotalo. Nowadays these people have become similar "folk heroes" in Finland as the outlaws in the Wild West of America are now considered.
Antti Rannanjärvi & Antti Isotalo, the original gangstas
Isotalon Antti ja Rannanjärvi
ne jutteli kaharen kesken:
:;: Tapa sinä Kauhavan ruma vallesmanni,
niin minä nain sen komian lesken. :;:
Isotalon Antti oli ensimmäänen
ja Rannanjärvi oli toinen
:;: Pukkilan Jaska se Kauhavalla,
oli kolmas samanmoinen. :;:
Sitten on piru, sanoi Rannanjärvi
jos minä miestä pelkään
:;: Tervaspampulla kuonon päälle,
ja teräksellä selkään. :;:
Vaasan veri ei vapise
eikä Kauhavan rauta ruostu
:;: niskasta kiinni ja puukkolla selkähän
jonsei muutoin suostu :;:
Ensin portahat särjettiin
ja sitten vasta muuri,
:;: Isoo-Antti se erellä meni,
joka joukosta oli suurin. :;:
Ei saa laulaa Rannanjärvestä,
Rannanjärvi on kuollu.
:;: Rannanjärven hauralle,
on marmorikivi tuotu. :;:
The town of Lapua, despite its small size, plays quite a part in Finnish history. Locals are deeply religious, conservative and patriotic Protestants, and the town was the place where the fiercely anti-Communist, right-wing "Lapuan Liike" movement was born in the 1930s, headed by one Vihtori Kosola. Other well-known Lapua natives are, among all, Finnish ex-Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki (who had to resign in the stir of controversy in an affair called "Iraqgate"), the notorious artist Teemu Mäki (still best known from his art video where he slaughtered a living cat), and the actor Esko Nikkari, also familiar from Aki Kaurismäki's films. It's obvious Lapua is known for people who like to make ripples. Lapua is also the home for the world-famous Lapua Ammunition Factory. In 1976 there was an explosion at the factory that took the lives of 40 people. From Pohjanmaa there was a large immigrant movement to America in the nineteenth century (when the great starvation years took place) and early twentieth century, so I have some distant relatives also in the New World.
Despite the bold reputation of Pohjanmaa people, my grandfather Aarne Rautio is a kind and modest man; even a saint-like person if I've ever known one. I feel guilty that I don't visit him as often as I should, especially now when he became a widower in 2001. My grandmother Helvi Rautio was the strong-willed matriach of our family. She was from the Finnish region of Savo and was married during the war to my grandfather. The relocation from Savo to Pohjanmaa did not take place without any friction. In Finland there's some tribal mistrust between people of different provinces and regions, and for example, the people of Savo are often especially maligned as being crooked and self-serving people, though dynamic, humorous and playful too. And the Pohjanmaa people are considered very proud, bold, straightforward, patriotic, conservative, with a lot of entrepreneur spirit -- and stiff.
Before she died, my grandmother often told me her hard-time stories about how she was mistreated in the Rautio family in the 1940s and 50s, by her mother-in-law et al. I think those experiences made my grandmother a bit hardened and bitter person, though she and my grandfather always treated me like a little prince. When I was a child, I spent many summers and holidays with my grandparents in Lapua and they grew very fond of and attached to me. They lived in a house in the middle of forest of Rautakorpi, and it was all quite secluded. There were rarely any visitors, and I spent a lot alone with my own games, reading books and watching their small black and white TV that got its power from a car accumulator: they didn't have any electricity and used gas for cooking and to light up the place. Now it feels very idyllic, but I often wonder if all that seclusion didn't have some effect at least of me becoming more a loner type than a socializing one. Nevertheless, those are my memories, things that were to make me what I am now.
It is said that the notorious puukkojunkkari ("knife fighter") Antti Rannanjärvi would also bear some relation to our family. Puukkojunkkarit, or Häjyt, were a bunch of rogues who terrorized the Pohjanmaa region in the 19th century. Especially restless was the decade of the 1850s. Antti Rannanjärvi's best known associate was a man called Antti Isotalo. Nowadays these people have become similar "folk heroes" in Finland as the outlaws in the Wild West of America are now considered.
Antti Rannanjärvi & Antti Isotalo, the original gangstas
Isotalon Antti ja Rannanjärvi
ne jutteli kaharen kesken:
:;: Tapa sinä Kauhavan ruma vallesmanni,
niin minä nain sen komian lesken. :;:
Isotalon Antti oli ensimmäänen
ja Rannanjärvi oli toinen
:;: Pukkilan Jaska se Kauhavalla,
oli kolmas samanmoinen. :;:
Sitten on piru, sanoi Rannanjärvi
jos minä miestä pelkään
:;: Tervaspampulla kuonon päälle,
ja teräksellä selkään. :;:
Vaasan veri ei vapise
eikä Kauhavan rauta ruostu
:;: niskasta kiinni ja puukkolla selkähän
jonsei muutoin suostu :;:
Ensin portahat särjettiin
ja sitten vasta muuri,
:;: Isoo-Antti se erellä meni,
joka joukosta oli suurin. :;:
Ei saa laulaa Rannanjärvestä,
Rannanjärvi on kuollu.
:;: Rannanjärven hauralle,
on marmorikivi tuotu. :;:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
