Swedish National Hemtjänst - Swedish National Home Service

   In my post yesterday, April 16, I provided a prevue of today's post in the form of a photograph. There I was, a neighbor on one side, and my Home-Service person of the day, whom I designated as I. I am waiting for him to appear today since this is one of my "Let's take a walk days."

   I do not know exactly when he will appear but I do know that there are 4 of us on this street waiting for him to turn up. The other three are women, ages unknown. I am the only male and I am pretty sure I am also the oldest.

   Now I am going to tell you, my American family about the different kinds of help I get here and wonder whether there is a counterpart in your part of the USA.

   I will continue to use a single letter for each person, if there is an individual who is helping.

Mathem - Mathem is an On-Line supermarket that shows me on-line a bright image of every object that can be ordered with price and weight, volume, or number as is appropriate for tomatoes as a familiar example.

   Home Services has registered me with an account that is set up so that I do not pay anything for delivery. One of the HS staff appears on Monday every week, ready to take my order. This week it was S who would place my order. She is a young woman who is a Kurd born in the Kurdish part of Iran bordering a Kurdish part of Iraq. She wears the traditional Muslim Chador and has just ended Ramadan with traditional celebration here in Sweden.

   She sits down, takes out her phone, registers me at my account, and is ready for me to tell her one item at a time what I want to order. I name it and she with lightning fast thumbs finds a picture and shows me - a container of milk for example. Tell her which kind and how large - Light milk, 1.5 liters. That becomes number one on the list.We move through my choices, and I am told the total cost at any point. I choose to end when the total is 450 Swedish crowns.

   She sends the order, tells me delivery will be on Thursday morning between 9:30 and 11:00 and that I must be here to take the delivery which will be in large cardboard boxes. All the frozen foods must be put into the freezer directly.

   I used to have to take a trolley to either a small local store, Tempo, or to a very large supermarket, ICA Focus. I would have a back pack and weighted down take the return trolley and walk a few  100 meters to my door. Always too heavy, often too difficult. Not any more.

   S asks if there is anything she can do for me as she leaves and yes, she can. She can take a brown paper bag with food waste to be put in a container across the street. That food waste will become fuel to be fed into a giant incinerator where water is heated to high temperature. Hot water from that incinerator arrives at every apartment or business in this area, hot water that heats my home and also heats water for my kitchen and my bathroom.

  I will add others to this post after each has done something for me. Noontime, Wednesday, signing off.