The heating is becoming a problem again. I did clean the boiler's fireplace and the chimney as far as I could get, and some of the tar has turned into stone-hard slag, and the duct was clean as far as I could see, but that obviously wasn't enough. Returning from somewhere today I saw the chimney sweeper at someone's gate down the street, and just stopped and told him to drop by when he finishes.
He and his assistant (a nice, long haired and rather silent guy) sat, had a chat with us, and as the diagnose of the problem escalated, so did the price, from 3000 to 4000 to eventually 6000 dinars. They went somewhere to get a gas bottle to burn the tar, came back equipped, got to work and this guy had all sorts of complaints of how we stoke the fire all the wrong way, using damp wood - should be dry - and the chimney's too low (and he said he'll build it higher, that was the main reason to raise the price) and, on top of everything, he sent me to get him cigarettes. "No," I said, and took a pack off our stock, "it costs 6000 and a pack of cigarettes".
The main reason I didn't kick him out was that I wanted to get the job done this way or another, as the fire was bad, lots of smoke and more and more tar, with not as much heat delivered. She once even entered a shop, where they sell pots and pans, and someone said to the clerk "you got ham here? can you feel that nice smell, of smoked meat?". So OK, buddy, you can play your tricks once, drive the price up, send me to get the cigarettes, demo your draft with dry wood (which worked fine before as well - show me with what wood I have most, if you can).
Just like most of the sweeps who split into soloists after the demise of their enterprise, he tried to keep the old subscription system going - you pay some annual fee, and they'd just keep you on scheduled cleanups, notify you of problems before they become dangerous etc. Except this guy did all the wrong things, specially by not giving any discount to those burning just gas, where he gets done in fifteen minutes a year, just checking the draft. So I told my dad to cancel his subscription and tell everybody of this guy. And I prepared some speech for him when he tries to come next time.
Lena and I chatted over skype around 17:00, she's doing fine, the professor of graphics picked three of her works to print, which he usually limits to one or "none this time, you need to fix this and this...", which in turn means there'll be a lot of linoleum chips to clean up by the time she finishes.
She was off to see oma at the new place. The tradition which will be held for months to follow was more or less established, that she will bring fruit, mostly bananas, and that her visits will be some minor celebration among the residents, and that the same sentences will be spoken over and over. oma finally stopped mentioning her wish to go home and generally seems to be at peace. The main event of the day is the lunch, they just can't wait to see what they'll get, and then forget what it was within the hour...
Then she visited my dad, and the hand doesn't look good. The salve made in Padej after the recipe of famous healer Jovo Šaljić doesn't seem to work right, the skin dries and becomes crusty and then breaks, so she'll make a salve on her own, from plants from Čankovo and around the house. She guessed there'll be a nasty scar, as the wound was rather deep.
Talked with Nina and saw Raja again...
Around 22:00, a surprise call from Magi, she tried to see Lena but skype refused to show group video and so we chatted in rather scattered manner.
Epilogue 1: The chimney guy came again next year. Meanwhile I found out, disseminating the story as wide as I could, that his brother is the guy at the end of our street who has the workshop to install propane into cars; half the traffic in our streets is by his customers. He tried to sell me the subscription, and wanted to get in and do the checkup right away. I gave him an immediate fuckoff, not even trying to hide my gloating, „I have not permitted you to enter, if you try it will count as a break in, you are out of the question, some tricks you pulled... you pump up the price to 6000 based on extending the chimney, then you take the money and not do it... and you try to send your customer to get you cigarettes... some player you are... you'll never go through this door, goodbye".
Never saw him again. Later I heard he was drinking, and a year or two later that he switched from chimneys to fixing cars. Well, who knows, may fare better with that.
By then I already knew that he hairy guy is no apprentice, but a full majstor, and that some guy in our street does his accounting. This accountant was a carpenter in previous life, he made the computer desk for dad. Got the phone number through him, called up the guy, scheduled a time, and he came and charged 1200 din. He keeps coming almost every year and we have no problems at all.
Epilogue 2: the group video chat didn't work, because m$ was charging for that, and the first caller wasn't a subscriber. I was, once, and still had some money on my account there, as I needed that to make cheap calls, for work, to abroad, without having a meter ticking in my head. They kept at that for a few months and gave up, because gugl (gugao, in my translation of the Gugao) offered it for free.