10-XI-2015.
Last night I ended with the t: drive (the SSD that Zlija brought from Moscow two years ago) being invisible. It happened before, it just wouldn't see the drive. This morning, however, other drives started vanishing as well, namely the old WD Caviar 640 (which I bought, IIRC, in 2008 or 2009).
Took it to Rile's shop, near the brewery, and his guy took it on the desk. Not wishing to be in the way, I went for a stroll. To raise some cash at a serekeš, to see if there's still anyone alive that I might know, have a little chat.
The old building where the middle third of the roof collapsed a couple of years ago has almost collapsed onto itself, so they removed it. No matter that it was a piece of architectural and as such under protection of the monuments' protection institute, the institute never had the money and now also didn't have the jurisdiction to do anything about it, perhaps only to hunt for the owners and force them to do something. This has proven futile, there were some six of them and at least four of them didn't have any serious money. The dispute of who owns which part wasn't quite finished, either, so there was a prolonged legal stalemate. The rain didn't wait, and it gradually soaked the walls, so... we have a new hole on the main street. Six years later, the only difference is that the fence is now on the very edge, and that the soil behind is a lawn. And some printing outfit (of advertising persuasion) has painted an ad to itself on the left wall.
The newly shaved main square looks desolate. All gray stone, not a single tree yet, and absolutely no idea why would anyone be on it. Now that there's no road, it stretches from city hall to vodotoranj to theatre door to hotel in a single stretch. The main street is fine that way, what with all those cafes, but I can't imagine the waiters running out of the library or biskupija or museum or city hall. Met Šaki, after all these years - no news, he's a clerk in the municipality, some kind of VA affairs. Looks fresh, although the hair is gray. Later, met Miljka, retired, looking even smaller than last year, complaining how everyone around her is either ill or dying and they all expect her to be at hand and be strong for them. Yeah, right. And, damn, I'd rather say something about dr Hamer's medicine, but, as I told her, you convince yourself you're OK and you be OK, convince yourself you'll get sick and you get sick, but try to say there's a solid theory behind it you're thought to be crazy.
The zmajček was nearly finished, it turned out it was the flimsy SATA cables without the metal spring to hold them in place, but it still took about a forever and a half to boot or shut down. Put the extra fan, tied with zips. The super duper motherboard with a motherfucker of a processor, and zip ties on top, in a 16 years old box... looking thoroughly grumfed*. Took it home and tried to redo everything, no go. Booted into ubuntu a few times, and it finally told me what neither windows nor windows setup would: the n: drive is hosed, filesystem on it is out of order. Well, copied everything from other two partitions to the roomy q: drive, played a lot of spider solitaire on ubuntu and damn it took all day.
These days, around her birthday, is usually the time to cut my hair, my treat, but she finally gave up, won't do it anymore. So I achieved my perfect haircut, no maintenance required. The brow ends late, though, some 4cm before the once first line of defence, and the arrears have also thinned out and leak rain. But then it all stops much later, between shoulder blades. When in the car I feel that I've leaned on my hair, that's the time to tie a ponytail and cut off the thin tip by some 5cm, and do so every year or maybe even more often.
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* v. Alan Ford
Mentions: Alan Ford, Ilija Ćirilov (Zlija), Rista Stančulov (Rile), serekeš, Smiljka Grajin (Miljka), Šaki, vodotoranj, zmajček, in serbian