04-VII-2020.
Monthly recap. I was busy with several things, specially this box on which I'm writing this, so...
Violet was very busy with her new bicycle for a few days, then completely lost interest. I had to take the bike the next day to repair the left auxiliary wheel, as it was getting unwound. It should either have a left thread, or a counter bolt - the guy did the latter. Nina is very satisfied with her bicycle. The twins didn't play with their bikes much, perhaps a few times, then got more interested in going anywhere. We took them to playgrounds a few times (mostly we two, once she and Nina, once Nina and I); went to Springfield twice, only after 15th, as they had dismantled and disinfected the whole big room. They're slowly regaining traffic, but had only two birthday parties since. On 3rd we made room in the garage to host all six bicycles. Somehow it is manageable now.
We have too many eggs. With the eight hens we bought this winter, and the old ones being still not too old, we're getting 10-14 eggs a day, quite large, over 70g. Lena and Milan came by on 6th (she alone, needs to extend the passport) and then on 20th again (both this time), and they took only 120 eggs. We went to domaćin then, had a nice lunch. We took the house special again, just like two weeks ago. It was great.
We went to Belgrade on 11th and then on 2nd of july, Nina's dentures. She had her braces rewired both times, so her teeth finally line up nicely, though every time they take off the wiring she feels like they want to run in all directions. At least her overbite is mostly gone.
I've also been to the dentist - on 19th - took out the huge upper left #7, reminds me of "Pop Ćira and pop Spira" (where the two priests get into a fight, one loses a tooth and takes it to the vladika as proof, but the tooth is substituted for a horse's during the trip). The other trip was yesterday, where he just made me some filling in the upper right #2 and some smaller cracks between the neighbors. I had serious headaches from that #7, and took as much as four brufens (ibuprofen), small 200mg ones so I could sleep. I usually pass the whole year with just two of those, and the 2018, which was an exception, was likewise caused by such a tooth. Last year, when he extracted my #4 on the same side, the headaches stopped immediately. This was more serious, it took four days for them to subside. On 22nd we had a few drinks and I did have a headache in the morning, and I was so happy about it: it didn't wake me up after two hours, it wasn't pulsing, it didn't hit the few spots on my skull but was more dully distributed and it felt like a good old hangover, which I didn't experience since... don't remember when, student years perhaps.
Speaking of drinks, we resumed the activities - 9th at Borko's (14th frendz parti), 15th our place. Borko was late, because his replacement furniture, the famous Regina regal from the here factory, finally arrived with a couple of hours of delay. We did the barbecue we wanted to do on saturday, when Lena was supposed to come pick up her passport, but she had a flu with headached and delayed it for the next saturday. We checked the due dates on the meat and concluded that it'll have to be the barbecue again, same as last time. On 22nd we were at Dragana's, the last of last year's cherry. We were supposed to meet on 30th at Borko's again (tuesday, so he'd have the time to prepare the baklava he skipped last time, thinking he's becoming boring with it), but first we got some flu, then Dragana, on 24th. Nina spent the day in bed, the twins were unhappy and their little noses runny. She was sneezing and had nose full, Raja was unhappy and spent the day and night in bed, Violet was also not OK but somehow she just used up a few sheets of tissue paper and got off easily. Nothing wrong with me - could be the strain I had last winter so my defenses had nothing to learn. On sunday Borko called to say that he talked with Dragana and she can't come on tuesday, flu. We called the thing off, it just isn't the same when we're not complete. The weather was rainy constantly until about 18th, so the frustration probably added to the causes.
On 15th I also took the car to inspection/registration, passed remarkably except the brakes. He passed me by supplying a copy of someone else's measurements, and told me to fix it. I didn't quite get it what is he talking about, all of the braking system is not older than two years, and I'm not using brakes much. Being an old and experienced driver, I look far ahead and adjust the speed on time, so very little need to break. Then Nina explained that unused brakes weaken by sheer passage of time, as the steel on disks or drums gets specks of rust. The late Ender would sometimes just speed up when the road was empty, then slam the brakes just to wipe off the rust. I did that a few times when we went to Čankovo and guess what, the nagging squeal we heard echoing around us mostly vanished. Okay...
And in Čankovo we discovered we were burgled. On 07-II-2020., when I went to check the storm damage, in the distillery I saw only that the mower and trimmer and wheelbarrow were in place, and went on to check other damage. I didn't notice that the distilling vat and the condensor pipes were gone. I guessed right, when majstor Mile called about the guy from neighborhood who wanted to take the scrap iron that it's not wise to let such guys into the yard, but he said it's his countryman from Leskovac... Okay, but I guess he brought an assistant who wasn't to be trusted, and he scoped the place out. The whole damage is below 300€, even less when we consider that the still was now nine years older than when we bought it (and it wasn't new then, and it was already mended), but the larger image is worse. We'd have trouble finding another one of the same dimensions, then we'd have to pay for its housing which we wouldn't need; we're stuck with the damaged condensor which is useless now... the cost to replace it could run into 700-800€. Which we won't do. We're mostly giving up on making brandy there, we have dad's old little 25l still at home. So on 26th, when we realized what went on, we just picked the barrel, split half the load into another barrel, and took it all home. We made 5l of cherry brandy that afternoon, at home. Added it to the rest of the cherry and will let it sit until the end of the year. And our enthusiasm for Čankovo is mostly deflated now, we just don't feel like going there much.
On 1st of july we took the girls to the swimming pool, but there was some construction going on, closed. Next is Peskara, a sandpit turned lake in Čurda (not the village proper, it's surrounded by swamps, but behind the newer part), which is now the official city beach. Had to measure it on the map later, it's a 4,75km trip, only 2km from the pool. The girls loved it, they crawled in the shallows for almost half an hour. On the way back, Linda fell asleep on my hand, which I then had to hold a bit more horizontal so her head wouldn't slide forward. Wasn't too hard, but I drove like that for the last 3km, and when we were almost at home I felt that I was holding my back bent to the right all the time. But okay, no problems later, not even a twitchy muscle (except in my feet, my toes were jerking as I was getting to sleep).
On 3rd, when I went to the dentist again, on the way back, while sitting and smoking and waiting for the anaesthetic to wear off, called Dragana and heard that she's still under - nose raw from all the paper handkerchiefs, lungs full, face swollen, hair glued, AC off. Fingers crossed for monday or tuesday, I'm getting used to this kind of sitting.
In the evening of this 4th, I first went to meet our tobacco dealer, to get the next 3kg (at 2000 RSD/kg, price didn't change for years) of tobacco. She would make cigarettes for the day every morning. We're doing this since october 2012, and after 2-3 attempts at various such dealers on the big city market, we settled on this one. Specially when they invented žardinjerija, which specially has a penchant for anyone selling something outside of the official rules (and every government in the last 200 years loved to have monopoly on smoking), instead of meeting at the market we switched to cell phone calls and meeting somewhere. The last six years, at least, the place is the parking at detelina.
Finally talked with Go and Stanley over skype. They're doing fine, Neša is making more add-ons to his roblox games (presently he added neon green laser flares to his AK-47), Anita is petting their big cat and generally looking sweeter than ever. Stanley just sold another beemer for 7500$ and it cost him 2500$. Life is sweet.
Mentions: 07-II-2020., Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), Čankovo, Čurda, detelina, domaćin, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Ender Aquila (Ender), frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), majstor Mile, Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Milan Nastić, Nenad Berger (Neša), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), regal, Ryu (Raja), Springfield, Stanley Berger, Violet, žardinjerija, in serbian