14-XII-2020.
On monday, 7th, finally got the hen and cat food from detelina. The ambulanta across the street is the alotted for covid cases, so they have this extra military tent outside, where they allegedly only take samples, it's not a waiting room. They wait outside, and seem to be let in in batches. I made this shot after getting out of the shop; when I came there were at least fifteen of them outside. The košava has brought the tent to its knees and the portable toilet to horizontal.
Magi's mom wasn't out of the hospital that day, but the next. I was listed as next of kin, so the hospital called on my cell phone to tell me that she won't be out before 14:00. The 2nd shift, however, doesn't talk to the first, so they didn't call when it happened. At least the neighbor was there with the apartment key, and she was already there, quite lucid and not too deranged (just a couple of bits about the woman in the next apartment who hates her and has hexed her and "won't rest until she gets rid of me"), but she can't walk anymore. She was previously on crutches - had a broken leg few years ago, and it led to some trouble with the knees, which she tried to fix in some clinic in Hungary, and it didn't heal the right way. But she could use the crutches or the walker last time we visited (last winter?). She picked up the stuff to wash (she spent the last night at home incontinent and puking, so there was the bedsheet and few more items), dumped the paprikaš and the salad (perished but not stinking, even after three weeks in the fridge). Got her some bread and pre-cut salami, cheese etc, and lined it around her swivel chair. Had to arrange the coffee table to be at her side and move the armchairs on the other side. Amazingly, it's the exactly same model of table, chairs and regal that we have, ages old but in mint condition. They talked hungarian amongst themselves at times, and half of the time I'd understand everything, the other half nothing. As if I'd miss the whole train if I didn't catch the first car.
Later we heard from Magi that she eventually fell off the chair and couldn't get up. She did have enough bromazepam to stay stoned for a couple of years, though she said she takes only one, or even just a half, per day. Don't know how that goes, but we told her about it, and she said she'll pass it to the girls from Caritas when they arrive.
On 9th we took the twins to Lidl. Didn't do that in a while. Just as we usually do last ten visits, we took two smaller carts, so each had a seat. They just enjoy it, it's a ritual. Of course, they just have to have a kinder egg in the end - I managed to keep them distracted at the cash register only twice so far - but at least they now eat the chocolate, and have enough patience to keep the innards unopened until we get home, when there's something requiring assembly in it. These little toys keep getting simpler and worse done than before. In the previous decades these have been tiny pieces of ingenuity, whole little mechanisms which even worked. I finally used my new debit card, where the retirement arrives. The 2nd payment arrived in the middle of the lunch, between the čorba and the main course, announced by a SMS on my phone (the sound for messages is still the hens, for two years now). This is still unofficial, I still haven't received the disposition with the calculation etc - they're probably waiting for the hungarian colleagues to finish their work. Which may raise my monthly, once it's done, by perhaps 1€ or less. Presently it's 20465 rsd.
I'm re-reading Banks's "Algebraist". Amazingly, I remember very little, and he managed to surprise me several times - on second reading (!). It's been a while.
On 10th Nina had a dentist again (rescheduled from 8th, good timing), so I drove her and we spent a hour or two with Lena and Milan. Had a nice discussion over what is SF and what isn't, whether Elantris, Discworld and Star Wars belong to this or that category. Why is deus ex machina allowed in fantasy but not in SF. Even Nina's usual manner of relativizing everything didn't work here, I stuck to my definition ("in SF you have full freedom to set the rules whichever way you like, but then you have to stick to them; in fantasy you can change your mind").
The shot of the new silo, about halfway home, didn't turn out as mysterious and as spaceship looking on the picture, but at least I finally made a stop to take one. It's more impressive in 3d, when you have the sense of its size.
On 11th I made a round - took the clean laundry to Magi's mom first. She did have Slupek there, a neighbor of sorts - from childhood, in the village - visiting (latr I learned that's Bernat Slupek), and then within a few minutes the girls from Caritas came. What with the wheelchair, the living room was getting cramped, so I left them. Visited the butcher (one near ruža) to replenish the supplies of sausage and other dry stuff that we offloaded to Lena, and then to old house to get the mail. And the rest of my old diaries to take pictures of and add into the Byo. Found out that in the seventh notebook, which was unusually thin (covers the summer and fall of 1971) there are some photos of some girl whose face I barely remember and even less the name (but I still found her interesting enough to keep the photos, even the small ones I could extract from 8mm film), and a postcard and a letter from Melanija. The letters are actually in the same box in the garage in the old house, where the diaries were, and I don't intend to bring them until I'm finished with the diaries. Now I'm wandering why did I keep these two separately from the rest. Were they the first ones, before I even started piling them up? Or was there something special? (Nope, nothing special, except, near the end, "I know how it is when you love someone and he plays crazy and mocks you", exactly what she was doing to me then, but also chided me for taking so long between letters.) I won't know until I read them, but... later. I did watch that video with sound once last week, and it was not quite disappointing, but no thrill either. Her charm was never in the voice. At least she stayed true to her manner of speech, there are no layers of pedagogy in it - very few professors manage to evade that. It comes from trying to be heard and understood, and accumulates in dozens of little tricks. At least she got none of that.
Still haven't decided whether to email her. Perhaps a greeting for the new year? Or something at 50th anniversary. We'll see, no hurry.
On 13th Borko called, he spoke with Dragana and she's finally going to visit the new grandnephew this week and we'll resume our sittings soon afterwards. She's sticking to isolation until then, though that means only she's neither making nor taking visits, but she still goes about her groceries herself.
Mentions: Byo (Byo), čorba, detelina, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), košava, Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Margita Gunaroši (Magi), Melanija Tisarević, Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), regal, ruža, in serbian