26-IX-2022.
The return. Of course, coffee first, pick our garbage next. We didn't particularly check out, just left the key on the hanger where we found it, we paid in advance anyway, so why should we. Since we got up early enough, we took off at 8:40. I mounted the dashcam above the shader, it gets nicely stuck there, needs nothing else. I set it to one shot every 20 seconds. It turned out to work in 2048x1200 resolution, but saves that in 2048x1536 stretch. Later I had a couple of hours of entertainment, trying to shrink that back, did the first three in Gimp, then tried to do it from command line in Gegl, but couldn't find the syntax to set compression to 66. The documentation is cryptic, koan like. Switched to ImidžMedžikk, it does both things in one go, and further I managed to apply that to a whole batch of files I'd drag to the command line from Geeqie. If I didn't save time for today (I let it make some seventy shots while the road was interesting, then turned it off), did so for the future.
In Mionica I remembered I should take a turn, but misremembered when, thought it should be at exit, but no, that's Divci. So, which way to Lajkovac now? Pull out the tablet, fire up navigation. And again, like yesterday, it took us down some almost deserted road, worse than the last time, through some backwaters where you expect one bus a week, over Bogovađa, but then yesterday it took us to where we wanted, so give it a chance. And we didn't reach Lajkovac, but rather another ramp, or another access road to the same ramp to the new highway, the ramp being still under construction. And so we hit the highway again, and got home real fast, except the last kilometers.
First we stopped at the brzožder (v. house dictionary) in Stajićevo, ate what we ate, wrapped it up and took three more for Nina, Raja and Violet. Then had to wait to pass into the city, as not only the overpass, but also parts of the road by the chinese rubber plant (pun intended) were also under construction, alternately opening the way for either direction.
So we came into town by old road, through kombinat, by skrobara, kantina and šećerana. Passing by the old house I was satisfied that the grass was still not horrible, can mow later. Arriving in our street I noticed the dig on the corner, saying „tk kabel“, which I thought was fun poked on the croatian account (for „who“ we say ko, they say tko; then horse is konj but in a joke theirs is tkonj, sausage is kobasica/tkobasica etc), but no it wasn't a „tkabel“, it was the optics finally coming. The next day the optical fibre was on the pole we see through our windows. Now when will they start going house by house, we'll see.
The kids weren't too astonished to see us back, they got older and harder to move, but they immediately took to play with what toys we brought. Everything went fine meanwhile, even pancakes were waiting for us (and two days later she got confused, when making pastry for langoš and bread, about the scale being set to ounces, then guessed Nina found an american recipe).
Didn't take much of a nap in the afternoon. Took until evening to do the photos, with the few days before the weekend it came to about 300.
Found an email from Canada, old sezam fox jLeonov replied to my wassup message from 2009. I replied as soon as I saw it, added a link to Byo so I don't have to retell much - already did - and told him he beat my record, on UA I once replied after only 12 years. Well, in seven years, if he replies...
Went to Čankovo on tuesday and friday (27th and 30th), the other time with Linda and Sanda. We hit good weather, between the rains. Dew everywhere, but she picked more tomatoes (now not ripe anymore, it ripens in a couple of days after picking) and squash. The squash she dried the last batch, hoping that's the last, we'll have enough until the next crop. Dried apples too (what we bought again in Little shop, a crateful), it's so addictive to nibble...
Made brandy first on that tuesday, whatever we had. Two stills for Vera and her mom, got 6 liters of loza. One still of ours, never worse, one single liter. Three, almost four liters of patoka at 35%, will increase the return when we make quince, which bore big and healthy and plentiful fruit this year. Fingers crossed. There's also rosehip to pick, for tea. I did root out that huge wild rose bush behind the garage six years ago, but this one grew near the path, behind the peaches, in front of the summer kitchen, almost as big, and it has fruit for the whole winter.
On thursday drove the van to fix whatever they found on inspecttion. Was done on saturday, 30000 dinars, mostly brakes, they changed a lot of disks and whatnots. As for the white smoke, Dule said „just drive it, all this came from not driving“.
That thursday the clouds were insanely beauttiful, but I had only the phone, can't shoot with that while driving.
Škrba emailed, after taking a peek at Byo. Of course, he found a handful of places where I forgot to replace the names (all in the same article), so I went through the whole database and found more and fixed them all. Ditto for the english version. And he contributed a correction: „And, while we're at it: Joška does not screw those models of his, sticks to the codex (even brother Stinge doesn't do it, not that he wouldn't like to). Add to it the location of his studio, it's in the kitchen in the house in Mala Amerika (painted a wall in gray, put up the umbrellas to diffuse the lights etc). The weirdest was the scene when Ramona, his most famous model, just put on an apron and started making pancakes for him and his wife, during a break. Shots of that can still be found somewhere in the wastes of FejZbuk ((:“ (um, yes, that's Škrba and his left handed smilie).
I replied with „One part of the story is also that, which is not what really was, but, in some places, what I remember, which inevitably includes some wishful thinking. That is, there were times when I was rooting for him :)“.
Lena sent fresh photos of the apartment, the woodwork is being mounted. Seems like the move-in might be next weekend, or one after.
Whole week it was alternating between showers and nice weather, everything's humid. Our roof leaks by the rooflet of the window in the kitchen to be, by the hole (niche above the staircase). We took the mattresses out of there, they were getting soaked, and leaned them elsewhere. In the hole we just put plastic foil and the two dishes to collect drip water. Called majstor Mile about it, says he can't climb any more, liver cancer surgery, just fences and ground floors now. And his son is a cop, and has a three week shooting practice now, so he'll come when he catches a break. Though he isn't for heights either, but this is a small job.
And a propos the mattresses, last week Nina complained about hers, it's developed a hole and her hip always sinks in. The mattress was our workhorse for twelve years, practically everybody except the two of us slept on it, so we took it upstairs, into the hole, and brought down the new one we bought three years ago, when there were eleven of us in the house.
Mentions: Byo (Byo), Čankovo, Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), house dictionary, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joška Apro, Kantina, kombinat, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), loza, majstor Mile, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sezam, skrobara, Stinge, šećerana, UbiquAgora (UA), Vera Vraneš, Violet, in serbian