24-III-2024.
Later in the evening, it was already about 21, Borko calls to say that we don't meet the next day, for because it's both him having some 'minor rush' (used the same expression twice, pedagogically, class prepared...), and Dragana down with a 'virosis'. Okay, called her too, said she's almost okay, slept a lot, been under since tuesday, the classic thing which lasts a week if not cured, eight days if cured (aha, virosis, neé flu), but she's not sure if she'd be in proper shape. Okay then, until next monday.
The next day I sent 400$ of the rest of my paypal cash to Raja, for the birthday. Only I sent this to Nina's account to counter what I sent a month and a half ago to him and should have to her, without clicking 'friends and family' so they held 4$ as a fee. So evened it out now. We didn't get to see him, he was still asleep. Wherever he may be, his diurnal cycle is in somewhere six to twelve timezones west. And, by the way, he finally understood multiplication, because he needed it for some strategic problem in some game, where he wanted to achieve something to get some powerup, which can be accomplished by doing n things m times, or some other long thing. So he tried to calculate which one takes less time. He then even asked for some books to study the problem... and then a different problem arose - he never learned how to turn leaves in a book, how to apply the finger to turn exactly one page.
Rein called in from Kroger, to ask whether there's anything they'd need, they said cake. Ouch, they both were busy with medical checkups and they forgot it was Raja's birthday. Fayes went for a colonoscopy (caller rektoskopija here)... and Rein too, he said many times that they aren't trying to cure him but rather maintain his long term paying patient status, and yet he still opted for yet another knee surgery (or two?). For some biopsy the asking price was 5000$... and it's just a step in the diagnostics, doesn't do anything useful, but if you're willing to be customers, so you will be. And the cake arrived on time, and we got a nice shot of him blowing the candles.
In the evening someone knocked on the door - the neighbor lady, the spying one. Knocks, her phone light on... Right on I asked who died, because she's the one who collects money for the kitty to buy something to the family or just pass the cash. Nobody this time, she rather needs some expert information, about sanitary checkups and hygienic minimum*. Because her employer promised a reward for anyone who comes up with a way to save money, and these checkups cost about 3000 a pop, twice a year, is that really required? So my dear took up on herself to read the law and the regulation, and the next day actually found that it's unrelated, not mentioned there, the law doesn't give a fuck about people's health anymore, the checkups may be needed for maybe the dozen who work in cosmetics, and the minimum courses are not mentioned at all. It's all gotten quite relaxed, the law doesn't give a single fuck about people's health, this must have remained in some pen pusher's head from who knows when, or this was someone's deal with the zzzzz, for some nice payback.
The next day (26th) a photo arrived of the doorjamb where they write the notches at times, as the kids grow. Nina had an impression that Raja got taller all of a sudden, so she measured him again. He grew 2cm in 18 days, and her impression is that it's the legs. He's gonna be quite a guy, with the asian long spine and our limbs... and our fingers are long, and so are his.
During the day I drove Joda to the service, to rotate the wheels and check the liquids (except window washing, that I make myself for the last two years, from methanol, dishwasher liquid and condensed water from the laundry dryer). Nothing wrong, except about the coolant the guy said „...I don't know, this won't protect you below -42°“. „Strong?“. „Strong.“.
From the cabbies I heard a bunch of stories about the confusing streets, starting with my own. I first said 75 when I called, and the operator said „wasn't it 51?“... well how does she know, did she memorize my voice, or are we their only customer in the street. But she still said 51 to the guy, and he stopped at 27... like so many before him. And then there's the Carice Milice (empress Milica) street, with halves on either side of the river, missing the middle part since they cut the new riverbed that way. But I'm a local and I know all that, but the guy had another story about my street - he drove an old guy here to someone's slava. Doesn't recognize the place, didn't bring the cell phone, the address is what he said but „am I so senile to misremember the street?“... nope, just wrong half of it. Or some four guys whom he drove to Klek and they eventually said they don't know the address. They were at Days of beer at concert of „Atomsko sklonište“ (v. 31-XII-2017.), and their host and his kum got drunk and went home before midnight. They stayed, and now couldn't raise them on the phone, sleeping, drunk as butts, now where to go... they remembered only that it was a white house with white-gray fence... near the cemetery. Found it on second try.
She managed to send a package to the girls, with pussycats and whatnot, and the old rag about postmen as the worst stricklers was confirmed (v. 08-VIII-2023.). The previous day the postgirl refused her because the box was too busy with print and the address can't be on a glued sheet of paper, so on the way back she found a plain cardboard box at one of the kiosks there. This time almost everything went, but the procedure is a live horror - every piece has to be weighed separately, written into the manifest, and the tiny dolls from Mere can't go as they contain a battery, and lego cubes can't go because she'd have to count them. That is, she did offer to count them but c'mon, who'd wait it out. So she sent it without those, and now wait and see when will it arrive.
In the evening we talked with Lena. Saw the first shot of the future granddaughter, from ultrasound. Resembles mostly Linda and Sanda, how they looked on ultrasound.
Tne next two-three days I spent mostly in Python, completing the GenMud**, i.e. the wisdom (mudrost) generator for sGradlj.com. Adjusted the style a bit, gave it proper margins and spacing and made it html5, starts, goes. Unbelievably, it generates 600 pages in just a couple of seconds. She made more noodles, that 160 liter barrel is already half full.
On thirtieth finally nice weather, cherries in full blossom, and the little cherry in between also somewhat (still undecided whether to leave it or take it out, pruned it last year, let's see now) and the lilac also started, the beech's leaves are filling up, just fisix days more and there goes the neighborhood. So I took out the mower. Ow how out of shape I am after these six weeks, I mow six square[ meter]s and take a break. True, the terrain is uneven, still finding pieces of stuff in the grass and it snags every minute, but that was so before as well and then I managed to finish the yard with just four breaks, not eight.
After lunch went on to mow the street lawn and whom do I see - Faik! We didn't see him for nine years.. He also whitened, but is still just as perky as he always was, straight and sound. Came to handle the retirement paperwork (yeah, should have done that when he was 65, and he's 72 now), and his younger son also has some paperwork to do... Talked at length. No matter how it looks to us that there's nothing going on, we still had a long list of news for him.
The shot landed here by accident. Go printed this.
In the evening, just when we took our showers and hit the hay, we heard Telegram... get up now, the kids wouldn't call if it didn't matter to them. And so it was - Sanda got sad, remembered her bike. It's no use trying to explain that, for one, she lives in the US now, where a bike on the road is a rare beast with which nobody knows exactly what to do - neither those behind the wheel, nor those with the handlebars, there's no sidewalk, the bike is not a means of transportation but of recreation, put it in your car and go somewhere to a park and have a ride there. Too complicated to explain while the kid is crying...
Nina got her new phone, some Motorola, and she already managed to reinstall everything on it, including Telegram, and the picture is really better. It's still prone to pixellize out when moving a lot, but recovers much faster, and the range seems to be better. She needs to pump up the tyres on her Volvo, but the compressor is stuck between the Corolla AE86 and the bench, which she can't move while its tyres are flat. No use calling Rein to push it out a bit, with his wobbly knees, no go. Perhaps to hook it up to Volvo and drag it out for half a meter... We'll hear when it gets done. The search for the place where her cable to the heating gets wet is also not finished, it's all dry under the floor. When she had termites, the crew treating the beams with proper chemicals also spread plastic foil, and now there are traces of once water on the foil here and there, but none of it fresh. The only suspect spot is by the doorjamb, it licked down a bit there, but the cable seems to be in one piece there... To be continued.
On thirtyfirst in the afternoon, I wrote this on burundi: „Right now is the moment of the year when the sun has still not set behind the neigbor's roof and shines smack across the middle of the table, on the tulips and hyacinths. Except this year there's only tulips. The hyacinths have already passed, and the sun... you can look straight at it, it's not dangerous at all as [it is] when there's an eclipse. Doesn't have those rays.“
That moment was recorded on 31-III-2016.; the dangerous eclipse was on 11-VIII-1999.. You can look at the sun because the saharan dust came here, having traveled from Marocco, over Spain, up to here. Small is the Mediterranean [what?].
The day before, while I was preparing the terrain for mowing - put away the plastic flowerpots which wind dispersed around - I took to carry the few pieces of siporeks which she used for the shelf for the peppers and strawberries. While I carried the easiest piece to throw it into the branches heaped up below the terrace, I stepped with half foot on the path, scrambled to regain balance and scraped my brow against that lower branch of the apricot. Every two months I get a new scratch on the brow. I becunted and today I just sawed that branch off. It's misshapen anyway, I've alredy tightened it up with wire, and then with bike tyres as well, and it still didn't turn out right. Enough.
In the evening Borko called to announce for tomorrow, and along the way wanted to ask me about something related to the band who will play on maturski - whoa, and the guy said that the proposal was summarily fucked off, so glad that I stepped out right away - about which I didn't want to talk, but no no, he said it's about their bass player, who's the guy about whom he suggested two years ago that we should invest 100€ and get 50 liters of wine - well, he's still making wine, and „if that thought warms you up“ (he used that exact phrase three times in those two minutes, prepared the class again)... But no, we better put the 100€ into more pears, will get more fun out of it, that's about 20l.
Later in the evening we talked with Stanley and Go in the evening, saw the kids. Their passports are still being made, and when will [they be done], we don't know. The administration there is undergoing yet another modernization, which means fewer workers, and it seems all the passports are processed in only four centers, which now takes more time than before. New passports are done almost immediately, it's the extensions that have to wait to be returned from Philadelphia (!). We even spoke with his pal Huck (Hakija), and talked with him to some length, but he ain't no Bosnian, he's a Hercoš. So the „đez' ba, ša ima“ was misplaced, they don't say it that way. Just yesterday Stanley bought a car for 500$, worked on it perhaps two-three hours and Huck comes by and buys it for 2500$ as is, and considers it a bargain. Who knows how much will he make on it.
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* this hygienic minimum is the knowledge expected of anyone handling food or people. It's something of a 20 hour course and an exam, pretty much like first aid course, just applied to hygiene. Waiters, cooks, clerks in shops selling foodstuff.
** 'muda' (pl.) is the scrotum, aka balls, 'mudar' (adj.) is wise. Neither first nor last pun on that pair.
Mentions: 11-VIII-1999., 31-III-2016., 31-XII-2017., 08-VIII-2023., burundi, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Faik Rizvani, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, kum, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borko), maturski parastos, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Reinaldo Aquila (Rein), Rosanda Aquilla (Fayes), Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sGradlj.com, siporeks, slava, Stanley Berger, zzzzz, in serbian