22-VII-2005.
[11:26:28] me: so, how do we cover IDA for the time I'm out?
[11:26:52] David: we don't.
[11:26:58] David: we will be missed.
The purple peppers also bore fruit. One bell and one of these tiny marbles, supposedly hot but not really. Perhaps they weren't ripe yet. Never saw them in this color.
After having a nice day in Paris, they appear at the CDG a couple of hours ahead of time. They walked from the hotel, it was near enough. Having nothing to do, they buzzed around the airport. Nowhere to sit, so they sat on the floor - it's carpet, hard and glued to the concrete just like on any other airport, but still better than standing for hours. Someone from their flight asked if they were en route from the US. Yes, of course, anyone can guess the only place where this habit of sitting on the airport floor can be acquired.
In the evening, they finally get home. Not so easily... I tried to arrange Nina's then boyfriend Danilo to wait for them, which he did, and we actually chatted somehow (SMS perhaps?) but no dice, they didn't appear. The plane did land.
He missed them by a few minutes (but he may have guessed, his dad is a pilot) because they had to stay behind - their luggage was lost. At 21:05 local still nobody knew where they were. At around 23:35 got an email from mom and dad that they have arrived, safe sound and not too tired.
I'm deep in arrangments with Škrba and Boća about meeting, when and how. Of course, we exchanged two five hundred emails, meandering in al directions,as the protocol has it. The first bulk of it was music (mrz and videos), what should wait for me and what should I bring. Škrba planned a sitting with at least three nightings, to die stiff of booze, and also a little kettle. Their daughter is in Romania at the time, with some folklore, so there'll be an extra bed. I said right there that she doesn't feel like going, she considers this my belated bachelor's night, which I didn't have when I should have.
(me)
Any triper is a genetic matter to us... „she may have contracted genetics in childhood“, as Prače* would say. Just looking at what combinations happen to me, with the schengen visa on top, which I finally got now and can't use. My passport lay in belgian embassy for 14 months :)
Škrba
I somehow got it into my head that, once we finish the envisioned repartitioning of living space, buy some dec.car. Can't shit up enough money, that's needed for stuff.
(me)
Just when I stacked some reserve, paid off half of the house (hehe, the plan is to save 20K$ on interest, so pay off quickly), when the AC kicked the bucket. Can't survive the summer here - the humidity in better days falls below 90% and the temperature can fall below 30°, so we burst 2250$ just like that. Luckily, the agentress fucked us up last year about the house insurance... ahem, goes like this: if you take a loan, you must pay into bank's escrow some amount to cover the insurance and tax, which then bank uses to pay these out. Now this year I found different insurance, price a trifle, 718$ against the 1600$ or thereabouts that I burst for the first year. Since I had these paid against from my installments, there's excess money there now and it's now being returned - great. Also a delayed check from Gary fell into my lap, and also reimbursement for various small expenses (I accumulated them so not to bother the girl at UniJewel for small amounts), and yet another salary (every other friday)... so it pushes on.
(Škrba)
Bank returning money? Ooooooh FUCKIT!!!! No such thing here. The banks here, for me as a citizen, are just legalized usurers, nothing more. Look at this picantery: Delta bank now has some campaign for „33 seconds loan“ or some such title. I just need to appear at the window with my ID, no guarantors, no down payment or anything else, I get an instant loan at the level they gauge against my solvency (which they offer to everyone, and they tell everyone it's exactly for them). For me they decided that I ca ntake 1800€ at 18 months repay. Now where's the catch:
- they pay you in dinars, at the middle rate of euro
- it's tied to euros, I return it at buyoff rate of euro
- the loan processing is charged in PERCENTAGE... I never understood why would processing of a 25000€ loan be 25 times more expensive than processing of a 1000€. I guess that's for the wear and tear of the keyboard, the cash counting machine and the window girl's nail polish, in case it cracks while manipulating the papers;
- and now for interest: 19,6% a year on the amount in euros (payable in dinars); added the projected dinar inflation of 16%. So, eyeballingly, if I took 150.000 dinars, I'd have to pay back 200.000. Not even that bad.
Which is why I'm interested in banks here exclusively as an instrument of payment and nothing more. Everything else - self and one's own nag.
(me)
That's the level of regular interest on credit card debt. If you run into somewhat deeper arrears, they assist you by raising the interest to 30-35%.
Boća
The work at the firm I have, mostly, got done - perhaps just one more morning, to verify the wireless on the spot, then let them manage. BTW, in regards of my problem of logging into peer-to-peer windows network, the solution is completely nebulous: it works when you turn the Guest account on, which is initially off even on XP - which the manual states explicitly nowhere, I accidentally stumbled on it on one among two hundred pages on them netses that I looked into. May dog fuck their mother and m$!
(me)
...only the outside unit... didn't touch the attic one, nor the tunnels, nor the thermostat. In the fall we need to rewire the thermostat - this one has three strand cable, it takes a six strand for two-way heat pumping. They meant to charge me 250$ to lay the cable. Go run, I think, I need to reshuffle the gutters anyway (there's nothing about the gutter that wasn't done wrong), to patch the tear in the eave's edge where he squirrels came in... for 200$ I can buy the tall ladder and the cable and get to keep the ladder, and I can lay the cable myself, thank you. Just you come and connect it.
And the squirrel is probably who bit through the condensate exhaust hose in the attic. When we turned the AC first time this spring, it started dripping from the upstairs bathroom grille. She climbed into the attic, and found at least six holes in the hose, you could push the old fivebank** through each. I guess the squirellings were honing their teeth on it... Then we couldn't find a proper hose, so we used the ordinary garden [one], and then couldn't guide it all the way to the grille in the eave, because that end isn't lower and we couldn't reach it, the hose is limp at the hell of a temperature in the attic. So we lowered the hose into the bathroom, and it now drips into the hole whele once the crapper will be (btnj, how's the coffee***). Once the attic becomes breathable, I'll drill the vertical vent tube of the sewer and lead a proper copper tube into it.
The copper tube never happened, can't solder up there, too hot and dry for flame. Drilled the hole, having dulled a handful of drill bits and grindstones, as this vertical tube is cast iron 10mm thick. Been swetting for some three hours there, but it's not dripping anymore.
----
* Pratchett, in genitive, is Pračeta, so analogously to mače-mačeta, pače-pačeta, rebuilt the nominative case
** 50 dinar coin of SFRY, somewhat wider than a quarter.
*** someone brought a jar of „Nestle kenjara“ coffee. Now pronouncing nj the serbian way, kenjara is a crapper aka toilet bowl.
Mentions: Božidar Sokolović (Boća), Danilo, David Krakovski, Gary Brandywine, Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), Majkrosoft (m$), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), triper kombinacija, UniJewel, in serbian