Nina went to movies with her chinese friend and her sister, the one who always pesters her over the phone to explain the maths and other stuff. Nice girls. Didn't expect to see them on the plump side, given the image I had of them always being slim.
I drove them around a bit - they live in the project where UScrew used to have an apartment, which is really not far - and on the way back they picked a bus. I guess Nina wanted to see how's it on a city bus here.
On entering the sideroad leading to our apartment block, there was a funny scene with the ducks crossing. A drake was persistently standing on the middle, going a bit left, then a bit right, not really deciding which way to go, while his goose was on the left curb. Eventually I managed to catch a moment when the right lane was vacant, so I passed it slllllowly.
Nina's application to UVA passed, no response from Yale yet, and they included a form for F-1 visa, seeing as she is foreign. No matter that she said she has a H4, valid for another three years. Probably some moron once complained about not getting it, so, just in case, they added that. The UVA is hyped up, allegedly among best 50 universities in the US, but hey, they require her to live in the dorm (even if its within walking distance from here... ok, takes 45 minutes to walk), which pushes the price of a semester from 2000$ to 9000$. Nice. So VCU it will be, she'll study with Go and share the room, at least first two years and then if she gets some aid or a grant, may move to a better university.
Got an email from Vanji... Avai is falling apart.
Hi, old man!
I keep waiting, for the miracle to happen, to have better news, but, now that you're asking I finally have to tell you all the more important things around Avai and wider, - and they are not nice.
As first, yesterday was 1stapril, my and Avai's first working day in the ancient 1989. Just yesterday Laza told me, that he is leaving. Since 15th of this month he is an acquisition commercialist (?) in some outfit here. So he says. This greek girl has, after expiration of her apprenticeship (9th of march), left on her own, since „she won't work for that money“. The other guy accepted, to work in Avai for just three more months by contract, and after that, he either goes or wants a different contract. (I estimate: if he had anywhere to go, he would have gone already).
Cica got all bepekmezed again and said, that she doesn't want to work in Avai anymore when it is like this. You don't have to, Cica, nobody's forcing you.
Joja is away for three days, his mom is ill. The users scream, I pacify them with fairy tales.
That's what left of Avai.
And the reason is simple. Money spins the world. No business, no money. What little work is there we get done but with the poor who will pay for it who knows when, or with thieves who don't mean to pay at all. At least four times I took my money from home to round up the amount needed for the salaries, but at least they all got paid out. Of course, my salary was excluded - Avai now owes me for three months, plus that cash from home, and that's a salary and a half, about a 1500 USD. Presently we have some 10K on the account, need to pay tax, phone, at least 30K for gasoline + 80K for the salary + cash to add to it another 20K, means about 130K altogether. If I could enforce debts, I'd gather some 100K, which isn't even theoretically feasible anymore.
We're selling the car, as it's practically unused. And another reason, a bit stronger: the guys were returning from J., and the cops pulled them over and ordered an inspection on the spot. I got the protocol: bad handbrake, unequal braking on front wheels. They say, per new [law], that the legal person (Avai) will pay a 100K to a million fine! And the car's worth is below 30K. Shit, isn't it? Of you I beg, to gather strength and write a sentence in a separate word document, where you state your agreement, that you accept the decision nr. ... of date ... so I can put it in the folder. I dunno, I hate to even ask Brlja's signature, but that would be in order.
The dealings with Bangro are getting more complicated, so, that in most probably a month from now we fly out of here. They want an economic rent of 6K a month for just a part of the space. We'll be in Eči's late mom. That would cost us 3K + utilities. The move itself will be chaos. I'll introduce a system where we'd meet only when needed and work on projects, at home and in the field. Eči also has some future plans, which fit with our business.
To your mother-in-law we sold a PC and connected it to the web. (The granny shocked me, regarding video games!)
I think she is satisfied. It didn't go smoothly, because we didn't charge any tax, so I'm booking that as Avai's property in assets, and to her we had to issue an invoice where she can see it's exclusively hers! It all became murky because Arpi made it so. (kind of drinks a bit more?). But it all settled properly.
Recently I'm mostly on Tisa, in the vineyard. The only thing that can calm me. I get up warlock early with the dawn, and in the evening at half ten I fall asleep wherever I happen to be. I know another guy, who does like that, and is your father. Too bad that our vineyards aren't closer, to associate all day with last year's wine.
I'm not amazed that Laza is leaving - he got married three years ago, cash is scarce, and when he once wanted an advance salary for something, Vanji charged him interest on that (!). He really learned capitalism from wrong books.
And a propos Oma's computer, he shoved her some clunker and charged handsomely. We aren't the only ones whom he shortchanged like that - Tereza and a few others are on the list.
Besides, here's what Laza wrote:
The lady acquired the following makina:
HP Vectra VE, PII 366MHz, 128Mb RAM, HDD 3,2Gb Sound, Modem motorola SM56k, Monitor Simens 17", Video card Matrox MGA-100, CD ROM, speakers.
The Vectra was manufactured between 1985 and 2002, so while it could have been fresh, it most probably was not - there was a model with P3 at 1GHz already. The 3,2G sounds small - I had a 1,8G three years before that; the current ones had about 20G. Doesn't say what video card, probably something from the back of the shelf.
The paper to sell the lada I wrote, printed, signed and, lacking a scanner, just took a (rather yellow) shot of with the Agfa, which I emailed the same evening.
30-IX-2020 - 2-X-2025