19-V-2002.
Visiting the trio in Richmond. Ricardo learned to pronounce „gibanIca“ - managed to pronounce c (as zz in pizza), but couldn't possibly master the emphasis on the first syllable, no go and no go.
We had a stroke of bad luck, corolla got towed away. This is the second time since we're here - both times in a place where we're paying, just weren't properly marked, the Brythard (or whatever) didn't give us the sticker. So this cost us 90$ plus a short walk down the Broad (Brodska) street, some 25 blocks. Just when we needed less cash in our pockets.
Because we were peeing thin this month, and it won't get better the next, not until I'm officially on eHosp's budget. True, Berix allotted a lot of hours in the plan for SpeedCanvass, with fudge factor going to 2,5 in some places, but the requirements grew better than that along the way, while the budget didn't quite follow, and we ran out of billable hours. Now it was down to whatever she could scare Joe to pay. Initially my biweekly check was around 1600$, now I got one at 240$. On top of that got screwed by Wachovia once - the check arrived on friday, I went to the bank to post it, at 13:30, knowing the trick (what doesn't go through by 14:00, is next day), but no, the cattle called it a weekend and the check landed on my account only on monday. In the evening we went to Kroger to fill the fridge, and when we returned I checked my account. Lo and behold, the miracle - the salary isn't there, but the Kroger bill is, that one took them about ten minutes, so I'm in the red. Oh, not really, I have a 1000$ line of credit, which I can use whenever I want, I should only type it in, but I didn't, so the software did it automatically for me and charged me 5$ for the effort. Fuckers. On monday I checked a few times until the salary appeared, returned the money to the line of credit (in serbian, „permitted minus“), and checked the status again. Ah, there was some interest charged... let's see, that's three days. Recalculated, that's 90$ a year. Actually more, because it was charged immediately, so it wasn't a proportional method but conform, which would make that above 590%. Fuck your mothers, usurers, specially for those 5$ for having a catch in the software.
Piksi came to fix dad's trabant, but couldn't, the fault was electric, call a different majstor. It never ends... Meanwhile, dad decided to put sheet metal roof on the garage, because even double layer of tar couldn't stop the rain from seeping in. Prletić will bring it on his truck. In other news, Susjed's son brought a new wife, the old one being shooed away by the mother-in-law. They keep it a secret for now, but the neighborhood knows it all.
Guinness still makes the best ashtrays.
On this 20th Nina needed some books, so I drove her to the law school (she had to write a paper on internet laws) and her friend to the central library. Now when we got to the university central, I was in some sort of confused hurry, changed my mind about leaving the car a couple of times, trying to remember what... ah yes, don't leave the Agfa in the car... and with a half second delay I remembered to check the keys. Not in pockets... but while I checked the pockets, I removed my elbow from the door. The car being parked uphill, the door closed and locked. It's so normAlly* here, to make a car where you can lock the keys inside. There was no theory you could do that in the škodilak or kafeni, unless you left via rear door, locked them and then closed from outside. You simply couldn't lock the driver's door from inside. Here, they seem to want to sell more central locks.
Again, nobody walked. That is, Mei and Nina did, but along the way called a couple of friends, Hindus, who had a car. They came, picked them up, took them home to get the spare key, drove them to me, I unlocked, they drove back. No walk.
Will be visiting Berix again soon, and we may drive to Syracuse as well. There's a good chance that I may meet two bigwigs - George, a dry genius, and Jerbie; a couple of books by the latter are always at hand. He may be my boss in due time.
It doesn't seem to be so cold up there, it's that it gathers a lot of snow, because all of the copious vapor rising from the great lakes hits some kind of plateau (beginning of some elevated flatlants or some such) and there it freezes and falls as snow. At the conference I met a guy from there, and he said that it never falls more than two feet (60cm)... in one day. And then if it keeps at that for a few days (which it usually does), the layer may grow to meter and a half or stronger [than that].
Few days ago they had a belated snow there, they say they don't remember ever having snow in may. Thouh, there was frost on the cars this morning... and the beach season (lakes, pool), by calendar, opens next week.
The graduation dress for Nina is almost done (this is a news). The other news is that I've miscalculated the cigarette paper, I have enough for less than two weeks or thereabouts. Once they packed 50 sheets in a bundle, then 40, now there's only 33, so I told dad to send. One slat (of, I think, 24 bundles) should be enough, to save on postage, and then Nina can bring a two-three more and then I'm set again for a year or two.
Around twonysecond the laptop from Berix arrived, will need it for Syracuse. The machine is actually Sharlene's, and I guess she'll manage while it's with me. On twonythird Nina went for some ekskurzija (one day, to Baltimore, there they had a ride on a ship and maybe a lunch as well), returned around one after midnight. Didn't carry a shooter. This morning they went to a movie (to watch Spiderman, I think) and then they had some lunch at school - she returned before Lena did. Then went to sleep.
Lena started wearing Go's old sneakers. They are a bit unwieldy by the looks of it, but she says they're very comfortable. She had them on on saturday when we went to Richmond, to be seen :). Says hers aren't bad, but she's running out of toe space. If she goes on like this, she'll wear size 40.
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* nobody but a few diehard sezam folks remember why this spelling. It goes: „in the cunt or normAlly?“.
Mentions: Agfa, Cecilia Roxbury (Berix), eHosp, ekskurzija, George Whiteley, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Jerry/Jenny Beale (Jerbie), Joe Dioballato, kafeni, majstor, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Prletić, Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), sezam, Sharlene Weiter, SpeedCanvass, škodilak, trabant, in serbian
16-XI-2023 - 18-II-2026