Today we moved Go and Ricardo. The previous tennants left the apartment in quite a pigsty mess, so the landlord decided to paint it and back that by withholding their deposit.
We left quite early (start before ten) but in vain - the majstors were still there. There was work anyway, we took the linnen to the laundry (partially for curiosity's sake, to see how that works), had coffee and tried to catch some breath - the day was hot and damp, horrible.
Around three a rain splattered, and Go and I went to the landlord's office to see about getting the keys right away, and met the guy at the door, quickly talked with him and started carrying things.
Some time around five Ricardo also came, and then we went on for real. The last thing we carried was their aircondition (about 40kg, he and I together, barely made it) some time after nine. Then we two had enough, and they were left with two suitcases and some laundry in the closets, and to dump out the garbage. And his desk, in parts, and one part of her desk, and that was it.
Actually he wasn't much of a worker. While I carried both big monitors and a few of other larger pieces, he'd usually carry one bag of books, generally never loading too much for one go, and was absent in the first half anyway... And [he] looks as if he could carry me in [his] teeth.
The apartment is at least twice as big as the other - two bedrooms, huge living room, kitchen. The bathroom is between the bedrooms, passthrough.
Dad reports that Števa called to get a few phone numbers from mom, to tell the news to those who need [to know] - Fefi died, stroke. In my memory, over the last dozen years, whenever I met him, he had a glass of loza at hand. He did stop when he came to DBA, but then resumed, slowly and still moderately. When the pumpkin burst and he stood by Sale, it seems he started drinking with him. While I've never seen him under influence, let's make that clear, ever since then, whenever I came by, I had a shot with them, and they had glasses half full already. The running joke was „we can't possibly breakfast on empty stomach“.
Writing to dad further, about the health and retirement [insurance]... (the reason why I had to explain this is that in Yugoslavia all of this is lumped together, in one insurance, which is called 'social' (not 'društveno', sticking to latin in this case))
I see it's hard for us to digest, but here it's each louse separately („svaka vaška obaška“). The social means I get compensation if I'm unemployed. Independently from that there's the federal retirement, which is unrelated to the social - this is federal, and social is state. Both are mandatory, with many people having an added retirement (the 401k plan, where the money put aside are in shape of stock, so who grabs what - so many lost their retirement when those big firms went bust this fall, Enron and few more like it).
The health [insurance] depends on the employers good will, about one third of the population has none at all, and that can be bought at various firms. I had one with Zero, just as good as none, because they had three hundred tangles and while they once saved me from paying 120$ by reducing the cost to me to 50$ (for the green card x-ray, which was a total waste anyway), in some four or five other cases we didn't get a dime when we should have. The agent chick who sold that was in some deal with Greg - same bunch of roses all of them.
Go called from the new apartment right now, [which] means the phone [service] is already transferred.
I'm off to [take a] shower, we sweated today down to thin guts.
Around eighth stuff was readied for Nina's return. And the custom duty for the shooter was somehow done through some agency (still had to pay something). Škrba announced he'll bring a heap of disks he fried himself or got them from Boća for me. Dad asked how should we repay the guy... Eh, with him it's a tie since long ago - Joška and I dropped by his place a couple of times on our way to Hungary, he also sent disks to me before, and I once sent him a tart of fifty blank disks. One batch of fried disks is crouching with Boća's kum in Toronto and waits for transportation to be somehow arranged, probably through Dženk, he'll be my neighbor over the lake once we get to that Syracuse. All in all, we long ago quit keeping tabs on who owes what or not... He says I only owe him to drop by once so we can get drunk humanely* :).
On tenth they also visited our house, said Aleksa came by from Austria, and cut the brambleberry which grows between his wall and our fence... Um, yeah, if he still didn't put the gutters, the job's futile, it'll always grow a jungle. The moisture stays there and it's a miracle that the brambleberry didn't raise his [house's] foundation :). Our water goes some to the sewers, some to the front lawn, some to the back yard, and his stays there by the wall. Of course, he tried to borrow our phone line (!), but dad fucked him off. He didn't remember to offer any compensation for that water meter.
Go phoned on tenth, said that her fast internet is still not working, and it's ten days since the move.
Rick also called the other night, said if we move to Syracuse, he's gonna drop by, it's just a few hours' ride for him (unless there's fresh snow). We talked for a whole hour. Told me to find a good winter coat in a catalog, will need one. And down jackets, I asked. Said that's too bulky. Well, considering his size, he'd need a bigger car if he wore one.
Thirteenth. We're skipping the pool because the water temperature is 32°, as if diving into soup.
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* actually, „napiti se ljudski“ is more „get drunk as proper/fit for people“
14-III-2025 - 18-II-2026