06-X-2001.

Visiting Jose. We lost a whole hour on the way there, because we missed a turn. There's roadwork around Manassas, and they labeled it worse than ours at home. Then we approached the target from south (was from north last time, but that's circumnavigation), and the signs from that direction take us to the east branch of the Woodbridge, not even close to what we were looking for, and then it ran me into a blind spot, preceded with no u-turn sign, so I had to drive a kilometer more just for that. Got it right eventually, which gave me enough cause to blurt a few sentences on account of stupid, fat and illiterate Amers who could really visit Njujork to see how it's done (true, even there it was all okay, amazingly).

And we were all there, including of course Go and Ricardo. New address, a bit away from Pentagon, actually some good twenty miles closer to us, south of the beltway (a word which never sounds right in serbian translation). This time on sub-tennants from Honduras (the „where will they sleep“ - „in the closet“, which got Go thinking of how to go pee in the night, jumping over them... until she remembered that closet doesn't mean toilet in english), and no rent, he bought this.

Eh, bought. Took a loan from the bank, that's how they do it here, pays it off now. Probably easier than the rent at the last place. And says he won't do accounting anymore, had enough of that, went into truckers. Not a long hauler in an eighteenwheeler, drives a dumper, hauls debris from torn down buildings into a huge landfill. Says the dumping is screwy work, you never know whether you've backed up enough - if you fall short, boss yells, if you go overboard, you risk tipping backwards and landing on your back.

It's a townhouse, wannabe british style... Well it is british, just lacking the shitty weather, but there it is, they're making them the way they learned three centuries ago, slat sheet nails and half a brick for the façade. It's spacious, two storeys, but it's obviously shoddy work everywhere - the walls aren't properly smoothed out everywhere, the bannister is shaky, the floorboards creak but at least the carpets are soft (took that back later, learned they aren't, it's the half inch of sponge underneath that makes them feel so) and of course the walls are in that kind-of-greasy pain (partially acryl, sold in few versions of gloss, the glossier the durabler, needs no repaint, just wash it), and it's all krmkasto (v. house dictionary) grayish. At least the backyard opens into a neatly mowed slope down to the perhaps creek (not now, maybe spring, october is dry in Virginia), and there's a swing on the opposing slope, Nina and Lena rocked on it a lot.

Of course we did some barbecue, but it took me a while to take out the Agfa, so the meat was done already and he switched to sausages. The sausage was argentinian, and resembled ours much better than what we find in the grocery. Jose said the Mexicans cultivate the fame of eating hot, but that's just advertising, to him mexican food is just not spicy enough. He said that in Peru they're hitting it to the metal, sometimes simply competing in who can eat hotter... they huff and puff, tears well, but they eat and hero it out.

On the way back, the road was half empty, the Amers filled their pants and don't venture outside. The čorba was cheaper than a year and a half ago, dolar plus some per galon. Sent a bunch of photos of this to my folks. Mom wrote back that she's at home alone - aunt Milica went home, dad went to the vineyard (yup, grapes, mush, picking time).. And as soon as they left, she had a series of visitors - S.P. first, then Števa, then Brlja returned our heater (the pipe gas one, which was our main heater last few winters there) and said thanks, didn't install central heating, didn't insulate the house and the garage can also wait, no can do, thin on cash. He, Pali, V. and Željko are holding the stakes, his Vanja is employed, and expect's a baby soon, just like Pali's missus. To which I said „Poor guy, my tears running over each other. When he found it more important to go on a vacation and to have a car for the neighbors to see.

And I, unemployed like this, write back.

These days I sort of did some work, we were supposed to continue cooperation with that hospital in Houston (Leevor, and Ford said they prepared 15000 dollars, of which 5000 go to him and me, 1500 to Željko and Vanja and V. and 3500 for expenses, half now, quarter halfway, quarter when month runs out. The negotiations around that have dragged, however, and instead of first monday we started working on fifth monday. I told Ford right away that I can always work three days for free, and he may schedule these days at ease. I actually workef four, just to show I'm not a curmudgeon, and there was also some side work (aka „Leevor pays 50$ an hour to make evals work“) of which I also didn't see a dime. Alleges that there's a problem with passing the payment because we need to find a legal way for it to pass. Ah but if it's illegal to pay me, then it's equally illegal for me to do the work. Today I sent off both Ford (briefly, on the phone) and Greg (at length, in a message) and told them to wake me up when they have a check.

Ford will like have to find someone else to finish it instead of me, which I'd really love to see. The whole thing is so fucking complicated, that I'd also need a week just to get back into the swing if I was just three months away from it, and there Houston expects it to be in operation due overmorrow. Ford, of course, tried tot paint it as it was me who is unilaterally undermining the common effort and bla bla. I said „I think you're misinterpreting what I said, but that doesn't change the outcome“. „What, you're not coming today?“ „Not coming“. Let them simmer, I don't care.

The first unemployment aid check arrived (for which 2,5% of each salary was taken all the time), 482$ for the first two weeks, after taxes. It took some time to start coming, but for this much it should be a check each week. Which is enough for rent, utilities and food, so we can sit tight until I find some work. The economy is somewhat stalled, layoffs everywhere, Amers ceased travelling and reduced shopping - the gas price is down to the levels of two years ago or lower, can find it at 1,16 a gallon, and it used to go up to 1,60. Now they expect that the demand for war tech and security systems will raise the economy a bit, though on the other side those who are supposed to buy that will probably have to lay off more workers to stay afloat. The economy is stable, sheer suicide.

Got a response from m$ today, they also tightened it up about employment, but the guy said (Mike Kowalski, know him from UA conference) that my biography looks well, so he passed it to them resources, and who knows, it can be a maybe.

And we picked a whole bag of grass from that lawn and brought it home for Mrvica to munch at. They are mowinf furiously here, as soon as it gets above 12cm, and there was a huge lot of it, because it's been unmowed a few months during the house handover.

Day or two later dad added that in the beginning of the sixties there was urgent work that had to be submitted on time, and not enough people capable of doing it, so he did three shifts at times, and there was always a way to pay for it. Replied „eh they had the money back then. Now it seems the two are trying to build a tower in the air, and I don't feel like holding it in my hands until the bricks arrive. Just like when Go and Nina worked in Zero, and 'we pay 7$ per hour' quickly transformed into 'we don't know how to pay'... And then we did have a way to refund it, they owed us 800$, and Go's machine had cost 1300, I never paid and they never billed me the difference. And I strongly suspect that that's not the only machine which was lost without a trace.“

Thirteenth... Ford asked me whether it was okay to charge Leevor the 350 dollars for seven hours. Not seven, it was six, so three hundred. Says must charge them tax. Well as long as I'm not blamed for inventing an extra hour. He'll explain, he said. For the whole deal we exchanged some six messages today. Not a word of comment. I'm really curious as to what's he up to now, whether to pay me not to see me anymore, or to pay me to keep looking at me...

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Mentions: Agfa, Allan Robin (Ford), aunt Milica, čorba, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Goran Staković (Brlja), Greg Reubenthal, house dictionary, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Jose Bariero, Leevor, Majkrosoft (m$), Mrvica, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Njujork, Pali Bodor, Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), Stevan Garaj (Števa), UbiquAgora (UA), Zero Distance (Zero), Željko Popov, in serbian

30-I-2026 - 18-II-2026