20-X-2007.
Last day of the asrm trip. The fair itself actually finished a few days ago, but we stayed until now to buzz around DC and have some coding sessions in the hotel. Some downstairs around the beers, then in our rooms when the laptops report lack of čorba. David and Norman packed the whole stand (well, the posters and monitors, that's what we have) and drove off to Toronto.
Taking Jan to the airport, we first had to head south to get my car, which I left with Jose. We take the subway, as its station is right under the square where the hotel is. It's not crowded at all, and as soon as we left the underground, somewhere before the Reagan airport, even that went nearly empty. True, this is around noon, when even the roads aren't much congested.
From the subway we take a cab for the last three miles, to Dale City. Jose's new wife looks sweet. We say our brief hellos, then drive to the other side of the ninetyfive, to pour some čorba, the corolla was running low.
Then, the long drive to the Dulles - a dozen miles to the beltway, then quarter circle of it, from south to west exit, then another dozen. This was shot exactly where we leave the belt and enter the sixtysix, the place I know by heart already, but having a photo is welcome too. Then after a few miles we head north through them burbs of... Arlington, maybe already Falls Church... who knows, I'd have to check the maps. He keeps shooting and gazing around. This is the first time he saw America away from downtowns and airports, even after a dozen trips.
Seeing that we got plenty of time left, we drop at some chain restaurant - Arby's, Hardee's, Applebees or whatever, these fastmunch chains are all the same.
This contraption on a trailer is an ancient icecream truck, refurbished and restored neatly, and kind of accidentally left on the parking until the tow truck comes... yeah, right, the oldest trick to get free advertising, park a scripted vehicle somewhere until they shoo you away or threaten to impound it.
We take burgers, which is not just a bun with a patty wrapped in paper, it's a whole lunch, with fries and salad and layers. My first two moves are to take away the top of the bun - never liked the spongy sticky soulless excuse for dough, even when it was made by LebarProm - and then take off the exact sized slice of pale pink tomato.
- You don't like tomatoes?
- I love tomatoes.
- This looks like a tomato to me...
- Um... how to explain... ah yes: american beer also looks like beer...
- Oh.
He asks how far do I have to drive now. I calculate... I'm getting home for dinner for sure, it's almost 200 miles, that's ... around 300km. Well, he says, if he wanted to drive 300km he'd be in Belgium.
And I did get on time for dinner. Made only one resterija break (rest area, but we say it like this, enjoying how it mentions Jovan Sterija Popović) to outpour, but other than that... so what, I know the road by heart, zombie driver. I pass 30 miles without actually noticing where I am.
Counting the cars on today's photos, 6 are in color, 71 grayscale. Didn't count cabs and other uniformed cars. That's 7,79%.
Four days ago I got an email from my parents... The news there is that the works on the terrace roof are ongoing, „everything is done, we just waited for a stronger rain to see how the roof behaves, mostly the connection around the chimney was worrying. We planned to go tomorrow or overmorrow* to secure it differently. Brane and Zoran have cut the metal sheets, it just takes screwing, and they don't like the slope of the gutter, though it wasn't their doing, but they'll cure the insufficiencies, which aren't too important, but it's better without them. Brane is precise to an exaggeration.“ (one of those two is grandson of Živa Sejin, the other from the vineyard)
They have news from DBA too: „Carp held his word. He visited us after tuesday (but the next one) and fixed many things at the computer. Among the rest he unmothballed two solitaires, but of yours, the big one [that'd be solitaire], there's no trace. If we're not mistaken, you sent it to us through some friend in Australia**, which means it's not there in the classical menu of the computer. This is enough as it is, becuse Jovica and he have also placed other games, so in the period of idleness we have something to entertain ourselves with. Carp told us about DBA. There's ten of them left: 3 programmers (Sale, Grgi and Fefi's wife; three electronicians*** (Carp and two assistants), granny Milka and three people in administration/sales. Borko has left for education, works in Lalinski as a maths teacher (monthly salary 32000 dinars). Apart from programming, large part of profit comes from the electronicians, as they maintain a large number of fiscal registers and PCs.“
In my answer... „The fair itself lasted from monday to wednesday, and thursday and friday we sat in the room and worked. That is thursday afternoon we went for tourism, visited museums, around White house etc. We had only one desk in the room, so I managed (see photo)“.
„But we have news from Go. In her office there's some shuffling of the deck, everyone's leaving. Whoever can is already packing, it seems there's not anyone who's satisfied with work, salary, position. And Ricardo was skipped, they promoted some kid who came later. So Go started applying to job ads, aiming higher, where they demand experience. And got a reply from Seattle - she was so surprised that she immediately called to tell us. Now it's bargaining time, see how much she can get.“
„And one more thing - it's the Miholjsko in full swing - it's marvelous time for a walk, sun is shining all in sixteen, and even though it's a bit dewy in the morning, it's dry by nine. Excellent for a stroll, here we went to the boardwalk yesterday. It's a bit of a draught, but than that's normal for this time of year“.
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* every language has ONE word for „the day after tomorrow“, so why not enlish? It's not undeserving.
** not exactly, but they do have a point - one guy from UA asked if he could have a copy of it on his website, and I sent it to him and he kept it online for several years. And he's an Ozzie. And works for australian m$ (so I'm not mentioning them always in bad context)
*** elektroničar, same as električar (electrician) but for, well, electronics. Analogy can take you really far in serbian.
Mentions: Aleksandar Raskov (Sale), asrm, Atila Gereg (Grgi), čorba, David Berton, DBA, Ferenc Farkaš (Fefi), Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jan Brenkelen, Jose Bariero, Lalinski Konak, LebarProm, Majkrosoft (m$), Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Milka Petrov, Norman Shen, Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), Sejini, solitaire, Tasa Radenkov (Carp), UbiquAgora (UA), in serbian