12-VIII-2026.
EasyEfects did nothing. It tries to hook into the third layer of sound management, finds no app playing sound. So I uninstalled it and put PulseEffects, and in five minutes I had a proper equalizer. Picked a preset which was close enough to what I wanted to have, ironed a few kinks out of it and there, it works. I love linux :). A sideeffect: the volume dial was at 12 o clock, now have to tone it down to 10, this simply extracts that much more. Now to lower the dials on the boxes themselves, will consume less power, and put it back in the middle in PulseEffects.
And so finally I have just one dial for the music on the desk, right in front of myself. There are, though, five more buttons and three dials on the box, but those are for recording, not playing, which I don't use. And the color is nice, I've had my fill of gray and black boxes. The speakers are black, though, but they don't need to stand out in your eye, they're for the ears.
So we drank quite enough during the night, simply enoyed the music, with the sound as it were then, played our playlist, which accumulated fortysome titles over the years. Next day, because she asked, I removed from it Džoni and „Drop of joy“, she doesn't like the instrumental half of it, and put Džoni again instead, „Lips of hot cherry“, where he, as is his custom, surfucked Dylan's original text by three spears, by translating it verbatim but with such a superb choice of words that he simply mopped the floor with him.
The čvarci from Mere were rancid. A slightly costlier cat food. Before lunch went to detelina, took only three sacks of hen fodder, we doubt the composition of the current batch, the eggs are now smaller and fewer, so if it's a bad batch, let's not consume too much of it (which remains to be seen). Got cigarette paper, a hose pistol, jar lds. On the matter of cigs, yesterday Dragana calls and says „you I don't need“ „I'm sad“ „pass the phone to her“. So I took her, i.e. the phone, and it was about everyone she knows are buying electrical cigarette-making gadgets, which we don't need, the manual gadget quite suffices, but if they have the shredder (Go bought one a month or two ago, perfect [one] she says, the previous one had to be cleaned often and wore out and they discarded it). She gave us the phone number, and it turns out it's not just one guy selling stuff from [his] garage, it's a whole firm with two hundred various appliances. Well, no shredder.
On burundi someone wrote how Vučić „again fell under his own influence“... Got me right there, v. 12-IX-1981.... I don't think daddy Đura picked the expression anywhere, it fit the ocassion so precisely that he must have invented it as he went. I, of course, used it hundreds of times, whenever it fit the occurrence, and there, it took root. Who knows whether he's alive and what would he say if he knew how far his wit reached.
In the evening I slept through the both eclipse and meteor shower. I eclipsed the whole universe (for) myself. And then I thought I'd go to sleep at three or half four, but no, around one I turned on the eye assembly line*, slept to maybe seven- half eight. And rasejani reminisced the last time, when ajVar traveled to Kikinda to see that miracle, and now exactly 27 years and one day later there's another eclipse. I posted the link to 11-VIII-1999., so the visits to sGradlj.com soared suddenly, seems they went on reading, but went back to its regular rhythm a few hours later, to few hundred views a day. The storm of fisix weeks ago may repeat, or may not.
Thursday, 13th. Lena walks Api, and remembered to ask about that musk, is there a brand to look for, what does mom actually want? Can you send a shot of the bottle? Well, takes time to shoot, process... easier like this, so I called her and held the bottle to the camera, may she do a screenshot. That worked, and then we went on about various things. Some looney, who once worked in Prodise, got pregnant and aborted, because it may not be from her boyfriend, allegedly she got raped so it may not be his, but that was not why she called, the current problem is her ex boyfriend, of three years ago, is stalking her, following, she found him quoting her conversation with another girl, so if Lena has the phone of the security guy from there to help her collect evidence against that ex. And along the way she mentioned that she wasn't quite sure what happened when, she was drunk or on something at times... And Lena found the guy for her, and the guy has some multiple sclerosis and heals himself with something chinese he acquires, and does it for fifteen years now, and says it works, it's under control, well that guy said about this chick that she's nuts. To which Milan said just keep seeing her, whenever I hear such stories I realize how we are okay and living nicely.
This is incredible... On our side, the house machine and the jerky microphone in the wee camera, iphone on hers. And she said Api got aroused hearing our hens. Ours rarely raise much noise, it's Stole's, which is 25m straight line, and it's not straight, it breaks around the terrace's corner and the window which is just ajar, and goes through all that tech, from linux to iphone, out through the tiny speaker on the phone... and the dog recognizes it.
She called again eventually on friday, 14h. Tanja is not just getting used to the new room, it's „we bathe, we sleep, my room“. She went for a checkup, her doctor said „as per these analysi, you won't give birth for another two or three years“. „But I might tonight already“ „oh nooo“... of course, nobody loves to deliver on a friday afternoon. The deal is that we'll visit them this sunday again, and to plan for the case if we need to babysit Tanja while she births. Or maybe have her as a guest here for a couple of days, she's grown up enough for dad. But waydaminit, is the nany on call for the occasion? Well she is but she may take longer to arrive here than you. Well we do come quick, but that's because we come on sundays when the rush is on the other side of the road. This may be at any time.
On saturday we did nothing at all, except I shortened [my] beard. Them apples, that Anka promised for the morning, arrived eventually by dusk. Talked later with Lena, and she asked how am I satisfied with the speakers. I'm satisfied nicely :). Drank three-four in the evening, because tomorrow we surely won't, on monday we will, when the frendz parti be.
On sunday we lunched somewhat earlier, and I even managed a catnap and to disburden [my] belly before departure. It got somehow unset since wensday, it's not that there's any nausea nor that I'm too closed or open, it's when I lie down it somehow contracts, pulls, as if the muscles are reconfiguring, which is not felt until I lie, and feels different while walking. Maybe it is reconfiguring. Here the whole week since I fell down to 81kg, and she says my belly did lessen. I stopped with taurin, and somehow ate no sardines for days, the jučetina kept occurrring for supper, may be that. But, I feel it's done now.
On the way we dropped by Mere first. Bought a dozen of juices, or rather bags of pulp, for Tanja, the russian ones which cost four times less than at others, and two packs of fifty cans of sardines and mackerel each. Driving out through the new industrial zone in this direction for the first time, from city side and not from Ečka. Exiting into the road, three quarters around the roundabout, I heard a siren and saw blue flashes in the retrovizor (rear view mirror here), it's an amboolantze coming. Ahead of me was the narrow spot, where they're taming the drivers to be slow on purpose, calculated that the guy behind me must be far enough to not knock me, easier to let it pass here than to step on it and do it after the bottleneck. It worked, I'm still quick in the head.
Near Stara dunja (Old quince) I see the ambuljans and three firetrucks, parked at the gate of someone's vikendica, with whole team in the yard. Later, behind the shipyard near Perlez we see a pillar of smoke, about hundred meters wide, the firepersonae were already there. She had time enough to see that it's two vikendice, not the houses, but the land behind them, to the river.
Овог пута је обратила пажњу на водостај Дунава и да, видно је пао, на појасу између старе обале и воде је већ израсла трава. Не да ме чекало место за паркирање, него сва четири. Наравно, изабрао своје, прво иза стуба, то је већ сад у хладовини. Издимили једну у хладу под врбама испред зграде, обред је ритуал и обратно. Бар је дрвеће зелено, ако су травњаци и жути.
This time she paid attention to the level of Danube and yes, it's visibly low, the belt between the old bank and the water has already sprouted grass. Not that I had my parking spot waiting for me, it was all four. Picked mine, of course, the first one behind the signpost, it's in the shade already. We smoked one in the shade of the willows betwen the buildings, the rite is a ritual and vice versa. At least the trees are green, while the grass is yellow.
Tanja was in a good mood, and of course we took her to Valter for čorba and ćevapčići, on a scooter. The order was long in the coming, and she ran around, which is becoming dangerous. Okay it's a sunday and the traffic is near zero, but these are parking streets, the curbs are invisible, if she runs out between two parked cars... brr. But baba succeeded in calling her back, and afterwards we even had to pay good cop bad cop. The čorbica, luckily, wasn't too hot but right ready to eat, and the somuns weren't soaked (but smack of something nasty regardless, who knows what they do to them, if the ćevap is original sarajevski, the somun is not even close, sister). Actually it's only čorba and ćevapčići which they do right, everything else is fucked up. We told the waiter that these'll be a takeout, and paid right away. Having planned the retreat, we left him a tip, as last time (and the waiter was the same) the chance for it slipped in the confusion.
On the way back, of course, she trolled us the best she could. Since we try to take different routes, we came upon her garten, and there she ran far ahead, running in šreh the crossing at the garten. Luckily, not one vehicle was moving. Of the last 100m baba had to carry her some 20, and then we were finally at the entrance. Just when I sighed relief, Tanja ran around the corner and baba had to chase her again. Finally somehow we managed to get her into the building and up in the elevator, and then ate those ćevapčići. Lena had ten with kajmak sauce, which I tried once and... I already said.
We haven't even noticed how pink Tanja was, Lena did. She was really hot. And then she too ate with us. Milan returned from kum meanwhile. Eh, the kum is in a downer, the missus left him and took the child, deal is to swap the kid on two days. He had a good job at Ensyahr (the nationalist cash registry), was some manager at a higher level, and it's such a specific job, they say, that it's now hard to find anothe. He's got something on Malta in view... And they were a firm of few thousand people here, now it's being pruned.
I felt obliged to submit a report on the speakers, and I reported - everything is super, except first two days until I found the equalizer. Noise, zero. I don't have to turn it down whenever I need to hear what she said, and then turn it up again to hear the music. The sound is equally heard all over the room, and the stereo zone covers about two thirds of the space between speakers, no need to stand exactly in the middle. I don't know which trick they use, but it works. And now the only reason for a bad sound can be in the recording itself, now I hear precisely all the faults and shortcuts in the studio, who went overboard with the echo, who pushed a wrong slider two notches too high.
Tanja did a full session on me, sat on my head, jumped on my loins (baba enticed her to do more, and it was pleasant, I miss that for a few years now), it's nice to be a deda. She pulled my shirt, maybe with [her] teeth while she was on my back, and so I pulled her top, see who endures longer. Aha, she understood that it hurts.
Borče called (during a walk!) to notify us that we won't be meeting tomorrow, „the young lady got trčkavica“ (the runs, but it was 'trčkavac' so far, now it's a feminine - a tranny or it just declares a new gender?).
Go said she'd call earlier, they're taking a trip to near canadian border soon, Stanley found some convertible, of course a beemer, to buy. They have a free nighting there. The children weren't eager, it's hard to get Neša to move anywhere out of the house, but that changes on departure. And how will he get the car transported? A pal of his, who works nearby and teaches him car painting (improving skills always) has a house there and visits it weekly, so he'll leave the car there, and then next time go with him and drive it back. So we didn't talk too long nor too much, and that much was mostly about cooking.
Monday, finally fixed the bug in statcounter.prg, where it miscalculated the annual forecasts because it took the accumulated visits for previous months for all projects, not just the current one. The projects I had multiple - apart from the regular, there was the blogue for a while, I messed with that. It felt weird to wield fox again after so many years, but there it was, poked up the memory, killed nicely an hour.
In the evening we assessed the risk and concluded that we may drink at least until twentyfirst, and after that the bets are off, Lena may call anytime and declare us, as agreed already, the dežurni. Don't know what to do with Api, though, it's not used to us, we never walked it, and I never did that thing with the shit bag. We slept well, though I kept dreaming up various logistic problems for that day... Meanwhile it finally rained outside, first time in two months.
Tuesday, she paid the bills and spotted that they now have barrels in detelina, so later I went and bought one of 120 and one of 40 liters, so we can make noodles again. In the evening Nina called, said she managed to get rid of two larger boxes of yarn and that knitting machine (v. 09-X-2009.). Price? Gave it all for free, just take it away, as the machine was missing its slider. Like a rifle without a lock... Must be when Fayes had it and used it for a while, then forgot about it, and the pieces were moved, in the way, separated, and when she returned it nobody ever checked whether everything's there. She and Raja went to their first guitar lesson at some guy in Suffolk, which they won't do too often, every two weeks, the guy's far. It's not that end of Suffolk by the Merrimac bridge, it's the farther one, almost an hour's drive.
Wensday, no water. A larger tube burst near Bob the brzožder, which is three corners away from water mains' plant, so they closed the water for half the town until they patch it. We actually had water, just that the pressure was about 0,1 bar or less, but okay, even so she managed to fill a pitcher, wash the dishes, cook the lunch. And then at 17:00 they closed the main valve for the whole city, as the water was filling their dig from the other side.
While that lasted, I finally patched the two things in the mrz, refreshing the playlist after deletion, and to delete the records for deleted files even when they were (once) in a now empty folder. Astonished that this took me less than two hours to do. The first hour went on the remembering of what I did where. And I see there's excess code, which I wrote as a workaround... Next thing is to clean that up and make nice.
Then Lena called, said she went for another checkup, forecast has it by the end of the week. The wager as it stands: baba 21st or 25th, Nina 22nd, Go 23rd („we accept fourhandedly!“), me 26th. The plan has us as mere second line of defense, if the nanny can't make it. Stojan is also nearby, can fly there in thirty minutes. Ideally, it would be a workday, around eight in the morning, everyone at home, Milan takes Tanja to her garten, then goes to attend, nanny takes her home from the garten. Of course, plans... we know.
The water arrived around 19:15, with half an hour more to punch the pressure, but c'mon, considering how the whole grid is falling apart, it's good that they're trained to patch it this fast.
----
* „sklopiti oči“ is a phrase, „belid the eyes“, the prefix s- being generally used when direction of an action is towards creating a whole - skupiti = gather, sabrati = put together, i.e. add, shvatiti - comprehend (a literal translation, 'hvatati' is to catch). Now sklopiti also means assemble, put together - like Ikea furniture or products on assembly line. There's a verse „sklapao oči od bola“ in a hit by Kićo Slabiniac, meant to say „I kept closing my eyes from the pain“, but I usually take it as „if it hurts a lot, gather the eye parts and put them together, it helps“.
Mentions: 12-IX-1981., 11-VIII-1999., 09-X-2009., Api, blogue, burundi, čorba, čvarci, ćevapčići, detelina, dežurni, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), fox, frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), kum, Mališa Borkovski (Borče), Milan Nastić, mrz pladžer, Nenad Berger (Neša), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Ostoja Čaković (Stole), Prodise, rasejani, Rosanda Aquilla (Fayes), Ryu (Raja), sGradlj.com, Stanley Berger, statcounter.prg, Stojan Nastić, Tanja Nastić, in serbian
12-VIII-2026 - 21-VIII-2026