Month: August 2016

Power down, power up! Internet down, Internet up! Rinse repeat and start over again…

Therefore, I will post this tiny post and hope all gets to go back to normal later…

Three times since trying to write this small post!

Power down, power up! Internet down, Internet up! Rinse repeat and start over again…

Have a nice day!

WtR

I was in a quandary! I had no idea how I was going to get the wood, much less the money for the wood, to build a shower house and a propane housing outside. Thus, I have been patient and whiling away coins for such a purpose. Then along came a few donations and solved the issue. The donations were for nothing in particular, as they had no directions on how they were to be used. Problem is solved and I have the Orthodox Church to help also. They have a huge pile of wood that is perfect for my use and they are going to let me take the wood. All I will do is donate some money to the church donation line for Father Pavel in charge of the monastery and life will be good…

In Russia small donations go a long ways to having fun. In this case, fun is building things…

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Therefore, I want to thank the people who have sent donations the last few weeks. Several are specific for food for the winter and the last two are for general purpose. Those general purpose will buy wood. We get many dollar donations and some bigger. I want you to realize that the dollars add up to big money…

My grandma always said something like this, “Pick up that coin on the ground! Never pass it by, for a fool most likely threw it down and one day he will need it! We can use it now! They add up Ky Ky!”

I try as often as I can to pick up every coin I can. Sometimes even in the Tiny Russian Village, I come home with several rubles in coins. The people that drive up to see the monastery will drop coins on the road as they walk, stop and or pull things out of their pockets. They never pick up what they drop, too lazy or too rich I guess. I even see people drop coins and tell them about it. They shrug their shoulders and walk on. Who am I to complain? I just pick them up…

Thus, it all adds up and I appreciate every dollar (or ruble coin in my case,) that gets donated…

Thanks again!

* * * * * * * * * *

WtR

PS: By 9 a.m. I had all the wood moved to the village home and will actually start building the floor today. Took four trips with the car to get it all. Thanks everyone and thanks to the church for letting me get the wood cheap…

Two a.m. and I wake with the realization that my blood sugar was getting low. This is normal and for the first time in many many years, it was without taking any sugar pills (as I call them,) before bed. Boza and I were sound asleep by nine p.m. and five hours seems to be about the normal amount of sleep for me. That is accompanied by an hour nap in the daytime at some point….Boza just follows what Big Bear does as far as sleep is concerned, then sleeps as much as possible as I work…

I was taking my sugar readings and Boza and I heard a noise outside! We went out with a flashlight and found a kitty was messing around in Boza’s apple garden. Therefore, kitty found him or herself the object of fun for Boza. It was a new kitty and did not know that Boza ruled his yard and learned real quick this morning that Boza’s apple garden is his home. I will say, “Cats can jump and jump high, when need be!”

It looks as if I am ready to drop to a lower dosage of sugar pills. Today I will only take one small sugar pill in the morning and see how that does for few days. I would like to loose more weight now and sugar pills effect that. To much medicine and I have to eat too much to counter that medicine. I am not hungry and only eat sometimes to counter sugar low levels. I do the best when I eat about six times a day with very small portions. Constant fuel, but not overload. This allows my body to maintain itself better and really is key in weight and sugar issues. Large meals burden the body with an overload effect and from that, in my case, comes a messed up day…

Blood pressure was 109/65, blood sugar 5.1 mmol/l, oxygen levels at 98% and heart rate at 75 bpm at this moment. Heart rate was a little high for pre-walking and waking up and that is something I am trying to figure out. I am in fair shape for a grouchy Big Bear and sometimes my heart runs too fast and messes me up. I am trying to figure this out?

* * * * * * * * * *

So, Boza and I are going for a walk and I will finish this post when I get back…

* * * * * * * * * *

Hour later, still dark, but the moon is a sliver and the horizon is starting to show light. There are people up in the village, lights are on in several Tiny Russian Village homes. Soon they will be gone and it will just be Vova, Nina and I as the only humans in the village…

It has hit +5 this morning. It is almost winter, while there will be a few more warm days, I had to walk with winter pants and a sweatshirt on today. Old Man Winter has woken and is starting to beat his chest. I have said many times, “Spring, summer and fall are short and sweet, but winter is long and deadly in Russia!”

We adjust and adapt as the seasons change. There is about a month of spring, one to two months of summer and a month of autumn. The rest is Old man Winters territory…

* * * * * * * * * *

I think while I walk; I think about what I will do today. I have so much to do, but most is limited by money. I need to run to the Big Village and get a few supplies, I need to split another ten logs, I need to pull nails. clean the wall of the back of the village home wall and get ready to rebuild it and I need to enjoy life!

I also am thinking about when I have to leave Russia. It is mandatory that I leave for awhile every six months. I do not want to, but it is the rules and I must leave. To me, this is a pain in the butt and costs money, money that we need to go toward the Tiny Village Home. I also have to plan a trip to a big store in Moscow, like Metro Market and buy cases of canned food for the winter. Metro is exactly like Sam’s Wholesale in America. We need, off the top of my head, a case of sweet corn, a case of beef stew, a case of green peas, a case of some type of hot cereal to cook and several other items. We also need to go to a hardware store and get a few tools and such…

Of course wanting to is different than being able to! Money dictates such excursions and having to go out of Russia for several weeks twice a year, hurts that budget. I am just glad that we are able to get by, even with the expense of international travel…

I saw that Russians are able to travel to Turkey again. Not Svetochka and I; Turkey sucks….But nowhere is cheaper. A trip to Turkey from Moscow is almost ridiculously cheap. Turkey was broken by no Russian tourists and they have dropped the prices to try to gather back millions of lost Russians for vacations. Many billions of revenue was lost to a simple stupidity move to appease America. I hope Turkey has learned a lesson? I doubt it!

I use to be able to take a train into Ukraine, spend a few weeks very cheaply and come back. But after that last trip to Ukraine; Ukraine, or better yet, Kiev, has become a cesspool of crap. I mean it was terrible and very dangerous. Take this from someone who loves Ukraine, but Kiev is where I have to do business and such and Kiev is a very dangerous place right now. Fledgling military wannabes are running amok on the streets of Kiev and the woman are being immigrant harassed to the point of scary and the Kiev men either laugh or ignore what is happening…

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I murdered another cellphone! I am most likely the best murderer of cellphones on earth. I forgot the cellphone in my pants pocket and started to split wood. Normally I set the phone on the picnic table, but yesterday it was destined to be crushed. I grabbed a big log and as I let the log rest against my right leg (or maybe smash against my leg,) I realized that the crunching noise was my cellphone and not my legs bones breaking. It was a good phone, it had been bought in Kiev, but it was very cheap and weak in structure. I already had glued it back together once before. This time as in Humpty Dumpty! All the Kings horses and all the Kings men. Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

(Sveta can use the same phone for her whole life, if she breaks it, I fix it and she keeps using it and it keeps working! I understand that she is easier on things than me, for everything I do usually involves heavy lifting, smashing, banging and simply stupidity. I am a bear you know?)

I have an old Samsung pre android smartphone, as backup and I like it! It just is harder to mess with as I walk around the village and Svetochka calls me or something or other….Or something or another….Or another something and Oh Well!

RIP cellphone…

This is how our day starts in the Tiny Russian Village…

WtR

As last year, wood is very important. With -30 C and below temperatures, life would be rough without plenty of wood to burn…

Therefore, as autumn has approached and the heat has gone away, it is time to gather the wood piles and it takes three at the very least. I have two split and stacked and have started on the third today. The third will be a double length stack and it actually will be enough for most of the winter, but as I talked about last year, I rotate the wood and this year the two stacks nearest the door of the village home are the oldest and most usable. The big third stack will be then brought to the front door next year, unless I have to burn it this year. Probably not, for I have well seasoned, long burning oak this year…

I have been splitting huge stumps for days now and after splitting 10 stumps today, I had to stop! My neck is hurting, my right shoulder is sore and I have five blisters on my hands. My hands are kinda ugly right now. I put iodine on all the torn skin and band aids everywhere… 🙂 Oh! That iodine hurts when applied to open skin wounds… 🙁

I talked to Svetochka and told her that we need to get a splitting hatchet. I will work the budget and try to figure out how to get it. I need it to whittle down some of the bigger pieces, for some are too big, but too small to split with my huge maul!

The splitting hatchet can be used by the front door with a stump set there and then I can split some more as needed. Splitting the already split stumps is much easier in the cold and the smaller stump pieces will pop easily during a -20 C day. But I have to lay the foundation by splitting the huge stumps, bigger around than you can put your arms at times and create small wedges. I get about six to eight wedges of firewood out of a big stump and that can be easily taken to what ever size I desire…

Someone who has split wood before, knows that a hardwood is tough. Splitting pine or another soft wood is easy peasy in comparison and this oak is well seasoned and hard as iron. I have to laugh or else cry in pain, as the maul bounces sometimes, as if I smacked a brick wall with a baseball bat. Then I get tough and after about four or five wacks, it starts to crack and split. When I find these stumps like this, I soon realized what is causing it. There are knots, huge knots deep in the wood and a knot is hard a steel. These are caused by places where these hundred year old trees had limbs in the past and grew around and covered them over. They catch me off guard sometimes and then I wrench a hand, shoulder, elbow and or all of them as the maul bounces like a rubber ball…

I remember splitting walnut and oak as a twenty some year old. My how father time can steal some oomph out of your swings. But I just get grouchy and make a small war cry and swing harder. It has worked on all but one huge stump and he is going to split tomorrow, or else! Yes he will be beaten tomorrow, after I recover from having split ten of his almost as big friends today. Maybe I should just make a stump to split wood by the door out of him? Hmm…

Everyone in the Tiny Russian Village comes by and explains to me the best way to split wood. Everyone has their own way and one even said, “Hire someone to do it!” because that is what he would do…

“But I am not rich!” I say…

WtR

Video was given to me through a link with a comment. They wanted to know is this true?

Yes, Russian woman are actually all these things, give or take a few things per personal bases, but they are what you see in the video, at least most of them in general. The word traditional is a perfect word for a Russian woman…

For ten years, I 99% of the time open doors for Svetochka and when I do not, I feel guilty. It is “Just Right,” as Svetochka says all the time…

Russian woman are without a doubt, some of the most traditional woman on earth and thus they must be treated as such. Of course this is when you are “one on one” with them. If you find a Moscow or big city girl? Then be prepared for a girl who can hold her own in one of the busiest Metros in the world and that is no matter what her size is. She can jostle with the best of them and win…

Traditions be damned when you fight for a spot in a Que and have to get to work on time… 😉 Or maybe that is more tradition? Other words, Russian woman want to be treated like a woman and you act like a guy and all will be fine. Just do not forget who is boss and when she suggests something, it means she wants to do that and not what you are thinking would be okay to do…

Order her food, open the doors, stand up for her and most of all allow her to be in charge behind the scenes. She likes that and wants her man to be tough, rough, in charge and sophisticated at the same time…

Part of the dating interview process is how well you can order her food and show her a good time. Without stepping over the line. Russian woman have a very close personal space limit. They allow you to get very close, but you have to know when too far is too far…

Hard order to meet, Huh?

Oh! Russian woman are beautiful…

WtR

The Tiny Russian Village is a bird haven. Birdbrains everywhere and they are all greedy and hungry. So I opened up a bird hotel, in the remote chance that I will get rich…

It does not look as if rich is what I will become, for they come in droves and never pay, but they love the food, rooms and accommodations. We have an all you can eat buffet, Olympic size swimming pool (for a tiny bird) and cozy cat proof rooms. What more could a birdbrain ask for?

We also supply a guard doggy and air support to ward off bad flying things, day and night. It is very secure and a fun place, with lots of excursions and games to play. I assume that one day we will make money at this adventure, but I will not hold my breath….But we are busy….So the potential is there…

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Last night at 1 a.m. someone was trying to wake someone in a nearby village home. I am a light sleeper in most cases and last night was no different. I woke to screams and banging. Thus, I just had to go and find out what is going on. A woman had come home from checking on her home in Moscow, her husband had stayed in the Tiny Russian Village. I guess he had decided that vodka was available and needed to be drank before it spoiled. Therefore, he consumed too much vodka and was passed out on the floor of the village home. I could see him through the window with a flashlight and the lady was in a panic. I really was not sure that he was not dead, so after she told me to do it, I shouldered the door and broke it down. We went in expecting the worse and found a very drunk guy, who had no idea that life was going on around him, even at 1 a.m there is life…

I helped her get him back in bed after seeing that he was still alive and left her to chew him out, for being a bad boy! He is up this morning at 7 a.m. and fixing the door. He looks terrible and I apologized for breaking it, but we create our own issues and I will leave him to his hangover stupor, as he tries to fix the door I broke…

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Yesterday, I started to feel better, after a very hard morning and started to split firewood…

I will split more today, to finish the pile I started by the front door. At the front door I have old small wood to start a fire with and then I will have fresh seasoned oak, to have a long burning fire and good heat…

That is what I am up to and Boza cracks the whip to keep me going….Boza wants good heat this winter too…

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I mean literally! Everything according to the Western Empire is Russia’s fault!

Did you know that if it is not Russia’s fault, it definitely is Putin’s fault?

Did you know that you can blame your spouse sleeping around on you, on Putin? You sewer backs up? Blame Russia! Your cat dies? Blame Russia! Your dog eats the pillow on your bed? That is correct, “Blame Russia!” You have crappy server security? Blame Russia!

If that is not good enough, Blame Putin, then Russia…

If a bee stings your ass? Then that bee has to be a Russian bee, that flew across the Atlantic Ocean and deliberately waited for the right moment to sting your ass, just to antagonize you…

That my friend is how easy it is! Why even Hillary Clinton has jumped on the bandwagon and now blames everything, including I heard rumors about Bill and his past escapades females; She blames everything on Russia, Putin and or Putin and Russia…and a little bit on Trump…

And you believe it…Or at least 85% of you, Western Empire peasants…

I guess the reason you believe that Russia and Putin did it! That is right, “Russia made you do it!”

Russia Dun-nit!

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Yes, I really do, but now I have to go split firewood and then I will poke at some dead things with a stick. I even have a lake with a beach to walk on and I love poetry, so I got it made in the shade…

This is America in a nutshell… Steve Urkle video…

“Did I do that?”

You have a nice day and tell someone, “Russia didn’t do it!”

WtR

By John Stanton

“A constructive U.S. policy must be patiently guided by a long-range vision. The alternative…and especially the quest for a one-sided militarily and ideologically imposed outcome, can only result in prolonged and self-destructive futility. For America, that could entail enduring conflict, fatigue, and conceivably even a demoralizing withdrawal to its pre-20th century isolationism. For Russia, it could mean major defeat, increasing the likelihood of subordination in some fashion to Chinese predominance. For China, it could portend war not only with the United States but also, perhaps separately, with either Japan or India or with both. And, in any case, a prolonged phase of sustained ethnic, quasi-religious wars pursued through the Middle East with self-righteous fanaticism would generate escalating bloodshed within and outside the region, and growing cruelty everywhere.” Brzezinski, 2016

[American exceptionalism] is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency. Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity. And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak, the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly ignorant. Brzezinski, 2010

Since the next twenty years may well be the last phase of the more traditional and familiar political alignments with which we have grown comfortable, the response needs to be shaped now. During the rest of this century, humanity will also have to be increasingly preoccupied with survival as such on account of a confluence of environmental challenges. Those challenges can only be addressed responsibly and effectively in a setting of increased international accommodation. And that accommodation has to be based on a strategic vision that recognizes the urgent need for a new geopolitical framework. Brzezinski, 2016

I am very worried that most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy condition…Brzezinski, 2010 *

Zbigniew Brzezinski’s likely to be prophetic piece Towards a Global Alignment sets forth what he believes to be the likely future geopolitical construct which will see the USA-Europe, China and Russia as the dominant global powers and regional powers on the world stage. There is no guarantee of this outcome if the USA does not lead the way in constructing such a world through an altruistic approach to sharing power with its many former adversaries. A US national security strategy that seeks lopsided military and economic global power over its challengers is doomed to fail in the long term, the former national security advisor thinks.

Whoops! Forgot About India

Brzezinski has neglected to include India in his Nostradamian thesis. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has taken a page out of China’s playbook and is cutting trade deals with regional neighbors as well as Russia and the USA. India seeks to boost exports as it desperately needs to export more to boost income at home.

India is hedging its bets with China, keeping a wary eye on the China-Pakistan relationship, and like other G-20 member states, doing some chest thumping before that group meets on September 4. India’s Act East Policy seeks to tighten economic and diplomatic ties with the ASEAN countries. Modi’s defense minister Manohar Parrikar is set to visit Washington, DC, shortly to sign agreements allowing the US to use Indian military bases for logistics and humanitarian operations, maritime cooperation and cybersecurity. He also is bringing a wish list of military equipment India seeks to purchase from defense giants Lockheed and Boeing. India is also in the market for the latest technologies included on the new US Ford Class aircraft carriers (advanced radars and electromagnetic aircraft launch systems) for its own indigenous brand of carrier. And it has cozied up to the US position on the South China Sea which most assuredly has upset Chinese leadership.

So India is clearly making an attempt become the fourth power pole with USA-Europe, Russia and China.

In Other News

Meanwhile, in the background, China has broken with its history and will now join the melee in Syria in a humanitarian or military advisory capacity. The July 15 attempt to overthrow the Turkish government is still reverberating across Western Asia. Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya and Syria are little more than piles of rubble as 2016 comes to a close. The Islamic State is set to be pulverized anywhere is exists and any civilians or intact structures in close proximity to Daesh will be eliminated. The internally displaced and refugee populations continues to grow in ebbs and flows and is taxing the governments and citizens of Europe, Lebanon, Iran and Turkey. Add to this boiling stew the USA’s own immigration issues with Mexico and Central America, a stumbling global economy and climate change and it’s no wonder people everywhere are nervous drawing comparisons to events leading up to both WWI and WWII.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter typically mentions some of these matters in his speeches and always reminds his audiences that the top five threats are Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and the Islamic State/Garden variety terrorism. The USA and Russia are at loggerheads and information warfare is well underway between the two Cold Warriors. Both are modernizing portions of the nuclear triads most notably the USA: The USAF seeks a ground based strategic deterrent (GBSD) ICBM to replace its silo based Minuteman III’s. The USAF and Northrop Grumman are developing the B-21 bomber and are set to field upgraded nuclear bombs in Europe in a decade.

Beneath all of this is a burning hatred set ablaze by the historical activity set by the three power centers Brzezinski believes must settle the world: USA-Europe, China and Russia. And as for India hatred-of-others quotient, its defense minister recently said, “Going to Pakistan is the same as going to hell.”

Brzezinski explains why Americans, Europeans and Russians are loathed by so many in every corners of the globe. It’s worth quoting him extensively on this point because it is a remarkable statement/admission coming from someone who designed the Carter Doctrine which is responsible for embroiling the USA in so many conflicts in the Persian Gulf region.

“Periodic massacres of their not-so-distant ancestors by colonists and associated wealth-seekers largely from western Europe resulted within the past two or so centuries in the slaughter of colonized peoples on a scale comparable to Nazi World War II crimes. Let just a few examples suffice. In the 16th century, due largely to disease brought by Spanish explorers, the population of the native Aztec Empire in present-day Mexico declined from 25 million to approximately one million. Similarly, in North America, an estimated 90 percent of the native population died within the first five years of contact with European settlers, due primarily to diseases. In the 19th century, various wars and forced resettlements killed an additional 100,000. In India from 1857-1867, the British are suspected of killing up to one million civilians in reprisals stemming from the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The British East India Company’s use of Indian agriculture to grow opium then essentially forced on China resulted in the premature deaths of millions, not including the directly inflicted Chinese casualties of the First and Second Opium Wars. In the Congo, which was the personal holding of Belgian King Leopold II, 10-15 million people were killed between 1890 and 1910. In Vietnam, recent estimates suggest that between one and three million civilians were killed from 1955 to 1975.

As to the Muslim world in Russia’s Caucasus, from 1864 and 1867, 90 percent of the local Circassian population was forcibly relocated and between 300,000 and 1.5 million either starved to death or were killed. Between 1916 and 1918, tens of thousands of Muslims were killed when 300,000 Turkic Muslims were forced by Russian authorities through the mountains of Central Asia and into China. In Indonesia, between 1835 and 1840, the Dutch occupiers killed an estimated 300,000 civilians. In Algeria, following a 15-year civil war from 1830-1845, French brutality, famine, and disease killed 1.5 million Algerians, nearly half the population. In neighboring Libya, the Italians forced Cyrenaicans into concentration camps, where an estimated 80,000 to 500,000 died between 1927 and 1934. More recently, in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989 the Soviet Union is estimated to have killed around one million civilians; two decades later, the United States has killed 26,000 civilians during its 15-year war in Afghanistan. In Iraq, 165,000 civilians have been killed by the United States and its allies in the past 13 years.”

America: Home of the Stupid

Brzezinski states that the USA must tame this beastly world and that’s only going to work if it shares the leadership mantle it has held for so long. But his own legitimate concerns with the intelligence of America’s leaders and its people and their ability to deal with complex matters at home and abroad suggests that the USA will likely reach back to the heady post 911 days during which “full spectrum dominance” of the world was the USA’s mission.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both tragicomic circus acts polluting the airwaves with banalities and clichés lending weight to Brzezinski’s thesis that the USA and its leaders are stunningly ignorant. The US media machine, beginning with its sickening support for the 2003 Iraq War and now ending with its equally horrid coverage of the US presidential campaign and its practice of squalid 1950’s anti-Russian and Chinese, dumbs down the American populace even further.

It is dark in the USA. There is not a leader or citizen brain in the country with a lightbulb on, or that can be switched on, to deal with the issues of the day.

Perhaps this is why Deep States or Shadow/Double Governments exist. And maybe it’s why soft/hard coups happen.

John can be reached at captainkong22@gmail.com

* Thanks to Mike Whitney for publishing a piece at Counterpunch drawing attention to ZB’s work.

I got up and as happens once in awhile, I have a rough day. Blood sugar levels are off the scale this morning and that is after many days of good sugar levels. Not sure what happens and why, but it does and I think maybe it is because, I seem to be getting a sinus infection. It happens and today I will take it easy…

In the last few days I have mowed the yard completely with the newly made scythe. I have started to build the shower house and have started to clean the backside of the village home. I need to rebuild the back wall and will start in the next few days, but today, I better take it easy. Get my sugar levels under control and the only thing I will do is to wait for the auto market truck. I will pick up some goodies to eat from that…

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I figured out where the saints are buried here at the monastery. I just know these things and things tell me other things. It is a life long issue that helped me live through several bad times in my life. It also helps me during good times to expand my knowledge and horizons. I knew that there was saints buried here as to the reaction I gathered talking to the bishop of the monastery. He was skirting the issue to a point, but I had already found the area. I just needed to gather more information and more feelings of where they were…

I have been correct about everything at this monastery and the only area that I have issues with is time frames. For to the dead and gone, time is meaningless, thus what they pass on is without markers for exploration of the facts…

It follows that soon after I find such treasures of knowledge, the monastery people dig, find and discovers such tidbits. Thus, I now watch and wait to see when they find what I have found. I know they have old records of everything and They will be looking for the saints buried here. It seems that two are buried here…

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We have a tiny little bird, smaller than a sparrow. It is dainty and sings such a beautiful song to me every morning…

This morning was no different and as if he knew I was feeling bad; he sang even more beautiful than most mornings. I sat on my bench and Boza laid at my feet. We listened to him sing and as yet, I have never seen him or gotten a picture of him. He is just there…

He seems to be there to make me feel better, especially when I am feeling bad. Good bird…

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This morning as Boza and I walked, Boza was feeling his oats…

It was just getting light on the horizon and the bats were flitting around gathering the last of the mosquitoes for the night. They were flying low and whipping by and around Boza at his eye level….Boza decided to chase bats this morning. So down the hill Boza flew and leaping as bats dipped and dived at the mosquitoes that Boza stirred up from the grass…

He had no idea what they were and his face was so serious. Boza was worried about these bats. They were so low to the ground and I laughed so hard, my sides hurt.

* * * * * * * * * *

Autumn is here in our Tiny Russian Village. The leaves are starting to fall from the trees already. The weather has changed and it was 10 degrees last night. This is why I got a sinus infection, most likely. That happens to me as the seasons change. It will soon be winter, for as I say, “The seasons are short in Russia, except for one, Winter is long and hard!”

* * * * * * * * * *

That is all today, I am going to lay down and try to get feeling better…

WtR

Parasol Mushrooms are everywhere. It is that time of the year. Most are pushing up under thick grass and thus struggling to get shown, but if you walk the fields, you will see that they are full of these mushrooms…

Many types of these mushrooms and some are edible and some are poisonous. I do not care, I simply enjoy looking at them and taking pictures. I am not much of a mushroom person and the thought of getting a poisonous mushroom is too strong in my, “Not wanna eat then die list!” That I simply stay away from eating mushrooms from the wild. Well except when morel season is here. I am a good ole boy from Missouri and we ate morels deep fried in real butter and salt and peppered to taste…

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Finally finished the gate. Well….it has been built awhile, but never painted. It is now painted and I think it looks pretty good. It is side by side gates, to allow us to drive in if necessary and has a removable center post and bench seat. This is how I tell people, “Welcome to our home!”

My friends and I sit here and discuss world problems… 😉

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Svetochka takes such wonderful images. This little guy just slept away as she took as many pictures of him as she could. After she was done he just woke up and ran away. If I tried that, he would hiss at me and run away, even before I could get the camera out. Sveta has a way with taking pictures and all around her seem to love for her to do it…

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“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.” – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

And that is a quote of truth, from one of the greatest SciFi writers ever…

WtR

To Summarize the state the USA is in – we live in a society whose primary goal is greed. We spend trillions of dollars on endless wars (war alone in Afghanistan has cost US taxpayers circa $1 trillion) and trillions more on bank bailouts, tax cuts for the wealthy and Corporate welfare – $4 trillion on the Fed’s QE program for stock buybacks by TBTF corporations…

We have Wall St. lawyers. Stock brokers, hedge fund managers, lobbyists (all doing socially and morally worthless jobs) earning millions each yearly. Our elected officials sell their votes to the highest bidder. Our society is incapable of providing affordable health care, education, building a nation wide, energy efficient high speed rail transportation system…