I took a picture of our new finished gate this morning. Then I heard a knocking noise. Boza ran to see what was up…
We found Wilbur the Woodpecker (yes I name all my buddies) and he was busy as a bee. He likes eating our bugs in the trees and old fence posts and he let me get some images of him for once. He likes our yard and usually runs away real fast, so I never get pictures of him…
Wilbur has a good home….Thanks Wilbur for hanging around…
So I took his picture and sat and listened to him do his job of getting the bugs in the apple trees…
I have decided to take the camera with me today to the Big Village. I will try to get some photos of where I go to shop. The Big Village has literally everything you would need, except McDonald’s and that we do not need!
We will see what I get for pictures…
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Boza and I walked twice this morning, once to check the wells and they will wait until tomorrow to be filled and second time to see our friends in the valley…
Ralph the Raven was playing with Boza and George the Birdbrain was singing from the power lines, near the dam. All was good until a couple of new friends showed up. Of course I never have a camera when I need it. Henrietta and Harry the Hawks came to say hi! Ralph had a heart attack, George was peeking out from the pine trees and Boza was confused as to why his friends left…
Therefore, It became very quiet, for the Herons and all else decided life was better somewhere else. But I stood and watched and listened. Henrietta was on one telephone pole top and Harry on the next one and they made faint shrills at each other and for the first time, I heard clicking noises. I stood silently and Boza being a good boy, stood with me and we listened…
I imagined the conversation was some like; I will take the big bear and you get to eat the dog! But most likely it was something like; Hey baby, I love you! For the sounds were quiet and cooing like…
They are a couple and I must set up shop early one morning at my bench in the valley and try to get some good pictures of them…
So we have a regular set of new visitors, who greet us every morning in the fog that is prevalent now…
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I met a friend this morning walking and he was going fishing. It looks like I am starting to get the fishing bug and may need to get a pole. It seems the river is teeming with some really good eating fish. They are a perch of some type and the meat is tender, white and delicious…
The world knows that the 2016 US presidential horse race features two cartoonish characters that are perhaps the most polarizing figures in American national politics. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appear at a tenuous moment in the world’s history as economies struggle, infrastructure collapses, nations crumble, and the political systems, at least in the US and Europe, are viewed with disdain by a majority of citizens.
In the USA, the drumbeats for war seem to be getting louder. US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter uses a truncated version of David Letterman’s Top Ten List to rank the most dangerous threats to the USA: 1. Russia; 2. China; 3 Iran; 4. North Korea; and 5. Islamic State/Terrorism. The demonization of Russia and the references to Islamic State as a cancer or virus recalls Whitehead’s Cannibal War Machine.
Like or hate Trump, the media bias against him for challenging the neoliberal order is astonishing, harkening back to Cold War thinking. He is vilified out of fear he might shake the old order up: Reorder NATO, work with the Russian president, focus money on US infrastructure.
US Crushing it in Asymmetric Information War
The US is waging a highly successful asymmetric war against Russia which that country can hardly match given the US Instruments of National Power (INP), one of which includes “media” under the INP “Information.” The mainstream media propaganda campaign against Russia has been so successful that a Russian swimmer who served a suspension for illegal drug use and was cleared to compete in Rio was booed by fans and publically admonished by an American swimmer. The US does not even want the viewing public to see the flag of Russia raised during an NBC broadcast at the US Olympic Games. US sportscasters, and their counterparts in US owned media outlets in South America, pound into the viewing public’s collective minds that Russia is “enemy number one.” The penetration of the DNC computer network blamed on Russia comes at a moment when US dominated media coverage of the Olympics can be used to amplify the information warfare campaign against Russia and its comrades in Carter’s Top Five enemies list.
The New York Times, Washington Post, mainstream/cable news reek of polemic and government “officials” in a stunning disinformation campaign while at the same time they try to dismiss Clinton’s continued flirtation with the FBI/IRS over email, the shenanigans of the Clinton Foundation, and her militaristic “love a man in uniform”, and her coup instigating past. Even former military commanders and the CIA have gotten in on 2016 presidential campaign.
General Martin Dempsey, USA (Ret.)–former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)—and General Joseph Dunford, USMC, and current chair of JCS, are so alarmed at this development that they publically warned military personnel about getting involved, vocally, in the 2016 presidential election.
Sharknado
It’s like a Sharknado movie or better still, a nutty cartoon. Perhaps it is better to think of Clinton and Trump as the cartoon characters they are.
Cruella de Vil was the evil female villain in 101 Dalmatians. She is described by Wikipedia as being “the tyrannical figure in the marriage, and her husband as a meek, subservient man who seldom speaks and obeys his wife entirely. Cruella expresses her sinister interest in the Dalmatians, remarking how she and her henpecked husband have never thought of making clothing from dog pelt before. Yet seeing the spotless skins of the newborn puppies she is revolted and offers to have them drowned at once; her way of getting rid of animals she views as worthless, including dozens of her own cat’s kittens. Upon a second visit to the house she picks up the mature puppies and treats them like clothing to be worn.”
Replace puppies with 70 percent of the US population and you get a fine sense of what she really thinks about the vast majority of Americans. If she had her way she’d get the names of all the citizens who will vote for Trump and have them pilloried or sent to the gulag.
Trump is the Captain Klutz of the US political scene. He is running close to Cruella in spite of his wacky statements and the clumsy carnival that is his campaign. It is like watching a bizarre Saturday Night Live episode (one in which Trump appeared).
Captain Klutz, or Ringo Fonebone, can’t handle the “normal” life, according to a Lutz fan site: Klutz “usually succeeded in capturing the bad guy in spite of himself. As a child, Fonebone did nothing other than read Brap Man, The Blue Blockhead, Baboon Boy, and other comic books, leaving him with little aptitude for normal human activities.”
Trump is a bona fide member of the US “1 Percent” having lived anything but a normal human life and who knows what his reading list included. His gaffs somehow earn him more supporters, like Captain Klutz’s goofball actions help save the day.
Klutz remains within 10 percentage points of Cruella.
John can be reached at jstantonarchangel@gmail.com
Today, I will count the coins! I am one of those savers of all coins. I did it in America and continue here in Russia. I use them for a rainy day and my rainy day has arrived….I need another dehydrator and they have one at the Church Village for 3000 rubles…
I have two drawers full literally and a center console in the car full. I know I can get very close to enough to buy that dehydrator and it is time. Tomorrow, I go to the big village and if I find a better deal at the Big Village, I will buy that. If not, then I will stop on the way back and buy the one at the Church Village. I have to do something to keep up with the thousands of apples, tomatoes and such!
Yesterday, I dried 40 tomatoes, two loaves of white bread and today 40 apples (with cinnamon and nutmeg!) I am stocking for the winter and I am running out of time. I will simply adjust the budget someway to replace the money. I like to have a nest egg, even a small one, for emergencies…
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We have hundreds of our own tomatoes, but people keep giving me tomatoes out of appreciation as payment for things I do around the Tiny Russian Village. The people talk about how the village is coming back to life. That I have brought new ideas and desires, by living here in the Tiny Russian Village…
I thank them and take the reward, for to turn it down is an insult and even though I do not see what they see, I accept what is given and now I have to try to save what they give, instead of tossing it in the trash. I am by myself and can only eat so much. But I have found the way to store my food, for 5 to 10 years at a time. Dehydration is the key…
Money saved on not buying much food is what will pay for the new dehydrator. I even have 50 eggs right now and I am lucky that they store a long time….Still have maybe a 1000 apples to do. But will most likely rot before I get them all done…
Therefore, I am a grouchy bear with all I have to do. A happy grouchy bear, but as is par for my life, I am simply a grouchy bear!
Svetochka seems to love her grouchy bear, even when he is grouchy and that shows me how wonderful she is. She knows and sees through me and she knows I love her very much. Life has made me stern and or grouchy to many, but life is how we grow and develop. If you have had to put a young kid down, with explosives strapped to him! Then you would understand, that grouchy is preferred to insanity! I chose grouchy, grumble, cantankerous and asininity!
It is a far cry above “non compos mentis!”
Besides, under all that grouchy, is a smile face waiting to get out!
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The west has reached a new low in the treatment of Russian Paralympic athletes. In fact, I have been stunned at how low they went. I thought the gutter was it and they proved that there is a lower spot to grovel to and start crap again…
Russia has been banned from the Paralympics in Rio and for no other reason than political. I have talked about how the Western Empire will destroy the world and you are seeing it in your lifetime. There are many ways to destroy things and the West has begun her decline and the death tentacles are slashing all around in the throes of collapse. As assassination is and being done even to supposed allies…
Вот мой дом (Here is my house,) Моя жизнь (My Life,) моя собака (My Dog,) наша прогулка (Our Walk,) друг ( the friend,) деревня (the village,) туман (the village,) and новый день (a new day!)
I work around Russians, I use Russian products and I watch the Russians out of curiosity, everyday of my life. The Western Empire really tried to destroy Russia and unless the Western Empire jumps on the war wagon and attacks Russia out of the blue. Russia has beat the West at its own games!
I eat 100% Russian made, Russian processed, Russian grown food. I use 100% Russian and or Chinese made tools, implements and that includes items that are for everyday living, such as detergents and toilet paper. The main thing is that it is all quality and inexpensive products. Be they food or tools…
I feel for Venezuela, they could not pull off the same thing that Russia did and have suffered greatly. The attack was basically the same and for the same reasons. Just as Brazil has been attacked and China is being harassed. It partly falls under the BRICS issue! The Western Empire may have slowed BRICS down, but it is not dead and is marching onward and will show its head again, much stronger at that point…
I bought milk per liter last week at 29 rubles. Sterilized and good for almost a year. I bought white bread for 19 rubles a loaf. I bought my favorite cottage cheese at 59 rubles a container. This is the norm for me and this also extends to anything else I buy…
If I desire really cheap and okay, I wait and use AliBaba/AliExpress and have stuff shipped to me. I find with a little bit of effort on my part, that I can gather what is necessary, easily and quality is next to anything bought anywhere in the world…
Russia has developed, with the help of western men and women, who have decided that America has stepped off the deep end, huge herds of cattle in Russia. I am seeing herds of cattle now that reach 60,000 plus heads and growing. I see farms with western men all over Russia and they are lending their expertise. This is a straight shot at America and is called brain drain…
Russians learn fast:
I have talked about that a Russian is an intellect and now Russians have expanded the farm industry beyond just needs for Russia. Russia is going to become a agriculture powerhouse and feed the world. I keep talking about this and it is and has come true already in many areas of farming. A little help goes a hell of a long ways…
One area that has just stunned me is the Russian cheese area. Russians have learned to make literally every kind of cheese in the world. I adore the Russian Colby Jack and I just found a sour cream cheese that is to die for. It is so smooth and mild. It just is perfect…
I hope the west fails in its attacks against Brazil. The Western Empire has done nothing to help the Olympics and everything to destroy the Olympics in Brazil. Just as they did too China and Russia. Sad and pathetic is the west. What happened to sports goodwill and helping each other? Politics?
The West failed!
It failed so bad, that it hurts itself, back into not just a recession, but back into the depression that it tries to lie all the time about. The West is failing and has run out of options, well, except to just keep borrowing money, printing money and stealing money!
The last few years of governmental policies in America and the EU, have actually helped China and Russia to grow. It has helped the world to steer the ship in the right direction. But these policies have stop gap measured short term issues, minus any long term help, for the West and I am not sure that even the chickens will come and or be able to come home to roost, for the coop will be gone!
One thing that you need to learn is; Do not believe what the Western Press is portraying about the rest of the world!
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Another thought!
“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. – Mark Twain”
I am proud to be able to watch what is happening in Russia and I live it daily. I try at times to see what there is to be proud of America, but when the governmental policies do nothing but hurt our country and we as people living there, act like a damn bluegill on a shiny hook! Then I have to shake my head and wonder at the true stupidity of what is happening, brain drain, financial issues, ignorance of life around the planet, war, hate and many other issues…
I still love my country, but we no longer own our country! We have no say in what happens and we hold out our hand and greedily take everything given to either fill our mouths and or fill our need for distraction. We expect the government to protect us, feed us, nurture us, teach us and hold our hand. Somewhere we lost our feet and no longer stand or even want to stand on our own two feet…
When we do stand on our own two feet…
You are not allowed to stand on your own two feet. It has been this way for a long time and has only gotten worse. Much worse! I use to say, “Wake up!”
I think it is too late for that and staying asleep, may be better for most in the end!
In about an hour I have to go turn off the well. I allowed the water levels to drop to a lower than normal level and told everyone when I would fill the wells again. Therefore, I am filling the wells and the mosquitoes and rain are and is thick. Going to have to take a antihistamine this morning. I have dozens of bites…
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I woke at 3 a.m, my blood sugar levels were in the 4 range and when that happens, I can not sleep. I got up and started water for coffee, then Boza opened his eyes and said, “Since you woke me up! Lets walk!”
So we went to fill the wells and Boza takes this job very seriously. He leads the way and clears the paths of deadly kitties and frogs. Good to have a body guard, but he is not able to do anything about mosquitoes and I need a body guard for them. 🙂
Therefore, in an hour, we will go turn off the well!
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I received about a two kilo carp yesterday, cleaned it and froze it for when Svetochka comes. She should be here on the 12th of August! Yippy. I will slit in half length wise and we will have two meals from it. I have a new way to cook the carp and will try it out when she is here… Of course Boza will get the head of the carp…
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Not much to say, except, “Boza and I watching the birds!”
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In the beginning…
In the middle…
Today…
Bee time for honey…
Yesterday, I ate twenty strawberries from the patch. It is a constant producer and they are so good. The patch is in its first year and next year it will show its stuff…
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The rutabagas are getting huge. The beets are now finally medium sized and we will have at least a hundred pounds of potatoes. Carrots are getting perfect and we have a bunch, to say the least….
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I am drying another load of apples and this time, I put cinnamon and nutmeg on them. Oh My! You should smell the outer room. I just drool when I come and go from the home. 😉
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Now this is the simple and profound truth. We do need to grow up and become humans, we have the ability, but do we have the care?
Gotta go and turn off the well…
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Wells are full!
One last thought today; When all the churchies as I call them, came up the hill. A little boy was mad at his parents. He decided that kicking on our gate is the answer to life and tried to kick our gate to death. I was patient as they went up the hill and waited and watched. The parents did nothing, they did not even look at the kid. There was two more kids who were calm, but this boy was an animal. Then they came back down the hill…
The boy decided to start kicking again, he kicked at the gate so hard, that it flew open. It broke a board and I had had enough. I walked over to the fence, as he was kicking the gate again and looked at the parents. They tried to look at the sky and ignore what was happening. The kid looked at me and as if to tell me, “He will do what he wants!” Kicked the gate again…
I growled and said in my bear like voice. Nyet (NO!) and pointed down the hill. I did not say it nicely as in nyea or nye! Nor did I say it with a thank you after words. I said, “NYET!”
What happened next is hilarious and very sad…
The parents ran….The boy stood looking at me and as if his dad would help him….turned around and found his parents….hightailing it down the hill. Two other kids were even farther than the parents…
The little boy turned and looked up at me with eyes as big as 2 ruble coins and realized that his mom and dad had abandoned him. But he found out that he was the fastest one in the family, as he put on the afterburners and was at the bottom of the hill, before the others…
It was funny, but, it also made me realize that some people do not have what it takes to be a parent. Not because they are churchies in my eyes, but because they do not have the protection gene within their bodies. Self preservation is utmost…
I told you I am a big man and a grouchy bear! Don’t kick my fence people! And keep your kids under control… 🙂
I went to bed thinking and I thought in my dreams and I woke thinking and I am still thinking; In fact….I must grab another cup of coffee and sit outside this morning and think some more….I will be back…
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I think a bunch, but, I think on my feet 99% of the time. Once in awhile, I have to stop and contemplate things. Those are dangerous times! When I have to stop all activities and mull over what I experienced. Mulling is defined with me as, “When I must deeply understand something, I mull over it!” When black and white as an answer does not fit the situation…
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Yesterday I met the ???? (I was told in English he was a Bishop!) His name was Matthew (Yes, he is a bishop.) and he allowed me to call him Matt. “Ματταθίας” (Mattathias), was probably one of the most intelligent men I have met. He had spent six years studying in the UK and was very fluent English. In fact it was to me as he said to him, to speak English and converse was a tremendous pleasure. Never much chance to use English in his line of work, is how I understood it… 😉
Mathew was the top Orthodox? Blockquote below is directly from Orthodox Wiki…
Those of the major orders are the bishops, priests, and deacons, the same offices identified in the New Testament and found in the early church. Bishops include archbishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs. Priests (also called presbyters or elders) include archpriests, protopresbyters, hieromonks (priest-monks) and archimandrites (senior hieromonks). Deacons also include hierodeacons (deacon-monks), archdeacons, and protodeacons.
Now I become lost for I can not tell you the actual title of the gentleman I met. In fact I am confused as to what status Father Pavel is in the ranks? I believe Father Pavel is a priest and he is over our monastery, but I am asked to call him Father Pavel. Just as Bishop Matthew told me to call him Matt! (Yes, Father Pavel is a priest.)
We exchanged phone numbers at his (Matt) insistence and I am glad he insisted. For I realized later how profound everything was that happened to me yesterday. Surreal is how I describe it all and definitely not in a bad sense…
Maybe he will comment as to the positions within the Orthodox? He wanted the address to this site and I know he will be looking at it. Windows to Russia is a vast database of Russian knowledge. The monastery and the Tiny Russian Village is and has become an intricate part of the blog…
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I am not going into deep discussion about what was said and what we did. But, I will say that; I experienced a Orthodox church service, I sat at the table with the Orthodox priests and Bishop, I had tea and food with them, they presented me gifts, we walked around the bell tower inside and we sat and talked for several hours about various issues and other things related with the village, monastery and the world…
Oh and a tidbit of information; We do not say and or call Jesus, just Jesus: I am confused at this. For I used the term Jesus and the priests laughed, not making fun laugh, but still they were amused. They tried to explain what term to use to call him, and it was explained that they do not just use Jesus. It was not a bad thing, but it was something that I realized, different about religious upbringing…
It was a moment of enlightenment for me and I truly think that Matt was sincere and very glad to meet me. He wants to get together again later in the year. He understands that I must leave Russia several times a year. This was something that I sensed he contemplated with ideas known to him only at that time. We both had underlining expressions, that were passed as markers of future endeavors and I realized that he placed my position in the Tiny Russian Village as important and my desires to learn about the monastery as a benefit to the monastery…
As I have said before; I have become a Russian Villager in a very Tiny Russian Village and a very Tiny Russian Monastery…
I will be talking more about this in the future, today I still have thinking to do and I still have some soul searching to do. I have talked about the Old Soul of Russia and yesterday, I met it face on as I walked and talked with the entourage of Orthodox priest surrounding their Bishop!
It was sincerely an important point in my life and as I have found out, Russia is full of these points of necessities to growth of the inner soul. This is something that has to be experienced and not something that can be given to you by only words…
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I have also made it clear that Russia is a country of intellects; yesterday I had my thoughts confirmed about the intellectualism of Russians. Orthodox clergy and upwards are highly intelligent and very insightful. It made me feel good to be amongst them and while maybe I should have felt out of place, I felt comfortable sitting with these men from the Orthodox Church!
I saw the interesting interaction between the Orthodox Church and her people that attend the services. I call it the “flock” and they are strong believers in Orthodoxy. Once again, it is something to experience and words will not tell the tale of how the interaction between the two entities of groups. Absorption, listening and gathering data is the only way to assimilate such an encounter!
Yesterday, I was so busy and could not get it all done. I could not even get apples cut to dry! The Tiny Russian Village was demanding and today is the same…
I dug a hole and set a huge fence post, finished setting the gate I built, put a bird feeder out (on the huge fence post,) moved the bird bath I made last year, dug two other fence posts, met with Father Pavel, gathered supplies from the Auto Magazine (that comes on Friday,) cleaned out the wells to fill today, walked Boza seven times, took a bunch of pictures and did about twenty other things, plus ate twenty strawberries…. Yummy…
The fence I install was a green wire fence. I decided that this inner piece would look good in the yard, green in color. It would blend better. It cost more than regular chain link fencing, but someone sent a donation to help build a shower house and new fencing. Thank you, to that someone! 😉
Now that is all good and well, but tell that all to my body and my splitting head and then you will see that my body says eat, eat and eat lots of candy! LOL…
I call it, “Cravings of sugar!” and you have to just push through it!
Only when it gets in the low threes, do I start to worry, but I am learning to adapt and I keep a Little Bear in my head, with his wooden sword to fight the sugar demons. It works…
I try to keep learning everyday and I have learned that at one point, my body will do its best to adjust itself, especially now that I have lost so much weight. But, sometimes the Little Bear stays real busy and he likes donuts for payment!
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I did a ton of laundry this morning all ready and Boza is giving me those puppy dog eyes to try to get me to walk him again. Therefore, soon we will walk for the fourth time. I will finish this article and see if he has gone to sleep yet. We have walked kilometers already doing the wells and such. And yes it is good for me, for soon the sun will bake the earth and we will hide. Also around 2 p.m. Father Pavel is bringing someone by to see me?? I will see what that is about later today…
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Coffee Thought on the presidential issues:
Nobody is really paying attention at this point. It is interesting to me that the main stream media is floating stories about Trump dropping out or being replaced… Elections are a pressure valve, an trompe l’oeil of control and competence placement. We wait for the knight in shining armor who never arrives, because there is no knight and the armor is not shiny anymore, simply put, they could never show up to extricate the situation we are in, given the methodology that is in place. Non-corrupt people do not understand and or blinkered by fear, if they did, they soon become corrupt when they arrive at the place that they qualify for candidacy. For noncompliance is a ticket to non-candidacy. – Kyle Keeton
I sip a cup of coffee at 2:30 a.m. and allow my sugar levels to get stabilized, before Boza and I walk this morning. I woke in a daze and immediately took my blood sugar, 3.2 and dropping. I have finally worked my system down and fought through months of false hypos. But when it gets this low, my body wakes me and does not allow me to sleep again. It tells me to get some carbs going…
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Water tower in distance…
Water tower zoomed slightly
Vova and Mia!
Some people asked about the water tower and therefore, I am standing in the shadow of the top of the bell tower, looking at the water tower. It is almost to the woods at the back of the village. We live at the front of the village and Boza and I walk to fill the wells several times a week to that tower. Not far, for Boza and I walk many kilometers a day, everyday, all the time! Round trip from our home is about one kilometer to the tower…
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Boza and I were out and it was still very dark. We heard a noise and Boza said, “Monster?” I agreed and said, “Yes, Monster!” So we ran back into the house and hid! We heard the monster leave and now we are safe! 😉
We are such brave guys!
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Vova and Mia! Vova does not have a picture of him and Mia together. I took several, this is an okay image. I have a better one, but we will save that for later. Svetochka is going to print it on our Moscow home printer and she is thinking about having a T-Shirt imprinted with it also. Vova and Mia are bachelors too! Well Mia is a girl, but that counts also, as she is a bachelorette…
Yesterday, I ate lunch at Vova’s. We had spicy chicken wings, salad and chai. I noticed an area on his wall where he reserves only for family pictures and now amongst these pictures, are the images that we have made prints of for him over the years. There was one empty slot left and I realized that this image of Vova and Mia would be there. Vova first, when he gets a new picture like this, he takes it everywhere with him and shows people. The picture I took last month of him and his antlers has finally found a spot on the wall. Now it is time to give him a new image to show the world…
Oh and when I look at the village and pictures I take, my mind always centers back upon my past and my family from the Ozarks and Smokey Mountains; Hillbillies!
Hee Hee
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Something that has hit me hard mentally, painfully and expensive, is testing for blood sugar. There are many days I have to do it twenty times of more and test strips are terribly expensive. But as Svetochka says, “Just do it!” and I do!
I work so hard at times, that my sugar will bottom out, yet the day before, it was normal, under the same conditions. At times it rules my life and that is an issue with me…
Sveta is trying to see if Russia has a bloodless tester. I know that there is such a thing out there, but if it can not be found, I will keep poking away. It is a necessity and I accept it…
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Time to walk Boza, he giving me those sad puppy eyes, it is light out now & no monsters around and Boza is making dog talk at me! Urumph oof harrumph!