A survivor of six heart attacks and a brain tumor, a grumpy bear of a man, whom has declared Russia as his new and wonderful home. His wife is a true Russian Sweet Pea of a girl and she puts up with this bear of a guy and keeps him in line.
Yummy carp cooking. I will cook 4 today. But first Big Village trip and more work…
You can tell Sveta is around. Now pictures of me are common. Even if I do not want them taken….I am worn out in this image and yet, I really realized how much weight I have lost…
The first thing in my mind as I saw this photo above; That is my Grandpa Stroud!
I have lost at least 50 kilos in the last four years. (110 pounds for you in America and 7.87 stone for those in Britain.) I have lost at least 60 + kilos total since getting my act together here in Russia away from the hell in the USA…
I remember seeing 340 lbs and now I am definitely below 200 lbs…
It is amazing when the realization of normalcy hits home again. I can hear the slight breathing of Svetochka in the other room. She sleeps much longer periods of time than I do. Thus, during her sleep times, I do all my writing and whatnot’s…
While the weather is not cooperating for happy walks and getting more work done outside….the weather is not near as bad as it could be and for that we are thankful…
It is also interesting to me, as I have been so busy these last seven months, that I missed my better half, who was isolated in Moscow and I have been isolated in the Tiny Russian Village. I think I had the best end of the deal, to be honest with you…
Yet, there is something so perfect at this moment, as I write this post and realize that my better half is around again…
I believe that I tried hard not to think about the separation that Sveta and I had to deal with and I believe that she did the same. Now, after finally getting back together in the same home, it is a relief to not have a pretense hanging over your head all the time…
Never say it is over!
Sammy the Volga has finally for the moment, gotten all her major issues done. The latest, but I am sure not last, issue was one of the carrier Bearings on the drive shaft(s). Sammy the Volga has a three piece drive shaft….when I have constantly asked why? Two piece? Maybe? Three piece? Why?
Then the young guy who has been working on Sammy asks, “Did you replace the driveshaft at one time?” – “No! Why?”
Then we find out that many Volga’s came with a one piece shaft and that it was considered much more reliable and better by far…
The three piece shaft is in a straight line. Is not a lot longer than my arm in complete and makes no sense as to ground clearance and reliability type of standpoint. The opposite in fact is true. We have so many more moving parts and so many more things to go out in such a short space, that it makes no sense…
After looking around and investigating. It looks as if whatever was available at the time the car was built? Was put in….it could have been a one piece, two piece and or three piece driveshaft!
Interesting….for now Sammy has stopped her squeals and knocks in the drive line! This is the second time to have to keep replacing universal-joints and when it crops up again, I foresee a single drive shaft future for Sammy!
While my brain wants to stay in the Tiny Russian Village, my heart knows and accepts that it is time to get back to Moscow and help Sveta through the winter. I know that I will be back after winter decides to go back to sleep. I have to paint mom’s home, rebuild her brick wood stove and do as I did to Nikolai’s home this last summer. That means re-fence mom’s yard also…
Yes, I can do just fine in the TRV for winter but, “Why?” If Sweetpea wanted to stay with me there? That would be a great reason to stay all winter. No Boza anymore. Can’t do anything but wait for Old man Winter to go away!
Therefore, time to pack and get on the road to Moscow!
Tomorrow on Saturday about noon. I will pick Svetochka up from the big main highway, which is about a two hour drive from TRV. She is taking a taxi (Six hour trip from Moscow.) to a gas station on that highway and I will get her from there…
Then a week later, Svetochka and I take Sammy the Volga and get back to Moscow…
~~ Oh Noes
I gotta be good again! ~~
But seriously: I am so glad that Sveta has finally been able to break away from work and family to come down to TRV….but darn the spring summer and fall are all gone. I have been here from the complete spring, summer and fall of a typical Russian year. Old Man Winter was dancing when I came to TRV and he woke up from his nap and is dancing again…
“The transfer of long-range missiles from Iran to Venezuela is not acceptable to the United States and will not be tolerated or permitted,” said Elliott Abrams, the State Department Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela.”We will make every effort to stop shipments of long-range missiles, and if somehow they get to Venezuela they will be eliminated there,” added a senior administration official.
MOSCOW, October 29./TASS/. Former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has obtained an open-ended Russian residency permit, is going to be a father soon, his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told TASS on Thursday.The baby will have citizenship of the Russian Federation, Kucherena affirmed. “They [Snowden and his wife Lindsay Mills] are expecting their child soon. The citizenship will be that of the place of birth,” he added, saying that the child is due at the end of the year.
Little creatures seem to like me. I do not know why, but they seem to…
The yard down the way has sunflowers everywhere. The birds do not touch them. They are exactly the same as what I put out for the flying piggy’s in our yard…
Yesterday, I watched at least a hundred Chickadees, better known at this point, as Flying Piggy’s, eating and socializing and really enjoying life. There is a flock of sparrows that come through and they try, yet they just cannot deal with sunflower seeds. So they move on after attempting to be a flying piggy. There is also a Eurasian Jay and he is a Hoggy. I tell him to get lost when I see him. He is easy to sneak upon and scare…
Tidbit: When a chickadee is telling another chickadee to “bug off” they puff up and put their wings halfway out. Sveta said, “Makes them look bigger than they are!”
I have to laugh when he looks at me (After I say in my grouchy bear voice, “What the hell do you think you are doing?”) and his eyes get the size of a coffee cup saucer. Then he screams and flies like a bat out of hell…
The Chickadees or Flying Pigs, all sit there and laugh. They seem to know that I am not talking to them. The sparrows….well they just keep fighting among themselves. I could reach up and grab one of them, for they only pay attention to the game they play….I call it “squabble”…
We do have one Nuthatch and he is my very favorite bird of all. He is just a bit bigger than a chickadee, yet he flies like a rocket compared to a jet. He has a straight line attitude. Go through it not around it. Including me it seems at times….I have had the bejeebers startled out of me as he cuts the hair on my head at times. My hair is not that long…
Nuthatch under the brace beam.
Nuthatch getting a seed.
I went back to the sunflower field yesterday. People have really cleaned it out, yet I know and will get muddy to find more seeds for the babies (piggies) in our yard…
Yes I found more sunflower heads. Sammy the Volga and I were caked in mud…
Yesterday, I went to the Big Village to find a part for Sammy the Volga. I found it and installed it. I left TRV and put out a huge sunflower head for the birds…
The pigs ate the whole thing… Oink Oink…
Middle of nowhere, in peace and quiet. Working on Sammy the Volga.
Bad windshield wiper motor.
Perfect weather to work on the car and a perfect spot to do just that. I had two babushkas walk by at separate times, as I worked. About 80 plus years old each. They said hello and ambled on their way, “To who but they, knows where?”
It is amazing how far you can be from civilization and out of nowhere….someone walks by you!
But enough of that, Sammy still had the original wiper motor. We will not mention how the motor got finally destroyed, yet, it did need to be replaced….thus it is done.
I also went to the sunflower field, it is already combined, and grabbed more sunflower heads laying on the ground. I will need to go back again this morning…
Yesterday, we had a flock of piggies, at the buffet….The yard was a Chickadee heaven….I just love Chickadees…
In the US political system, Jo Jorgensen is a pipe dream candidate. The system cannot allow a person of her intelligence to get near the administration and that is the reason the people of the USA should get her as president. But, I know it is just a pipe dream…
The education system of the USA needs a total revamp and people need this type of change to get the US back on track…
She may have no chance of getting her hands on the keys to the White House next month, but a growing number of Americans are coming around to her limited government, anti-interventionist, decentralized vision for the US.
Jo Jorgensen (born Joanne Marie Jorgensen; May 1, 1957) is an American academic and libertarian political activist. Jorgensen is the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president of the United States in the 2020 election. She was previously the party’s nominee for vice president in the 1996 U.S. presidential election as the running mate of author Harry Browne. She was also the Libertarian nominee for South Carolina’s 4th congressional district in 1992, receiving 4,286 votes, for 2.2% of the popular vote.
Jo Jorgensen said, “I want to turn America into one giant Switzerland, armed and neutral.”
Amen to that….that sounds like a good thing to me…
Jo Jorgensen said, “They are the ones in power and they will do anything they can to keep from giving it up. They don’t want me on the debate stage and they’re not putting me in the media, as they know that I’ll be the only real choice. Both of those candidates and parties want to spend our money and make our decisions for us, neither one has an answer to our healthcare problem.”
By the way, the Libertarian Party is on the ballot in all 50 states plus Washington, DC…
and…
Jo Jorgensen said, “That is something I could do as commander-in-chief,” she continued, “I want to turn America into one giant Switzerland, armed and neutral. We absolutely have to protect our shores and border but there’s no reason for us to be in 150 countries around the globe. We spend more on the military than the next seven countries combined, that’s insane. If we just defended our own country, we wouldn’t be spending all that money. The money is bad enough but being everywhere in the world is making us less safe, not more safe – and the job of the military is to make us safer.”
As with Ron Paul in the past, Jo Jorgensen is a pipe dream, a good dream and a viable dream, but nevertheless a pipe dream that will not see the light…
The system cannot afford someone smart and who makes sense!
I have said that I voted for Trump last time. It was the first time I ever voted with the system and who I thought would win, due to the system & due to how terrible Hillary Clinton is. Trump won….I have always been independent and voted accordingly…
Big mistake on my part. I was not true to me, I followed the crowd. This time, I am true to me. Jo Jorgensen is who I voted for…
I feel better now about myself and that is what counts. Voting for Trump has weighed heavy on me for years now. I was wrong to follow the sheep on him, just like so many followed Hillary off the cliff….it was a simple, “The lessor of two evils!” kinda vote…
Tidbit: I voted the same as I did last election 4 years ago. Yet with all the turmoil over voting this time. I have to wonder if my vote will even end up being counted. It is sad to think that you follow the rules and try, yet the system will obscure you no matter what…
I guess I am becoming more Libertarian in my thinking as I get old and grouchy(er)…
Tomorrow on Saturday about noon. I will pick Svetochka up from the big main highway, which is about a two hour drive from TRV. She is taking a taxi (Six hour trip from Moscow.) to a gas station on that highway and I will get her from there…
