Windows to Russia

“Fools,” said I, “You do not know Silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you.” But my words like silent raindrops fell, And echoed In the wells of silence

Summer is pleasant in Moscow…

Russians leave the big city and go to their dachas and villages. This is tradition and it is good for the children. Children are still raised in Russia to touch the land and see nature for what it is…

This makes Moscow a different world…

Parking is available almost anywhere. The children are literally gone from sight and mind. Doggies are all in the dachas and villages also. Thus Boza and I have fun walking…

Most of all, the roads of Moscow are half empty and I tell Svetochka time and time again, “I wish it was this way all the time!”

Moscow has at any given time during a busy day, about 15,000,000 people milling around. (The influx of humans during the early part of the day is unbelievable.) It is a crowded city in my eyes, but when dacha season is here, half of that mass of people seem top leave…. It becomes half the city it was and for a few months, Moscow is livable…

In about two weeks; They all come back!

Moscow explodes to the bursting seams when they all come back from the countryside…. It is the flow of life in Moscow…

In the villages of Russia, this is the time of the year that they either make enough money to survive or they have a rough rest of the year. The influx of big city people means cash abundance for the summer. The roads as you drive around Russia, have babushkas sitting on the side selling what they grow, make and or peddle from others to make money. Babushkas are a determined bunch and tough as nails. They will sit all day in the sun, rain and whatever to sell you a hundred rubles worth of potatoes. It is the way of life…

This makes the dachas and villages not so much fun…

The city people throw trash and drive all over everything, just as they do in the cities. They know no one will say anything, for the villages need the traffic and money that comes with the city slickers…

But as with myself, I and most villagers are glad to see city people leave the villages. Then life, while not as rich in monetary means, becomes richer in quality and that is really what counts…

Except…

This year Boza and I get to experience the madhouse of millions and millions coming back to the big city…. It really is amazing to see it happen. You go to sleep and all is quiet and the next day, the big city explodes around you and walking the dog even becomes a major ordeal…

Boza and I are getting ready… 😉

WtR

You ask for information and I always give it to you. Thanks from Boza and us for the concern…

But I keep trying…

Boza just went to his doctor. The results are good, in fact so good that the doctor said if it keeps going, probably no surgery needed…. The puff test was good…

When Boza feels pain, he comes to me automatically. I check his eyes twenty times a day. It is time consuming, but it is worth it. His eyes are stable and all the sleepless nights and all the long days are paying off…

His right eye was at 18 pressure and the left was at around 40 pressure. This is below the issue of excessive pain for doggies and Svetochka and I can tell you that we have the old Boza back. It looked bad for awhile and I was sure that we would loose the left eye. Pressure is too high in the left, but since he has no pain and since he can not see anyway out of that eye due to a genetic issue. Boza is in the stable range…

Now we work on clearing the eye up with a special cornea medicine and then in a month we will see what’s up! The medicines will never stop and I hope to obtain a balance that allows me to sleep better… 😉

Boza now prances, dances and loves to chase kitties and pigeons…. Go Boza go…

Glad to have Boza back and it is my job to keep him stable and happy…

[contentcards url=”http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/hypertension.htm”]

I want you to know that glaucoma can be contained, even when it gets so far out of hand that it all seems hopeless. In humans it is easier to contain, but if you spend many sleepless nights and stay on a strict schedule, doggies can be helped…

God, Boza, Svetochka and I know…

Have a question just ask. I will be glad to get back to you…

It is celebration time…

WtR

I have been doing serious studying.

This spiral to the great drain of life, downwards goes the Western Empire. This is not just an American phenomenon. It is a Western one. Western culture is and has been collapsing steadily as an all accepted free standing megalith. Starting even before the First American Civil War, when the South wanted away from the taxes and imposing of the North, just as the colonist did from England. In America slavery of one form gave way to another form, again and again. All the same in the end….

The North won and we have all been slaves since….

[contentcards url=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/slavery-and-the-civil-war_b_849066.html”]

All starting even before Columbus set sail his dreams. Starting from the death of many empires before her. The Western Culture was destined to die from the beginning…. It must die, it is natural…. Just as Eastern Empires have died in the past also…

This prodigious fact went largely unnoticed this time, as it was even dwarfed by the greatest spending/debt spree in the known world, money flowed like cocaine.  But the divide between those that loved and those that hated the Western culture had become set in stone. Never more so prominently displayed than the North and South divide of America, what is called the “Civil War.” The South was a defeated country, not just an ideology, but it had become its own country and was beaten and subtended upon against their will…. By a Industrialized North…. (Slavery was not the real issue..)

Western financial, moral and political bankruptcy is bringing this demon into the light. Short of a culture war the Left against Right, so to say, the Western Empire (As I call it!) cannot recover and will pass from the Earth. As many have done in the past and many empires will do in the future…

[contentcards url=”http://www.internationalman.com/articles/et-tu-brute-how-empires-die”]

We have been given much rope to hang ourselves and as such we had many opportunities to straighten ourselves out. No one forced us to follow the god of money…

You have to realize that Empires have to die; they die so that a new one may rise. Then the money flow is renewed and life goes on. But only war can cleanse and restart the debt cocaine rush. Even a civil war within America will send the world into a reset…

The only question now!

[contentcards url=”http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/if-its-a-civil-war-pick-a-side-donald-trump-white-nationalism-and-the-future-of-america/”]

What side are you on? As the article above shows; propaganda is in full swing and you are shameful to not be on the correct side. Which ever that is? Your choice…

Left or Right? Family against family? Rich against poor? See it is simply black and white, one side or the other, cut and dried and easy as apple pie. Just pick a side and fight…

Nothing ever changes, does it?

Circle of Life…..

WtR

Seven Hills of Fire: International Fireworks Festival Kicks Off in Moscow – sputniknews.com – The best pyrotechnic teams from all over the world are heading to Moscow to take part in the 3rd International Rostec Fireworks Festival. On each day of the festival the audience will be treated to four pyrotechnic shows. The pyrotechnic teams involved stand ready to launch some 60,000 volleys of fireworks up to 200 meters into the air.

Poor Boza, he hates fireworks and the average Russia is not to be outdone…

There has been fireworks being shot off continuously today (Called warming up the oven, so to say!) Russians love their fireworks and they always have plenty of them…

Just for your information…

WtR

Sammy ran perfectly and the trip to Moscow was almost flawless. Only took 8 hours and we beat the rush hour traffic by about an hour. Which means that we were able to cruise smoothly into home. About 500 kilometers total traveled and despite constant road work being done the whole way back, watermelon trucks everywhere and the famous stupid Russian drivers. We arrived safely to our Moscow flat…

I have Boza back on a pattern again with his medication for his eyes. We accomplished the trip with minimal stress to his eyes. This was an important mission to succeed at, for tomorrow we take him to see his doctor and scheduled the eye operation. Then once Boza is stable with eye pressure, him and I will go to the Tiny Russian Village again. For that is where Boza and I thrive the best. Svetochka sees this and she understands that her bear and doggy need the country life…

Boza and I were up at 3:30 a.m. and Svetochka got up with us. So Sveta is off to work early and hopefully she will be home early.In just a couple of years Sveta will retire and by then we will have the Tiny Russian Village home ready for full time living…

The back wall of the village home will be rebuilt this next week and Vova is in charge of overseeing the guys doing the work.They will spray for termite, add two or three inches of insulation and cover the wall after reinforcement of the complete wall. -30 degree days will be mush easier after this work is done. I have to start digging big deep fence post holes. I have 50 to dig. That is what it will take to put up a new fence around the village home at 10 meters spacing. Then I need about 50 more to install in between at the five meter spacing, these are smaller posts, for basic support of just the fence…

We have to get ready for counteracting the Monastery traffic and influx of traffic. We almost lost our old fence in one section. Kids love to run amok down the mountain and they have a tendency to crash and burn as they try to turn the corner by our home. I like to think of the song “Wipe Out…”

Just fits as these crazy kids tear down the mountain and our place is right in the path. Maybe we need to install a padded wall?

Mine looked kinda like this…

Love this song and it brings back memories. Memories from an interesting era. The Ventures – Wipe Out 1966 and I did a lot of chasing girls, we and I never caught, a cruising to music like this in a (Factory order personally and saw it built) 1969 Mercury Cougar Cobra Jet! Man if I had that car today and here in Russia, I could show them true muscle car power. That 428 CJ with Ram Air was an animal and I sneakily install SCJ additions the next year when it came out as the superior version of the CJ. I also had install nitrous and the car acted like a naked stripped ass ape with a bumble bee trying to sting it in the ass…

Oh the days when life was cool…

I remember I-70 and it was brand new from Saint Louie to Kansas City. A State Trooper had come to one of our weekend drag races on the new concrete path that led endlessly into the horizon. He had a Plymouth Fury 1970 with a 426 Hemi, not sure how stock it was? But he was on duty and was watching us play. (In those days cops were cool (very cool) for the most part!) I pulled up to our makeshift starting line and too my surprise next to me pulls this Fury all decked out with State Trooper insignias and all. He had uncapped the exhaust and allowed to to run open headers. I uncapped mine, as was fair. I had a pull bar to snap the vents open…

He yelled no nitrous, I nodded and we went for a four mile race to a small town called Grain Valley. Blue Springs Mo. to Grain Valley is about 4.7 miles and this run was for who could win the quarter mile and then who had what it too to take on a trooper car in the long run…

Four on the floor in both cars and at least 500 to 700 plus horse power (I will never tell how much was truth, for in my car, it was blueprinted and polished inside and out) with way over 1000 foot pounds of torque in each car exploded off the line. Everyone who had a car with any speed, tried to keep up with us as we took off, but no one but a 1970 Pontiac Fire bird with a Ram Air IV bored and stroked 400ci kept any were near us…

That Fury had tall highway gears, as I ate him alive in the first mile and quarter went to me. Then as I reached my upper RPM limit he started to catch me and in another mile had over taken me. Only thing I had left was nitro and that was a short term usage at this RPM. As he passed me I hit the lever and cranked it for five seconds. Passed him like he was standing still, then I shut it down and acknowledge defeat in the long run…

Then we stopped on the side of the freeway and waited for the rest to show up. He was impressed with “just a Mercury” and at that time State Troopers in our area were Mopar and only Mopar and I mean only Mopar. You could not run from these cars that they had…

Just a little bit of reminiscing from my past. I grew up in such a different world than what America is now. We raced two or three times a week at the Lake City Flats and we raced many times with cops who wanted to prove that their cars were faster than us kids cars…

I remember well the days of unfettered, huge displacement, high compression, airplane fueled tons of steel. Blowers that screamed, butterfly flaps that opened and sounded like a freight train roaring by and open headers on a big block that rumbled the ground as it idled…

No one cared, no one blamed others and no one did anything, but loved the freedom. That was what a car was, Freedom!

Tidbit of info: I switched to a tall gear (I had a stock 4.3 and went with a automatic 3.25) the next summer and we ran again! This time I almost had him and with nitro, I did have him…

Would love to play with those days again…

* * * * *

Now life is a Volga GAZ Wagon 310221 and you wanna know something? I love this car as much as I loved any muscle car I owned. But….

Wouldn’t it be nice to drop a 460 Ford with close to a half ton of torque at the ground to make Sammy the Volga scare the pants off a few Russians?

* * * * *

Everything was done at the village home to ensure no issues, in case we can not get back soon. But, Boza and I wanna get back… 😉

Have a nice day…

WtR

Have to say goodbye to the Tiny Russian Village. Moscow is the next stop. We will leave around 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. tomorrow and get on our way to the big city…

Vova is sad and he is going to fix a rabbit for me to take home to cook. Yummy! Svetochka makes faces at the thought of eating a rabbit, but I just love rabbits big and long time… 😉 They are good for the tummy. Boza likes them also…

Sammy the Volga is ready except for a couple of small things that I will fix this morning, The more I look the more I find not finished. But it is all okay and that is what I am for, to fix what they were too lazy to fix correctly. I found a gas line hanging down and I have to create a bracket to hold it in place. It is in a place that they fixed on the underside and yet they did not reattach a new bracket. That is the stuff I am talking about… But all good…

This image above is what you see in the mornings as the temperature drops below dew point every night. It is fun to walk through the clouds and you find it mesmerizing as the fog swirls around you as you walk…

I gave Vova a large blue barrel and he is so happy. He has plans to raise carp in the barrel and have his own supply of fish. I told him to aerate the barrel and he will succeed. Just a carp fish aquarium…. He does not like the huge fish anyway, just wants small carp to smoke and salt. You got to say, Vova is a farmer at heart and is willing to try anything at least once. He has dozens of Rabbits and dozens of ducks. People come from all over to buy his fresh farm raised animals…

Therefore, this will be the last post for a few days…

On the road again…. I love to travel…

Have a nice day and see you all in a few…

WtR

[contentcards url=”http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2831724″]

It is regrettable that the law on sanctions against Russia has come into effect in the United States. Its very title – “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” – speaks for itself. Its initiators are trying to impress on the US public a certain image of our country. This is a very short-sighted and even dangerous policy fraught with undermining stability for which Moscow and Washington bear special responsibility.

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed the Russian position on US actions, including this bill, in its statement on July 28. We have also already demonstrated that we are not going to leave unanswered hostile actions, including the expulsion of our diplomats by the US authorities and the seizure of diplomatic property. Naturally, we also reserve the right to other countermeasures.

It is high time the American fans of sanctions, which have plunged the United States into Russophobic hysteria, got rid of their illusions and realised that no threats or attempts to exert pressure will compel Russia to change its course or sacrifice its national interests.

Trading barbs is not our choice. We are open for cooperation with the United States in the spheres where we consider it useful for ourselves and international security, including settlement of regional conflicts. However, productive cooperation is only possible if Washington politicians overcome their delusions and stop perceiving the world around them through the prism of “American exceptionalism” that is distorting reality.

http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2831724

Persistence is important.

Possibly a few choice words and some immediate prayers to the lessor gods help also? Maybe sacrifice or two on the gods alters might help at the same time, but I decided not to go that far…. Sammy the Volga is done…

The final piece of the journey to rebuild Sammy, was yesterday…. The crew that rebuilt her, ended with a whimper. The work they did was good and Sammy drives straight and narrow now. The car is beautiful and like new. Yes it was successful, but…

They basically dropped the car off and……. I knew something was wrong. The guys that dropped off Sammy where not the guys who should have dropped off Sammy. We had a Sammy the Volga with a serious issue and this issue was threatening our going back to Moscow…

After such fantastic work and such a good excursion into life itself. These guys ran and hid at the end of all this fun… They had an accident and somehow (make long to short), broke and engine part, that when they did fix it, they found it had compounded into a mess and ran like scared rabbits…. Silly Wabbits!

But…..

Car delivered and the radiator, plus several other tidbits needed repaired and all due to some game playing by silly wabbits…

Grouchy Bear Grouched, Sweety Pie made phone calls and between Vova from our Tiny Russian Village and Andrew from the Big Village…. We got Sammy back in great shape…. I will be good, for I will not cry over spilled milk and the good still outweighs the bad and Sammy looks great…

The final straw and I started to laugh, was they had siphoned out all our fuel. Someone at the shop had stolen almost a full tank of fuel! What can you do? Just laugh and wish them good luck, for the next guy might just beat their asses…

Svetochka, my sweet innocent girl, wants to kick their butts and jump up and down on them after they lay on the ground. I guess she had enough also?

Last night Svetochka said, “It is finally done and I feel relief!”

Andrew a friend of ours in the Big Village, just happened to have a almost brand new radiator for our Volga. He said that he was approached by the guys to get his radiator and I guess since he wanted money for it and they being only just paid by us, yet I am sure already broke, declined to get the radiator (That they crushed somehow?) and then they dropped off the car and ran and hid… 😉

Wabbits!

* * * * *

So being a grouchy bear, I will be nice and not eat wabbits for lunch. The car is just too good now to be mad and I just feel sorry for guys who have such potential and yet lost the self-control at the end. Running and hiding is what you do when guilty, as charged…

Sammy runs as good as new. She tracks down the highway perfect, she is solid as a rock, no squeaks, no rattles and is pretty as a morning of dew drops in the sun…

* * * * *

I tried to teach my managers in business that the last impression is the most important one to accomplish. You can have a flawless presentation, but if you slap the guest/partner across the face as he/she leaves. He will not care a hoot how good the meal/meeting was, how witty/knowledgeable the conversation was and how sweet you were all night/day. He only remembers that slap across the face, as he walked out the door…. 🙁

They failed… (slap)

Yet I still hope they succeed, for we are basically happy with what they did. Sammy is doing great, with a little help from all involved…

They just should have made that last impression a touch better…

WtR

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said…

“You can see what is going on inside the United States, how big fight is going on there, and [the fight] is very lengthy, not in terms of the past but in terms of the future — [it is the fight] for the White House… It is necessary to escalate some story in the country, to speak about their potential steps, maybe, realize them subsequently. Obviously, the story around North Korea, the nuclear program of the Korean Peninsula as a whole, is now being enacted like a US internal policy map.”

Zakharova then added that the possible US military action against North Korea would have large-scale consequences affecting the regional states as well as other countries…

“All the countries in the region will be affected, and not only in the region… If the military scenario would be implemented, and if everything goes the way Washington establishment representatives have threatened, the situation will be just catastrophic.”

Now that is some truth and a half…

It is bad enough that America can’t play fair in her own sandbox within her own borders, but to go to other sandboxes and start trouble is just despicable…

* * * * *

We have a administration in America that is totally disconnected from the real world, and whom have  nothing in common with the US tax payers. Our congress, administration, Senate and Three letter agencies are self-serving machines. With fat salaries, with big fat increases every year, fat retirement pensions for life, best medical insurance no one else can have. All this and they work very few hours for these benefits and salary. They do not listen to the public concerns, only to the entrenched MIC (Military Industrial Complex.) One of those three letter gods who rule our lives. This is the MIC, upon which many congress members have stock, including most of our presidents, past and present…

Then in the International arena they (from the bottom up, the copy boy/coffee girl to the president himself,) are as ignorant as the CNN, MSM, NBC, ABC and etc. etc. etc. commentator comments, acting with arrogance and intimidation, enacting laws that goes extra territorial applications totally illegal by international morals and standards. Peace is a forbidden word in Washington, War is King…

All the while “Joe Public and Suzy Que” sit at home like a bobble head doll in an old rickety truck tooling down the road…

* * * * *

Then we blame Russia and all the while Russians makes us look like a spoiled child sitting in their room holding their breath, to get his way…

Oh and a tidbit: That American pouting child syndrome scares the bejeezus out of me a thousand times more than a small North Korean pouting child, who has not lately, for a longtime, attacked anyone. North Korea acts from a scared rabbit syndrome…

But what is Americas excuse, for acting the fool?

WtR

It actually is very simple… (Just one example of thousands and thousands.)

I like the Russian cola. It is pretty good and the Coke/Pepsi is okay also. But in this particular case Coke (hard to find diet in villages) is sugar based and the Russian cola is no sugar, no calories and yes, Coke Zero is sugar free and tastes like hell. Then top it all off with five times or more price difference. Why buy Coke and or Pepsi? Diet or not!

I drink diet soda (called light in Russia never diet,) Not a bunch and I run in spells when as to I drink it. But I have drank some lately (hot) and realized that the price for colored water is expensive and I discovered that Russian Cola’s are not sugar based and are diet sodas. Cost factor I am sure, for NutraSweet is much cheaper than sugar, but the big cola companies will never tell you that…

Out in the villages of Russia, almost all drinks are diet and the Russians do not realize it. Money is tighter in the small villages and thus things like sugar is a expense that is not needed in colored water…

Russians are not brand desiring. Something that is very important to many Americans. Grab Jolly Green Giant no matter what the price, because because because??????

Russians shop with rubles in mind? Well except maybe Vodka. They have their brand of vodka and that is that…

Why pay more for nothing? And that I am sure most of you will disagree with what I say?

But in Russia, McDonald’s, Coke, Pepsi and many other companies like Mar’s Bar and such are starting to falter. Russia makes it better, cheaper and buy Russian is the new thing…

Sanctions have been great and thank you America…

WtR