Windows to Russia

Life is what you make of it!

I had an answer to a question I have…. “What is life?”

I watched three boys about 10 years old, it was 5 a.m. and the sun had not risen yet. I heard them coming. They had an old motorcycle, that sputtered and popped as it transverses the dusty trails we call roads. The boys were talking about the big villages nearby and I stood silently as did Boza, as we watched them…

They were out cruising the roads of life!

They all had fishing poles and the poor motorcycle was way overloaded. They did not care and to tell the truth, the motorcycle seemed happy as it sang a pop pop song all the way. You could tell that it would get the boys to the place they desired and back again. It was happy to be part of life…

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I stopped writing to enjoy some life; The wind came up and it cooled down a bunch. I ran outside with Boza and we stood in the breeze. We ran to the side near the lake and watched the white caps dance on the lake. The rain started to fall and it felt so good! That is life, now back to the article…

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I watched the boys disappear to the river and they stopped, got off and went fishing. Then Boza found a kitty to chase, Ralph the Raven swooped in and found a frog to eat and the fish swirled the water as I stood on the dam of the lake. I then understood what life is about…

Life can suck and life can be hard, but life is wonderful and full of reasons to live…

I have said many times in the past, as I live in Russia, Russia is America 50 plus years ago. It really is! Russia is the America that I remember, many issues, but free and full of life. These kids were on a motorcycle that had no plates, no registration and no insurance. That, as Svetochka would say, “Is just right!”

Life is what those kids are experiencing. Fishing, riding down a dusty old road, covered in grime and that grime will wash off, ass easy as falling in the river. But sometimes we create situations that do not wash off or out as easy as falling in a river…

The world is full of those situations right now and we have no one but ourselves to blame. Oh yes, we can blame big business, politicians and governmental functions. But no one is to blame but ourselves. We want to be told not to ride a motorcycle with out license. We want to be coddled and cared for. We want to give up our freedoms for ease of existence. We want and want and want, all that is handed to us in an easy way…

I saw life today; It laughed, it popped and hissed, it went fishing, it chased a cat, it ate a frog, it walked for two hours, it swam in a swirl as it waited for breakfast to be served. Then it hit me…

We are life, I am life, they are life, it is life and life is good if we allow it to be. Life is freedom! Life is standing on your own two feet and life is having help when needed. Life is also being cared for as the fish are cared for…

But we humans are not fish are we? So maybe we need to be the boys out fishing and riding a motorcycle that many would say is a death machine, Boza running after a little kitty cat that he will never catch and Ralph the Raven eating a poor defenseless frog, that he just so happened to see as he came to say hi!

Life should be experienced, not feared!

WtR

Rant ON!

Every once in awhile I see something that gives me one of those WTF moments. I am hard to make go WTF!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-22/bill-gates-s-net-worth-hits-record-high-of-90-billion-chart

The link above gave me that moment. You have to understand that WTF moments were basically used up in my soul, many years ago. I saw and did things that no one should have to do, so I do not get surprised at virtually anything that is, happens and happened. Then along comes a article that kinda floored me. I am not sure why, but I think it is because, I watch so many around the world, struggle to even eat or drink water. That when something like the article link above shows its ugly head. I say, “What The #$%^!” (Or WTF for being nice to readers and such!)

Sorry, but sometimes, when I see something as stupid as what that link talks about, I get pissed, upset and wondering “Why?”

Bill Gates has a net worth of $90 billion of those greenbacks we call dollars. Not Gross worth, but net worth. Big difference. What is his gross worth? A trillion greenbacks?

Good thing I have my coffee to sip on right now. Thus, I will drink , my cup of coffee and be thankful that Svetochka, Boza and I have enough to survive and all my friends can say the same. That is good enough for me and everyone I know in my life now…

Really; what is it that matters?

A good bowl of soup? A friend to tell you how bad the world treats him and you listen? A garden that produces real food and is safe to eat at the same time? Water that is pure and plentiful? A good woman? A faithful dog? An old car that runs? Fresh air of a Tiny Russian Village? Friends that stand by you? A cup of real coffee? I could go on and on and they are items that money does not effect in any forceful way… (Well maybe the coffee gets expensive, but we all have a vice!)

Does someone or something need 90 billion dollars?

($90,000,000,000.00)

So while we Ra Ra Boom De Aye the news that Bill Gates is worth more than God himself and many others are worth more than the gods of Asgard have. While we dance in the streets as to how rich we all are, but actually only a few have any money extra, such as the Gates of life! We should stop and smell the coffee…

I guess when I watch people live on 10,000 rubles ($150 bucks more or less!) a month pension and live good and have all they need. Then I see the obscenely rich of the world, I start to ask, “WTF!”

Russian are rich in that aspect compared to many parts of the world. There are people living on $1 a day and happy they have that. So it is all in what you are use to…

http://cartcoon.deviantart.com/art/Coffee-Bear-482102298

What do you need all that money for?

I had an uncle that was filthy rich. I use to ask, “Why does he need all that money?” I actually got spanked as a child for asking such a stupid question…

I asked that question then as a small child and as a much older adult and maybe wiser, I ask the same question…

What does anyone or anything need more money than God himself and why are we even charged money for living on this planet?

I must have missed the part in life where a few persons bought the planet earth and let us live here, as long as we pay!

Rant OFF!

WtR

$90 Billion Dollars and for what? Microsoft? Software? Stolen goods? And we worry about Windows piracy? Think, associate, wake up and contemplate life? Oops, I said rant off! Sorry!

By Ron Paul…

Is Crimea about to explode? The mainstream media reports that Russia has amassed troops on the border with Ukraine and may be spoiling for a fight. The Russians claim to have stopped a Ukrainian sabotage team that snuck into Crimea to attack key infrastructure. The Russian military is holding exercises in Crimea and Russian President Vladimir Putin made a visit to the peninsula at the end of the week.

The Ukrainians have complained to their western supporters that a full-scale Russian invasion is coming, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he may have to rule by martial law due to the Russian threat.

Though the US media pins the blame exclusively on Russia for these tensions, in reality there is plenty of blame to go around. We do know that the US government has been involved with “regime change” in Ukraine repeatedly since the break up of the Soviet Union. The US was deeply involved with the “Orange Revolution” that overthrew elected president Viktor Yanukovych in 2005. And we know that the US government was heavily involved in another coup that overthrew the same elected Yanukovych again in 2014.

How do we know that the US was behind the 2014 coup? For one, we have the intercepted telephone call between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. In the recording, the two US officials are plotting to remove the elected government and discussing which US puppet they will put in place.

You would think such undiplomatic behavior could get diplomats fired, but sadly in today’s State Department it can actually get you promoted! Nuland is widely expected to get a big promotion – perhaps to even Secretary of State – in a Hillary Clinton administration, and Geoffrey Pyatt has just moved up to an Ambassadorship in Athens.

Ambassador Pyatt can’t seem to control himself: Just as tensions were peaking between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea this month, he published a series of Tweets urging Ukraine to take back Crimea. Is this how our diplomats overseas should be acting? Should they be promoting actions they know will lead to war?

When the mainstream media discusses Crimea they are all lock-step: that’s the peninsula Putin annexed. Never do they mention that there was a referendum in which the vast majority of the population (who are mostly ethnic Russians) voted to join Russia. The US media never reports on this referendum because it produced results that Washington doesn’t like. How arrogant it must sound to the rest of the world that Washington reserves the right to approve or disapprove elections thousands of miles away – meanwhile we find out from the DNC hacked files that we don’t have a lot of room to criticize elections overseas.

What should we do about Ukraine and Russia? We should stop egging Ukraine on, we should stop subsidizing the government in Kiev, we should stop NATO exercises on the Russian border, we should end sanctions, we should return to diplomacy, we should send the policy of “regime change” to the dustbin of history. The idea that we would be facing the prospect of World War III over which flag flies above a tiny finger of land that most US politicians couldn’t find on a map is utterly ridiculous. When are we going to come to our senses?

It takes us two guys a day or two, to get back in the grove. Boza just walks around and sighs and plops down with a thud to the ground. I sigh also, but, decided that falling to the ground is dangerous for my health and sit down easily to find a seat somewhere (same effect.) Other words, we both miss our girl…

But life goes on and soon we will get back in the grove again…

My favorite song. I sing this everyday as we walk the first walk of the day and today I may sing it two or three times… 😉

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Tiny Russian Village is without water still. Lets see if anyone comes today to fix the well? I am watching local government! I am recording local government! This might be a small issue to the big villages and their life, but to about 30 people in the Tiny Russian Village it is serious stuff. Like I said, “I am watching, local government! I am recording this on the blog, local government!”

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Just love the bell tower…

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Last night after dropping Svetochka off at the train station; I got to watch a fox eat frogs on the Tiny Russian Village road going home. It was a young fox and had not learned that cars and humans are a bad thing. He or maybe a she, stayed in the road and munched frog buffet. Frogs are thick as mosquitoes right now and he had some headlights from the car and hundreds of frogs to eat, as they hopped all over the place…

I just sat and watched for a few minutes and decided that a good meal was better than me chasing it off. Then after eating a particular fat frog, it decided to look at me and thought, “Maybe I better move!”

So the fox ran down the road away from me and I followed for over a 100 meters. Then at the turn in the road the fox went left and I went right. I hollered, “Poka (pah-kah; ‘bye or see you later) and Priyatnogo appetita (Bon Appetit!)”

He nodded and gave a wink and disappeared into the night!

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Svetochka and I went to the Paralympics when they came to Russia in the winter. It was incredible to see how fine the athletes were, from all over the world. It was a defining moment in my life to see people who had no arms, legs and many other disabilities to perform at levels that approach even the greatest normal athletes…

Paralympic issue in 2016: The western world in its glorified righteousness of lies, has crawled from the gutter, into the sewer and seems to be happy floundering there in the wastes of societies…

Every been part of a punishment ritual for what the single person did? It was common in my childhood! In school, someone acted the fool and the whole class was punished. Coaches and teachers, seemed to thrive upon making all do pushups and writing assignments, as punishment, when one kid failed. The military is really good about such tactics. In families with multiple kids, collective punishment is common…

So many athletes who did nothing wrong, have been banned! It is a fact that Russia is not the issue with doping for athletes, but as always the west points fingers to steer the world away from its issues and tries to point out the flaws in everyone else. One day it will all reverse and America will be looking around and saying, “What did we do? What? What did we do?” Because, the lackeys will all switch sides in a heartbeat…

My guess is that the idea is, “That group pressure will force the odd man out to conform!” is not effective and has many times ended up with the odd man out getting a blanket party in the deep night and yes people have been hospitalized and killed for such actions. But as you see, we still use such stupidity to try to sway the masses to hate others. As always is does not work and as always it creates more hate toward the inducer of said punishment, than would be expressed otherwise…

Hate is the byproduct of this action and while a few hate toward the single entity, many more hate vehemently toward the main entity inducer of said rules and punishment…

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Well it seems that China is getting down off the fence it has been riding! Take a guess at which side they have gotten off on and You have – “Three guesses, and the first two don’t count!”

Besides as China is finding out; Riding that fence has been putting splinters in its ass, by America! Time to pull out the splinters and get off the fence and do what is correct….Thus, China is going to Syria, as has Iran and as we all know; Russia is tearing the U.S. lead terrorists a new asshole. Less fence riders everyday and America is riding that fence more and more as it tries to figure out what happened to all its games it plays…

One day America has to get off the bandwagon and either clean out the terrorists, stop creating terrorists and or just admit that they messed everything up, as they try to salvage both itself in the world standings and its future as a viable government even within the USA itself….Example: China has just become fed up with the chaotic policies of America…

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Its time for Washington to be kicked in the you know what! I mean what kind of foreign policy is Washington pursuing i.e. – antagonizing Russia in Ukraine, China in the South China Sea, supporting the destruction of Yemen by Saudi Arabia, destruction of Syria and the creation of Daesh. I am imagining what’s gonna happen when one of the two rabid dogs running for the presidency in Washington takes over from Obama’s screwed up foreign policy…

It really is the right time for China to get into Syria…

There’s a fine line between a stream of consciousness and a babbling brook to nowhere. – Dan Harmon

We seem to have lost that line!

Actuality has been lost, upon the face of idealism at its finest apex within the American mindset!

WtR

Big Bears apple was stolen! The apple I have watched for a month as it grew bigger and bigger everyday. Bears apple and along came a little sneaky girl and she snatched the apple up after I finally removed it from the tree. Poor Bear, No Apple!

Seriously; what a beautiful apple. I have had too many apples and still eating too many, but my sweety who only comes once in awhile, deserves the best apple from the trees. Svetochka is #1 in my book and she was watching that apple from the first day she showed up this time. What makes Sveta happy, definitely makes me happy and besides she shared the apple with me! 😉

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Today we are going to the Big Village and gather supplies from the huge market. Maybe Svetochka will take pictures of the market? Sveta leaves tonight and Boza and I are sad! 🙁

So we will be busy today and then Boza and I will get back on a pattern again and wait for Svetochka to come again. In October, I have to leave Russia and therefore, that will be the next time that Sveta comes around. It is always a pain in the you know what, to have to leave Russia for a short time. Time to get a Russian Passport…

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Some interesting quotes in the news today and or yesterday. I like them…

“At the time, I told the Americans: you are trying to impose your democracy on the people of different countries, spreading it around like coffee in bags, but we must give the people a chance to make their own choice. But they continued and continue to pursue this foreign policy. Even President Obama, democratically elected and enjoying in this regard a significant authority in the country, could not change this course – the course on imposing one-legged solutions. However, I doubt that he wanted to,” Gorbachev said.

And…

I guess George Soros is in charge of America? Well….He is isn’t he?

George Soros responded to a question from the US Ambassador Pyatt in Ukraine, “Obama has been too soft on Putin, and there is a need to impose potent smart sanctions.” He then called on the US government to “impose sanctions on Russia for 90 days or until the Russian government recognizes the results of the presidential elections.”

and or

In a separate meeting, titled “Civil Society Roundtable Meeting,” George Soros directly calls for the formation of a Ukrainian “fifth column” – a group whose sole purpose is to undermine a larger group – in order to push Ukraine away from Russia.

Actually you need to read the article linked above in the quote. Even Gorby from Russia is saying that Obama has no power and that the president of the US is just a puppet!

Do as I say, “Be a good puppet president!”

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Hmm! Svetochka and Boza out chasing the local wild life…

WtR

Well, the Wells are dry! Tiny Russian Village is without water, or at least drinking water. We have I estimate 300 plus liters of water in storage, but….The main wells are dry. No one has responded to the distress calls and since it is opening duck season today, most likely we will hear nothing until Monday at the earliest…

Since it is duck season, there is a bunch of people all over the village and the village is alive and music blasting at 4 a.m. and they all are using water. This will be interesting to see how this works out…

It looks like the other day the power company did some work on the power lines in the village near us and changed the phase of the lines. Not sure in what way, but it seems to be a power company issue and they have to come out to fix. If it is found to be their fault and the pump is still okay? Then it most likely will be fixed sometime next week???

If it is a Tiny Russian Village problem? Then we have to get the money together, somehow, then buy a pump! The local government in a bigger village will then install it. But they do not buy the pump! Lets cross our fingers and hope the pump did not shell out!

The power surges caused by the power company, point to them as messing things up! Lets hope…

I will keep this updated as it progresses. I find it interesting to see the slow wheels of local admins at work…

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It is duck season!

Boom, boom and more booms! Sounds like world war three out here. Don’t kid yourself that Russians do not have guns. Double barrel shotguns are plentiful and these guys have all the range of ammo to use in them. As I grew up with; a shotgun is a duck gun to a deer rifle with slugs. And everything else you want to use it for…

Vova is blasting his music, ten men are up there and getting ready to go after the terrible terror inducing ducks, that live on our lakes. You know, those vicious killer ducks, that all real men have to clean out before they overtake the world? If I sound sarcastic; that is because I have watched these ducks grow from babies to adults and Boza and I know them well. All hundreds of them….Lucky for the ducks the ones that survive opening day, become smarter, faster and wearily of humans. But right now, the ducks are raining from the skies in record numbers and the hunters are shooting them, like we try to shoot bombers down during an air raid…

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To add to the crazy! Full Moon!

I love taking pictures of the moon with my bridge camera. Last night it was so beautiful…

Here is what a regular camera sees…

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Happy Birthday

Only in America would we care, fight about or even give a crap! A song we all sing on a birthday and have been signing for a very longtime, is finished in its legal battle… Maybe?

But here it is in western press…Don’t take RT’s or my word for it…

US District Judge George King ordered the team of attorneys responsible for the “unusually positive results” in a legal battle surrounding the birthday song paid $4.62 million in legal fees, according to the fee order...

I am glad it is freed up for our use, but why? Why? Why does it have to be a court battle and many years of stupidity! Happy Birthday, just simply Happy Birthday to You! What happened to us?

The controversy around “Happy Birthday” kicked off in 2013, the root of case being Jennifer Nelson, a documentary maker who was forced to pay $1,500 in royalties to Warner/Chappell in order to use the song, according to tech website Technica.

In 2015, a breakthrough came when the copyright for the song was ruled invalid, and in the end a settlement was reached that allowed for the song to remain in the public domain.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown…

WtR

Four a.m. and Boza and I walked to the big well. I got the door opened and pushed the big green on button (big red button for off.) Then crackle and pop, the sealed main power box was flashing and smoking. The amp meter was buried all the way to max draw and I just as quickly hit the red stop button. All got quiet and I closed the door, after making sure no power was being drawn in anyway and locked the door…

This should be interesting to see how long it takes for someone from the local government comes to repair the well. We have half a well full, in ours and the top well is almost full. But ours leaks and will be dry in two days. We will get water from the top well until it is dry. I also have 200+ liters in storage in big rain collection barrels. We have water, but if reports of past issues with water are true, it might take awhile to get it fixed…

I will keep everyone informed as to the process and time it takes to get our well fixed. I would look at what happened, but the box has a seal on it and we are not allowed inside. Or better yet legally inside…

This could be interesting… (It could have been a power surge from the electrical storm a few days ago!)

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One of those days; Internet is down this morning and this post will get posted when it is able to be posted…

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Today we have the Auto Magazine coming. A truck that sells the village food. It comes on Fridays during the summer and I have a post here about the truck. (Here) The truck does good business and the people look forward to its appearance in the village. I go every Friday to help support the truck and Svetochka and I will go today also. We are a long ways from civilization and such a convenience is nice…

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Internet for a few minutes, so….lets post what I got and worry about all else later. Gotta go talk to Vova about the well situation…

Have a nice day…

WtR

This has been my week to get gifts. The people are leaving for the winter and they come by one at a time and say goodbye and some leave gifts for me. It truly makes me want to cry, for nowhere have I ever been, that the people have embraced me as they do in the Tiny Russian Village…

Now I have a Village Made Scythe…

WtR

In Sarajevo area is the ancient monastery of St. Nicholas Bavykinsky where, destroying buildings, the Soviet atheism failed to destroy the spiritual richness and splendor of the holy place. August 6, 2016, Bishop Matthew Skopinsky and Shatsky first visited this monastery.

Ruling Archpastor met: the abbot of St. Nicholas Monastery Bavykinskogo Sarajevo district – the abbot Paul (Udovenko) and Dean of the Sarajevo county – Priest Alexei Sautkin.

It was conducted a prayer service with the reading of prayers of Our Lady and to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Tihvenskom house church of the monastery.
Then the Lord was filled with living history stored in the marvelous and hidden from prying eyes the edge that pulls in this secret place of people not only from our homeland, but also from abroad.

So, here about 10 years lives a foreigner who shared his impressions about his life: “Every time when you have to be away from here, the soul is torn back, where the calm and easy.”

Here we are imbued with the spirit of the monastic life, which after decades of neglect pervades the whole district. St. Nicholas Monastery Bavykinsky now numbering before the 1917 revolution 300 nuns, is now recovering the works of Abbot Paul (Udovenko) .Ofitsialny site Skopinsky Diocese http://skopin-eparhia.ru/index.php/novosti/1167-poseshchenie-svyatoj- obiteli-svyatitelya-nikolaya

I will let you enjoy the images that Father Pavel gave us! This is the biggest archive yet and many of these I have posted already, but many are new…

WtR

The guys around the Tiny Russian Village, got together and fixed up and Old Soviet Fishing Pole. The pole belonged to Nikolai when he was a little kid running around the village. The valley is full of tiny lakes and of course the Para River. This was his pole when he went fishing, if he was not climbing the bell tower or chasing girls around the village…

It was broken and had been tossed in the rafters of the old village home of his and his families. He found it and Voloda, Nikolai, Boris and Malika all worked on it as a community project and fixed it. It works perfect and I will be going fishing after Svetochka leaves this weekend on Sunday…

It is a treasure for me! I will use it and catch many perch from the river. This is good eating and I can even use it during the winter. For many times the walk bridge, has areas that are thin enough in ice to easily crack through. At least I can use it, until it washes away in the early spring thaw…

It is just the way the guys have thanked me for helping whenever I am able around the Tiny Russian Village. I believe in a good neighbor policy and that means; help when it is needed and do not wait to be asked. You see an issue, fix it or help fix it. I walk the village all winter and during that time, I will fix windows and such, all the time…

I guess that is what makes this fishing pole so special. When you do things from your heart, the payback is ten fold and this Soviet Fishing Pole is a high ranking special item for me! I never saw this coming and they really stunned me with this gift. Several of the guys are leaving this weekend, if they get rides out of the Tiny Russian Village and thus they were running around sneakily and trying to keep me from seeing what they were doing. Not hard, for I mind my own business 90% of the time…

They put new fishing line, a home made bobber and a brand new hook on it for me. I have the recipe for that bait that they use and of course worms are really my favorite. 😉

The bobber is made from Styrofoam and ear cleaners and glued together, then covered with glue. I understand that Malika made, painted and used his famous glue and special design of a bobber, just for this project. It is beautiful and the rod is the most wonderful fishing rod I have owned. I have owned a bunch in my time, but nothing matches an original village, home fixed and home grown Soviet Fishing Rod and or at least in this stage of my life…

Gone Fishing!

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Just some images for you to look at!

Have a nice day!

WtR