Windows to Russia

This morning that cup of coffee is especially wonderful. I woke in a daze and even after shaking my head a few times, no cobwebs seem to displace. I guess the spiders in my head are getting better at building their homes. For they seem to hang in better than when I was young. Yes, I guess I should blame it on age… 😉

Therefore, I sit with a delightful cup of coffee and let the thoughts meander around in my head…

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I really need to run to the Big Village today. I do not want to, but I need to buy a new fan. The fan or ventilator as Russians call it, is starting to get beyond the point that oil and cleaning regularly will do the job and soon it will die. I know where to get one and they will have them, for Russians are very anti-fan and or things like that. But a fan is a life saver, even if you dislike the noise and wind blowing. At least for me. This week will be hot, or at least to me hot. I have become Russified way to much. I use to laugh at 30 degree weather, but now 30 degrees is damn hot!

Russians laugh at the gods at -30 degrees and screech to the gods, at +30 degrees. Me too!

LOL! The Russification is becoming complete…

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Everyday the USA shoots itself in the foot and everyday, things are expressed that prove this action is a major part of her downfall. We Americans seem to think the world revolves around us and that no one is productive, smart enough and or worth a hill of beans without us. I guess U.S. stands for us and or “We are number one!”

China on Monday revealed its latest supercomputer, a monolithic system with 10.65 million compute cores built entirely with Chinese microprocessors. This follows a U.S. government decision last year to deny China access to Intel’s fastest microprocessors.There is no U.S.-made system that comes close to the performance of China’s new system, the Sunway TaihuLight. Its theoretical peak performance is 124.5 petaflops, according to the latest biannual release today of the world’s Top500 supercomputers. It is the first system to exceed 100 petaflops. A petaflop equals one thousand trillion (one quadrillion) sustained floating-point operations per second.

Here is a simple fact; There is nothing in this world that is special about the US, except the fact that we think we are “Special”. And as Svetochka will tell you quoting me, “Special? Oh! Special ED! Hmm!”

Whoops, is that politically incorrect? Tough worms, politically correct does not mean a hill of beans and maybe that is why we all fall into the “Special,” category…

Read the article and think….Get out of that “Special” mode and think what will make us great again!

Maybe we should consider the world all equals and work to make a better world for all! Try stop cutting our throats to force someone to bend to our will and use a bit of brain synapses to garner some real changes for once…

Try a little less “Simpson’s” and a little more thinking of the greater world as a whole…

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Fear; fear is simply the most powerful tool that governments have. Fear mongering is as normal for a government to do as it is to eat an ice cream cone on a hot day. Fear is what they use to keep the masses in line and swaying toward a certain focal point in the distance. Fear, OMG, fear!

Fear sells security, weapons, food, programs, laws, bills in gov. and or fear sells anything and it holds hand with Greed. Fear should be a sin! Fear is one of the most powerful feelings that can destroy your little personal bubble, that you have surrounded yourself with, to ignore the world at large…

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Well there are things I need to do. Thinking has its limits and the garden needs attention. I have found one potato bug and he was stomped worse than a rat under the hooves of a thousand cows, stampeding across the plains of America. I need to see if I can stomp another one and look for eggs under the leaves…

I must instill fear into those potato bugs…

WtR

Took images for several days. I decided to post what I see as I go through the day. Most of what I want to get a picture of eludes me, as George our Birdbrain does. Eagles know when I am without a camera. Fantastic insects know when I am without a camera. It seems to me that everyone knows when I do not have a camera to use and they all come out to entice me and make me wish I had a camera. For it is simple; If I had a camera, everyone and everything runs away… 😉

So I take images of what I can…

I have another post to do about the monastery, but I wanna know! Did I say our pear trees survived? Just thought I would ask, I am still stunned that I was able to get those sticks to grow. But most likely Mother Nature helped more than I did. Thanks Mother Nature…

WtR

The feast of the Holy Trinity (otherwise, Pentecost) is dedicated to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Christ. This event brought into existence the Church of Christ and gave rise to the Christian faith on earth. On the feast of Pentecost the Church brings its children to the doors of its spiritual life….. Read More…

Therefore today will be a very busy day at the Monastery…

I will try to get pictures, if I can…

WtR

Many times Boza and I walk and George the Birdbrain comes along. He defies my ability to get a good picture of him as we walk. But today, I almost caught him sitting on a telephone pole top. Then as he saw me stop to take his picture, he chirped and flew away. He sat above Boza in a tree and by the time I saw him again. He flew away again. Boza watched him the whole time, but would not tell me where George was hiding in the tree… 😉

This is George the Birdbrain; running away…

George is a regular on our walks…

Yesterday morning he followed us up to the bell tower and in a few minutes he had a huge praying mantis and was smashing its head against the ground. Then off he flew to home, with his prize. I have so far seen him with a snake, big worm, frog and now a praying mantis…

I mention George because he has been with us since he was a little baby bird and seems to want to stay in our company. He does what he wants, but when we walk; many times he is there, somewhere in the trees and or power lines. Following us around the Russian Village…

I have good pictures of him when we are in our yard. He is comfortable with me walking around and does not care if I get fairly close. But when out of the yard, he is skittish. Can’t blame him. It is a big world and Boza keeps kitties out of our yard…

I will get that picture of him as we walk. This time I was a split second to slow. So I settled for what I had…

This is part of nature that I tell about here on the blog and I know I am alright in the world, when animals accept me. Animals know about life and are not afraid to be non-politically correct. If they do not like you, they won’t be around you…

Also something that is important; Always listen to nature, for it will save your life at times…

WtR

Such beauty

I was walking through the yard this morning and looking at mowing the yard. Then I came upon a flower that I have never seen. In the middle of the yard…

Half lavender and half white flowers. A weed, as we many times like to call them. More beautiful than most flowers we grow, as we like to call them. Just amazing is what I like to call them…

I then imagined a yard full of such flowers. What a yard that would be. Lavender and white blossoms spread out over the whole yard!

I love clover also and wish that I could have a yard of nothing but clover. White blossom type, small, and I would spend hours looking for four leaf clover…

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This world was given to us to enjoy and yet we seem to be destined to kill this world! But it will not die, just us! For we will destroy only ourselves and the world will start over, cleansed and renewed. We are but a blink on the life of this planet and I really believe that others have been here before us and the earth started over. How many times have we and or maybe someone has destroyed themselves upon our beautiful planet, we call Earth?

I watch how much nature can take away as I walk the Tiny Russian Village. A village that use to have maybe hundreds of people and now only a handful. Nature has in a short few years, started to reclaim what is hers…

If we all disappeared tomorrow! In a thousand years, we would be erased except for maybe the structures like the pyramids all over the world. Steel rusts to dirt, concrete to powder, all back to where it came from. It makes all of our ambitions, wars, deaths and politics seem petty and that describes humans…

Petty creatures that think we are the rulers of all we see…

I think when I mow, I will cut around these flowers, like I would my roses. For if I am gone tomorrow, these flowers will still be here and will most likely be here long after the human civilization has expired…

I hope that they (these flowers and their offspring) will bloom when the next petty creatures come along and just maybe, they, Rulers of the planet Earth, 😉 will get it and live like they should, along side of nature and become balanced and truthful with our roots, for they are the same rots as these flowers…. Earth!

You can detest God, but you can not detest Nature and we are all from the same beginnings originally. That flower has a right to its life, just like you think you have a right to your life. It makes me wonder to what extend does the network of living things really connect to…

Are we that much better than all other living things on Earth? Maybe we are not as great as we think…

“Stop and unplug,” say I; “look around you, at the vastness and greatness of the natural world.” Some stop. Others need binoculars to tie their shoelaces.” ― Fennel Hudson

Such Beauty…

WtR

A very good example of what I pay for food is milk. I just bought 5 milks at 29 rubles per liter. That is give or take, 44 cents per liter and that equates to .44 X 3.8 liters per gallon = $1.672 per gallon. I then looked at the government information in America of prices just for milk…

Milk price America.gov : Then I looked at other items… (look it all up yourself at the link below! I do not make this stuff up…)

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ap – Link in case the download fails…

Bread for me in Russia – 18 rubles per loaf = 27 cents in dollars. Price per gov. = $1.40 in America…
Eggs – 39 rubles per 10 = 3.9 rubles per egg. 6 cents per egg. America – 17 to 20 cents an egg…
Bananas – I paid 57 rubles for a kilo. America pays 57 cents for a pound. Big difference for a kilo is 2.2 pounds…
Whole chicken – I pay 79 rubles a kilo. America is paying $1.60 per pound. Once again kilo is much heavier than a pound…

I could go on all day, but with the few exceptions, I pay much less than I would in America for basic foods…

You should question things around you! Why does a country under heavy illegal sanctions and under massive attacks financially, still doing better than America for her people? Why does Russia now lead the world in wheat exports? Why is Russia becoming pork independent? Beef independent? Chicken independent? Why is Russia looking over her shoulder and watching the recession recede away? Why can Russia crank up internal production, but America keeps sending its life blood out the door? You should ask, “Why?”

Why is all this happening and all you hear is about how terrible things are in Russia?

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Tidbit 1: Yes, things as food cost more in Russia, but then they cost more for everyone in the world. Tidbit 2: Illegal Sanctions backfired and yet the EU and the USA keep them going as if they are doing any good…

The sanctions are doing a good thing; they are killing the host…

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Maracana Stadium

Remember how terrible the west attacked verbally, media wise and even politically Russia about the Olympics a few years ago? Well it all is happening to Brazil and the shameless media, politicians and lies are abound from the western world. Hate is such a terrible thing to live life with…

I wish Sveta and I could go, but it is so far away and so expensive to travel that far. Money is tight, but we were able to go to the Paralympics here in Russia and that was a trip of a lifetime…

It is going to be wonderful for Brazil. They have fought a huge battle against the west, just like Russia did and China before that, with their Olympics. The only thing I will say to Brazil is, “Watch your back! The west is gunning for you!”

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The winds of power in the world are changing…

The old powers are slipping and they are scared. This is normal in the world, but never has the old powers had so much technology at their disposal. When I look at the advancements made since even the Vietnam war; I sometimes stop and pray that if there is a God, may he step in and stop what is brewing, like a volcano just about to erupt. I look around me and hope that if at anytime we need someone bigger than us to say NO! It is now!

“God” is as big as it comes in my eyes!

WtR

Actually to be honest, the internet started to work again by about 7 p.m. and I was just too lazy to write anything. When you get up at 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. every morning, bedtime comes early in the evening. I like to read and study Russian language at that time…

It is actually 3:30 a.m. as I start writing this article. The sky is cloudy, but I see the sun starting to peek through them and a wonderful breeze is blowing. Boza and I will walk after this article is done. The mosquitoes are still terrible at this time and since summer has finally showed up, it is about 20 C. according to my weather station…

Boza and I will cut some thin saplings for more support for the pea plants. I need to prop them up a bit better…

We had a water issue yesterday in the village. The cisterns are dry and everyone is grouchy. I will let the villagers deal with the issue. Everyone has water for now and I went to the store and bought four five liter bottles for emergencies. I hope someone pushes a button soon to fill the cisterns…

Well it is 4:30 a.m. and I will call this article done. I have a bunch to do and need to get going. Never enough times in the day and noon gets hot for us cold loving Russian types. 😉

I have some thoughts to put down in writing, maybe when it gets to warm to be outside, I will write them…

Have a nice day…

WtR