Bloomin'!!

Yesterday Julia gave Melinda and me a tour of her garden - or maybe I should say, of her whole yard, because her whole yard is a garden. can you see that little guy hiding in there? ) Fruit trees galore - so many in such a small space! Right now they are absolutely beautiful. Most of these are from different trees. Like this peach tree that is just staring to bloom: There are different kinds of plums, apricots, cherries and the peach tree. Plus she has different fruit bushes, strawberries, herbs, roses and a variety of other flowers. Tiny little lawn, but enought to be a lawn. Like a Postage Stamp Lawn. :-) Just down the street from their home is a couple traditional Ukrainian home. I really like these things that are on top of the 'A' of the roof. Many of them are disappearing due to remodeling or the whole house being torn down and a new one built in it's place. Sad. I'm going to try and take more digital photos of as many as I can still find. :-)

Food Prices

I was going to start keeping track of earthquakes again, like I did over a year ago, but today I found a link to this blog, Global Disaster Watch, and since she does such a good job, I'll just let her do it instead of me.

Ha ha!

It's kind of funny. I've forgotten what I wanted to write about.

My head is fuzzy again tonight. And for some reason my belly aches tonight, too. I'd love to just go in and go to sleep, but I don't want to be up at 4:00 a.m. again tomorrow. It's not even 7:30pm now.

Mel made a really good omlette with "oatruby" toast tonight. I know "oatruby" is not exactly the way it's said, but that's close enough for me. It means fiber has been added back to the flour. Maybe it's even whole wheat, although if it is, it's only partly whole wheat because it's not that dark. Which reminds me that everyone and everybody is saying you shouldn't eat wheat now cuz it's bad for your gut bacteria. Sigh. Andyway, that reminds me of what I wanted to write about tonight! Ah ha!

Food prices! I have photos that I'm posting on facebook - even started a couple little arguements or disagreements or "discussions" about what to buy here. :P I buy what we can eat and I can afford. It's for sale - I buy it if I want it. :P :P That's how I feel about that tonight.

Prices are going up at an astonishing rate. Now in the following photos the kind of cheese and sausage is the same, just different companies/cities produced it. Ditto the sausage. Different stores for the cabbage.
exchange rate: 1$=7.95 griven -- 51.50 / 2.2 = 23.45 griven per pound = $2.95 per pound on January 22 (total for this item: $3.34)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 70.79 / 2.2 = 32.18 per pound = $4.05 per pound on January 31 (total for this item: $1.76)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 30.99 / 2.2 = 14.09 per pound = $1.77 on January 3 (total for this item: $3.11)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 36.99 / 2.2 = 16.81 per pound = $2.11 on January 31 (total for this item: $1.86)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 49.29 / 2.2 = 22.41 griven per pound = $2.82 on January 15 (total for this item: $1.89)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 54.69 / 2.2 = 24.86 griven per pound = $3.13 on January 31 (total for this item: $2.00)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 4.99 / 2.2 = 2.29 griven per pound = $.29 per pound on January 6 (total for this item: $.86)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 8.49 / 2.2 = 3.86 griven per pound = $.49 on January 28 (total for this item: $1.06)(note that this cabbage was bought at a different store, Billa, we have been told it is more expensive than Oskar, but Mel was in the area so he shopped there. You do things like that when all of your shopping (or most of it) is done totally by foot to and from the store.)

I want to keep track of some of the essentials like these foods, just for my own info more than anything. We eat a lot of all of these items. Mel eats the sausage, I have a very thin slice or two at most off each stick. I like it, but in VERY small quantities. He eats a lot of it - maybe a stick a week. Sometime later I'll post prices on more meats. The "hamburger" has also gone up. For tonight, tho, I'm done in. Time to go do something else and finish getting well.

(I hope I did all that math correctly!!!)

Ukrainian and Russian Wolves

Interesting news tidbits today:

Wolves return to Moldova for first time in 40 years12:48 19/01/2011©
(from RIA Novosti)

Wolves have returned to the territory of Moldova after 40 years of their absence, with more than 20 predators seen in several areas of the country, Moldovan Deputy Environmental Minister Lazar Chirica said on Wednesday.

He added that the appearance of wolves should not cause panic among local residents as no cases of attacks have been reported yet.

"Conversely, restoring this species will help to regulate the number of sick stray dogs and cats, and especially foxes, which are very dangerous for people and pets", Chirica said.

According to the laboratory chief in the Moldovan Zoology Institute, Andrei Munteanu, the wolves entered Moldova from Ukraine and Romania.

"We are continuing to monitor the situation to determine whether wolves are just migrating across the country or will [remain and] multiply," he said.

CHISINAU, January 19 (RIA Novosti)


Link on RIA Novosti: Hungry wolves cause panic on Russian motorway


But if you explore it a bit more.....:

Friday

We went out to the "big Oskar" today and did some grocery shopping. We took a marshrutka. The route is fairly quick and direct from here and the marshrutka was not crowded at all.

So, tell me why I was still sick to my stomach and fighting a panic attack both on the way over and the way back?

Yes, the ride back was more crowded, but several people got off where we did, so it was not as bad as it could have been. I still had to push my way past a couple of people, but that's not as bad as being trapped in the back of the bus, so to speak.

I had to look out the side window and take deep breaths and all the time sweat was running down my face, dripping off my bangs and nose and getting in my eyes. The inside of my coat sleeves were soaked.

I am always too hot and just plain WET here in Ukraine, summer or winter, spring or fall. I (hear a loud GASP!) did not snap my coat shut nor even pull it around me as we walked home from the bus stop. People stared. People commented to each other. I will probably die from pneumonia or some sort of plague because I did that.

The funny-to-me thing is that I don't even wear a coat in the car in Colorado. If it is 25 F outside, I wear a coat TO the car and then take it off because I will be too hot once the car warms up. I'd rather be cold for a little while than dripping in sweat later.

I am frustrated and it makes me upset. 1) Why does my body do this to me? and 2) Why is this culture like this? Grrrr.

~(~(~)~)~
So we are at Oskar and I am happily putting things in my cart. Things like lentils!! and worchestershire sauce and BBQ sauce (both Heinz products) and balsamic vinegar and other things that I needed to buy to restock my kitchen and pantry. I have a long ways to go before it's back to where I like it to be, but it's a start.

(several hours later....)
There were leeks for sale again - yea! So I will be making leek soup sometime soon. The peppers were very expensive, but they are high in Vitamin C and Mel cannot eat very much fruit due to the high sugar content (dried fruit is even worse, maybe because it concentrates the sugar? I'm not sure why.) so I try to buy and use peppers as often as I can. Ditto tomatoes. I was hoping for pine nuts because I have a really good recipe I make with pine nuts, garlic and tomatoes but there were none (were none before we left for the States way back when, too) altho I could buy them for several years with no problem. I did find frozen cherries (for me) and some frozen green beans again. Mel can eat a lot of green beans at a meal, so that is good.

I realize how much my buying has changed over the years. Starches are not good for me - the ONLY time I loose weight is when I am on a low carb diet, cutting back on grains in all forms, potatoes and starchy veggies like beets. I know I would feel better if I ate like that - getting rid of sugar at the same time. It's just more time consuming to cook that way. I should - I really should, tho. And Mel does much better when he is not confronted with more carbs than he can eat. I realized the other night that instead of cooking ONE OUNCE of macaroni for him, I'd been cooking two - I weigh it out on a scale. I haven't done a lot of cooking for the last year, you see, and I need to get out my food program and relearn some of the amounts he can/should eat. His blood sugar levels were too high the next morning and he had to adjust his insulin. Not good. (Do you know how little 1 ounce of pasta is? Weigh it out sometime and look at it. It is not very much food - but that's all he can eat of pasta!) I need to get that chicken out of the freezer and cook it - that would give him a lot of lean protein to chow down on instead.

I think of this often. I love my husband dearly. I cannot imagine my life without him. And not only do I love him dearly, I love his legs. haha! But it's TRUE! He has wonderful, very long (6'5" tall guy), nicely shaped man legs. And diabetes is death on feet and legs when uncontrolled. He has beautiful gray eyes and altho his vision is changing with age, he has no damage to his eyes. And diabetes is death on vision when uncontrolled. And then there is the nerve damage all over the body that happens, and so forth and so on. Diabetes is a horrible disease!! I need to get my cooking back in line! One ounce of pasta at a meal - macaroni, noodles, spaghetti, whatever. And only 1/2 cup of potatoes mashed, and so forth and so on. More veggies - good veggies, not starchy ones (like pumpkin sadly, or carrots or beets or peas), but good fresh and frozen veggies.

I'm starting to feel a bit more charged up about it. That's good. That's very good!

~(~(~)~)~
Speaking of food, we had dinner with Melinda tonight. It was like old times again, sitting around the table, eating, drinking coffee or water, and talking about everything under the sun. I missed Melinda while we were at home in the States. A lot.

~(~(~)~)~
It was very gray today. I'm hanging on by my fingernails. I really need to use the sunshine lamp tomorrow morning. Gotta remember that! Light is as important for me as good food is for Mel. Gotta remember that, too. I'm no good to anyone if I'm a depressed mess curled up on the bed crying.

Random - Seems Like That's All I Ever Do Now!

1 11 11

Todays date. will be better on 11 11 11. I like patterns in dates and times like these. :-)

~*~*~*~*~
There are so many times I wish I could look back at the present and say, "Wow! Look what God was doing at that point! And look what happened because of ... and ...!" I love to read history for that very reason. I can see the patterns, and I can see the flow from this point to that point, and it all makes so much sense.

However, in the midst of it happening, it rarely makes sense.

~*~*~*~*~
I was looking at a photo of myself from my 14th birthday the other day. Today I looked at photos of a friend when she was just a few years older. And I was amazed at how much she and I have changed over the years. Time does a lot of things to the human body! :) Good thing God is going to give us new (and perfect) bodies in heaven. I am sooooooo looking forward to my new one!

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I know we are back in Ukraine. No doubt about it. There is a water leak in the kitchen. We aren't sure where exactly, but whenever we use water, a puddle ends up in front of the sink. Under the sink it is dry - "under" as inside the door on top of the cabinet floor. Who knows what's going on under that on top of or underneath the linoleum? Yuck! Sigh. I just really, really hope it's not soaking the kitchen wall downstairs. We've flooded poor Galena Sergeiovna way too many times as it is.

Before Mel left for a meeting with Jamie this afternoon, I made sure I knew how to turn off the water to the whole flat. Sigh. Double sigh. Dramatic sigh.

~*~*~*~*~
I found a very interesting blog, The End Time. She and I agree on almost everything, except the timing of the Rapture. Over the years I've come to stop (is that a phrase?) believing in a pre-trib rapture of the Church. I think we're going to go through the whole tribulation period. It's not because God is judging us along with the rest of the world at that time, but because we will remain Salt and Light during those terrible dark days. I just can't believe that people will become Christians after the rapture. It's like God is saying to them - "Ooops! Sorry! I took my church too soon and you didn't make your choice for me before, maybe you will now, so now I'm giving you another chance to maybe, possibly choose me." (Much wringing of hands) There is something about calling the rocks to fall on them to hide them from God that tells me if they didn't repent now, they aren't going to repent then.

Otherwise, I find her blog very interesting. She and I see the same things happening all around us and interpret them basically the same.

~*~*~*~*~
I wish I believed in a pre-trib rapture still. I really don't want to go through what is going to happen - what is already beginning to happen.

On the other hand, when I was younger I always wanted to have a martyr's crown when I die. Hmmmm - that doesn't look so wonderful now, humanly speaking. I understand much better now what actually comes with the acquiring of that martyrdom. Still, I pray that I will stand firm to the end. No matter what.

Checking In

Just checking in this morning. We are back in Kherson, Ukraine, after leaving Colorado a whole week ago! Spent one night on the plane from DIA to Heathrow, one night in a hotel near Heathrow and then 3 nights in Kiev and one night here in Kherson already. Does that add up to 7? Not quite, but close enough. I think we lost a whole day somewhere anyway. haha

Looking out the window this morning at almost 8:00 - white sky, gray buildings, dark trees. I am back in Ukraine. Will use my "sunshine lamp" later this morning to try and combat the depression I already feel approaching.

It never gets any easier to leave home and come back here, at least emotionally.

Unknowingly, I am rebuked by Mel. He tells me that the elderly man who rode home with us yesterday was a pastor and spent 10 years in the gulag. He's written a book about it but does not like to talk about it. Yes, I am rebuked. God is so good to me and I am often so unthankful.

More later.

What a Beautiful Sunset

Mel and I picked up the mail this afternoon on our way to the post office to mail out our Christmas cards and prayer/update letters. I've often wondered what the mail delivery person thinks about the mail that comes to this address. There are several names and last names that get mail here: my parents of course - this is actually their house after all!, Mel and me, our son Andrew, our daughter and son-in-law, and my nephew and niece still often get advertisements here, too. That's a total of 4 last names right there. Then my aunt and uncle got mail here for awhile after their house was foreclosed on and they lived here for 9 months. Two of my sisters still get an occasional piece of mail here, each under their married names. It's pretty amazing, actually. The mail boxes started out as TWO old fashioned mail boxes with a red flags on the sides. That was 40 years ago. Yes, 40 years ago. Wow. Where did the time go? Now, just around the corner from where that box was, are located 5 or 6 multi-box boxes. I don't know how many people live down this side county road now, but I know it was originally two families. Now - possibly 25 or more from the number of boxes. Some of the boxes are for people who live farther up the main county road as well. Every once in awhile, the post office puts in another post with more of those locked boxes on it.
Mel opened my parents' box and right there on the very top of the stack of mail were 2 notices that mail needed to be picked up at the Tamarack branch post office. Our visas had arrived. So, we drove on down to the main post office and bought stamps, stuck stamps on envelopes and then gave them to the clerk behind the counter. Then we drove north out of town - well, it used to be OUT of town, now it's just to the north end of town - and went to the second post office. We had to wait in line for about 15 or 20 minutes. And then, suddenly it seemed like, our whole world did a major shift. We held our passports in hand, looking at bright shiny visas that told us, and the world, that we could live in Ukraine legally for the next 12 months.We've been expecting these visas. We've prayed for these visas to arrive in a timely manner. Part of me said, "Well, it's about time." And another part of me cried out, "No! Not yet! How can I leave my home, my family, Colorado? I'm not ready!"

It seems that we have been living in a crack between two worlds for so long now that I'm not sure what it's going to be like to actually live 'for reals' in one of those worlds completely. A part of me is mourning. A part is rejoicing. I confess - mostly I am mourning.

My parents are elderly and both have had major surgery this year. My father is on 24/7 oxygen now and has fluctuating blood sugar levels. My mother is still recovering from her stroke 18 months ago, although most people would never realize she'd had one, she has recovered so well at this point. She is still recovering from her shoulder surgery this summer. It is difficult for me to leave them now.

My kids are doing well, overall, although this was a very difficult year for our daughter and her family. I dread leaving my grandkids... I don't think I can even write about it at this moment. Pain. Real, emotional pain.

So, Mel and I picked up our mail and then we went shopping for a few items. And then we came home, to my parents' home. And God gave me a blessing. As we came out of the UPS shop, where we bought a box to prepare stuff for shipping to Ukraine, the sky was ablaze in color. Mel drove up a road we know has a good view of the sky and this is where I took these photos tonight.

I know that I will not see beautiful skies until we come home from Ukraine. Colorado skies are Western skies and Western skies do not exist in Ukraine. We seldom see the sky in Ukraine, especially in the winter months - we see white or unbroken gray, but no sky. God gave me a gift tonight and I will hold onto it.

He will hold onto me.
He will not let me go.
I have His promise.

Reminding Myself When I Am Frustrated....

This week I have been reminded again that we do not live in America, that we live in a different country, a different culture. You would think that would just be obvious, wouldn't you? But sometimes it's not.

We have become 'comfortable' here. As Americans it is fairly easy to be comfortable here.

We don't have to deal with the government in the same way as our friends do. Our American passports still grant us freedom here that our Ukrainian friends do not have. We only touch this at points here and there and it drives us crazy when we do. An example: when we get our registrations renewed. I've written about the frustration involved in that on more than one occasion.

I seldom think about the fact that experiences such as that particular one make up the daily grind for our Ukrainian friends. An example for them: Getting their pension figured out and finally received - and then having to go and actually get it instead of it being automatically transfered into their checking account each month(checking account? what's that? people pay cash here!), unless that has recently begun to happen for some - I know my tutor must stand in line at her post office to get hers, along with all the other people paying bills and/or actually buying stamps/envelopes. In fact, my tutor had to fight to get her pension at all! All while still working her full time job and tutoring students in her "free" time. Hours and hours and hours of standing in line at various government offices, getting this paper signed and that paper signed and finding she needs a new paper here or there, and going back to her boss and fighting for a higher amount instead of the measly amount they wanted her to get (she and her boss do not get along. In fact, this boss has publically castigated her and others in tirades that have left her literally shaking and in tears by the time she gets to our lesson. The boss does this publically and it is for the express purpose of humiliating her and the others. Humiliation being a form of control over another. Oh, this is not the only example I could give - I've heard other stories the same and even worse!) Fortunately, my tutor won her appeal - eventually, after months of working at it - and got the higher pension. But now she must keep on working for several more months to continue to get that higher pension. And believe me - it is not very high, in fact it is disgracefully low considering how many years she has worked and what it costs to live.

I forget these things. That is just one example. Living here as an American with enough money to pay for my needs, I forget that one of the young families we know lives on $60 per month and in a flat which needs a lot of repair. Several of the young families we know are in situations like this - some are deep in debt, others are barely hanging on without going deeply into debt. Another older man lost his flat in a scheme and has been fighting to get "justice" ever since. I forget that several of the older women in our church are supporting other family members - family members who are ill, or who can't find work, or who are too lazy to go out and search, or who are too young to care for themselves, or who have been abandoned by their parents and so they as grandparents are caring for them (and other elderly members at the same time), or who have lost their job in a very unfair and immoral way and are 'too old' now to find another. If I can imagine a bad family situation, there is a chance one of the people I know and care for is actually living this situation day by day.

I look at the faces in the church, at prayer meeting, or those who sit around our table during the week. I think of those who eat and eat and eat when they are here - and I am aware that they are feasting on what to us is a normal meal. My heart breaks. I look at all of the things I have and I wonder if I cause my brothers and sisters to sin (envy, jealousy, greed, anger, etc) - books by the dozen, craft supplies by the box/bag, toys stored in my closet for visiting children or taking to the baby hospital when I went there regularly, food on my pantry shelf, soft white toilet paper in the toilet room, clothing in my shkaf that I never wear, my 4 pair of outside shoes and 2 pair of inside shoes, my washer and fridge (some of the people we know have neither) that save me oodles of time (one woman had never seen a regular manual can opener, but uses the very old fashioned kind that you jab over and over into the lid!), our two laptops - even this internet connection that I am using while writing this post. The paycheck that Mel recieves faithfully each month!!!! Enough money to hire a taxi home from the store if needed, instead having to go shopping every day and having to carry it home in bags, just to eat that day. Every single one of these is something that someone in our church does not have - some do not have several of these things. And our church is not poor! Our church is made up of average people here - some have more money, some have less, but most are just average people.

And somewhere in all of the lives these people actually live day by day, they must rest and have some relaxation and some down time and some time to read the Word and pray and fellowship with other Believers.

I am humbled.

When I get frustrated that no one wants to teach Sunday School, when certain people don't show up week after week for church, when only 2 or 3 come for prayer meeting (walking down dark streets through mud without flashlights to spend a couple hours sitting in a cold mostly dark room? Would I do that??) - I often get frustrated and a bit depressed about it and wonder why in the world we are even here and why isn't "it" better, and so forth and so on. I need a reminder of where I am at and of who the people really are and how they really live. I wonder how I look to them - my life is so incredibly easy and luxurious compared to theirs.

And I need to remind myself that God knows all this. That these are things I need to take to Him in prayer. That sometimes modeling Christian love and care is shown by cooking a meal for someone and then giving them time to just sit around the table and talk and laugh and relax in a safe place for a couple hours.

I am going back to America in just a few days. I am going back to my own culture, to my own home church. When I get there it is going to be a completely different world. People will be very busy - yes. People will have many worries - yes. I will be going back to a church culture that is way over 200 years old and well established and developed. Of course, people will have their own cultural reasons for not showing up at church or being involved in church things. People who are in church are going to ask us questions and expect certain answers and wonder why we can't give them the success stories that they want and expect to hear. Even those who have visited here, who have glimpsed a slice of life here, are not going to fully understand because they have not lived it day after day after day after day with no hope of going back to another home/culture, but have only seen a very sanitized version of reality (except for those adopting - they have experienced the reality of what life is truly like for people here EVERY DAY!).

It is difficult to live in two worlds.

I want Ukraine to be like America. I want the church here to be like my church in the States. I want other things here to be like they were at home. That is how I feel while I am here. But that is not right! This is Ukraine, not America!

While I am in the States I know from experience that I am going to be very uncomfortable with certain things - wasted food, all of the stuff available in the massive big box stores, and more. I will sit in church and relish it, enjoy it, love it and wonder about the private lives of the people I see and the reality of it all. It will take some time to readjust. I will be uncomfortable now. I will be frustrated over things that I never saw before, that never mattered to me before. I will see the reality that some of what I knew to be "correct" was only cultural all along and not Biblical.

Yes, it is difficult to live in two worlds at once - especially when neither one of them is perfect.

I think that this is another way in which God is changing me to long for heaven more and more, and to love this earth and world less and less.

I wish it was easier.

Facebook Conversation

I recently became "friends" on facebook with another young Ukrainian woman that we've known for quite some time. She is studying in another city and since all of the schools and universities are closed, she is on-line a lot during the day.

A couple days ago she asked me what "coplete" means. I responded that it was misspelled and was probably either "complete" or "couplet" and what each of those words meant. She then wrote that a guy she knows wrote to her: "You coplete me."

Big humongous bright red flags sprouted up all over my computer. Well, at least in my mind they did.

Good grief. Are guys still using that old, worn out "Jerry McGuire" phrase?? I guess so!

I immediately responded something along these lines: Who is this guy? Be careful! Young men who say things like this just want to have sex with you.

The tone of her response was not happy - with me. She defended him and herself and their relationship and explained it to me in sketchy detail (she was writing in English - we are practicing English this way, you see, to help her with both comprehension and writing).

I prayed for her. There are so many guys out there preying on young woman via the internet. But she had actually met this guy while he was here. I won't go into detail due to privacy issues, but they had met in a legitimate way, not him coming here looking for girls. I still was quite concerned. I've thought about her and this guy (and all the other guys she may be corresponding with that I have no idea about) and I've prayed for her more than once.

This morning she contacted me again, while I was reading the news, and told me: Cindie, did u remember XX.

U told me about him truth

he really not serious with me

when I told WE just friend because other country. He told me of course we friends, but free love it`s really Ok for us

(I asked her)Are you feeling ok? I know it hurts.

I`m Ok

because I use my judgment


I pray for the girls here so very often. Many of them are quite beautiful and Ukraine has a bad reputation and is a target for these guys. Of course, some of the girls are no better than the men who prey on them - those girls are getting all they can from the guys who only want their bodies. But many of the girls who get caught up in this are truly only looking for friendship or real lasting love. We have seen it so often here and it makes me so angry every time it happens.

Bits n Pieces - Living in the Land of Rumors

Yesterday the Ukrainian government declared an emergency and put the whole country under quarantine. All public meetings are cancelled (altho I hear that church does not count as a "public meeting"), all schools are cancelled, private or public (but the Kherson kindergartens are still working because the parents have to work and there would be no one home to watch the kids), and there are travel restrictions in place. For 3 weeks. I heard tonight that the border with Poland has been closed. There is a question now as to whether or not we will be able to fly out to London from Kiev in 2 weeks (we may not be able to travel to the airport from here). It's all up in the air.

Fortunately - God is sovereign and He is in control of this whole situation. If we are supposed to fly out of Ukraine on Nov. 17, then we will fly out. If we are not supposed to - then we won't. And if we get to London and we are stuck there - well, we are stuck there until we can leave. Such is life. Living in the knowledge that God is in control is wonderful. Sometimes it's a little breathless, but it's wonderful. :-)

~*~*~*~*~
Busy day cooking up a storm.

- Made cupcakes for church tomorrow. We are celebrating "Thanksgiving".
= Made a grape dessert for team meeting tomorrow afternoon.
- Roasted peanuts and made peanut butter again.
= Peeled half a tikva (squash with flesh the same color as pumpkin) and made Pumpkin Peanut Soup for dinner.

Which reminds me, I need to look for my Thanksgiving tablecloth to take to church to cover the boards we are currently using for a table. I think it's in that box under the bed. Which is good, because after last year's Thanksgiving I decided I would just take it home to the States and let my daughter use it since I can't use it here. Sad. Sigh. But now I'm going to use it! Yea! This makes me feel inordinately happy.

~*~*~*~*~
Talked to my mother earlier this evening. She chatted away like a house on fire. It's halloween in the States. They don't go out at night any more, so instead to help with the Fall Festival at the church, they are going this afternoon (their time) to string donuts for some kind of game the kids will play. I'm so thankful my parents are still as active as they are and as involved in the church as they are. I think they are much busier now than when they both worked full-time!

~*~*~*~*~
Thinking of working full time - my mother worked at the Young Life International Service Center for 33 years. I worked there for at least 6 full years, possibly a bit more (I worked there 3 different times). Recently I've dreamed about different Young Life things several times. I loved working at the Service Center - both the work I did and the mission of Young Life.

Mom told me a week or so ago that now when you go there as a visitor, there is a guard and that you can't just go and see different people. This is since the shootings at the church in Colorado Springs and the Denver area a couple years ago. So very sad. A Christian organization has to protect it's employees this way.

I know our home church also has guards and/or people trained to look for problems and deal with them quickly. These are needed due to an incident that happened several years ago when a group of gays and lesbians unknowingly stationed themselves in several different places in the congregation, then during the worship service they stood up, took off their coats/jackets and had obscene t-shirts on, and threw condoms all over the place. They were quickly escorted out, but it was the beginning (for our church) of having some kind of protective services in place during worship service.

This greatly saddens me. The world is very, very sick. And we are supposed to admire these people? We are supposed to think of them as normal? Gag.

~*~*~*~*~
I like playing FarmTown and FarmVille on facebook. I like it. I like to play games and I don't know anyone here who wants to play games with me. Adult. Not adult games! An adult who likes to play games. Whew! Anyway, I play FarmTown with several other people, Americans and Ukrainians both. Often we chat as we work on each other's farms. I like that.

~*~*~*~*~
I painted the little tiny hallway inbetween the livingroom and the bedroom. I forgot to take photos of it in the very beginning, but that's ok. First I stripped off the wallpaper and just let it be naked walls for probably 3 weeks because I was busy with other stuff.

Lucky me - I don't mind living in the middle of things partly finished. I think my stash of UFO's (unfinished objects) attests to that! I'm not sure Mel likes living in the middle of it, but he's been married to me for over 33 years....

I had a ladder in there and Mel moved it to get into the little pantry closet. In the process he broke the wall lamp glass shade. I cleaned it up. He moved the ladder again - and broke the bulb. I cleaned it up. Shattered glass everywhere. And if I get some strange mental deterioration everyone will know to blame AlGore and the environmentalists because I got mercury poisoned from the bulb. Lay that blame right where it belongs - at the feet of the head of the new world wide religion - Green!

A day or so later, I put the "primer" on that I bought a long time ago to do the hallway and then later the bedroom. Oh yes, the lovely clear liquid stuff that does absolutely nothing at all that I can see, but they tell me is needed before I paint the oil painted cement wall (actually, the paint under the wallpaper was flaking off, as it did in the bedroom, but not nearly as badly so I didn't scrape and scrape the wall - just brushed it down a couple times. Oh - lead poisoning, too - my brain has had it, I'm sure!)

So, the primer dried and I couldn't tell that there was anything on the wall - felt the same, looked the same, smelled different, tho, that is true.

We went to Nova Linea and bought a couple new rollers, a couple of the new handle things you put the rollers on, a bucket of colored paint, and a new lamp for the wall.

A day or two later, I put a coat of white latex on. Used a roller for the high stuff. A roller on a pole. That was very nice! I love Nova Linea - the new store that is like Home Depot! I can actually go in and TOUCH what I want to buy, hold it, look at it, decide with some kind of knowledge rather than looking at what is behind the counter and trying to guess what the teeny little tag says so I can ask for it. But I'm going off on a rant...

I was sad. The wall looked minty green after that first coat. So I knew I needed to put a second coat of the white on before I put a coat of the colored paint on. I let it dry overnight and painted that second coat of white.

After finishing, I almost came in here and started crying. The wall was still minty green in large sections. Primer and two coats of white latex later, it was still minty green.

Not one to give up in defeat - I said to myself - "oh what the heck - it's not our flat anyway! I'll just put the colored paint on and if it clashes with the minty green - so be it. We're leaving for 6 months anyway!!"

And I did. last night I put the pinkish tannish colored paint on. Well - it was supposed to be pinkish tannish but it's more like milked down pepto bismal. Again, not the color I wanted, but I like it none the less. In the morning light the reflection off the wooden floor makes it look a bit more tannish. :-)

If we are still in this flat when we come back next May/June - and if I don't like the color then, I'll repaint it. Maybe then ALL the minty green will be gone, gone, gone! (If you look really close, you can still kind of see it showing through the pink!)


I will also think of painting the door and door jambs when we come back. Right now it's too cold out to have the balcony door and windows open to get rid of oil paint paint fumes!

~*~*~*~*~
Bed time! All for now!

Bits n Pieces on a Foggy Fall Morning

I've noticed that other people do regular things, repeat things, on their blogs. Maybe I can start some "regular repeat things" on my blog! so ....

Because I'm interested in it:

10/14 - 6.3 - 8:00:22 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION

10/15 - 6.0 - 12:11:18 PAPUA, INDONESIA
10/15 - 6.0 - 17:48:22 GALAPAGOS TRIPLE JUNCTION REGION

10/16 - 6.1 - 09:52:53 SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA

10/19 - 6.1 - 07:41:43 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION (after review of data, this one was downgraded to a 5.8 but then another one happened:
10/19 - 6.2 - 22:49:38 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION

If any more happen today, I'll add them tomorrow to this list. The day is still young!
(see Our Moving Earth for last weeks list of 6.0 and above) :-)

and of course:
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 17 days
2009 total: 228 days (79%)
Since 2004: 739 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days
Updated 18 Oct 2009

The sunspot spotless days just continue to mount up. Yet, this happens:
EARTH-DIRECTED ERUPTION: On Saturday, Oct. 17th, starting around 18:24 UT, a spotless active region in the sun's southern hemisphere erupted, hurling a faint coronal mass ejection (CME) in the general direction of Earth. SOHO's extreme UV telescope recorded this movie of the blast. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Oct. 19th or 20th when the CME arrives.
The sun may be spotless, but it is not quiet.

~*~*~*~*~
Which reminds me - I already miss the sun this winter. Several days now with little or no sunshine at all. Just lots of rain and mist. We need the rain and mist very much, but I miss the sunshine! I'm glad we'll be in Colorado part of the winter.

~*~*~*~*~
Which also reminds me - Valentina and Melinda were over for dinner last week while Mel was gone to presbytery meetings in another city. While we were eating, Valentina told us that 'they' are saying the winter wheat crop may not be good this year here in Ukraine. This summer was very dry and it damaged the crop. Altho we are having good rains now, it may be too late. Only time will tell.

It really was a dry summer. There were a couple of heavy rains, but mostly we had rather mild dry weather. An unusual summer compared to all the other summers we've been here. I remember only a couple of thunderstorms. Most summers we have some doozies. They seem to hurry by, but while they are overhead, they are doozies. Not so this summer. The couple we did have, though - well, they were doozies.

Ha ha

~*~*~*~*~
And thinking along those lines, the facebook news earlier this late summer/early fall was that some people were having a hard time finding canned pumpkin on store shelves. I wonder if that is continuing? I made a really good pumpkin soup two nights ago for dinner, and then finished it up last night for dinner. It's a new soup for me. Would never have dreamed I would really, really like pumpkin soup! But I do. With peanut butter and curry and garlic and cayenne and onion - all to taste. Yummy! So, I hope there is not a pumpkin-for-eating shortage!

When I talked to my mother on Saturday she told me that in their little greenhouse/atrium on the southside of the house, the tomato plants were beautiful this year. Big, luscious plants with lots of blooms. My father does the Q-tip pollination trick every year and altho the atrium is totally enclosed, they usually have a nice supply of fresh tomatoes all year. This summer - lots of blooms, not one tomato. Not ONE! My Dad and uncle dug a nice garden on the south side of the pumphouse where there is lots of sunshine and it's protected. They added good compost, good soil, and prepared it real well. Mom said they got something like 3 beans or peas (can't remember which). She said all of the seeds were new, not left overs from former years.

I read on a blog post from Canada that a woman got 3 pounds of potatoes this year from several potato plants. THREE POUNDS. She planted more than 3 pounds, but that is all she got.

I read on another blog post from earlier this summer that a woman's garden produced no tomatoes, no potatoes and no pumpkins. The squash all had a bite taken out of them by a gopher, but she was hoping to save them anyway.

I've read that there was another failure of the rice harvest in either the Far East or India (I need to look that up again). I bought rice here the other day and the packages are now half the size they used to be but cost more than they did before.

Meanwhile in California, the environmentalists continue to deny water to the San Juaquin Valley farmers so there are no crops being grown there. People are without work, people are hungry, people are angry - and this is just the beginning. All for the sake of a tiny endangered little creature. The life of a creature is more important than the lives of thousands of humans? Apparently!

There was a report on the news just this week that over 1 billion people in the world are hungry right now as I write this - starving. That is 1/6th of the world's population.

~*~*~*~*~
When I was talking to my mother, she told me that they saw two huge herds of deer and elk while driving late the other night. A woman who lives in a house 'up the hill' from them had been feeding deer (illegal) and the deer have lost their fear of people. My dad was out working in the yard, bending over to do something on the ground when he felt a nudge at his back pocket. He looked back over his shoulder and a deer was nipping at his pocket. He calmly stood up, slowly moved over to his table saw, which he uses to cut firewood, and turned it on. The deer scampered off.

Why is this important and why does this concern me? For three reasons: one - deer kill people. Yes, they DO!! Older people are especially vulerable due to their lack of balance and the possibility of falling if struck by an antler or the sharp hoof of a deer. A wild life officer told us of an elderly women he knew who was attacked and trampled by a 'tame' deer (we also read the account in our local newspaper). Two - our daughter, Kara, was threatened by a deer while walking home from the bus stop after school one day. The deer actually forced her off a path in the snow and made her walk through deeper snow to get home. The deer was used to being around people because of a local lodge where guests often fed them bread. Kara hates deer to this day! They are not the nice little Bambi creatures we have been led to believe. They are wild animals, have a 'herd structure' and will challenge humans who appear weaker than they. And last, but not least! - deer attract predators: bears, mountain lions, wolves (yes there are wolves in Colorado - I have seen them in the wild with MY OWN EYES and I KNOW the difference between a coyote and a wolf!!! Don't let environmentalists fool you - they and grizzly bears (we had a visual visit of a big one at my parents house a few years ago) both exist in places where they "officially" do not exist!).

Last week, our son Andrew, who lives with my parents, was making dinner in the middle of the night (he works odd hours). He had just been reading some spooky stuff (sci-fi, I think) and kept feeling like he was being watched. He was working in a mostly dark kitchen since he didn't want to wake my parents. Suddenly he looked up, and there out the window above the stove, standing right in front of the window, almost nose to glass, was a big buck, looking in and watching everything Andrew was doing. Mom said Andrew yelled in the shock of it. :-) I would have screamed, too, maybe had a heart attack afterward. heh heh. Andrew took his dinner into the livingroom, looked up out the window - and there was another buck looking at him in the livingroom window. Needless to say - Andrew was shocked.

I laugh as I write this, but I admit, when I'm at my parents place and we sleep in the livingroom, when I get up at night, I always look out the livingroom window to see if there is something there looking in and watching me. :-)

The forest has eyes, you know!

Mom thinks "the woman up the hill" may be feeding the foxes now because she's seen them sitting in the woman's yard as they drive by. Mom was out hanging up clothes the other day and noticed a fox in the tall grass. She said it came over near her, sat down and watched her. She told it to go away, but it just sat there and watched her work. I said, "Mom, you need to be careful! One of them might have rabies or some other disease and they are obviously not afraid of humans any more! After your stroke, you are not as strong as you were and your balance is not as good. Please be careful!" She agreed with me (I was surprised) and said that neither she nor Dad go out in the unfenced part of the yard much alone any more. I was so glad to hear that. Kara has also seen a bear in the area when going to work in the wee hours of the morning, and we know there are mountain lions in the region (there is a YouTube video of a mountain lion killing a deer just 7 miles from my parent house!).

There were 4 bears wandering around the middle of Colorado Springs just a month or 6 weeks ago. A friend on facebook took photos and posted them on facebook. There was also reports of a mountain lion in eastern Colorado Springs. I am sure this is happening in other areas, too, not just Colorado Springs and Woodland Park!

~*~*~*~*~
AIDS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, TB oh my. It never ends.

Our ruling elder told us at the prayer meeting last Tues. night that the government here is warning people that there are going to be 4 flu strains going around this winter. He is an herbalist and was giving us all advice on what we should be taking and drinking instead of regular medicines. Also saying, I understood, that the authorities say there won't be enough vaccine for everyone. And much much more. I only understood part of what he was saying and there was no translation. Rumors abound here, especially this time of year. Time will tell.

~*~*~*~*~

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. Revelation 6:7,8

L'viv - September 2009, Part 1

Mel was asked to go to a City Team Leaders meeting in L'viv. It was a fairly important meeting, but a decision needed to be made about whether he would go or not. It's 20+ hours one way on the train, or a 3-4 hour marshrutka ride to Odessa and then overnight about 8 hours on the train. Either way - an overnight trip. Did Mel want to do 2 20 hour trips in a row, or did he want to go to Odessa and do two shorter overnights? Or ... did I want to go along with him and we'd take a 2 day vacation after the meeting? Ha! Was there any chance, really, of my saying, "No, I'd rather stay home and wash windows"? Mel asked Doug about a place to stay and Doug found us a flat in the same building we stayed in last year. Mel bought the tickets and Sunday after church, we headed over to the train station and went to L'viv. L'viv-Kherson train (this is actually the train we came back on today, but hey, they looked exactly alike from the outside! I think. The inside decor of the coupe' to L'viv was old, old, old. Today coming back it was just one old. The trains from Kherson to Kiev, on the other hand are new-er. :-> ).

We always buy a whole coupe' so we have extra room and this time of year that is no problem - there were a lot of empty berths on the train over there. Having the whole coupe' gives Mel the opportunity to raise the top bunk above his, secure it up and then he can sit upright rather than hunched over or lying down the whole time. We leave the one above me down and put all our luggage up there rather than on the floor (when the heater is on, the luggage next to the heater gets really hot).

Clickity clackity down the tracks we went. First to Nikolaev, then north, then west to L'viv. The tracks from Nikolaev north are amazingly bad. I did some embroidery for awhile, but when we got to the really rough part I decided I really didn't want any blood stains left on what I was making, caused by poking my fingers instead of the cloth! It's kind of funny, actually, to lie down on the bunk and just jiggle and bounce over that rough section for a few hours. Too bad it doesn't jiggle and bounce any pounds off at the same time... Walking down the hall to the toilet is fun, too, especially when you are trying to pass someone and the train suddenly throws you right into the person, squishing them up against the handrail. Oops - sorry! The toilet - well, let's just say it's better to wait until that rough section ends, if at all possible.

It was nice watching the fields go by, looking into people's gardens and seeing lots of pumpkins and cabbages either ready to be harvested, or lying there already harvested, just waiting to be picked up and stored away for winter. Fields of corn, ready for harvest or already harvested and shocked. Hundreds - no, thousands of geese between here and L'viv and the closer to L'viv, the more there were. It was really easy to see the white ones against the emerald green grasses, more difficult to see the gray ones against the darker roads. There were geese by the dozens in gaggles kilometer after kilometer. And some ducks, too, but they were much harder to see unless they were actually swimming in the ponds, streams and slimy pools by the tracks. (click on this thumbnail to see a photo I found on the web of geese in Ukraine) Goats by the tens and dozens, and cattle by the tens and dozens as well. Did not see any sheep at all that I can remember, though. Ravens and crows - lots of ravens and crows. A few dogs here and there, a couple horses pulling wooden wagons with car tire wheels, several cowgrannies and cowgrampies (heh heh) standing around watching over their herds and flocks (altho I don't think goats come in flocks - Sue will have to tell me what a herd/flock of goats is really called - a band??). This is one of the nice things about such a long train ride - it is not all in the dark, but there is afternoon viewing of the countryside and morning viewing as well, with bouncy clickity-clackity sleep inbetween. Lots to see when the tracks aren't lined by trees and bushes!

Unfortunately, it's not easy to get good photos from the train. I've tried in the past and they usually turn out horrible, so ... no photos of the countryside. The windows are usually filthy, on the outside, on the inside and inbetween the outside and the inside (double-paned glass - Mel tells me that I can't make a past tense adjective, that is why "double-paned" looks so weird to me as I write it, but you know what - this is my blog and I'll make a past tense adjective AND noun if my mood so dictates. And it does! At least the glass was not double-pained. ha ha! I know, I know - it was a very short night and I'm just not really responsible for what I find hilariously funny right now...) They look fairly clean in this photo, but really, they aren't - trust me! Altho, when I think back to "the way it used to be when we first got here", they aren't as dirty as then, when you could barely see out of them. Many things have really improved a LOT.

This is Mel yesterday afternoon just before the L'viv-Kherson pulled into the L'viv train station. He had gone to buy a banana for me. This train station is very pretty, altho the front entrance is much nicer than here by the tracks.

So, there you have it - our trip to and from L'viv on the train, all mixed up together in one post. More later! About actually being in L'viv.

Oh - and when we got home today, I discovered that my blue beta fish is still alive, and my Cheyenne cat is still alive, and my plants are all still alive, and my 4 guppies are still alive and...ta da! I now have more guppies! I had no idea any were due. Cool - huh? I hope they survive the adult! There are at least 4 babies in there, all about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long.

Sasha Is Here!

Got a text message a few minutes ago letting us know that Ira had her baby last night. Mel called Yuri and he was already at work! Ouch. He sounded exhausted, but he did tell me that he was with Ira through the whole delivery. I am so GLAD! That is a fairly new thing here, to let a father in with the mother during the baby's birth.

So, Sasha was born on the 14th, is 3 kilograms and 52 cm long. His birthday will be easy to remember because it is the same day of the month as our biological grandson, just a month earlier.

I'm so excited for them. Here is a photo of Ira a few weeks ago (I swiped it off her facebook page!):

Be prepared - baby photos will be posted a lot, I'm sure. And since we are expecting a new biological grandchild in March ... well, I'm a typical grandmother, I guess. :) :)

Down Pour

Rain and wind. If we'd been in the States, I would have thought "Tornado!" But there doesn't seem to be any tornados here, just wind storms. Boy, did it pour and pour and pour!

Within 5 minutes - partially blue sky again. That was fast.

Bits n Pieces

I called my dad on Father's Day to wish him a happy day. Was very good to hear his voice and talk with him. I also talked with my mother. Actually, I talked with her a lot longer than I talked to my dad. :)

While we were talking I mentioned that both my sister, Heidie, and my sister-in-law,Renee, who both live in Fairbanks, told me in recent instant messaging conversations that they had been woken up not long ago by a sharp earthquake jolt. They've also felt a few smaller tremblors, nothing major.

I told my mother that I expected soon they would have a good sized quake up there, or maybe in California. Who knows? I was looking at the earthquake page on the internet while we were talking and I told her that both Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands area and Alaska were having a bunch of small earthquakes - and so was California.

Imagine my smile the next morning when I'm reading the news and I see a headline that the "urban areas" of Alaska had been shaken by a quake. I looked it up. Oh - that wasn't all that big - just a 5.3. I've been in quakes bigger than that in Alaska.

Heidie didn't feel it. I don't know if Renee did. Of course, they live a long way from the epicenter, even if the news did report that it was felt even north of Fairbanks.

~*~*~*~*~
I've been working on my rabbit surrounded by flowers and bugs needlepoint again. Maybe I'll have a finished object to show before too long. I've only been working on this one about 3 years, maybe 4. I'm getting it done a lot faster than I did my Arctic Wildlife cross stitch.

As soon as it's finished, I really need to think about finishing some of the other two dozen or so projects of various kinds I have started. But first things first. I'm in the mood for needlepoint right now. Strike while the iron is hot!

Which reminds me, I need to iron a couple of Mel's shirts....

~*~*~*~*~
Mel put the air conditioner in the window Monday. Oh sweet coolness! It's not working 100%, but seems to be working better than it did last year.

Today is a lot drier, not so much humidity, so the over 90 degree F temp is a bit easier to handle while outside. Still too hot for me, but much, much better than when the humidity is up.

~*~*~*~*~
We have a sad situation going on here with one of the pastors in another city leaving the ministry. He has, from what we understand from what he's written, renounced his faith in God.

This makes my heart weep.

I am reminded once again of Christ's words: "...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8b

And:

"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:9-14 (emphasis mine)

Yes, Jesus said that many will turn away from the faith. A young man we thought was standing firm, has turned away. And it breaks our hearts.

The love of many will grow cold - what a horrible thought.

Oh, how those words terrify me! My plea is always, 'Father, do not let me turn away from you! Help me to love you more and more!'

I believe in eternal security, once saved always saved, but I am also very aware of something else Jesus said: ""Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Matthew 7:21-23

And Paul's words: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12,13

I am so thankful for that last part of what Paul wrote - it is GOD who works in us to will and to act according to HIS good purpose.

I need to remember that.

If you pray, please pray for this young man and his family. We do not work directly with him and I do not have the freedom to give his name. God knows who you are praying for.

~*~*~*~*~
I did not sleep well last night and have had a sick stomach all day today. I feel 'droopy'. Is one of the Seven Dwarfs named Droopy? or was it Sleepy? I don't remember. I don't feel like a dwarf in a fairy tale, I just feel yucky. :)

~*~*~*~*~
We went shopping at the 'big Oskar' today. It's always nice to go there and push the cart around, even if the cart does want to go in every direction imaginable except straight ahead. I like the big city Safeway, Albertsons, King Soopers, or Piggly Wiggly feel of that particular Oskar.

However - still no almonds anywhere, or leeks, or avocados, or celery, or pine nuts, or peanut butter. But they did have two or three kinds of lettuce! I didn't buy any because I really don't care for it any more, really truly, but I did take note that it was there. As was fresh ginger. And the very last bag of hazelnuts I've seen anywhere. (I bought the last bag of cashews at one Oskar and the last bag of hazelnuts at another Oskar - maybe I should go to one of the two other Oskars in town and see if they have the last bag of almonds or pine nuts....) I keep thinking of things I didn't see. I hope they get leeks in again, and maybe celery, too. That would be nice. Maybe they are available at the outdoor market - but I really, really, really do not like shopping there in crowds of pushing and shoving people, and stinky fish and flies, and when it rains - puddles of water everywhere. The dogs and cats roaming all over don't bother me. The birds that live in and fly around in two of the Oskars don't bother me either - it's kind of nice to see them and hear them chirping - little European sparrows - so long as they don't sit above me. :) :)

~*~*~*~*~
After coming home from Oskar, we splurged and Mel went out into the hot again, over to a little produkti that is now nearby, and bought us some Poltava ice cream bars. Very similar to the Eskimo bars we bought as kids. My first ice cream of the summer. My lunch today. :)

~*~*~*~*~
Ok, all for now. I need to go lie down again.

If We Get Three Things Accomplished In A Day

If we can get three things accomplished in a day, the day is a success. That is one of the mottoes for living here in Ukraine.

Yesterday, according to that motto, was NOT a success for Mel - well, it was, kind of. No, I change my mind. It wasn't. Not really.

Palm Pilot - Mel needed to charge his palm pilot. He got out the charger - and it wouldn't work. He fiddled around with it for awhile and got a bit frustrated. Finally, he pulled out his old laptop - the one that shuts off suddenly all the time, the one that has been repaired at least 3 times, the one that is so old and frustrating for him that we bought a new laptop for him while in the States - he pulled that one out, plugged it in and turned it on, connected the palm pilot to it, and the palm pilot started charging. Now we know we can't give away the old laptop, or trash it. It has now become the charger for Mel's palm pilot. Success - Yes, kind of

Post office - A little while later we went to the post office to mail some thank you notes. The post office was closed. Fortunately, I already had stamps so we just stuck them in the box and pray the postage is the right amount. Success - Yes, kind of

Cable bill - from the post office, we walked on over to the bank where Mel pays the television cable bill. Now, our bill is paid through the end of this month, but the office downstairs needs to be paid. No one uses the cable down there, shoot - there is not even a tv in the whole flat, but we assured the landlord that we would not let the cable go. I think he was afraid it would cost a fortune to get it hooked back up or something (cable in our building was new at the time we rented that office space). The bank where Mel pays the cable was open, he went inside, I stood outside waiting for him. I was dripping with sweat due to the high humidity and heat and didn't want to go inside where there was no breeze and 99% sure no a/c. Mel came out a minute or so later and said they told him to go to some other bank down the street somewhere and pay the bill - they are in the middle of some sort of shake up and won't take payments. Success - NO

Internet bill - from the bank, we walked on over to the main street and on down to our internet provider. Mel had noticed that his account for his computer was getting really low (all those automatic updates! grrrr) and he wanted to put some more money on his account before it ran out and they shut him off. He knew he had one of our phone numbers with him (needed to add money, for some reason), but he figured he had a 50/50 chance of having the right number. Several minutes later he came out - it was the phone number for my account. They told him they could see on their computer screen what his balance is and that he is almost out of money/time - but that they could not add money to his account without that phone number. Success - NO

We walked down to a place we like to eat and ordered lunch. Success! It was good. :) And we had a nice time talking. It sprinkled a bit while we were there, but no hard rain.

We walked back up to the bus stop, got on a trolleybus and rode to our Big Bus Stop and walked home from there. Mel got the number he needed for his internet, made sure he had enough cash, and took off again.

Internet - success! He added money to his account. Yea!

Phone bill - from there he walked down to the telephone company to pay our June bill. How nice it would be if we could just write a check, put it in an envelope, stamp it, put it in the out-going mail and not think about it again. Or pay it on-line. But no - you have to GO to the phone company, stand in line and pay the bill. As far as we know, there is no other way to pay. Mel got down there and the phone company was closed. Success - NO

He started home. Rain. Buckets of rain, pouring down out of the sky. Umbrella? No - he'd left it at home.

Needless to say, he was NOT a happy camper when he got back.

However, he was able to stop in at a computer place and buy a blue tooth thing-a-ma-jig to make his palm pilot talk to his computer again. Success - Yes!

He came in, dried off, and then spent the next hour or longer trying to get the blue tooth and the palm and the computer to talk to each other. Finally, after many loud exclamations that will not be repeated here - Success - Yes!

Well, I guess he did have kind of a successful day. He did get his palm charged, we did have a nice lunch, he did find the blue tooth thingy, he did get money added to his internet account and he did get his palm to finally talk to his new laptop again. Of course, now today he is out trying to have success with all the things that were not successful yesterday.

It does not look good for the good guys. He called a few minutes ago to tell me he'd been down to the phone company. It is still closed. And there is a group of people standing around grumbling and muttering and unhappy. Why? Because apparently the phone company doesn't want you to pay your bill there any more. There is a map on their door that divides the city into districts and each district has a place indicated where they are supposed to pay. So, Mel told me he was on his way to the place in our district where he is now supposed to pay the phone bill - at one of the dozens of banks that litter the city. (Between banks and casinos - I'm not sure which has the most - I think it's still banks, but casinos are a close second now.)

I don't know if he had success with the cable bill yet.

He asked if there was anything I wanted in the city center. Yes - if he can find almonds anywhere, please buy them. For some reason which I will probably never know, the 2 stores I've been to don't have almonds any more. In fact, I bought one of the last bags of any kind of nut available - raw cashews. Is there a nut famine going on that I don't know about?? I don't know if he'll have success with the almonds, but somehow I doubt it. Bummer. :(

At least it's not raining.

I Never Know

I never know what I'm going to find when we get back to our flat after someone has stayed here while we're gone.

One year we came back and the top of the washer was cracked. The washer is a front loader and the top has a plastic-rubber type covering on it, I think to make it 'non-slip'. I found out later that it was cracked because the gal staying here had smacked it over and over again with the heating element of the electric tea kettle, "trying to get the ants out". She was concerned that the ants were going to destroy the heating element of a cheap electric tea kettle and in the process ruined the top of a rather expensive washer. I don't think she has ever realized that she is the one who cracked it. Of course, the crack has grown and chipped a bit and is quite ugly, even if it's not all that big. I see it several times every day.

This time I've found at least two things so far. Different person, more damage. Actually, I know at least 6 people were in our flat while we were gone, so it could have been anyone who did it.

The glass door on the top cabinet was broken, up in the corner near the hinge. I did not know this, so when I opened the door to get some spices out, the glass door fell out of the hinge and almost knocked me on the head. Instead of my head, thank God, it hit the counter. Because it landed corner first, now I have a pencil eraser sized gouge in my counter top. At least it wasn't my skull. But, now I'll get to watch a slow disintegration of my counter top. Sigh. We bought them 9 years ago and I've kept the tops undamaged for 9 hears, aside from a knife mark someone else left while we were gone.

Today I was cleaning the stove top again and wondering why it's so hard to clean now. The stove is also 9 years old and I've kept the top totally clean - no marks, no scratches, no burned on food. Well, I finally felt the top with my fingers and found that someone apparently burned some food and tried to scrape it off with a sharp knife. There are several scratch marks in the enamel, some 6 or 8 inches long. Now keeping the top clean is going to be a much harder job. No more simply wiping down splatters and spills - now it's going to entail scrubbing them out when they are stuck in the scratches.

I am flummoxed. Why?

Well, I know why, to an extent.

People don't take care of other peoples' property. I saw this recently with furniture. The furniture was taking a beating and I asked why that was allowed and the comment was "it's not our furniture." This person didn't like the owner of the furniture, so the person didn't care that it was being abused and torn apart. (What a Christian witness to an unbeliever!)

OUCH!

I was taught from very young childhood to respect other peoples' property. I was taught "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". I am a firm believer that I need to care for others' things as well or better than I care for my own. It saddens me, but no longer surprises me, to find that other people do not think the same way.

It is a symptom of the society in which we live. All for me - I don't care about you. I am the most important person in the whole world and I really don't care about your well-being, except for how your well-being can make me feel better.

I am so glad God does not think this way! He cares for us and wants for us the very best of the very best. How can we, as Christians, model this to the world? By putting them first, by taking care of their possessions, by showing that we think of them more highly than we do ourselves - by LOVING them.

This is not an easy thing to do.

So, I came home this time to a ruined washer top, ruined counter top, ruined stove top. At least they are all still functional and I don't have to buy anything new right away. I'm just sad that my things (and me) were thought of and treated so poorly.

I am also reminded that things are not important - people are. Therefore, rather than being upset with the unknown person(s) who did the damage, I need to forgive and just go on. Things can be replaced, eventually if needed, but damaged relationships are very difficult to mend.

Bits n Pieces

Woke up at 5:30 again this morning but at least this time I was in bed for a full 7 hours and only up once in the night. I was shocked to find out that Mel had a sugar low in the night and was up, eating some carbs and checking his blood sugar levels a few times. I never heard a sound. I told him that if it happens again - wake me up!! I wonder how long it's going to take before I'm over this jet lag? Soon, I hope!!

*~*~*~*~*
The modem for my internet is still not working, so I'm using Mel's again. Mel will take the computer, modem, CD needed to download the program and everything down to peoplenet tomorrow and see if we can get it straightened out. Very frustrating. We have a lot more time bought on my account than on his, and when his time is out the renewal cost for a month is a lot more expensive. I have to learn to be conservative with my internet time! I want to download three or four more programs that I lost when the old laptop died, but that will have to wait for now.

*~*~*~*~*
I've been trying to go back through my email account and check out several articles that came in while we were in Colorado. I was never able to read them, or in many cases never even opened the email they came in.

Yesterday on the news Mel saw that there had been 5 tornadoes in the Denver area. Today in my Earth Observatory newsletter there is a link to a satellite view of the storm, here: Tornadoes in Northeastern Colorado. At the bottom of the article are several links in the references. I clicked on Doesken, N.J., Pielke, Sr., R.A., Bliss, O.A.P. (2003, January). Climate of Colorado. Colorado Climate Center. Colorado State University. Accessed June 8, 2009. It is an interesting read, if you are interested in the climate of Colorado. :) I am. Go figure. I didn't learn anything particularly new, although I think the information would surprise a lot of people who have preconceived ideas about Colorado. No, that's not quite true - I did learn something new that was mentioned in both the EO article and the second one - Colorado has more hail than any other state. I knew we had a lot of hail, but didn't know that fact.

I know part of the reason I am the way I am is because I was raised in a state that has a great deal of variety. Variety in terrain, variety in weather, variety from hour to hour. Always changing, never quite the same from one hour to the next, one day to the next, one month to the next, one year to the next.

I like variety.

I would be really bored if I lived in Phoenix. heh heh heh

*~*~*~*~*
Mel and I went shopping this morning and I bought some basic groceries. There is a pork loin roast in the crock-pot now, stuffed with slivered garlic. It smells really good. I didn't check - will have to see if there is any rice left. If not, then we'll have a pasta salad with it tonight.

*~*~*~*~*
I am really low on potassium or something because I've been having really bad leg cramps. About an hour ago I got one of the dreaded belly muscle cramps. It's been a long time since I had one of those. Fortunately Mel was still here. He got me the pickle juice and I drank about half a cup. Then I drank about half a liter of water. I'm not sure what pickle juice does, but it works for me (and for my family). Usually the cramp goes away within seconds after drinking it. Maybe it's the shock of all that vinegar and salt when it hits the stomach? :) :) Whatever, the pickle juice is not as acidic here as it is in the States and it takes a bit longer to work, but eventually it does. Mel bought pickles for me yesterday "just in case". I'm so glad he did!

*~*~*~*~*
I'm looking around the flat to see what needs to be done in case we have to leave the beginning of September. We've lived for over 10 years with the knowledge that at any time Ukraine may decide we need to go. Or that there might be a disaster of some kind that would mean we need to leave in a hurry. I've become quite comfortable in this flat, small as it is, but I need to remember that we are not here permanently. No one on our team is, no matter which city we are in, no matter if we happen to own our flat/house or simply rent. We are foreigners and strangers in the land - a very Biblical way to live, actually. But still not always comfortable. It does give a different perspective on 'stuff', however. We accumulate so much 'stuff' and we have our favorite possessions. They become much less important, though, in the light of eternity - or even in the light of 'how much can we carry in two suitcases?' :) :) :)

Some of our team think that nothing is going to happen. Some of our team are already experiencing changes and may have to move from their city. All of our team are praying and waiting to see what God is doing. It's a very secure way to live - resting in the knowledge that God is in control of all of this. I'll write about it more, though, not because I'm scared or upset or insecure, but because it's part of life and what we deal with. Ignoring it, or making too light of it is foolish, as is making too much of it or dwelling on it. As is so often in life - balance is needed. And simply being prepared for whatever.

*~*~*~*~*
All for now. I'm tired and am going to go. My eye gets tired and starts to water when I'm on the computer too much or read too much (ei yi yi!!!!) so I'm going to have to learn to vary my day more. A little bit of this, a little bit of that - until they eye is totally healed.

I hope and pray that next time we go home there will be NO MORE surgeries of any kind!!