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!!

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!!

Learning Spiritual Truths

Stirling is thinking. He is learning spiritual truths and meditating on them. Meditating as only a 4 year old can.

I talked with John, our son-in-law, last night. He told me that Stirling recently told him that he doesn't want Jesus in his heart because it would hurt to have him in there (pointing to his chest). What a wonderful opportunity John had to again explain the Gospel story to a 4 year old!

Stirling asked John at another time if animals go to heaven. My parents live out in the country and have recently lost 4 cats to foxes (there is a plethora of foxes the past couple of years, bold and beautiful little animals, but deadly on cats, rabbits and other little forest creatures). Stirling's goldfish also died not long ago, so he is learning about death through the animal kingdom. Stirling asked John if animals go to heaven. John's reply? "I don't know. Let's ask Grandpa Mel next time we talk." So, I asked Grandpa Mel and sent the answer on. ("I don't know for sure, but I believe they do." The thinking behind that answer deserves a post all it's own, this is not a theological debate post right now. :) :) )

We sent two Christmas presents for Stirling this year. The first was a set of DVD's that teach children character development through Bible stories. Having never seen them and not knowing if they were any good or not, I really prayed about them before I ordered them. Then I asked Kara to check them out once they arrived to see if they were any good. She said they watched the one DVD that included the Nativity story and that it is a year or two too old for Stirling right now. I was disappointed, but decided to go searching for something in addition. Stirling did watch it, at least partly, however.

He has plenty of toys. Kara works at a Target Superstore so she is able to get plenty of clothes for him when they come on sale. He also has tons of DVD's and CD's. But I was fairly certain he did not have the same CD's that our kids had on records when they were his age. I finally found the Agapeland website and ordered the whole set for him.

Psalty, The Music Machine, Bullfrogs and Butterflies, and a bunch more. I think there were 11 CD's in the set. Kara said she is going to space them out and only give him one now, and then one next month, etc.

I know these are not Reformed in theology, but our kids listened to them, memorized the 10 Commandments and the Fruit of the Spirit and more by listening to them put to music. I still remember the 10 Commandments myself through that one album!! I can sing the song rhyme and then remember the Bible verse that goes with it (Number one God should be first in your life, Number two's the idol rule - those graven images aren't nice! and so forth and so on). If someone would make the shorter catechism for kids that interesting and fun, I might be able to memorize it, too :). ha ha! Of course, this is not the main way to learn and understand Biblical truths, but it can be an additional learning tool that reinforces what a child is being taught in church and within the family. My prayer is that Stirling will listen and learn and then remember when he is an adult, these CD's being just one little stone in the spiritual foundation that is being built in his life.

How I wish I could be at home tomorrow! I am really missing them all right now. I always do this time of year. John won't be home until around 10:30 their time tomorrow morning, which means that if I am on the computer and instant messaging around 8 pm our time, we can watch them open gifts for awhile and share in their Christmas. So, that is our plan right now - we will be home by 8 (we are having a Christmas lunch tomorrow with our team and several Americans who are here.)

John tells me Peter, our son, will be there, too and they will get him in the webcam view if he will agree. :) I doubt that our son Andrew will be cooperative, but who knows, maybe he will agree as well - I have to practically trick him to get a photo of him at any time, he hates to have his photo taken.

So, I have my computer back and I am in communication again with my family and it is good. :)

PS - the repair place said the computer was packed full of dust and to never let it get that way again. Better than spilt coffee... I'm not sure when it got full of dust, however. It was getting hot even before we left the States the beginning of March and just got hotter over the course of the summer/fall. Makes me wonder about how it was made, but also how much woodsmoke and ash there was in that dust (from my parents fireplace/wood burner). It is running cool now, it was running hot in Feb - so it seems logical that it had a lot of dust in it before it ever left America - maybe before it ever left the manufacturer!!

Cookie Time, Computer and Heat Catch-up

I baked cookies today. Chocolate chip cookies, molasses cookies and cut-out Christmas cookies. I'll frost the cut-out ones tomorrow before the English class. I cut them out in 4 shapes this time: bells, candy canes, stars and Christmas trees.

I love this time of year. :)

I washed a load of laundry while making the first batch of cookies. Actually, my washer is so slow that I made and baked both the choco chip and molasses cookies while it washed. The clothes are hanging out on the balcony tonight, not quite frozen since it is 33.6 degrees out there at 10:40pm. We had some wind earlier so they may actually be almost dry, but I'll check tomorrow. That is what is nice about having a "cage" on our balcony - I often leave clothes out overnight to dry.

Ira came over today and she and Mel took my computer to the computer repair place. On the way down the stairs, Ira stopped at the "keeper of the stairwell" lady's door and rang her buzzer. Tatiana was home, so Ira asked her why the heat is so low in our building and why don't they turn it up?

With the little electric heater sitting right below our indoor-outdoor thermometer and running for the past three hours, the temp is 66 degrees there. Over here away from the heater aways it is much cooler. My nose is frozen again and I'm bundled in sweats, real shoes (No slippers for me in the house, no matter the Ukrainian custom!) and a turtleneck sweater under the sweatshirt. Tatiana told Ira there is some kind of a problem they are trying to get fixed and she is not happy that it is so cold, either. I just can't imagine that all the old ladies who live in our stairwell are happy with the 60 degree temp without an electric heater. I know for a fact that most of the people here can't afford to run an electric heater because it makes the electric bill go up. So - there is hope! Tatiana said she has no control over it so I am hoping and praying that enough people will complain that something will be done. This is totally ridiculous. If it gets down into the 20's and teens outside, it is going to be in the 50's in here before too long.

'Nuff said. Except ... some things to keep in mind about all this is: supply and demand, where the gas comes from (Russia) and the political stuff going on between the two countries, and the fact that the griven is in a free-fall right now (the current exchange rate is between $=7.50 UAH and $=9.50 UAH. Yes, it is swinging that wildly and the higher it goes, the worse for Ukraine. 9.50 !!! I never thought we would see that rate - scary, very scary.)

So, Mel and Ira took the computer to the computer repair place they took our other computer to about 18 or 20 months ago. One of the guys remembered them immediately and said: "I told you if you didn't get that coffee cleaned up out of your computer, it would die!" Mel laughed and said, "It died last year, this is a new one."

Coffee in the computer? What? Well, way back three years ago while we were home and living in the Springs for awhile, I had the computer setting on a coffee table in the living room because that is where I could get free wireless, the only place in that townhouse where I could pick it up. I had been babysitting Stirling and Kara came to pick him up after she got off work. She came in with a nice big cafe' peppermint mocha in her hand, tripped over a stuffed animal on the floor and the coffee went flying - all over the carpet, the computer, the couch. We cleaned it up as best we could, but the computer gave me fits from then on. When we came back to Ukraine, Mel took it in to have the fan fixed and the guy told us to stop drinking coffee around our computer and that we'd lose it if we didn't get it cleaned up. I didn't stop drinking coffee around my computer, but I have never spilled coffee on my computer ever, and we didn't get it cleaned for a variety of reasons and then it died. ;)

Mel tells me he assured the guy that no one has spilled coffee on this laptop - then he asked me, "You haven't spilled coffee on it, have you??"

I have a feeling that there is a combination of problems - first it gets really hot and the fan doesn't seem to work right. Second we have had an incredible amount of dust and altho I keep it closed when I'm not working on it, this dust is like baby powder, off the Sahara according to Earth Observatory photos from space (amazing - this dust could have palm pollen and camel pee in it!!!) and third, we had those amazingly horrid power surges a few weeks ago that actually burned out all the lightbulbs in our looster, er...what is that thing called in English??? Hmmmm...the lamp thingy that hangs from the ceiling, the er... (bother Mel while he's reading and ask "What is that thing in English?" and point) ah yes, chandelier!!! The power surges actually caught the chandelier in the office flat on fire and burned it's connection to the wire where they are connected. Mel told me there is actually a ring of smoke right around the base - I'll have to look tomorrow when I'm down there again, I forgot last week.

Anyway, all that to say, we think the transformer pack on the power cord is shot as well. And who knows what is fried inside the poor computer. Again - if there is coffee in there, I am not responsible, just as I was not responsible last time!!!

So, I am using this poor old thing, praying that it won't quit on me before I finish this post.

I have no idea why, but I don't feel so complainy tonight. I just have a frozen nose - I'll have to check and make sure it's not turning right red. :):)

PS Olya, thanks for you comment on my last post. Actually, our flat has always been so warm - this is very unusual. We have lived here 10 years now and we have a great relationship with our landlord and here in Ukraine that is rare, something to be treasured and nurtured. We plan to move only if they want their flat back. We have great neighbors, they watch out for us and take care of us (like the young woman with the little boy who knocked on the door to let us know the water truck was here last night and the babushka in the first floor apt. who made sure we knew the potato truck was here a couple months ago, and so forth). I understand your thinking and if other circumstances were different we would be tempted. BUT - Melinda was without heat for several days, every person in our church has been without any heat at all this fall at one time or another, some in Tavrichisky have been without heat and water for several days. Kherson is having a hard time with heating pipes, water pipes, power and so forth. I was just in a crappy mood last night and posted how I felt. :) :)

But I am feeling much better now. The water is back on and soon I will go to bed where Mel keeps me very warm (he does complain and ask me why I am so cold when I put my cold hands on his warm back, however) and I keep the cat very warm while she sleeps on my feet and grumbles at me whenever I move or turn over. heh heh

Complaining

I'm complaining tonight. It has been a crappy couple of days. First, the water went off on Tuesday. I mentioned that before, I know. And then it is cold in our flat. I mentioned that before, I know. And then my computer died this morning. I have not mentioned that before.

Crappy.

Sigh.

So, I'm using Mel's computer, which is quite old and has a bad habit of just turning off in the middle of whatever he/I is/am doing.

The good news is that the water truck came today and Mel filled up two 6 liter bottles of water. Big sign on the truck: Boil water for 10 minutes!!!! We will use if for flushing only.

Better news is that the water came back on tonight around 8 pm. Hopefully they have fixed whatever the problem is.

You don't realize how much you use water until you have none. We were out of pots and pans tonight - tomorrow would have been a sandwiches only day, or a day to eat out on the town. Thankfully, we can now wash the dishes...which Mel is doing for me as I write this (I love that guy!), after we had quick showers first. There are priorities, after all!!

The not good news is that Ira told me today on the phone why it is so cold in our flat. Down to 60 degrees this morning in the office room.

Why? you ask. Because our building went 'private' and we no longer have ZhEK, which means there is a boiler in the basement somewhere that heats the water for the radiators and no one wants to pay the gas bill to heat the water hot enough to make it actually warm in our apartment/stairwell/building. Grrrrr.

Our landlord raised the rent $50 per month just to pay the extra cost for gas, starting in October. We have no benefit from it at all - in fact, just the opposite! Our flat used to be so warm I would wear shorts inside during the winter. Too warm. Now I sit here with a frozen nose, hands and feet. I am not used to being cold and I don't like it in the least little bit.

Grrrrr.

The other good news is that Ira will come tomorrow morning and help us take my computer to a repair place. The bad news is we have no idea if it is fixable, no clue what is wrong with it. I would say I'm crossing my fingers - but hey, I don't believe in luck and the arthritis in my fingers would make that extremely painful right now.

Instead, I am praying.

So, here I sit, complaining and praying.

Wow.

What an Old Testament Israelite I am.

I am supposed to be learning something from this. I am supposed to be sharing in the sufferings of the people around me. But, I am uncomfortable, I am inconvenienced (good grief - I have semi-access to a computer, I'm writing right now, aren't I?), I am complaining.

Shame on me.

However - I am REALLY REALLY glad I could take a shower finally..... and so is Mel.

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I just really, really want my computer back. I'll stop complaining about the lack of heat. I'll try to anyway.

On the Way...to Biting the Dust

Oh my poor laptop! It is dying a very slow death. From what we've been told by two different computer repairers, it's dying because of coffee. Yep - too much coffee. BUT it's NOT my fault! No - I am not the one who spilled coffee on it many, many moons ago. I lay that blame firmly at the feet of two other unnamed family members (you know who you are!). I thought the first repair person had cleaned it up - but Mel told me a few days ago that no, it had not been cleaned. Nor had it been cleaned by the second repair person, although they said it was very dangerous to not clean it. I confess - I don't get it. We took it in to be fixed and they tell us it needs to be fixed and send it home. Huh?? Sigh. I don't know if there is any hope now - I really did think they had cleaned it the second time we took it in ... I wonder what they are waiting for - detailed instructions? "First you take the thing apart and then you clean it. Clean - as in, make it not dirty, not covered in coffee wherever it is covered in coffee, and remove the cat hair, dust and whatever else is in there stuck to the coffee. Then you put it back together again. We will PAY you to do this."

I'm using Mel's very old laptop to post this today. I can turn the newer one on and I can even check email on it. But there is absolutely no way at all that I can pull up a web page. I have tried a dozen different ways ...... and crashed the computer every time. Yesterday I also had no Yahoo! Instant Messaging or Disc Clean-up program. Today they are both back. Instead, when I clicked on the File button in the email program, the email froze up and the computer crashed. It's like there is a little gremlin in there under the keys, running here and there, messing with not only my computer, but also my mind. :) I have a anti-virus program - more than one, actually! A malware program and a spyware program. I don't know what else I can do to protect it from outside attacks... and apparently I'm not too good at keeping it from coffee addiction either.

At least the weather is a teeny bit cooler. And the entry way is ready for the first coat of paint tomorrow (which I still have to buy). And I'm almost finished reading, Redwall, by Brain Jacques (loaned to me by Nadia).

The 'crazy lady' was yelling out on the street again awhile ago. I went out on the balcony and looked, but could not see who she was screaming at this time. It might have been the old man who was out there when we walked by on our way home from church. "Young man, you are a nice young man (he was talking to Mel). I am a 70 year old pensioner. Can you give me some kopecks?" Since we have no idea who this man is, and what he wants the money for (probably vodka or beer, I'm sad to say), we did not give him any. I felt really sad, though, because this man is approximately the same age as my own father. I thought afterward that I should have given him one of the bananas Mel had in the bag he was carrying. Several minutes later when I looked out the window in the kitchen, he was carrying a bunch of stuff he's just pulled out of the garbage dumpsters. He was headed for the same entry way the the crazy lady lives in, and she was sitting outside - so, it might have been them going at it. Very sad. It breaks your heart.

So, in the great scheme of life - I fight with my computer, something I need for what I do - write, finances, keeping up with news, communication with people in the States, etc. While outside, some of the poorest of the poor scream and yell at each other, fighting over garbage and most likely the crazy lady's pitiful dog and kittens. I am very aware of the incongruity of it all. I wish there were simple answers to these problems. I could sit here and feel guilty and horrible, or I can continue to pray for that woman (she really does have severe mental problems) and work in the areas God has called us to work. I cannot help her, other than being friendly when I see here, and making sure that when I throw out 'good food,' it is wrapped up so she can use it when she digs it out of the dumpster.

We walk a fine line so often here. Life, both the good and the bad, is so 'in your face' all the time.