A Walk on the Wild Side

On the way to the post office today, this cat was quite intent on Mel's intentions. :-)

Can you see me up here?

Here I am! Watching a guy play fetch with his German Shepherd. Silly dog, just look at him!

Birdy, birdy on the street, hope a kitty cat you don't meet!

Cool and the gang - or maybe, Boyz in the 'hood - or maybe, the Three Musketeers! (Unfortunately, the beautiful yellow kitty in the back has a severe case of mange or something :( and has lost all the fur on his neck and chest.)

Snoozin' on a lazy afternoon. Hey, who's that behind me? Leave my tail alone!

Waiting. Watching. Thinking. Ignoring (but I know you are there!).

What. Is. Your. Problem??

That tree back there belongs to me. Don't believe me? Just take a sniff! Then you'll know I'm King Kitty Kat around here!

How many doggies are there?

Fooled you! There are five! :-) And mama dog was howling (howling!!!) at me as I took the photos from across the street. Kind of like "Go away and leave my puppies alone!"

Baa Baa Dirty White Sheep (and Goats, too!)

I almost did not go out for my walk today. I haven't been walking very much this summer. It has felt so hot and humid that I have no desire what so ever to go outside at all, much less exercise. But I took a good look at myself, beat myself up mentally for awhile at what I saw, and decided that it really doesn't matter - I NEED to get out there and walk. Sigh. I do NOT LIKE Kherson in the summer. Plain fact. I long for cool mountain air, maybe even some snow. I long for air so dry my skin starts to flake off.

I am having a mental temper tantrum. If I was about 50 years younger I'd stamp my feet and yell really loud about it and then go sulk in my room for awhile. But alas, I am NOT 50 years younger and really need to act my age. Altho, from what I hear, the older you get, the more you can act that way and get by with it....

ha ha

sigh

So, I went out today, after getting down on the floor, by myself, and doing some exercises for my legs and then my arms using 3 pound dumbbells. I got up off the floor all by myself. It may not have been pretty - ok, let's be real here - it was not pretty, but I managed to get up all by myself with no problem at all. I'm just glad there was no one around to see me - feet flat on the floor, hands flat on the floor, body in a nice fat Russian letter Л, altho I might have looked more like a cross between that and an upside down V with a crooked right side. You'll just have to imagine it. The point is, in my wandering all over the place, that I got down on the floor and back up by myself for the 3rd time only since my knee replacement surgery. All 3 times have been in the last 2 weeks. I feel rather 5 year old-ish proud of myself. :) :) :)

So, after that success (so glad I didn't have to wait for Mel to get home to get up because he is still not home some 3 hours later!), I decided that do or die, I needed to get my rear out the door and brave the somewhat cooler temperatures today.

But first, I got on line and looked up SparkPoints again to see about calculating how far and how many calories and how much I could feel good about myself after coming back. They have this nice little calculator now, using Google Maps, that tells me how many miles I've walked and how many calories I've burned. That is nice - very nice. I won't tell you, dear blog readers, though, what the numbers were!

Then I put on my socks, put on my walking shoes, made sure I had my cell phone and camera and part of a bottle of water, my keys and ID/copy of passport and left.

I'm glad I went when I did, because I came across a man herding his sheep and goats over by the agricultural institute. Now I've seen this man several times over the past 10 years, but I've never seen him with SHEEP before, only goats. And I've never seen him close enough to where I could reach out and touch him (sounds like a commercial for a phone company) - he's always been 'over there' when I'm 'over here' and I am rather shy by nature. I stopped, pulled out my camera, took a couple photos, realized he was watching me and I started to walk on.

Then I stopped and had a mental conversation that went something like this: "You know, Cindie, that you have been wanting to find some place to buy SHEEP fleece. Look right there in front of you - those creatures are SHEEP, the first you've seen here in Kherson that you can remember. Now, you could be shy and afraid of your lousy Russian language ability, or you could be brave like Melinda and just open your mouth and ASK the guy if he has any 'sherst' for sale or knows where it might be for sale here in Kherson." I turned toward him - he had walked behind me a bit going after some wandering sheep, the ones in the photo that are 'over there' - and said in strongly American accented Russian, "Excuse me, please. I have a question. I don't speak Russian very well. Do you have any wool for sale?" At least that is what I think I said. He answered me - that tells me I really did communicate. I didn't understand everything he said because his vocabulary was not quite what I'm used to - after all, I don't talk to people about sheep very often. He did look very puzzled, and kept looking over at the goats who seemed to be rather independently minded and prone to wander. Then I told him I needed the wool to make yarn and that I have a circle. Maybe I should have said 'wheel' but you know, I have no idea what a spinning wheel is in Russian, and I figured it's really not called a 'circle' either, so I did a little hand demonstration of a circle going round and round on it's side, like it was rolling forward. I don't have a 'circle' really (wish I did) but I have absolutely NO IDEA how to say spindle or even how to do a hand demonstration of one that would be understood and the point is - I want to make some yarn, not what I use to make it. The man understood immediately what I said, and told me that maybe he had some wool at home, he didn't know (and then he kind of made a noise at a goat who was not doing what it was supposed to do, but straightened up immediately when it realized his master really was paying attention). So I asked him (the man, not the goat) if I could have his telephone number (goats don't have telephone numbers, as far as I know...) and opened up my purse, pulled out a little spiral notebook and a green pen and handed them to him. He kind of squatted down on one knee, wrote out his phone number carefully, handed it back to me and stood up. I said, "Your name?" And he took it back and very carefully wrote his name in small letters under the number. From the care he took, I'd say he doesn't write it all out very often. I told him my female translator would call him, thanked him, and walked off.

Actually I'm really excited. Maybe I'll be able to buy some wool from him! Maybe. We'll see what happens.

I wonder what he thought of me. :) heh heh heh Some strange red faced and sweaty large American woman stopping to ask him if he'd sell her some wool. I bet he tells his wife about it whenever he gets home! Ha ha!

I went on and finished my walk, barely putting one foot in front of the other by the time I got back. Climbing up 3 flights of stairs - oof-dah. I came in, took off my shoes, tossed my bag and purse on the sofa, went in the bedroom, took off my socks, and collapsed on the bed and just let the fan blow air on my head for a few minutes. Then I got up, went into the bathroom, checked to see if the water was still on - it was! - and turned it on, turned on the shower and sprayed the top of my head. Oh - that kind of hurt, but it felt so good! I ran cold water on my wrists and then more on my head until it didn't hurt any more. Then I came in here and happily clicked in my SparkPoints miles and points and wrote this post.

Now - I need to think about de-boning the chicken I cooked in the crock-pot yesterday and start making a chicken salad for dinner, and dream about maybe actually getting a fleece and working with it from sheep-to-yarn. Cool!

Wednesday Afternoon Walk Photos

Mel and I went for a walk yesterday. I wanted a croissant and a cup of cocoa, but I also wanted to buy a new mop. I've looked at the supermarkets and haven't found a suitable mop. All the supermarkets seem to have are very expensive mops with sponge-type heads instead of the fat yarn heads. I have a really nice handy-dandy bucket with squeezer for a fat yarn headed mop - and that's what I wanted, a fat yarn headed mop. (I have no idea if that is the correct terminology or not, but it seems correct to me.)

I remembered that over on Ushakova, between Kulika and the train station, on the right hand side of the street, there used to be a place that sold all sorts of stuff. It was a Soviet-style store - kind of a dark place with everything behind the counter and sales help who liked to stand and do their nails instead of help the customer. There was also a candy store in that general location. It's been so long since I've been on that block of Ushakova that I had no idea if either were still around.

It's kind of strange, in a way - I've been on Ushakova on both ends of that section of the block many times in recent months - just never all the way.

So, Mel and I decided to walk over to the coffee shop via a slightly longer route. We walked over to the 'big bus stop', crossed under the street and walked down Zhalezna Darozhni (which is probably a really bad transliteration of that streets' name, actually - so let's just call it ZhDeh Street! It means Iron Road, or Railroad, or so I've been told.) As we walked, Mel watched a pigeon fly up from the ground to the top of the building we were walking beside. He pointed up and said, "Does that make you feel confident?"And I admit that, no, the roof line on this building did not inspire confidence in me at all. I wondered how long it had been since the last piece fell off and what were the chances a piece would fall off as we walked under it?

Along the way we passed one of our old favorite cafes, which is no longer a favorite because they changed from a Georgian (former Soviet Republic of, not the State of) Cafe, to this:The food used to be really good here, but somehow I just don't trust sushi in Ukraine. The second time I went to a Chinese place here I got a really, really, really bad case of food poisoning. Yes, I know that sushi is not Chinese - but, well, it's from over there on that side of the world and good grief - that fish is raw! (gag gag I have a hard time eating most cooked fish...) (СУШИ БАР = Sushi Bar)

We turned the corner and walked down the right hand side of the street, looking across at all of the stores on the left hand side. Sure enough, way down the street there was the candy store, still there looking the same as it did 10 years ago, candy made right here in Kherson at the Goolivar Candy Factory (that's what we call it because they sell a chocolate covered waffle cookie called Goolivar, like Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels you know - they used to be really tasty).

A nice young man accosted us, as we walked, holding two red CD covers in his hand, asking us if we wanted to buy some sort of cell phone service. Mel said he didn't understand, in Russian, and we kept walking. The guy shouted after us, "English? Ukrainian? English?" but we kept walking. This happens a lot, you see - there must be a dozen different cell phone companies trying to get you to change from one service to another, or maybe it's just 3 or 4 and just feels like 50?

We kept walking and lo, and behold, the store I wanted was still there! After all these years! Which is unusual here. Stores come and go at an alarming rate. But maybe this is a government store, and that's why it's still hanging around? I don't know. We saw it across the street, apparently still working because there were all sorts of advertisements on the windows - huge photos of dishes and stuff. I was happy and asked Mel if we should cross the street now. But he asked me if I really wanted to go into that nice little coffee shop with a mop? Well, no, not really...

So, we went to get coffee, or cocoa in my case, and a croissant. And it was good.

We sat and chatted about this and that for awhile. (Side note: it is so nice to be able to go on impromptu dates with my husband, to not have to worry about babysitters or when the kids will get home from school, etc. It is so nice to be just 'us' at this age. We had our 3 kids so fast after marriage, 9 months after the wedding there was Kara, that we never had time to be just 'we two'.) We sat beside the window because a young man was sitting in my favorite spot doing business on his cell phone, but it turned out really nice, even tho I was sitting beside the heater and was too hot. Mel pointed this woman out to me, commenting on how 'lemony' her expression was and how she seemed to not really want to be selling flowers at all. The spring flowers were beautiful, tho.I took this photo by setting the camera on a plate on top of my cocoa cup and using a non-flash setting through the window, so it might be a bit blurry.

After our date, we walked back up the street and crossed over. I took this photo of one of the buildings because I thought the balconies were pretty. So much remont is being done that the beautiful old things are disappearing very quickly. I understand why, but it's sad in some ways.
We went into the store and sure enough, it didn't look like it has change one iota in the past 10 years. Still the same counters, still the same dirty looking cement/stone floor, still the same feeling of being in a cave, still the same rude sales people behind the counter. BUT there was the mop I wanted! I couldn't remember the word for 'mop' and one of the sales clerks was busy being in the way of trying to see the name of the item written on it's price tag, there behind the counter, safely out of the reach of the public who might want to stash it under their clothing and shoplift it out of there. (Boy does that give me hilarious mental images.)

I asked Mel - what is that word for mop in Russian, and in with an exasperated sigh, he said, "I don't know!" Then he looked over the sales clerks shoulder, read the name and said it to me. I promptly mangled the word totally in my mind. I walked back over to the cash register and when that sales clerk had finished what she was doing, I told her I wanted the "shamumblemumble" and pointed 'over there'. She looked at me in unbelief and I just looked back at her like a deer in the headlights. She walked over toward where I had pointed and then she pointed at the mop and I nodded and said, "Da, shamumblemumble" and I smiled at her and laughed. And you know what? She smiled back at me and laughed, too. I bought my mop. Actually Mel paid for it - I just proudly carried it the mile and more back home.

As we walked on up the street, me with mop in hand, we again met the young man selling cell phone stuff. Why was he on this side of the street now? I don't know, but he was with another guy. He tried to stop us again and again we said no and again he asked where we were from. I answered "America" this time and he said something or other as we walked away. I have a sneaky feeling he was cussing us out, but have no real proof of that, just the tone of his voice. Poor young man - life must be very difficult for him trying to sell cell phone stuff to foreigners carry mops.

As we walked back home, we came upon this old woman, carrying two very heavy bags of prodookti (what a nice word - products, could be fresh veggies and fruit or it could be canned stuff or it could be meat, doesn't matter, it's products). She walked really slow and to get a photo of her I had to actually stop and take a photo of a cat sitting in a school yard to let her get far enough ahead of us to take a good photo of her.
And finally, the last two photos of the day. Construction has basically come to a standstill on these two buildings, we think due to the severe economic crisis going on here. We haven't seen anyone working on the least finished building for 2 or 3 weeks and before that, there must have been 100 men working 12 or more hours a day on it. So sad. I hope it gets finished! The newer building also seems at a standstill. Two offices on the first floor have lights at night, but none of the apartments above seem to be finished at all.
Spring is here!!! Not only did these little blue flowers show up late last week, but yesterday I also saw my first yellow crocus blooming in someones yard. Hear a happy sigh.

Seen On A Monday Walk

We wonder what this is all about. We have no idea, but assume it is not 'my' Mel. :) As they say on tv here, when there is no sound with the video footage: Bez (without) Commentary:

A Walk in the Sunshine

Mel and I went out to eat lunch today on our 'day off.' We walked over to the bigger bus stop and caught a trolleybus down to the city center and went to one of our favorite places, Джон Гоуард Пуб, otherwise known as "John Howard Pub." I had chicken fingers and shared his fries. He had what we might call an open face grilled cheese and salami sandwich. Espresso coffee with creamer for dessert. Yummy! This is a photo taken just a few meters down the street, looking away from John Howard Pub.

Our main goal in going out today was to go over to the church building site and see what has happened in the last week. We decided to walk, and I am so glad we did! We turned down the next side street and walked for a total of close to 6 kilometers or 3.7 miles. The sun was shining on our backs and it felt so good. I realized after the first block that I have never walked down that particular street before. Here is one house we saw that caught my interest. Can you see why? :) :)

By the way - check out that sky! That wonderful, blue blue blue sky!!

Not too far from that first house we turned a corner and saw this house.What a contrast! I'm sorry, but this house made us laugh. We saw a lot of new houses today, but none more ... actually, I'm at a loss for words on this one. Just do a visual comparison of the two houses and you come up with a word! Mel thought maybe he'd write to the guys on our greater Ukraine team, include this photo and say something along the lines of "Hey! The roof is now on the church!" In reality, this is a private residence. We don't know whose.

Here is a quiet little side street. I like the way this street and the houses look. Very Eastern European.

Finally, we got to the church. And here is how it looked while we were there this afternoon:I mentioned the alcove window in a previous post - this is what I meant about how the super thick walls block out a lot of the light an alcove should provide - I'm glad the alcove is as wide as it is or the actual window would not be very big!

Here are two pictures of the area around the church. The first is across a street and in 'front' of the main entrance of the church, and the second is directly behind the church, on the side street.I really like the fence in front of this house (click to see the photo bigger).

From there Mel and I walked back to the main street and caught a trolleybus home. Oh my. Our trolleybus doesn't come as often as the others and it was full. By the time we got to our stop it was not full any more. No, it was not full - it was packed to overflowing. Push, shove, push, elbow in the kidney, stomp on the foot full. I was so glad to get off of it!

But, once again - note the blue sky in these photos. Wonderful, beautiful, amazing clean and clear blue sky. And sunshine. Joy!