18-VI-2025.
Monday, 16th, Lena reported landing in Kopenhagen. Not raining, just somewhat cloudy.
In the evening, slowly to Dragana. Stuffed both bottles (some rozey and tutifruti 20.1, the oldest) into the new knapsack she sewn from old jeans, even reused the main rivet which used to be on the belt, all good, even easier to wear despite the straps not adjusting, probably because it doesn't have the backplate inside so it doesn't stick to the back, real summer [kind]. I wasn't even sweating much, so it was sort of okay to sit without the AC, by the time we drank the third I was already dry. She ordered kilo and a half of chicken wings in three ways, a kilo arrived, called back, they brought the rest, all fine.
No idea what claptrap went on all evening, heard nothing new, just sipped a bit faster than usual. I remember that at some point the discussion led to the point where I concluded that the logical conclusion would be that Borče should light one... and there he was, already with a cigarette. There I had to do a series of shots, with the phone if I didn't bring the shooter...
Later it turned out that I wasn't actually listening, because I was talking with Dragana about her times with that guy, who was eighteen years older. I wasn't really gunning for that, she spilled the beans on her own, how in the beginning it was super, when she was fortytwo and he sixty. Later it was that he didn't feel like going out much and she was getting bored, so it ended the way it ended. Listening to that I missed what the other two talked, and was astonished to see him smoking.
Cab at 2:09, don't remember any chat with the driver, all in half-dream.
Nineteenth. In „Danas“ an article about some society which went on inventing domestic words, pretty much like the one of a couple of weeks ago, but as early as 1842. And lo, tensome of their propositions were accepted and are regular words today. For those from the title, which didn't get incorporated in the language but should have, click the link to Instagram. Didn't click, I already immuned myself against that, but rather invented the word for such titles, for „have in the window but not in the shop“: clicktrap (in serbian, analogous to the word for mousetrap). Sent it to them as a comment, and to an appropriate topic on burundi.
Twentieth, guess the solstice. Sunshine woke me up, our bed is in such a place that from may to august it shines on the pillows in the morning, through the cherry's crown, and the leaves swing on the breeze and lightshow dances over my eyelids. Sometimes I manage to not notice, today not quite, got up insanely early.
After lunch (egg čorba and hakes) a short catnap, just an hour and a half. Last tensome days she got into the habit too, the siesta is an old tradition here, even my folks practiced it in the summer, even when it wasn't hot like this. Not today, she does it every other day [and stopped altogether a week later]. And then we went to the garden. I turned the water on first, hooked the hose and we started watering. Half the tomato plants already gone, but the remainder is growing nicely and promises to bear fruit. We reorganized the hose somewhat, so we also watered the blackberries by the shed and the near apricots by the terrace. In the orchard there's no real need to mess with the švorceniger, it's all dry, both the cable grass and priest's piglet, the mower can do that better. At least I mowed, second time, the stretch in front of the shed, where these apricots and the main blackberry are. I meant to mow by the summer kitchen but no, she alredy put back the first hose and the cable, closed the room where the hidrofor is, going home.
In the evening, amazingly, we skipped the booze, she got up at half five and didn't catnap, we don't really have to do it every other evening. Okay, why not. Got a lot of Reynolds waiting anyway.
Saturday, 21st. The kitchen faucet started seriously vibrating, and as we bought a new one last week, we quickly replaced it. Know how, got the tools, all done in 20 minutes. And the new one is a beauty, simply slides, can operate with a pinky even though it was the cheapest one, 4100. The old one is in the garbage now.
Sunday. Got up late, having slept in two parts again, with a smoke break from 3:30 to 4:40. Began inserting Mlinarec into Byo, spending more time reading what I found than writing here, and thereabouts Lena called, so we had our fill of watching Tanja becoming more and more skilled, climbing on the couch and over mom, and keeps standing longer, just lightly supported by couch. Around 17:30 Nina chimed in, but a three party talk wasn't working. Tanja was sleepy already, she skipped the afternoon nap, so we quit and talked with Nina separately. The kids were still asleep, but Raja and Violet woke up a bit later. I specially took a shot of her standing next to Raja, he grew taller yet, two fingers to reach her height. Violet is under her own influence again, in the half a minute we talked with her she played ten faces. The twins we saw asleep, they're night shift again.
She recounted the kiddie birthday where they went when she last called (voice only, from the car, there was a swimming pool and they forgot to bring swimsuits, so fetched them from home). The girls had a real good time, and the cake was excellent, but Linda said „only baba's is better“.
The protest was scheduled for 18, and we finished the chat at 18:10, but never mind, we missed the exciting part when they stand and wait to start walking. At least I rode over the bridge by Sup (police HQ) in the middle of the right lanes, liberator style, didn't get a chance since 11-VIII-1999.. We reached the column somewhere near zzzzz, and switched to pushing bikes beyond that. The solstice was yesterday, so the sun honestly fried for another hour and a half. We found shade under a billboard. I bought a bunch of badges and whistles, treating the student seller, so it wouldn't be called a contribution, but rather a tip.
There we ran into Žorž, with wife and children, so we first commented on how Željko knew the situation here better than we who swim in it. Well, I said, there on the forum we have a guy, worked at Studio Be once and is in Canada now, he knows everything better and when you hear him you see how he firmly believes anything spewed by Newyork times... And then he explained to his son that I was the kum of DC-99 (which, accidentally, used be just 50m from where we stood, by the upper edge of this shot), and the guy just pulled out his shooter, to show me a zicer* he spotted, impossible that nobody noticed it yet, there's the bank and reflection in the windows... It was quite noisy so I didn't get what was this about, and on the little screen I barely recognized which building was it, and even less what was the point. Then they went downtown for an icecream, to return when the programme begins.
Tensome minutes later there comes Deks, even larger than before, and over the years his shape somehow settled, everything in place. We asked where Lena, well just about to come. He yanked her on the mobile and then spotted her coming, she was just 100m away... In all the hubbub she didn't notice us until she was two steps away, and then was glad to see us. We stayed with them more or less to the end. At least we were on the south end of the crossing, excellent spot for shooting when the girls and boys from Belgrade came walking (yes, all the 68km). Lots of them, looked like a hundred. Now it's also a question whether it was just them, or some folks from our LC joined them, wouldn't be surprised if they thought of it. Regardless, all kudos, the heat is on just now and walking is not easy at all.
Some time after 20:10, when I made a decent recorder of ProHor (protestni hor, protest i.e. blockade choir) singing „Vostani Serbie“ (my special trick was to spot, through the mass, across the square, the conductor, so to know when will they start singing, not to miss that moment), if it's anywhere near listenable it'll be in the playlist. They already felt like leaving, and so did we, we're a bit old. Two hours of standing in one place is about as much as we can, here we were, to be seen and counted, so we called closing time. Deks made a selfie of the four of us and emailed it to me right away, where I typed the adress, as I turned out to be less bad with the eyes. Then we pedaled slowly throught the main square and street, gone home. When we reached out end, she made a left turn to the LC, which is a bit of a round trip. Okay, your lead, I hold the lantern... And she swung by the kiosk behind the LCC and asked „which beer to take?“. Ah, yes, we did think of sitting around a beer on the way back, considered Springfield first, then even Šanta, but then nope, Go will call, better this way. Four cans of nikšićko black and it turned exactly as planned, just when when it properly cooled down (bought it cold, though, but still), Go did call.
Stanley sold another beemer, to an old customer at that, wife of one Sergey who used to work in the same workshop, and to whom he already sold one, nine years ago. That one wore out, got too old and shabby and abused to be worth pouring more money into, so gimme a new one. And she came to pick it up while we talked, we saw how he polished it, it's a black mirror of a car, can shave watching yourself in it. Then he showed us to bricks of dollars, 20000, to brag a bit, genksta stuyl.
They intend to raise the real estate tax to 3% annually in the state of Washington, which will mean that in 30 years you buy one more house for the state... And even now, out of their 2700$ rent at least 1200 is that tax, and if this passes, there'll be a move, because the rent will go up, the houseowners won't be paying that out of their pockets. They're considering a move themselves, maybe to Ohio or Minesota, where they can afford their own house, garden, workshop.
Anita didn't insinuate her face into the frame much this time, and we got Neša into it just to deliver his latest „dad joke“ (a category on its own now), he makes one a week nowadays:
- pistol which solves problems?
- troubleshooter
We split around half one, and I leaned down on doing the photos. Hit the hay at two, nicely tired.
On tuesday, our internet died. I called Jetel, and got the lamps on the router right on second try. Okay, they promised to fix it in 72 hours, but it's usually within 12. It got fixed just during lunch, I heard the signal from Telegram, someone wrote something. It was Marinko with a new joke.
Mentions: 11-VIII-1999., Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), blockade, burundi, Byo (Byo), čorba, DC-99, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Drago Mlinarec, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Jene Čokai (Deks), kum, Lena Čontić, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borče), Marinko Protić, Nenad Berger (Neša), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Ryu (Raja), Springfield, Stanley Berger, Šanta, švorceniger, Tanja Nastić, tutifruti, Violet, zzzzz, Željko Nikolović, in serbian
18-VI-2025 - 5-VII-2026