21-IV-2026.
Talked with Nina last evening, all okay, even the income tax fuckup dwindled down to some thirty kay to pay, which she may spitch in a year or three, depending on the subbornness factor. Raja is already 5cm taller than she is.
And so we resolved the problem of garden hardware. No more new machinery, it's just an invitation for more malfunctions. I went to detelina, bought the line for the little electric trimmer (which works, but the old line got tightly tangled, it's at least 15 years old, stiff) and a new scythe. Just remembered that in the there I wanted to buy a scythe and couldn't find a place where they'd have it, found online some alpine model with curved aluminium handle, 50$ plus as much for the blade. Last year when we visited such shops, I found an ordinary handle, same as it was fifty and hundred years ago, still over 3000, well fuckit. This cost altogether (with six small atmosphere candles for our sitting sessions) 3200.
Now only to sharpen it and lean on it. Because, come to think of it, the trimmer is 7kg, and needs swinging as much as a scythe (at a lower speed, though), and sometimes I croak more by the time I start it up then while working with it, it's noisy and consumes fuel. I don't mind pouring money into fuel, but feels somehow better if paprikaš is the fuel.
I replaced the whipline right away, tried with just a piece, less than a meter, and mowed the grass off the path to the chicken coop. Starts, goes. Today it's sharpening the scythe on the todo list. I see it was peened in the factory, no need to fuck around with that. Not that I wouldn't be able to, and it is better way to preserve the structure of the steel. If I don't peen it, what, I'll waste more steel? May it be a millimeter a year, by the time I wasted half of it, I won't be able to swing it anyway.
And we did so. Ten minutes with an angle grinder to sharpen it, and as much with a 13mm wrench to tighten the blade to the handle... and fuckit, the stirrup (actually the brace, but we call it uzengija - stirrup - because of its shape, like U closed with a flat line) is not smithed, it's in two pieces, and the flat piece has the threaded holes for the two 13mm screws (and comes with a 8mm hex :), and it turns out that this flat piece isn't strong enough, it just bent out while I tightened it. Well I shit on your sound film. I'll have to find the stirrup from our old scythe, but there it takes a square, not hex, wrench of 4mm or 5 maybe, who knows where I can find that. Maybe dad left his in the drawer in the garage, or maybe I have such a piece somewhere. Or I'd simply cut that hex to that dimension, or maybe these screws would simply fit the thread... Fuckit, is there anything simpler than a scythe, and they still managed to fuck that up.
We didn't stay for too long, two and a half hours, visit to Mere in the end included. We brought the long shears to start exterminating the roses, which went wild. I thinned one by half, was in my way when mowing, I chopped off the far reaching branches. It's a start.
In the evening we celebrated the season's opening, and got it going. For fifth and a half I even went out to the terrace for a refill, the bottle ran out. (... 225 words...)
On friday, 24th, we went again. I didn't mow this time, the scythe stayed tucked behind the stovepipe for the gas heater. Instead we brought three shears - a couple of vineyard and those long ones with double lever, and we went on chopping the roses. There was a lot of it, two cubic metres of cut branches piled up. There's still the vine in the back to cut, and to make a pass with the mower. The vine climbed the fir up to about eight meters high...
At least now I can access almost all of it with the mower, and we can now see susjed's wall, and when we sit in the corner we can see the whole front wall of the garage. And still we were done in mere two and a half hour, now with some visible results to show.
On saturday more or less nothing, except I finally mowed the front lawn. In the afternoon it crossed my mind to raise the red led line we keep on behind my monitors since new year, to balance out the light a bit, it's all too blue. First I tried to do it with masking tape but it didn't stick, and then she solved it with a length of yarn, which she hooked up around the holder of the upper shelf.
Talked with Nina in the evening, all as usual. We saw only Linda, the others barely briefly. Said she was going to a rock concert finally, something local, okay why not, and the guy she's currently seeing (so didn't give up on him) had some familial matters and couldn't [attend]. Says he's okay so far, two months younger than she.
The plan for sunday was to snatch a pljeska along the way in Stajićevo, but instead we unfroze a pack of beans from month and a half ago, and ate our humane fill. Joda kept refusing to confess that its doors were closed, so I made two stops to check before we left the end, and checked them manually and still nope, keeps reporting something wasn't properly locked. Keeps grumbling and pushes on. When we arrived (again relatively fast, despite the road being rather busy, and bingo, my slot was waiting), it wouldn't lokc, and the fifth door won't open. Took a look from inside - the transfusion (aka jumpstart) cable went straight through the latch. I managed to open it by yanking it up and down, and then closed properly.
Tanja had a bandaid on [her] brow, hit by a swing that some kid let go, so not that she fell or did something dangerous. And she's not complaining about anything, only if you want to touch the bandaid, that's when she gets strongly nervous and read for shouting. She didn't cry before going to the kindergarten, but what can you do, socialization, the habits will contract.
Lena had a load of stuff about that trip to Iceland. First with departure, the airplane to Vienna was getting quite delayed, and the hour and a half layover was reduced to 20 minutes, and then the options were to fly over Helsinki, which is 12 hours, or to sleep two nights in Vienna and catch the same airplane. But someone there did what it took, and there was a car on the tarmac (for three of them), drove them by the passport [checkpoint] and then to the airplane to Iceland, and they were the first [ones] aboard.
On Iceland itself... the night is already shortened to four hours of dusk, the grub is disgusting but expensive, everything's expensive, the one good meal she ate in a shrilankan restaurant. And everything is so expensive, one wee toy, a puffin (looks like a penguin but isn't, this also flies), ordinary rag doll, 200€ (!). Double espresso 8€. Well fuckya. And it's a hamlet of mere 400000 inhabitants accosting 4 million tourists a year. Actually, the grub... not disgusting, just tasteless. Well, we don't remember eating anything memorable up north, what we remember is the lack of smack, it's all babyfood. And it starts from Germany and Holland, and even the stuff in USSR wasn't bad but no glory. The only stuff from there I get a craving for is their rye bread, butter and red caviar.
And no matter how a trudnica* is a mythical being here, a venerated cult (there even the cabbie on the airport fucked her off at first, told her he was waiting for a ride to old downtown, he lives in the area and wouldn't want to ride empty half an hour, and she said it's not nice to treat a trudnica like that, he immediately bent over and opened the door for her), over there they don't give five percent fuck. Why didn't you observe the measures, you got what you deserved.
We took Tanja for a little walk, which didn't go exactly swimmingly. We took her ball and doll stroller, the identical chinese junk like those we got in Čurda on the čvarci festival. She was keen on going to the small football playground, where some kids already were, four older girls played volleyball, and two kids of about four the football, and of course the girls managed to kick her ball outside, and to somehow break her stroller while we were looking elsewhere. She wasn't disturbed by it, her main toy for the day was the little gate at the entrance, which she opened and closed ten times, always taking care to avoid pinching her little fingers. We thought we'd go to Valter for a čorba, she liked that last year, but nope, she headed home, said „mama! tata!“ loud, and okay, we decided to follow her lead anyway.
Then I tried to perform the „I'll like try to nap, and Tanja will troll me“, which was almost a success, but then the girls decided to go out once more, and eventually ended at Valter, and ate a čorbica each, and took a somun with ćevapčići for Milan and me each. I had only the plush bull toy for pillow (the teddy was much better), and it served. It seems I wasn't just looking into [my] head, but had some runs of real sleep.
Of course, Tanja also had to have a ćevap. The fuckup was that she was standing on the floor, and baba kept the ćevap at the height of her mouth, which Api understood as an offer and helped himself. He got chided but greased his jaw too, he's old enough to know that it's easier to get forgiveness than a permission. And then Lena went on how the nanny was worried about how Tanja „ate two sarma, four ćevap, two pieces of gibanica and then moved to the salties... what if she got sick?“. The girl has a healthy appetite, yet isn't chubby, she's strong and climbs everywhere.
The road was crowded on the way back too, two-three slowpokes would form a queue behind themselves, and it was even worse from the opposite direction. And we still got home in less than an hour and a quarter, guess because I pushed 120 from Pupin's bridge to the old road, and then a hundred from Besni Fok to Dunavac. Did the photos, remembered to call Dragana to see how she fares... Says horrors, they disfigured her palm when injecting the contrast for the scanner, can't they do that somewhere around the elbow... Her whole palm was a bruise, now going for purple, waiting for yellow and greenly. And now three days of eating nothing, for the rectoscopy and which was the other thing, and these are all in the afternoon, so not until wensday evening can she fill her belly. Well, I said, you volunteered for this... But the oncolog[ist] said she must. What can I do, wait until it passes.
Go has a whole series of occurrences to the theme of what she imagines, happens. Amazon keeps guessing her needs, and offers exactly those items for recension. Anita consumes a whole roll of scotch tape to draw her badges and attach security pins to them, and a tripak of it comes. The hairbrush can't be cleaned anymore, there's packed lint around the prongs, a set of brushes appears. „And it's good yet I gave them only three stars, there's 20% less in the bag than written on it“. On the subject, I had another skirmish with DotEasy, they started charging me for usage of SmarterMail, which I don't remember having used ever. I wrote them something fierce on friday, they replied, but I didn't read it, why spoil a good weekend.
While we talked, Lena sent us a photo... shot by Tanja: „I fell asleep on the couch and she took my phone“. Incredible, camera view from a child't point of view. Eh, technology to the people.
Monday, 27th. Read what the DotEasy guys. They says I can cancel stuff myself, log in here and here and do this and that. Aha, and why do you have two interfaces to manage the site - this thing of yours and the cPanel? Never mind, I went in and couldn't find it, because it's tangled, almost like once Verizon was, two clicks to opt in, and you bear kittens until you find how to cancel. So back to the email, went step by step of the instruction, and found it - under „billing“ there's a „cancelling options“ button. Ummm, yeah, I would have found it, within the next hour. I looked at what I had, well fuckya there's even stuff like the attempt to make a blog in 2006, and few more things I tried once, they were all listed as options I allegedly selected. And all of them billed dozens of times, at zero dollars each. So was this, and now you charged me 16,19$ out of the blue, now I should bean it out when you may start charging me for something else? I cancelled everything that wasn't exactly clear what it was (may have been once, twenty years ago), so we'll see. I so love it when an aggressive sales department craps on what a good technical team builds... It usually grows into rapid dissipation of the latter. We'll see.
The soup of the third bone, simmered all night on quiet fire**, and to cook in the noodles it needed to be thinned by half, else it would be too strong. And the chards from the backyard, grew large already. Had a few shots in the evening, and after midnight we remembered Ender... but we didn't have too much to say, we said it all already. There I mentioned how I saw Lexa Doig in two serieses already (and didn't stay with either more than five episodes, the stories are stretched, after fifth episode I saw where it was going and stopped), and how she looked so cute and likable... and I understood that it was mostly because she's a Philippino, so resembles our grandchildren. Just like that girl who bore several kids, always from the same anonymous donor, and then (long story) met him and liked him... because he resembled her children.
It got cold, we ain't going nowhere, not even to the old house nor garden. The plan is to go to garden on thirtieth, to try to fix the švorceniger, and if it works, it works, if not, to pack it and take to that guy to repair. And could take the first one to repair. While it's true that it's one solo guy there and his queue is at least three weeks long, but it's the spare, so may it wait.
And so we went, and I took the starter off, and put it back, and ain't no smarter than before. Eventually took it to the repair guy, or rather shoved it to his mom, who tried to refues, said „it's not Stihl's program, no parts“ - „no parts needed, nothing's broken, just to hook it up“. And the guy did call when we got home, and tried to weasel his way out of it, but okay he'll take a look. And then she remembered that the spring was already unhooked like that when we replaced the string last year, how did you hook it up then? Well... aimed the proper position and hit it on first. Fuckit, we could have done the same this time. Well never mind, let the guy suffer a bit.
The garden was as expected. I.e. it was at Schrödinger's while we drove there, it could turn out to be that anyhing occurred, considering everything what already did occur, lot's of it was still possible. We stopped locking, we find the rear door unlocked each time, and it locks from inside, so they find another way in and leave that way. Of damage, only the old whellbarrow wheel was dipped into the rainwater barrel, which is not really a damage. The round coffee table was missing, but we found it in the gonk, where my class put it when cleaning up last fall, as per their understanding of what goes where, having forgotten the layout from previous ten years. We suspected the neighbor of stealing electricity through the summer kitchen, there's a cable still leading to it, it'd be halfway to his house, but nope, the power meter didn't clock anything since I tripped down all the breakers last time.
I found the old scythe right away, hung by the old still, where I remembered seeing it, just forgot the year when I last saw it. There, a moment when I can brag with my memory. I didn't try to use it, the handle is rotten, just wanted to take the stirrup off it... which is all rusty, and the screws have exactly that square hole... I soaked it with dubyadeeforty, so when it gives, it gave. I sawed off the handle and brought just the blade and stirrup home. It'll give, sooner or later.
There will be some apricots, pears, apples. Of plums and quince it's too early to see, but cherries and cherries... these on the streets are specially aplenty, and the two by the shed/terrace where we sit. The ones behind we didn't look properly, except that the biggest one dried. Seems to be a working summer ahead.
Picked the power bills too. Last fall we were surprised with a bill by which we seemed to have consumed a lot - and we know we don't do that, and here it's not the neigbor either. Took them all home. It turned out they did an audit of all the bills since 2024, and at some point we turned out to be owing 24000. Then 16000. Then they cancelled (actually did a storno, issued a counter bill with negative amount, proper accounting technique here) all that and we ended up by having overpaid by some 8000, which means we're covered until september. Well fucked you who made you [or, properly translated, may whoever made you fuck you], what are you doing there? Is there a pilot aboard the airplane?
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* a pregnant woman in one word, which is unexplainably missing in english
** the expression is still used, after sixty years of electric stoves
Mentions: Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), Api, čorba, Čurda, čvarci, ćevapčići, detelina, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Ender Aquila (Ender), gibanica, gonk, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), pljeska, Ryu (Raja), sarma, švorceniger, Tanja Nastić, in serbian
21-IV-2026 - 5-VII-2026