16-IV-2009.
I even worked until lunch, we'll depart in the afternoon, it's an about five hour ride to Undersville. This is the only shot before departure. The plant on the table is called Wanda, after the agentetta who sold it to us (just like another one was called Changrissa, after the agentesse through which we purchased the house). The votka (vodka, but we spell it phonetically) is there as a solvent, as it was the only one which contained enough alcohol for the tincture (which we made of some plant, bought online, which did help me with a potential problem), all of 50%. Not really potable though, the one swig we tried came across as a bad imitation of the „Baltic“ votka from Takovo, which is an imitation of votka.
The whiskey we did drink, one shot a week, after the entertainment, when we come down to have a smoke behind the house (I was already a smoker reinstated in full capacity at this time). Ballantine was not as it once was (08-VII-1975.), it was sour just as the other two. The whole story is on 14-VII-2008..
The stock of rakija, hidden behind the shorter drawer in one kitchen cabinet, we did not touch. That is for special occasions.
Again from the correspondence with dad, for lack of other sources. It seems I didn't really work as much today, if I had the time to write this much.
Dad, about the celebration of anniversary: „It was nice. We celebrate with a modest snack and drink, with some fiveteen guests, who came at different times, with modest gifts or without, because to many we didn't say why we invited them. Of the „nearest of kin“ there were Veca, Sneca, Vanji and his son, who made three shots and promised to send to you and to us, and the others were neighbors from here or vineyard.“
„The spruce by the stairs grew more in the last two three years than in all the time since you left“. That must be the yew, between the stairs and the little wall. It grew in the city hall's back yard, from a crack in the pavement, so she replanted it, should be around 1998 or whenever I made those concrete stairs and the supporting wall. When we left to here, it wasn't taller than half a meter.
„If you make a good transaction with Nina's nisam, and sell your car, maybe it would be fitting that you buy some small truck for trips to Undersville. Anyway, what good is our advice, you know what's more handy and appropriate in your case“.
That would consume a lot and would be a tad uncomfortable (though I drove such a truck the 1000 miles in one go, when the move to Orlando occurred, can do that) but there's no need, what they have here have there as well. And the prices are almost the same, so very little needs to be brought from here, until we see where will we [put] what, and then we may rent a truck once, or just rent one on the spot. The lumberyards rent them, at 20 dollars an hour.
Went for an oil change yesterday, and explained to majstors what to check, and to tell me how much would it be - and I said that I don't want to pour 250$ into a car worth barely 1600$, but won't replace it yet until I hear how the combination would go (and explained how that would go), and then this may be for sale - to which both guys said, right there, that they were interested :). Well then, I said, now I don't intend to sell it, if you're interested, it must be good.
[on flowers] I countributed an earthworm... when I was planing the soil under the window, to pave over, I found one really good, lively and long, so I moved it into the jardiniere, into the new big hunting grounds. Because there is, on top, mulch first (crushed bark and other paprikaš from woodwork), then the blacksoil from the bags, then unfinished compost (magnolia leaves, banana peels, [pine] coes and anything that didn't fit into regular compost, then the [guinea] piglets' manure - wintered wrapped in a tarp) and on the bottom torn slats from the old fence, rotten parts of the shed and such. It'll all be soil, and the worm, if it's smart, should multiply or invite company.
„We didn't know that Ricardo is a seasonal. They do it differently here. They make a contract for three months, then later they extend it or cancel it. One technician, some Bakalov guy, about your age...“
Was it them who leived next to the supermarket, befor it was all torn down for the extension of 25. maj? I kind of remember him, a bit blonde... and should be a tad older than me, if that's the guy. (which must have been around 1967-8 when we were at bager all summer, he was a real frajer, so blonde and somewhat curly, but he vanished from the horizon soon, maybe they were just tennants there)
„...was nine years a threemonther in the oilery, during Knežević, and eventually after that became a permanent worker.“
Then ours are even better. Well m$ kept those temporaries up to 4-5 years, to the rhythm of six months you work, then two weeks nope, then repeat anew.
As for Nina... she's got a meeting around two in the afternoon... in Chesapeake in a local cafeteria, from Starbucks's chain (their coffee is OK, drank [it] in Newyork, San Francisco and Deesee, there's some here in the neighborhood but didn't try)
[about goint to Undersville]
We go to buy saplings and plant some fruit, and to scout the terrain and to be seen, so the word goes around that the house is someone's now, that someone will be coming. And to take a breather... this is like a summer vacation :). As of work, if we invent somthing for us to do, we'll do. We won't just sit idling for three days, that's for sure, but about having a plan, we don't really have it. We may see about cleaning up one room to sit in and be able to lock it. We'll see.
The girls and Ender went to Massachussets to scout a college for Lena. This was their first serious solo trip, what with orientation on the spot (they did bring along a GPS, though) and longer drive. The trip plan was fulfilled, we saw the videos last night, the MIT looks nice and has the scientific spirit. They still have a fake police car, which students once patched together from collected parts and assembled on the roof of one of the buildings, and painted it police-like, what with number and rotating light... once the cops found out they are not missing any cars, they climbed up and found at the steering wheel a full sized doll in proper uniform, with a donut (cops' favorite food) in one hand and instructions to disassemble the car in the other. And a parking ticket tucked under the wiper.
But tough shit about the admission, because she'd have to compete among the foreign, oops, international students, where there's hundreds of Hindus and Chineses, about 100:1 or thereabouts (MIT is a prestigious school, they invented many things which are today normal or still secret), and as the poet said, from a grand bush... And if she was allowed to compete among the locals, they'd probably accept her, but if they find one paper with something wrong, disqualified. Excellent, we have no papers at all. In the international category papers don't matter much, they probably handle the students' visas themselfly, the matter is that it means competing with thousands of nerds.
So we'll see to it to drop by Blacksburg again this summer and see how's things at Vrjinya Tek. Which was the plan A anyway.
The next shot is from Undersville, at 19:05. Look there, we have a lilac, and it's not the lilac color*, but actually the purplificent kind. It's on this shot, even a blossom is right there - had I not parked on this end, we wouldn't even notice it, among all the other greenery. We walked the length of the estate - on 1,6 hectares it's quite a walk. And the wee creek swelled with water, in some spots it's even murmuring. In the part where the house is, the right bank of the creek is ours; downstream it's the left one.
So we picked some of it and some wild hyacinth. In the supermarket on the square we bought something to eat and half a galon of sangria, then took it easy. But I didn't bring along the tincture, and no matter how we tried, it didn't work. Too bad, we were in the proper mood, this was supposed to be our romantic vacation, the naychoor etc. Well it was, except that detail.
Don't know whether Super 8 is a hotel or a motel, looks rather like the former because it has all of three floors (ser. two floors), motels rarely have more than two (one). On the other side, there's a common space, a breakfast area, but no restaurant. For grub we mostly took something we could eat in the room or out there, and once per visit we'd dine at the nearby Chineses, the chinese stuff is not bad at all if you don't have to eat it exactly every day.
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* A Lala is buying a shirt. The clerk lady asks what kind does he want, he says lilac color. Nope, that's steely blue. That one is lilava**, that's not it. After fisix shirts, no color match was found. „Then we don't have it“ she says. „Ow yes you do, how not have, there's one in the window“, and points a finger at it. „Well that is white“. „And what, you never saw a white lilac?“
** funny though, that „lilava“ as an adjective does not mean the lilac shade, it's just a generally violet color, despite its ethymology. We're generally thin on distinguishing, and words depicting these shades - all those violet, purple, magenta and crimsons are the same to pretty much everyone, including me.
Mentions: 08-VII-1975., until about 24th, 14-VII-2008., 03-V-2026., 25. maj, bager, Ender Aquila (Ender), frajer, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Majkrosoft (m$), majstor, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), rakija, Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), Snežana Stojanović (Sneca), Undersville, Vera Stojanović (Veca), Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), in serbian
2-V-2026 - 5-VII-2026