Happy 4th of July!

We are having super wonderful days here...better than fantastic...and it's always that way...and my 3 American roommates and I gang the Star Spangled Banner loudly and shamelessly (and somewhat horribly) just now. But I do miss being ''at home" on July 4th. And because of our summer schedule here, that's likely the way it'll be from now till forever.

So!

Happy 4th of July! And shoot off some amasing fireworks, wave a sparkler, hold your hand over your heart and salute the flag for me!

things are looking up

Uncle Barry’s here! I talked to him… that’ll put a smile on your face!

 

Just checking in…still alive… cheers!

Sunday evening

We are on a train headed north...where we hope to goodness it is less than 125 degrees...well, so it might not have been quite that hot today, but it was hot- close to (if not over) 100. Hot enough for me.
I left town early to see the little old ladies in the village. Later, Sharon put 3 early teen-type girls on a bus headed north. I got on it in the village and checked on 'my girls' right away- mostly because the middle one is prone to getting carsick...and sure enough, she was curled in her seat looking miserable with tears in her eyes. Do you want water? No. Fizzy stuff? No. Do you need to trade places with someone and sit in front? No. Well, there's a not a lot you can do for someone like that, so I parked in the seat behind her and her friend and read some stuff on my iPAQ. Suddenly there's a tear-streaked face pressed between the seats and she looks desperate. I yell at the driver who immediately pulls over and out we get...and she made it to the side of the road, thank goodness. Someone from the back of the bus passed up their bottle of fizzy mineral water- which is better for sick tummies. We found wet wipes and used them. Then we asked if someone would please trade places with her...and they mercifully did. If she can sit right in the windshield (so to speak) she's sort of ok. We pulled over again an hour or 2 later and my head snapped up. Middle Kid is once again off the bus and I shot out of there, too. Only to find her standing beside a little boy and his dad while that kid got sick- only he didn't quite make it off the bus. I can't say I was sorry it wasn't her... She got better the further and longer we were away from the bus.

The only reason this is somewhat relevant: I brought no food with me. None. Zip. Not one bite. And this is not a good thing...but I forgot- the sad simple truth. And there was no time to get any today. I'm 'in charge' of these 3 girlies...who all have real moms. Moms who send them off with liters of pop and cherry compote and kilos of tomatoes and cucumbers...and packages of cheese and sausage sandwiches...which were made hours ago and spent an uncomfortably-long period of time in the heat earlier today. (Know where this is going?) *cough* I ate a sandwich- either that or starve, right? (This is a 13 1/2 hour train trip.)
I'm thinking of pepto-bismal and mint gum.
I'll be sure to let you know how it ummmm goesssssssssssssss

Happy Father's Day!

There are 3 people I try not to forget on Father's Day- my dad, my little brother, my brother-in-law. It's in June, though (did you know that?!) which is a bad time for remembering things like cards and special emails and the like. Nary a picture with me on this thing of those 3, so- Happy Father's Day to these 3 Especially Special dads... And to the rest of you, too!

Summer showers and cute dogs

Spent a few hours this am in a village with some dear elderly ladies. Here's what my hostess has- a summer shower. It's just outside the chicken yard just beyond the house and just before you get to the outhouse (which is in the chicken yard). I might be weird but I love these showers. There's a 'boctchka' (tank of some sort) up top that collects water that heats in the sun. Get inside, pull the curtain across the doorway; turn on the tap and you have a gravity-powered shower! All while a breeze blows through the cracks in the boards. By the time you get out, if there's much breeze at all, you're half dry. It's the way to have a shower in a typical village home.

The dog? He lives there, too. He's a sweetie. Better behaved in summer (when he's not trying to get in out of the cold) than winter. He used to have friends relations that shared his yard...he seems to be the only one left. And I don't even know his name.

Otherwise known as city streets

Many years ago, the far south of Ukraine was part of what was called 'Besarabia'...and Izmail was the capital of this place. The streets pictured are pretty close to the center of town. Not bad on a day like yesterday- mostly dusty. Try it when it's been raining for a few hundred days...well...yeah...
Things are looking up here, though. They kicked out the mayor and have a new one- some hot-shot woman. She got the traffic lights going first thing. Not kidding when I say that in this city, there were traffic lights in useful and helpful places...but not a one of them worked. Now they do. There's also road construction this summer- another first (in my memory at least of this city). It'll be interesting to see what else changes.

Grilling!

Bill came into the house the other day and said- Don't forget we have a grill and we can use it.

So we ('we'...as in Bill) promptly grilled these red trout steaks (did you know there was such a thing? I looked at it and thought it was salmon...it was delish).

A few days later we had perfectly done perfectly tender and perfectly medium rare steaks... This is special indeed, since this is not a 'steak-eating' people. Having grown up on a dairy farm where we always had our own (very good) beef, I do miss red meat. This stuff was done to perfection. Just sorry there's no pic...