Yesterday was the second 24 hour road trip this week and today I am tired. I napped from 3:00 pm until about 8:00 pm. I have my Russian visa now but still no contract between my employer and the client in Khakasia. I wish I'd had the project from the beginning myself but Agro-Soyuz found the client and I am stuck with them at the moment.
Friday is NOT a good travel day as every student and family is going home or to visit Babushka somewhere. Our friend Kostia got me a ticket from P'yatikhatki to Kyiv. Wagon 19 again, Bunk 04. Except it was Bunk 40* which is at the far end of the car, over the window. Not a bad bunk if you are 1.5 meters tall (5') and somewhat simian in nature.
The Attendant on duty, a petite brunette named Svetlana, came to my rescue and sold me her bottom bunk in the attendants' little room for 100 UAH ($14). I'd have paid her triple if she had asked. I made up the bed, kicked my shoes off, turned out the light and pulled the sheet over me. A few minutes later the off-duty attendant, a blonde whose name I didn't catch but it could have been Mindy, slipped into the room and climbed up onto the top bunk. Short skirt and all. Thankfully, it was dark or I am sure even with my eyes shut tight, I'd have been struck blind.
Two nights previous the train was impossibly hot. Thursday night the little room was colder than a Mother-in-Law's kiss. The wind whistled in around the window and I was freezing. The blankets are on a shelf above the top bunk.
Imagined conversation:
Excuse me, Miss Mindy, but I am freezing. Could you get me one of the blankets on the shelf above you?
I have a better idea; let's pretend we are married.
Sounds interesting; what do you have in mind?
Get up and get your own &#%$#@ blanket and don't bother me again.
I got up and got a blanket. They were easy enough to reach.
*I often misread because I do not read carefully enough and I often scramble letters and words. Like the old joke about the Dyslexic Agnostic Insomniac who lay awake at night wondering if there really was a Dog. The other day, I misread my sister's Facebook recipe for Greek Chicken as Geek Children. Sounded like a good idea and the recipe did look delicious but...
Strange but you can get a passport or birth certificate online here. I don't know how they verify who you are but I'll get my drivers license online here shortly.
ReplyDeleteYou're right the world is getting out of balance and I don't see a bright future. I was so hoping to make it to the finish line. Maybe sooner than I thought.
I'm glad someone took care of you!
ReplyDeleteBirth certificates and passports one can apply for on line in Canada too. Visas are a totally different matter.
ReplyDeleteApply for a Russian visa sometime. As a US citizen you will be subjected to the full treatment. Same as they get when they apply for an American visa.
Did it ever dawn on you, BF, that there might be some reasons for the fact that you feel like you're often an accident looking for a place to happen?
ReplyDeleteYeah; me too. It's called "retirement."