Saturday, September 25, 2010

Night Train to Memphis

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...

4 comments:

  1. 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.

    You'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.

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  2. I'm glad someone took care of you!

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  3. Birth certificates and passports one can apply for on line in Canada too. Visas are a totally different matter.
    Apply 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.

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  4. 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?

    Yeah; me too. It's called "retirement."

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