Random Musings on a Cold Sunny Sunday

 Ukraine got its tanks. Finally. Over 300 main battle tanks (MBT) have been promised to Ukraine. Many of them Leopard II which will take Ukrainian tank crews about a week to master Whether they get enough of them in time, master the training, and establish the logistics to launch their long anticipated counter offensive before the Russians launch their offensive is the question. Negotiations are fast tracked for F16s and other fighters as well as long range ATACMS missiles which will complete the AFU strike capability. While the Russians keep hammering at Bakhmut with the regular army reportedly taking over for the wiped up Wagner Group, Ukraine keeps inching towards Kreminna in Luhansk to fully cut supply lines from the northeast. Ukraine continues to attack along the Zaporizhzhia front, hitting the usual high value sites with HIMARS and artillery, while Russia launches missiles and drones against civilian targets. 

I will not comment too much on Canadian politics other than to say the 4 conservative governments in AB, SK, MB and ON are doing their utmost to destroy publicly funded education, health care, and social services. The intent is to privatize them to the greatest extent possible to the benefit of their wealthy friends and donors. Ford was elected in Ontario because no one came out to vote. Alberta has an alternative with experience in Notley's NDP, waiting for an election to be called, Why Moe is popular in Saskatchewan is beyond me but he may well win the next election too. 

My grandson, Grayden, will be 6 months old on Feb 3rd. At least with social media I can keep up with him even if I cant actually hold him. He sits by himself and is eating real food, stuffs his bare feet into his mouth. Has not quite mastered rolling over. He is the smilingest kid ever. Hard to catch him without a smile. 

Morning smiles

Look what I found

A dear friend of ours celebrated her 99th birthday this afternoon. We had planned to go but our landlord was supposed to come by to fix a cabinet drawer in our kitchen. We told our friend we would come to her 100th party instead. I'm sure she will be there.

And we are still waiting for the repair people. I'd fix it myself but cannot figure out how to release the drawer from the glides. There is a fancy apparatus at the far end of the glide but I don't want to break it by forcing it. I do not fit well in the cupboard space under the drawer. Emailed the manufacturer but of course have heard nothing back. I never understand why they even have email for general inquiries as they are consistently ignored.

The end of the drawer glide.

Our back door does not open into our back yard, so we had to take Lucky out on a leash and then shut the gate and let him go. I built a moveable fence across the walk so now he can run out when he wants. Except of course he wants us to go out with him to keep him company. He will run to the front and bark at people, then run to the back and bark just because. Best if someone is on the street and in the alley at the same time. He races back and forth. Sometimes he even remembers why he is out there and does his business. When he wants outside he will bring a stuffed toy to take with him, which he usually forgets. A dog training video I saw said all dogs have ADHD. The need a job to keep focused. If you don't give them one, they will make their own. Lucky's job is to bark at every sound and movement, lunge at big vehicles and people. He never bites. And when we get visitors, he will settle down and accept them. If we aren't around he will be the friendliest dog you ever saw.

The front fence/gate

Back gate

Tanya is using my older Dell computer with Windows 10. She works in Russian language which a friend switched it to last spring; I work in English. She showed me how to switch languages back and forth and I spent two days cleaning it up for her. Uninstalled Malware Bytes which speeded it up a great deal. I used it for years and thought it was good. Apparently not. I installed something with the dumb name of Restoro (https://www.restoro.com/) which I have been using to keep my computer clean and operating at capacity. It works quite well. Takes about 30 minutes to do a clean up and then a reboot to finish the job by deleting all the garbage. It took about 6 hours to reboot and works like a dream. Will reboot now in about 2 minutes.

Tomorrow cold or not, I have to walk Lucky.