The Photograph

The phone rang at 2:47 in the morning.

Why me, Lord? Drunk with a wrong number, I thought, and was not going to answer it. Something told me this might be real, so I reluctantly picked it up. “Yeah?”

“You have to help me. My daughter has disappeared”, woman’s voice, crying and scared but still in control.

“Missing persons is a police case, why involve a PI”?

“They think I’m crazy. They just laughed at me”.

“Ok, when did your daughter disappear?” “Yesterday. . . tomorrow, I don’t know. There is this strange photograph…and it frightens me.”

A photograph shouldn’t set a person off unless connected to kidnapping or blackmail. This didn’t sound like it, or she would have said so. “OK, lady, we better meet but not here. There is a Bar and Grill on Kenneth and Matilda. Meet you there in half an hour. And it will cost you $500 dollars just for getting me up in the middle of the night”.

It was only 15 minutes from my flat, but I wanted to get there first to see what I was dealing with before I was cornered into something. I ordered a Scotch and sat at a corner table where I could see all sides, back to the wall, and waited. She came in looking behind her as though fearing pursuit.

She introduced herself, “My name is Francine Devries. My daughter Isabella has disappeared. She found a strange photograph of herself sound asleep, in a strange room. It was dated three days from now. The room looked like our attic. Curious, she went in and never came out. The attic door is sealed from the inside”.

“I’m Rick O’Shea and you owe me $500”. She slid the bills across the table, “Next month’s grocery money”. Make me feel guilty, will she? I tucked the bills in my shirt.

“Tell me about the house and this attic. I’ll go and see it in the morning. Not much I can do tonight. If your daughter is in that attic she will still be there in the morning”.

“It is an old house, kind of run down on a side street, Cul de sac. We have only lived there a couple of years. Just since her father died. We had no money. It was shelter and it was cheap.”

“Nothing strange ever happened there before? Sounds, footsteps, anything missing from the house?”

“Old houses always make weird sounds, especially when the wind blows.”

We went back to my flat. Francine wasn’t going to sleep anyhow, so I poured us both a drink, and threw a blanket on the couch for her. Next morning we had breakfast and went to this mystery house with the seemingly one-way attic door.

It was one dilapidated place, no wonder it was cheap. We went upstairs to the attic entrance. As Francine said, the door was sealed, like it had been glued to the frame.

This time there was a note on the door on very old, yellowed paper, “Do not attempt to force this door. You cannot know what horrors await you on the other side”.  

Force the door? I’d have needed a sledgehammer and a cutting torch. But who placed the note? It had to have been done last night when we were not here. Were they back inside the attic?

“OK, I am going to sleep up here and see what happens”.  I didn’t believe in ghosties, and ghoulies, long legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night. Yeah, right...and O’Shea is an Italian name.

“I’m staying right here and taking no chances on unknown person(s) showing up with more notes for the door. Can you bring me some food and a couple of blankets, please?” I should have brought my Scotch, a too-late afterthought.

By the time it got dark, I was bored out of my mind. No sounds, no nothing. I lay down and tried to sleep. At 3:00 am I was instantly alert, my hair standing on end. They say there is nothing sweeter than a baby’s laughter, except there was no baby. Laughter…then silence, so thick you could pour gravy on it.

I turned on my flashlight and looked at the door. Another picture, another note. The picture was Isabella, looking very happy. It was dated today. The note said, “Thank you for sending her to us. She will be very happy here and we will look after her.”

I grabbed my things, raced down the stairs, flung the money at Francine, and ran. Dealing with the other world is a job for an exorcist, not a PI. When I got to my office, I poured myself a tumbler of Scotch to steady my nerves. After two more tumblers I was so steady, I couldn’t move.

Cuurent information on Ukrainian Agriculture

 Russia's genocidal war against Ukraine continues with terror bombings of residential areas in Ternopil and Zaporizhzhia. Gas and electic infastructure is also attacked to ensure Ukrainians suffer from cold this winter. Ukrainians are fighting back, sending rockets and drones deep into russia, destroying oli refineries and now power generation and distribution in line with Russian attacks. Gasoline and diesel are in short supply in Russia. Areas around Moscow are cold and dark. Yet no matter how much destruction Ukraine inflicts on Russian drone and rocket factories they still keep coming night and day. The Russian economy is staggering but propped up by Iran and China, though the latter claims not to be involved. 

Ukraine was once the breadbasket of Europe (some claim it is the bridebasket of Europe but I digress). Now it provides grain to nations in the Middle East and in Northern Africa. Russia has attempted to cut off Ukraine's grain trade and replace it with their own wheat or wheat stolen from Ukraine. Ukrainian export of wheat and corn has been able to resume by hugging the Black Sea coastal waters of neighbouring countries. 

And Ukrainian farmers are fighting back. One farmer carries a shotgun to use against incoming drones. Ukraine is adapting to Russia’s genocidal war by going digital.  The scale of adoption is striking. This is not limited to the huge Oligarch-controlled farms over which Brussels is obsessed. They only make up 10% to 20% of farmed area in Ukraine.

Use of digital technology on Ukrainian farms

Some of these farms are adjacent to active combat in Sumy and Kherson oblasts. They use the same satellite imagery systems to spot crop stress and avoid freshly mined areas.

Digital technology chains together. Sixty-eight percent use yield mapping in combines, feeding data into next year’s variable-rate seeding plans. Fifty-three percent automate grain truck routes from field to elevator. Forty-two percent eliminated paper waybills, and 38% use electronic queues at delivery points—no drivers idling for hours while Russia launches missiles at grain infrastructure.

Russia wants to wreck Ukraine’s economy through bombardment. Ukrainian producers are building the infrastructure to do the opposite—feed more people with fewer inputs, using farmers’ phones and satellites instead of more land and diesel.

Russia’s energy warfare strategy has proven more effective at inflating food costs than destroying Ukraine’s agricultural capacity, revealing a sophisticated shift in economic warfare tactics.

Inflation in the food group is 22%. Electricity, logistics, and fuel costs for businesses are constantly rising, as is the need to raise wages. All these factors shape wholesale prices at bakeries much more than grain costs.

Current retail prices reflect this inflation: rye bread averaging 45.83 hryvnias ($1.11 USD) for a 300-gram loaf in major Ukrainian supermarkets as of August 2025, while standard loaves (450 grams) now cost an average of 36.7 hryvnias ($0.89 USD)—nearly 9 hryvnias ($0.22) higher than the previous year.

Ukraine’s National Bank raised interest rates to 14.5% in January to combat overall inflation, which reached 15.9% in May before moderating to 14.1% in July 2025.

Ukrainian exports dropped 33% in the first two months of the 2025/26 marketing year compared to the previous season. Yet grain prices are rising, with wheat climbing from 7,350 UAH/t ($178 USD) in mid-September to 8,750 UAH/t ($212 USD), driven by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure rather than supply shortages.

Medium-sized and family businesses account for about 80% of agricultural enterprises, while only 20% operate companies with more than 10,000 hectares. The 8,600 medium-sized farms of 200-2,000 hectares—not the massive holdings that dominate headlines—produced over 50% of cereal output before the war.  Farms under 1,000 hectares account for 58% of production.

While Russian forces steal grain from occupied territories and systematically target food infrastructure, Ukrainian farmers continue producing crops that feed both domestic and global markets.

This agricultural persistence represents more than economic necessity—it demonstrates the resilience and institutional capacity that make Ukraine’s European integration both possible and strategically vital—if Brussels can move beyond its misconceptions to recognize the complex reality of Ukrainian agriculture fighting for survival and a European future.

Sources:

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/10/03/ukraine-agriculture-digitization-war/

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/09/18/ukrainian-grain-exports-plunge-33-as-eu-integration-advances/

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/09/08/ukraine-bread-prices-surge-russian-energy-attacks/

Dinosaurs

 After a week with my 3 year old grandson, I now know more about dinosaurs than I did before. I learned about Brontosaurus, Pterydactyls, Tryceratops and T. Rex. The latter two are his favourites. He even knew they lived at the same time and fought each other. His two stuffies of them fought incessantly, mostly on my lap. I had to Google them to learn they lived at the same time and according to archaelology actually did fight each other. 

What is with toddlers, both boys and girls, that they are fascinated with dinosaurs as soon as they are old enough to go "ROAAAR"? I cannot remember what my kids were obsessd with at that age. My Little Pony? Cabbage Patch dolls? Someone help me. Late 70s, early 80s. What were toddlers into? 

Anyway, I found the perfect Christmas gift for him. Send a picture of the child and they stick it riding on either a T. rex or a Triceratops. I will ask him what his favourite is. 

https://www.amazon.ca/Duckbe-Custom-Photo-Blanket-Giganotosaurus/dp/B0CG932295/ref=sr_1_14_sspa?th=1

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald

November 10th marked the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. I was reminded of this when my social media was flooded by people who did remember and were quoting Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The following has been adapted from Wikipedia to provide background.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. 

When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the first laker built to the maximum St. Lawrence Seaway size, which was 730 feet (222.5 m) long, 75 feet (22.9 m) wide, and with a 25-foot (7.6 m) draft. The vertical height of the hull) was 39 ft (12 m). The hold depth (the inside height of the cargo hold) was 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m).

Edmund Fitzgerald's three central cargo holds were loaded through 21 watertight cargo hatches, each 11 by 48 feet (3.4 by 14.6 m) of ⁵⁄₁₆-inch-thick (7.9 mm) steel. Loading Edmund Fitzgerald with 26,535 t of taconite pellets (a variety of iron ore) took about four and a half hours, while unloading took around 14 hours.

For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite from mines along the Minnesota Iron Range near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and other Great Lakes ports, passing through the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) and St. Clair and Detroit rivers (between Lake Huron and Lake Erie),

A round trip between Superior, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, usually took her five days and she averaged 47 similar trips per season. The vessel's usual route was between Superior, Wisconsin, and Toledo, Ohio. By November 1975, Edmund Fitzgerald had logged an estimated 748 round trips on the Great Lakes and covered more than a million miles, "a distance roughly equivalent to 44 trips around the world."

Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, at 2:15 p.m. on the afternoon of November 9, 1975, under the command of Master Captain McSorley. She was en route to the steel mill near Detroit, Michigan, with a full cargo of taconite ore pellets and soon reached her full speed of 16.3 miles per hour (26.2 km/h). Around 5 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter under the command of Captain Jesse B. "Bernie" Cooper, Arthur M. Anderson, destined for Gary, Indiana.

The weather forecast was not unusual for November, and the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted that a storm would pass just south of Lake Superior by 7 a.m. on November 10. At 2:00 a.m. on November 10, the NWS upgraded its warnings from gale to storm, forecasting winds of 65–93 km/h. The NWS later altered its forecast, issuing gale warnings for the whole of Lake Superior. Arthur M. Anderson and Edmund Fitzgerald altered course northward, seeking shelter along the Ontario shore, but sailed directly into the storm at when the wind shifted. Edmund Fitzgerald reported winds of 52 knots (96 km/h; 60 mph) and waves 10 feet (3.0 m) high.

Routes usually taken vs actual trackline

After 1:50 p.m., Arthur M. Anderson logged winds of 93 km/h, wind speeds again picked up rapidly, and it began to snow at 2:45 p.m., reducing visibility; Arthur M. Anderson lost sight of Edmund Fitzgerald, which was about 16 miles (26 km) ahead at the time.

Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald began taking on water and had lost two vent covers, both radars, and developed a list. Shortly after 4:10 p.m., Captain McSorley said that he would slow his ship down so that Arthur M. Anderson could close the gap between them to within a 10-mile (16 km) range so she could receive radar guidance from the other ship.

For a time, Arthur M. Anderson directed Edmund Fitzgerald toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay; then, at 4:39 p.m., McSorley contacted the USCG station in Grand Marais, Michigan, to inquire whether the Whitefish Point light and navigation beacon were operational and was informed later that the light was active, but the navigation beacon was not.

By late in the afternoon of November 10, sustained winds of over 93 km/h were recorded by ships and observation points across eastern Lake Superior. Arthur M. Anderson logged sustained winds as high as 107 km/h while waves increased to as high as 25 feet (7.6 m) by 6:00 p.m. Arthur M. Anderson was also struck by 130 to 139 km/h gusts and rogue waves as high as 35 feet (11 m).

 In a broadcast shortly afterward, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) warned all shipping that the Soo Locks had been closed, and they should seek safe anchorage.

Sometime after 5:30 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald reported being in difficulty; at 7:10 p.m., Captain McSorley sent his last message, "We are holding our own". Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (88 fathoms; 160 m) deep, about 17 miles (27.36 km) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Edmund Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at top speed. Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered.

She was located in deep water on November 14, 1975, by a U.S. Navy aircraft detecting magnetic anomalies, and found soon afterwards to be in two large pieces.

Position of the wreck in a relatively small area

In 1976, the U.S. Navy dived on the wreck and found Edmund Fitzgerald lying in two large pieces in 530 feet (160 m) of water. Navy estimates put the length of the bow section at 276 feet (84 m) and that of the stern section at 253 feet (77 m). The bow section stood upright in the mud, some 170 feet (52 m) from the stern section that lay capsized at a 50-degree angle from the bow. In between the two broken sections lay a large mass of taconite pellets and scattered wreckage lying about, including hatch covers and hull plating.

The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown. Several hypotheses have been put forward (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald from where this post was extracted and adapted. None explain satisfactorily how the Edmund Fitzgerald  split almost exactly in two and came to rest with half upside down and half right side up, with iron ore pellets scattered over only 2 acres.

Edmund Fitzgerald is among the largest and best-known vessels lost on the Great Lakes, but she is not alone on the Lake Superior seabed in that area. In the years between 1816, when Invincible was lost, and 1975, when Edmund Fitzgerald sank, the Whitefish Point area had claimed at least 240 ships.

Theirs was not to reason why

The guns fell silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Turn up the sound

On November 11th, Remembrance Day, we remember the Canadian military killed and injured. We need to remember those animals who also fought and died. 

Horses have been used in battle for millenia. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the use of horses in war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_warfare

We allow the soldiers who fought a certain agency, though most would have felt the had no choice. But the horse who fought and died, along side their riders certainly had no agency. And they deserve not to be forgotten.

Theirs not to make reply,

   Theirs not to reason why,

   Theirs but to do and die.

Medieval Cavalry facing the pikes of the opposing army

In Brave Heart, the Scottish army used long pointed stakes to stop the English cavalry charge and  destroy them in hand to hand combat. At Agincourt the English forced the French to attack across muddy ground. Their longbowmen aimed at the lead horses, creating chaos, and resulted in the destruction of the "Flower of French Knightood". The horses took the punishment. They had no choice.

British Heavy Cavalry Charge at Balaclava

Charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo

Though we think of the Second World War as highly mechanized, horses played a large role expecially in the Eastern Front. The German Army, strapped for motorised transport because its factories were needed to produce tanks and aircraft, used around 2.75 million horses – more than it had used in World War I. The Soviets used 3.5 million horses.

Germans having supply problems on the Russian Steppe

“I’m only a cavalry charger,

And I’m dying as fast as I can,

(For my body is riddled with bullets –

They’ve potted both me and my man)."

- Excerpt from “The Cavalry Charger’s Appeal” by Scots Grey, A Book of Poems for The Blue Cross Fund

The Traitor's Daughter

When our family lived in Kindersey in the late 70's, early 80's there was a restaurant a couple blocks from us, owned and operated by a woman from Netherhill, a hamlet a few kilometers east of town. She had a reputation as a good cook but put up with no insults to her food. She threw some Americans out for asking for ketchup for their steak.

Her name was Agnes Spicer. She had run a restaurant in Netherhill for several years prior. She was extremely closed mouthed about her background. When she died, her daughter, Roxana, set out to learn of her mother's history. My youngest cousin went to high school with her in Kindersley. 

I recommend this book to any one interested in Soviet and Nazi history and a detective story that keeps the reader spellbound from beginning to end .

 https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-traitor-s-daughter-7

The following is taken directly from the description of the book on Kobo. 

The masterful narration of a daughter's decades-long quest to understand her extraordinary mother, who was born in Lenin's Soviet Union, served as a combat soldier in the Red Army, and endured three years of Nazi captivity—but never revealed her darkest secrets.**

As a child, Roxana Spicer would sometimes wake to the sound of the Red Army choir. She would tip-toe downstairs to find her mother, cigarette in one hand and Black Russian in the other, singing along. Roxana would keep her company, and wonder....

Everyone in their village knew Agnes Spicer was Russian, that she had been a captive of the Nazis. And that was all they knew, because Agnes kept her secrets close: how she managed to escape Germany, what the tattoo on her arm meant, even her real name.

Discovering the truth about her beloved, charismatic, volatile mother became Roxana's obsession. Throughout her career as a journalist and documentarian, between investigations across Canada and around the world, she always went home to ask her mother more questions, often while filming.

Roxana also took every chance to visit the few places that she did know played a role in her mother's story: Bad Salzuflen, Germany, home to POW slave labourers during the war; notorious concentration camps; and Russia. Under Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and the early years of Putin, she was able to find people, places, and documents that are now—perhaps forever—lost again.

The Traitor's Daughter is intimate and exhaustively researched, vividly conversational, and shot through with Agnes Spicer's irrepressible, fiery personality. It is a true labour of love as well as a triumph of blending personal biography with sweeping history.

 

The way to a man’s heart

Grandmotherly advice to young women is “Kissin’ don’t last. Cookin’ do”, or “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. In the PI business, the way to a man’s heart is sometimes between the 4^th and 5^th rib.

Bill, the beat cop, came into my office the other day. “We might have a live one for you. A call came into the precinct office yesterday. Woman’s voice, not crazy or hysterical, but cold and flat, almost mechanical. ‘You’ll find the body alright. You won’t stop finding it. There will be pieces all over the city and for the first two months, he’ll still be alive’.

“Someone turned in an ear that they found in their doorway. DNA didn’t turn up an owner and there was no extra DNA from the perp.”

I didn’t see any money in it for me, but it did interest me. My macabre sense of humour, I guess. I asked for the details. “None. No divorce proceedings gone bad, no bitterly contested wills, no overdue loan shark accounts, no missing persons reported. All dead ends, so to speak. But someone made a bitter enemy”.

All my cases either began or ended with a woman. Or both. Remind me not to make enemies of psychopathic females. Or friends, for that matter.

“OK, what can I do to help?”

“Go fishing in the dark places only people like you or her know. Tell lies, say anything as an excuse to ask questions. Anybody sell a sharp knife lately; butcher suppliers get an unusual request, fishing stores sell a filleting knife, sharpening service get a new customer? If the cops go snooping around, people clam up. And watch your back. I don’t want to find pieces of Rick O’Shea turning up.”

No moon, heavy overcast, dark as a prosecutor’s heart and colder than a penguin’s hooha. In the wee hours of the morning, a voice called out from a dark alley, “From your questions, it appears you are looking for me? Who did you think you could fool?”

I reached under my left shoulder and pulled out a mickey of Scotch, then reached behind me and grabbed my snub-nosed .38. I had a feeling any shooting would be close range. I flung the bottle in the direction of the voice and heard it shatter on the pavement.

The shadow jumped towards me with a knife flashing. I fired twice with no effect. “Fool, you can’t kill me. I am already dead”. That left a puddle on the pavement, trust me. But I could run and I did, with the apparition close behind.

My Cub Scout Manual never prepared me for this. Vampire: garlic, cross, and stake. Werewolf: silver bullets. Guess I should have watched Ghost Busters. Then it hit me. Witches: water. Worked for Dorothy. Rain had left water in the streets, so I headed into a deep puddle.

That stopped her. Safe for the moment, I shouted, “If you are already dead, who are you chopping up?” “The man who killed me. Slowly and as a warning to other domestic abusers”.

“You won’t get any argument from me, but you better make your warnings more specific as you are just scaring hell out of people. (The ones who die go straight to heaven, but I digress). Put up a sign, buy a radio ad or a billboard.”

“Sounds like a plan. I will do that. Now go home and quit bothering me”. You have no idea how happy I was to obey.

Next day a huge billboard appeared in the middle of the city. Wording was much the same as the phone call that started all this. ‘Domestic abusers, take warning. You’ll find the body of my murderer alright. You won’t stop finding it. There will be pieces all over the city and for the first two months, he’ll still be alive’ and your turn will be next.”

 

Top Ten Country Duets My Picks

 I will put them in the order they showed up but may not necessarily agree.

I likely missed some so please add your favourites

DEI – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

 DEI can be broken down into three pillars. 

Diversity: the presence and participation of individuals with varying backgrounds and perspectives, including those who have been traditionally underrepresented. 

Equity: equal access to opportunities and fair, just, and impartial treatment. 

Inclusion: a sense of belonging in an environment where all feel welcomed, accepted, and respected.

DEI is a lofty, worthy goal: the idea that everyone, no matter their identities and backgrounds, should have a seat at the table, be treated well, and feel like they belong and are worthy of respect and acceptance.

DEI can mean a great many things.  DEI gave women the right to vote (inclusion). DEI also means that the person most qualified is hired, instead of a mediocre white man with connections. It might be a Person of Colour, a woman, a member of the LGBTQ+ community or a combination of all three. It might even be a white man.

The Right have tried to turn the meaning on its head as Orwell illustrated in 1984 - "War is Peace". They claim a DEI Hire is a person who was not qualified but hired because they were Black.  Republicans called Kamala Harris a DEI Hire as a derogatory slur. Actually, it was true because she was the most qualified for all the positions she held (and IMHO for president as well).  Trump’s cabinet is what happens when the most qualified are fired and replaced with mediocre white men.  

After taking office, Trump issued at least 90 Executive Orders shutting down DEI programs, calling them wasteful and radical. His criteria for hiring were NOT ability to do the job but absolute loyalty to himself. Pete Kegseth fired every Black person in the military and replaced them with far less qualified white men. The top militsary brass are not well qualified and place USA in some danger. 

The modern anti-DEI backlash is really about resegregation and white supremacy.

The Battle of Borodino

 They say people who learn from history have to watch while people who do not learn from history repeat it, making the same and sometimes new errors. 

Charles XII of Sweden was the Swedish king who invaded Russia in a campaign from 1707–1709 during the Great Northern War. The invasion ultimately ended in a disastrous defeat for the Swedish army at the Battle of Poltava, and it led to the collapse of the Swedish empire and loss of its great power status. 

Hitler made the same mistake with Barbarossa. The Germans realized they could not maintain the logisitcs needed for a prolonged invasion so they simply decided they could capture Moscow by the end of September. Move the goalposts instead of dealing with the facts. 

Napoleon repeated Charkes XII mistake when he invaded Russia in 1812. He was used to rapidly marching his Grande Armee, living off the land. That worked in Europe but spelled disaster in Russia. Berlin and Prague are 500 km from Paris. Moscow is another 2000 km further. 

Russian General Kutuzov saw no need to fight as he knew Napoleon was beaten as soon as he crossed the Nieman river. Distance, disease and weather would beat him. However after the French destroyed the city of Smolensk, Kutuzov knew he had to fight as the Tsar, the Russian troops and Russia could not accept further retreat. So he picked a suitable spot just west of Moscow at Borodino and waited for the French to attack. 

Pictures from the Borodino Panarama Museum

By this time the ratio of French to Russian forces had shrunk from 3:1 to 5:4. The main part of Napoleon's army had entered Russia with 286,000 men, but by the time of the battle was reduced mostly through starvation, thirst and disease. 

The French army, led by Napoleon, won a tactical victory at the Battle of Borodino, but it was a costly and indecisive Pyrrhic victory. About 70,000 soldiers died in the battle. While the French gained control of the battlefield and forced the Russian army to retreat, Mikhail Kutuzov's forces remained intact. Russian losses could be replaced, French losses could not. The Russian Army retreated to east of Moscow and ordered the population of Moscow to evacuate eastward also. 

Napoleon entered a mostly deserted Moscow and camped. According to custom, the Tsar should now send an emmisary to sue for peace, pay a ransom and everyone go home. It didn't happen. Napoleon was left cooling his heels. There are any number of theories about how the fire started that destroyed most of Moscow but with thousands of soldiers cooking over open fires, it was inevitable. 

Winter was coming and eventually Napoleon decided to leave the city and head west. Kutuzov swung his army south, so Napoleon had to return the way he came. It was not only the winter that destroyed Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. There was no food and no forage for the horses. Men and horses died by the thousands. Of the 100 thousand that left Moscow, only about 49,000 soldiers and another 40,000 stragglers made it to the Berizina River. They were met there by the Rusian army led by Field Marshal Wittgenstein and Admiral Chichagov. 

Berezina Crossing

The battle didn't accomplish anything and the Russians let Napoleon escape with about 10,000 soldiers, thinking it didn't matter. A terrible error. It took another three years, losses of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and the Russian army in Paris before Napoleon was finally stopped and exiled to Elba. 

Diagramatic of Napoleon's Invasion of Russia in 1812

I have read several books on Napoleon's march on Moscow and to be honest, Tolstoy's War and Peace is as good an account as any. In 2006 on my way to meet Tanya in Krasnoyarsk, I was fortunate enough to visit the Borodino panarama from which these pictures come. I also spent an afternoon in the Tretyakov Art Gallery and saw less than 10%. One needs long three days and a guide who knows the paintings.

I give up. The Firehose of Shиt is Drowning me

 

My head is so disorganized I could not trigger a drunken brawl at an Irish wake. So much stuff pouring down including Trump's shитту AI which was unnecessary as he shитs on Americans and that world every day. Telling Zelenskyy he would give Tomahawks to Ukraine and then changing his mind when Putin told him too. 

Congress shut down to avoid releasing the Epstein files, while everyone suffers since no money has been approved. Gideon J Tucker said that "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” In that he is wrong as under the American system it doesnt seem to matter. And Trump having declared himself KING, inspite of a 7 to 8 million march, dosnt need Congress anyhow even though the Republicans would give him anything they want. Are they afraid for their lives or their livlihoods or both?

In Canada, nothing shuts down if a budget isnt passed. Money is released one quarter at a time based on the last approved budget. Right now it isnt the Canadian budget that worries me. 

It is a new Immigration Bill which essentially shuts off any hope of anyone getting Permanent Residency, possibly including my wife. I just wrote to the Minister but am afraid this is my answer. The racist xenophobic comments under any article referencing immigration tell me that Canadins approve and are no better than USians. We may have to go back to Ukraine. 

50-year immigration wait stuns lawyers and families, but IRCC says it's no mistake

The ongoing genocide in Gaza with (likely American Christian) Zionists blaming everything on Hamas. On Oct 7th Hamas tried to sieze hostages to force the Zionists to release the '000s of Palestinian prisoners they have been holding for more than 20 years, torturing and murdering. Most of the Israeli deaths on Oct 7th were caused by the IOF who set up Hamas so they had an excuse to continue their genocide. Reading the comments on Threads (I dont go near X) makes me sick at the lies being told by Zionists.

Ukrainians have to reapply for their pensions as those in temporarily Russian occupied territories also get Russian pensions which they weer forced to apply for. There is a link to follow to reapply but everytime Tanya gets to a certain point, it kicks her off line. Must have been designed by Immigration Canada.

Cold nights now but no snow yet. It reached 5C today. We dress warm when walking Lucky. Today we walked through the Nutana Cemetery which is the oldest in Saskatoon. The first person buried there died in 1883 in a blizzard. Many of the graves have been moved as the bank near the river is unstable. Tanya was interested in the grave stones. Lucky was not. 

Halloween is coming and rumours have it we will get from 80 to 120 kids. The way the houses are decorated I believe it. We have a solitary pumpkin which I will carve closer to the date. Tanya is not a believer in Halloween even though it is catching on in Ukraine. 

I miss Jackiesue (Yellow Dog Granny) who passed away in February 2025. She was a nationlal treasure and a Blue thorn in the side of Red Texas. These memes are for her.

Lucky-isms

 Our GSD Lucky whom we brought from Ukraine in the fall of 2022 gives our lives some meaning outside of ourselves. He answers to Lucky, Doofus, and Bud. Some days he is a sweetheart and somedays a total Richard Cranium. 

He does his best to love Tanya and I equally. I walk him. Tanya feeds him, opens the door for him at midnight and six am, gives him his meds when necessary and worrys about him constantly. He has a big dog bed and will use it in day time when we are up and about. At night, He sleeps on my carpet some of the time. My son in law put LED lights under my bed so I dont step on him when I get up in the dark. 

Most times he sleeps in Tanya's room (I am a night hawk) either on the carpet or in her bed. (She has a queen, I have a twin). But he will come in a few times in the night to chack on me. If I am awake I will give him pets and back/hip massage. Then he may collapse on my carpet or go back to Tanya's room. 

Tanya will often be on her phone, checking news from Ukraine or texting her sister/friends. When Lucky wants to sleep it needs to be dark so he pokes his nose under her phone and flips it up, signalling time to shut it down.

He gets a denta-stick every morning. The other morning Tanya forgot so he dug into his box and got one out on his own. He knows the routine. Otherwise he never goes near his treat box. He's not very food oriented. Except for my bacon at breakfast and meat from our plates any other time.

One day Tanya gtd him some sausage out of the fridge. He lay in front of the fridge staring longingly at it with his sad brown puppy eyes. No luck.

I discovered he likes Dad's oatmeal cookies. so do I. Tanya bought generic oatmeal cookies at the grocery store. Dryer and not as sweet. He ate a few and then if I gave him one, he would take it and give it to Tanya. 

When we are eating he will come and mooch, knowing we usually share. If he has no luck with one of us he will try the other person. To make him go away we offer him something he hates, like broccholi. He goes off in a huff and eats his dry food. 

He also eats his dry food if Tanya gets the vacuum out. I guess he worries she will clean out his dish. He has a dish used to slow down dogs who inhale their food. It gives him a challenge is all I can say. We are old and boring, not up to mentally challenging a GSD with the intelligence of a 3 year old. (He and my grandson are intellectual equals???) Well, my grandson did get written up in Play School for disobedience.

When we moved from Regina to Saskatoon two months ago, he was very unsure about the whole thing. We put out his dog bed; he lay on it for a minute and was good to go. If the bed is here then this is home. 

Like any middle aged male (6 years old is about 42 in human years) he has suddenlky developed prostate problems. The vet said that neutering him would cause the prostate to shrink and pretty much disapper. Tanya wondered if that would solve my prostate problems too and could she get a two for one deal at the clinic. 

Thoughts on turning 78 years old

 

There are two sayings regarding aging. "Every day above ground is a good one". That is an outright lie.

The other is "May you live as long as you want to and want to as long as you live". I like that one as it gives a person some agency. My Mom's youngest cousin on her mother's side battled cancer until she got tired of it and opted for MAID at 89. 

My maternal grandfather died at 83 of a heart attack; my mother at 81 of same. I have no cardiac problems at all (touch wood). 

My maternal grandfather died at 90 of old age. Went to sleep and didn't wake up. My maternal grandmother died at 95 but the last 5 to10 years were not kind to her as she had extreme dementia. I worry about that. The bag has a hole in it and my marbles are falling out. I have an appointment with a gerentologist to determine how many  I have left. 

In the scheme of things, I have lived a long time. Perhaps I will see 90, perhaps more but will settle for 90. I have seen a great deal as has anyone my age that didn't stay home. I cannot count how often I moved after I left home at 17. Friends of mine have seen far more countires than I have but I needed someone to pay my way. 

In Ukraine one of my favourite walks was through the cemetery a few blocks north of us. Most men died in their 60s. Only women, no men that I found, lived to their 90s. I used to think about what a Ukrainian woman born in 1903 saw in her 90 year lifetime and wondered how they lived through it. "You can be born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, educated in Poland, married under the Third Reich, work and retire in the USSR and draw your pension in Ukraine and never have left L'viv".

Now I look back at my life and am thankful for all I have seen and done. Who knows where the time goes? 

How I Sent My Summer Vacation

 When I walked the dog today, I wore long jeans, long sleeve sshirt and a bunny hug. I guess it is fall.

A quick catch up on our doings is in order. In April and May I had cataract surgery and in July got new glasses. Not totally happy with them and may get my eyes checked again. (I prefer plaid rather than checked but I digress). My new knee is working fine, doesnt hurt anymore and the surgery frightened the other knee so it doesn't hurt either. 

I walk with a cane now as I have neuropathy in both lower legs. That gives me poor balance. So I go tap tap tapping along like Blind Pew. When I walk Lucky I hold the loop of the leash in my right hand with the cane and take up the slack with my left hand. Lucky likes walking along streets as there is much to sniff and mark. We are close to Diefenbaker Park for a long long walk but it is all grass so boring. 

Tanya planted all her flowers in pots this spring for reasons I will explain. We moved from Regina to Saskatoon in mid-August. My two daughters in Saskatoon bought a lovely house for us and insisted we move. Regina had many advantages and I was reluctant to leave to say the least but the house was too small and the basement stairs too steep so it was time. 

Our home in Saskatoon is in a lovely area close to Exibition Park, bound by the freeway, Taylor and Ruth Streets. It is 30 minutes to Gabriel Dumont Park . Tanya and I often take Lucky down to the river. It is a 30 meter climb from water to street level but there is a gravel road with a gradual slope. I still have to rest at the top before I continue on home. 

Our back yard is grass, shrubs and trees with a big storage shed. Lucky loves it. A gate opens to a parking spot behind the garage, with garden space along the fence. Next spring I will build three 1 meter x 2 meter x 30 cm box gardens for Tanya to plant vegetables and flowers.  

I get my exercise every day walking lucky 2 or 3 km. I have dropped from a 3X to a 2X and it feels good. I am 25 kg lighter than my normal weight. 

Some things are within walking distance. Vet Clinic and Critters Pet Store both about 15 minutes, 20 if I take Lucky as he has to sniff of course. Critters does a great job of trimming Lucky's nails. 

The bus system here is pretty good once we get used to the routes and the best ways to get anywhere. Number 1 bus stops two blocks from us and goes south to a large mall area with WalMart, Home Depot and several other shops. We are a long way from South Costco  which is a disadvantage, but only 40 minutes from Market Mall with one bus chnge. Market Mall has become a medical centre of sorts. They have a walk in for people over 50 which is great. I miss my NP in Regina. 

My girls take us places when it is convenient for them and sometimes when it is not, I have to admit. Two days ago we did a $400 shopping trip to Superstore. They found us a small freezer that fits in our basement so we can buy more in bulk than before. We feed them supper when we can and share everything that Tanya cooks with them. Plov and Borsch being two favourites. 

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