Having spent many years in a house with five females, four human and one Black Lab, I am used to hair-clogged drains. However, I am the only person using the upstairs shower and every second or third day, I have to remove hair from the screen over the drain. I always said I would be bald before I went grey. It looks like that may be the case.
So my hair is getting thin. I never liked fat hair anyhow.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Plumbing
Plumbing in Ukraine is not a trade as we know it in Canada. You cannot "call a plumber" to fix a leaky tap or unplug a clogged drain. Shops handle plumbing supplies but it is do-it-yourself or find a handyman (handyperson?). Which is why we have sewer gas coming back through the bathtub, water leaking from the drain in the kitchen sink and a banging tap in the upstairs bathroom. Our first handyman wasn't so handy. He has since moved to Moscow.
Yuri was here last night after work to repair the hot water shut off tap on our upstairs water heater. Just to explain, the heater is a 20 liter unit which is wall mounted in the upstairs bathroom. Downstairs hotwater is "on-demand" and our furnace doubles as the water heater. Anyhow the tap decided to come apart in the middle. Yuri was disgusted at whoever bought it as it was Chinese-made and therefore poor quality. (China knows it has quality problems, don't worry). We went together, Yuri and I to the hardware store and bought Italian-made. I offered him my teflon pipe tape but he rejected it in favour of tried and true calking fiber.
In Canada I could have replaced the tap. Here everything is so different. It is hard to explain how or why because it looks much the same. I'm glad we have a good handyman in the neighbourhood.
In other news I went for a haircut today. Last summer it cost me about $7 USD including tip, . Today it cost me more local currency but only $6 USD.
Yuri was here last night after work to repair the hot water shut off tap on our upstairs water heater. Just to explain, the heater is a 20 liter unit which is wall mounted in the upstairs bathroom. Downstairs hotwater is "on-demand" and our furnace doubles as the water heater. Anyhow the tap decided to come apart in the middle. Yuri was disgusted at whoever bought it as it was Chinese-made and therefore poor quality. (China knows it has quality problems, don't worry). We went together, Yuri and I to the hardware store and bought Italian-made. I offered him my teflon pipe tape but he rejected it in favour of tried and true calking fiber.
In Canada I could have replaced the tap. Here everything is so different. It is hard to explain how or why because it looks much the same. I'm glad we have a good handyman in the neighbourhood.
In other news I went for a haircut today. Last summer it cost me about $7 USD including tip, . Today it cost me more local currency but only $6 USD.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Dog-Gone
Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday on the Orthodox calendar. Tanya made bliny (crepes) and we took some with us when we went over to visit Masha and parents. Masha has a cold again and did not go to school this week. She is very susceptable to colds, it seems. We had a good visit - Masha "read" an ABC book to Tanya; each letter had a little six or eight line verse and she knew them all the way to M before she got bored and stopped. Then Tanya cut shapes from coloured paper and Masha glued them onto another paper to make a picture of a forest at night with a crescent moon, stars, fir trees, a rabbit and a fox.
We got home about 7:00 in the dark, just in time for the headlights to catch the tail end of two dogs disappearing up the road. The gate latch had just broken as we drove up and they were making good their escape. Bobik came home after a couple of hours. Volk never did come home until this morning. He was all contrite, rolling on his back in surrender. I threw him back in the pen and he seemed happy to be there. Bobik growled at him.
We got home about 7:00 in the dark, just in time for the headlights to catch the tail end of two dogs disappearing up the road. The gate latch had just broken as we drove up and they were making good their escape. Bobik came home after a couple of hours. Volk never did come home until this morning. He was all contrite, rolling on his back in surrender. I threw him back in the pen and he seemed happy to be there. Bobik growled at him.
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Monkey Cartoon
Bill Stovin's Blog http://mediamelon.net recently ran a blog on the Chimpanzee Cartoon which appeared in the New York Post. My question was this:
If someone did a cartoon of a monkey morphing into Bush, it is humour. The same cartoon monkey morphing into Obama is what? Why?
This answer from "Corey" was exactly what I was looking for and very well put:
There is no reoccurring history of monkey’s personifying white people in negative racial ways.
Sure, if Bush anthropomorphically began swinging from trees and eating bananas, the reference would describe his own behavior without inferring a cultural or racial degradation. Political correctness is different than historical awareness.
Global consciousness still contains remnants of hateful thought using monkeys as a way to portray Black people. Hopefully evolution will, offer the time needed to educate people of little to no tolerance, or fade away their DNA .
If someone did a cartoon of a monkey morphing into Bush, it is humour. The same cartoon monkey morphing into Obama is what? Why?
This answer from "Corey" was exactly what I was looking for and very well put:
There is no reoccurring history of monkey’s personifying white people in negative racial ways.
Sure, if Bush anthropomorphically began swinging from trees and eating bananas, the reference would describe his own behavior without inferring a cultural or racial degradation. Political correctness is different than historical awareness.
Global consciousness still contains remnants of hateful thought using monkeys as a way to portray Black people. Hopefully evolution will, offer the time needed to educate people of little to no tolerance, or fade away their DNA .
Sunday, February 22, 2009
This week's Caption Contest
Last week, I asked for captions for a silly picture and got 6 times normal comments on my blog. This old couple has always intrigued me as to what conversations they might have such as the example given. Lets hear your ideas.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Car Insurance
Car insurance is an annual event that catches me off guard every year. Mostly because it requires a large sum of money which I don't have. This year was no exception. Our insurance was up today and the money to pay for the new contract finally arrived yesterday.
This is a cash society. Our insurance agent does not have a land line in his office and therefore does not have a credit card terminal. My bank (credit union) limits daily cash withdrawals so of course we had to take cash out yesterday and again today to get enough to cover the policy. The insurance agent cannot give us a receipt; he must deposit it in the bank, next door, and they issue a receipt in two copies, one for him and one for us. And charge 1% of the deposit for the service.
The insurance company is out of Vienna, Austria and the policy is quit different from anything I am used to. Not sure if it is how things are done in Europe or just in Ukraine. Our policy last year had a 1% deductible and would have cost us substantially more this year so we opted for a 10% deductible. There is no continuity of policy from year to year. Each policy is a one year stand alone. We had to take pictures of the car showing any damage so it would not be claimed against the new policy.
Cost us about $900 CAD or $750 USD. Not bad as long as I don't hit anything.
This is a cash society. Our insurance agent does not have a land line in his office and therefore does not have a credit card terminal. My bank (credit union) limits daily cash withdrawals so of course we had to take cash out yesterday and again today to get enough to cover the policy. The insurance agent cannot give us a receipt; he must deposit it in the bank, next door, and they issue a receipt in two copies, one for him and one for us. And charge 1% of the deposit for the service.
The insurance company is out of Vienna, Austria and the policy is quit different from anything I am used to. Not sure if it is how things are done in Europe or just in Ukraine. Our policy last year had a 1% deductible and would have cost us substantially more this year so we opted for a 10% deductible. There is no continuity of policy from year to year. Each policy is a one year stand alone. We had to take pictures of the car showing any damage so it would not be claimed against the new policy.
Cost us about $900 CAD or $750 USD. Not bad as long as I don't hit anything.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Remembering the Farm - Boys and BB guns
The summer my brother was 12 and I was 13, my dad bought us each a Daisy BB gun. Second hand, as new was totally beyond our budget. My brother got the pump action and I got the Red Ryder carbine. His had a longer barrel and was more accurate but mine was "cowboy".
The farm had a .22 rifle, for varmints, injured animals and stunning pigs and cattle to butcher but we had to ask to use it and buy our own ammunition. CIL Whiz-Bang .22 shells came in short, long, long rifle and long rifle mushroom. Shorts were 50¢ for a box of 50 and the LR mushroom were $1.25. BB's were cheaper for target practice and "blazing away" at "stuff". And we didn't have to ask.
Our kitchen range (coal and wood converted to oil) was beside a window which was usually open in summer. I was shooting through the open window at something outside and set an open package of BB's on the warming shelf above the stove.
Mom was cooking a big pot of pork and beans, didn't see my BB's and knocked them into the pot. Not happy but not the end of the world. They sank to the bottom and she carefully scooped the beans when they were done cooking, leaving the BB's for me to wash off and "got out of the house with that thing".
Obviously she didn't get them all. Next morning while doing chores, Dad bent over to pick up two buckets of water and shot the cat.
The farm had a .22 rifle, for varmints, injured animals and stunning pigs and cattle to butcher but we had to ask to use it and buy our own ammunition. CIL Whiz-Bang .22 shells came in short, long, long rifle and long rifle mushroom. Shorts were 50¢ for a box of 50 and the LR mushroom were $1.25. BB's were cheaper for target practice and "blazing away" at "stuff". And we didn't have to ask.
Our kitchen range (coal and wood converted to oil) was beside a window which was usually open in summer. I was shooting through the open window at something outside and set an open package of BB's on the warming shelf above the stove.
Mom was cooking a big pot of pork and beans, didn't see my BB's and knocked them into the pot. Not happy but not the end of the world. They sank to the bottom and she carefully scooped the beans when they were done cooking, leaving the BB's for me to wash off and "got out of the house with that thing".
Obviously she didn't get them all. Next morning while doing chores, Dad bent over to pick up two buckets of water and shot the cat.
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