The news, these last three days, has been full of stories about a flu epidemic in Ukraine that so far has killed more than 30 people, mostly in Western Ukraine. BBC has reported nothing yet but I expect a story on Monday. Tanya has been following it on TV news and also on www.mail.ru while I have been following MIGnews.com.ua.
According to MIG, H1N1 which they refer to as California flu has been confirmed in 11 cases in hospital of 30+ tested and in one death (of 1 tested) however there is a very fast acting unknown virus also at work. In Ternopil Oblast some 10,000 people have taken ill and 7 died from the unidentified virus and in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast they are referring to the virus as "pneumonic plague".
Of course, it is silly season on top of it, with presidential elections in January and campaigning "officially" starting tomorrow. All three major contenders are shouting and waving their arms trying to look and sound impressive, concerned and in charge. Yulia Timoshenko as Prime Minister is best situated to take advantage of the situation.
The government has decided to impose quarantine in nine regions of Ukraine, namely: in Transcarpathia, Khmelnitsky, Rivne, Chernivtsi, Volyn, Vinnitsa, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil Regions. The movement of people between the regions and abroad –may be under special control - it may be limited due to the epidemiological situation, Yulia Tymoshenko warned.
She has also declared three weeks of holidays for ALL educational institutes AND a ban on public events. Yushchenko was scheduled to kick off his campaign tomorrow with a rally in St Sofia Square. That is off. Yulia was scheduled to campaign in Western Ukraine. She is still going as she needs to keep on top of the situation.
She has also put ALL pharmacies under state control, ordered each to have a supply of meds and masks and threatened licence cancellation for anything that looks like price gouging. They appear to be relying on the drug Tamiflu for control of H1N1. Ukraine has been in contact with India regading supply of drugs, according to the TV news.
Anyhow we are not going anywhere for three weeks, except to the store for groceries.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
The Day Dawned Clear and Cold
So we seized the opportunity to do outdoor work.
Tanya attacked her flower beds to continue getting them ready for winter. She covered planted bulbs and some small plants with leaves to provide them extra protection, built little shelters around other plants and filled them with leaves. She likes leaves from our walnut trees as she says they are "yad" or poisonous to fungi and other plant diseases. She cut off more tall flowers and put them in a large vase for the house. And the "last rose of summer", actually two of them, lovely coral blossems, that appeared just after the start of fall rains, are now gracing our kitchen table.
I attacked the dog run, cleaning it up and getting their winter bed all snug and warm (er). I raked and swept all the leaves in their yard into a huge pile, along with leaves from the driveway. There were enough dry leaves that the pile burned, more or less. Lots of smoke but the wind was away from our house towards the marsh.
The dogs had a good run while we were working. Kuchma came over to see them and went to rub up against Volk in a friendly fashion as cats do. Volk promptly rolled over on his back in submission (or maybe he thought Kuchma would give him a tummy rub?). When I was cleaning up inside the room where their bed is, I noticed their eating habits. They each have a food dish into which I pour their dry dog food pellets, usually enough for two or three days, spilling some on the floor too. Volk eats the ones off the floor first, then eats from the dish. Bobik empties his dish then cleans up the floor.
It is now 7:00 pm and -2C. It will be cold tonight.
Tanya attacked her flower beds to continue getting them ready for winter. She covered planted bulbs and some small plants with leaves to provide them extra protection, built little shelters around other plants and filled them with leaves. She likes leaves from our walnut trees as she says they are "yad" or poisonous to fungi and other plant diseases. She cut off more tall flowers and put them in a large vase for the house. And the "last rose of summer", actually two of them, lovely coral blossems, that appeared just after the start of fall rains, are now gracing our kitchen table.
I attacked the dog run, cleaning it up and getting their winter bed all snug and warm (er). I raked and swept all the leaves in their yard into a huge pile, along with leaves from the driveway. There were enough dry leaves that the pile burned, more or less. Lots of smoke but the wind was away from our house towards the marsh.
The dogs had a good run while we were working. Kuchma came over to see them and went to rub up against Volk in a friendly fashion as cats do. Volk promptly rolled over on his back in submission (or maybe he thought Kuchma would give him a tummy rub?). When I was cleaning up inside the room where their bed is, I noticed their eating habits. They each have a food dish into which I pour their dry dog food pellets, usually enough for two or three days, spilling some on the floor too. Volk eats the ones off the floor first, then eats from the dish. Bobik empties his dish then cleans up the floor.
It is now 7:00 pm and -2C. It will be cold tonight.
Happy Halloween, Everyone
Last year I created some controversy by posting a large pair of buttcheeks painted like a jack-o-lantern. This year I decided to go all Sweetness and Light. Just to confuse people.Trick or treat?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Old Slides and Old Soldiers
In April 1991, I and several other members of a Saskatchewan trade mission to Kazakhstan had two free days in Moscow while our team leader, mentor and magician was busy turning two cartons of Marlboroughs into two more air tickets to Almaty. It was still the Soviet Union in those days, though the coming August would be the end of it.
We decided to spend a day in the Moscow Kremlin which as well as being the seat of Soviet (and now Russian) government is also wall to wall museums. Piled up against the armory were the actual cannons that the actual Napoleon had abandon on his actual ill-fated attempt to capture Moscow. The reality of history was suddenly overwhelming to this Saskatchewan boy.
Many of the museums were Cathedrals some of which are now back in service (so to speak) for state occasions. One of them was the Uspenski Sobor or Cathedral of the Assumption. Photos were forbidden so I bought a set of 18 professional slides. They were in gorgeous colour and well worth the extortive price charged to foreigners.
The slides spent years in my desk drawer for want of a better place to put them, always with the idea of turning them into photographs for an album. Today I dug them out and scanned them. Many years too late as every one had faded to sepia tones.
Anyone with slides who doubts the warning that their quality does not last might look at these pictures. The coloured ones I pulled off the web from several sites.
We decided to spend a day in the Moscow Kremlin which as well as being the seat of Soviet (and now Russian) government is also wall to wall museums. Piled up against the armory were the actual cannons that the actual Napoleon had abandon on his actual ill-fated attempt to capture Moscow. The reality of history was suddenly overwhelming to this Saskatchewan boy.
Many of the museums were Cathedrals some of which are now back in service (so to speak) for state occasions. One of them was the Uspenski Sobor or Cathedral of the Assumption. Photos were forbidden so I bought a set of 18 professional slides. They were in gorgeous colour and well worth the extortive price charged to foreigners.
The slides spent years in my desk drawer for want of a better place to put them, always with the idea of turning them into photographs for an album. Today I dug them out and scanned them. Many years too late as every one had faded to sepia tones.
Anyone with slides who doubts the warning that their quality does not last might look at these pictures. The coloured ones I pulled off the web from several sites.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Soddenly it began to rain
It rained again* this morning. Not much, just enough to keep everything damp, cold and clammy. The ground is covered with leaves too wet to rake. We have a pile of well rotted manure to spread on our garden waiting for the ground to be either dry enough or frozen enough to spread it. Kuchma has to have his feet cleaned off before he is allowed in the house, though occassionally he gets muddy cat tracks halfway across the living room before he is caught.
Today I took two sacks of sunflower seed to the local crusher for Lena and Roman. 40 kg of seed got them 12 kg of sunflower oil for cooking. The crusher makes his money on any oil over 30% plus the value of the meal. Ukrainians have been doing this for generations. Tanya will only cook with sunflower oil and says our Canola oil is only good for making bio-diesel. Phooey to her, too. Canola oil is very healthy and great for cooking, if you ask me.
Our friends, Volodya Fychak and his partner Oksana, from Krimenchug are coming for supper and the night. We haven't had a good visit with them for a few months now as they have both been busy with their cattle genetics company. Tanya is roasting chicken as I write and it smells so wonderful.
We are back on Standard Time now so it gets dark by 5:30. Ah, well, every day is a day closer to spring.
*A few years back, in one of my classes, I asked the students when the most rain fell in Ukraine. I was told FALL. Not true, it just seems like it. They do get rain in the fall - Oct, Nov, Dec are wetter than eg Saskatchewan by more than double but most rain is in spring and summer.
Today I took two sacks of sunflower seed to the local crusher for Lena and Roman. 40 kg of seed got them 12 kg of sunflower oil for cooking. The crusher makes his money on any oil over 30% plus the value of the meal. Ukrainians have been doing this for generations. Tanya will only cook with sunflower oil and says our Canola oil is only good for making bio-diesel. Phooey to her, too. Canola oil is very healthy and great for cooking, if you ask me.
Our friends, Volodya Fychak and his partner Oksana, from Krimenchug are coming for supper and the night. We haven't had a good visit with them for a few months now as they have both been busy with their cattle genetics company. Tanya is roasting chicken as I write and it smells so wonderful.
We are back on Standard Time now so it gets dark by 5:30. Ah, well, every day is a day closer to spring.
*A few years back, in one of my classes, I asked the students when the most rain fell in Ukraine. I was told FALL. Not true, it just seems like it. They do get rain in the fall - Oct, Nov, Dec are wetter than eg Saskatchewan by more than double but most rain is in spring and summer.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
A Day of Reckoning
There is no accounting for taste as the old lady said when she kissed her cow.
Today I set out to get my financial records sorted out from well before we left for Canada and tally up what it costs to go visit my kids. Accounting is not my idea of a good time. Visiting my kids is.
Airfare (Turkish Air and WestJet) was $2550 in total for the two of us . Dnipropetrovsk Regina return, including three nights in a great little hotel in Istanbul. It would have been even cheaper if I had not had to shuffle the WestJet tickets twice. Trying to match seat sales on two airlines is tricky.
In Canada we spent about $5000. $500 went on gasoline for May-B's car as we put 5200 km on it in two weeks (Thank you, my wonderful daughter). My mobile phone cost me about $200 for the month. Prepaid is NOT cheap. We only had one motel bill, thanks to strategically scattered kids and other relatives. Eating in restaurants is not cheap either and though we sponged as many meals as possible, we still took people out to dine and also ate while on the road. Teenburgers at 2 for $6.00 helped to satisfy my craving for North American food.
Clothing, for Tanya, for me but mostly for the family back in Ukraine. A winter coat for Masha and so forth. And stuff for the house like good quality bedding and bathroom accessories which we could never find in Ukraine - until after we buy it in Canada and ship it home. Then we can find it on the local shops. Go figure.
We went to Canada with three suitcases and returned home with four plus two boxes to ship, though to be fair the boxes are mostly stuff of mine that was in storage at May-B's. I still have 6 boxes of books at her place that need to be sorted. But we eliminated a number of boxes of souvenirs collected over the years from all over the world for which she was thankful.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Catholic Atheists
Yesterday's blog questionaire about religious beliefs reminde me of a story out of Northern Ireland some years back of a gunman who jumps out of a doorway, holds a gun to a man's head and asks, “Are you Catholic or Protestant?” “Actually,” says the man, “I'm an atheist.” “Ah, yes,” replies the gunman, “but are you a Catholic or a Protestant atheist?”
The question actually makes more sense than it seems. If one is a non-believer, one must be a non-believer of something. What is it that one does not believe in? Usually it is whatever religious culture one was raised in. If I were an atheist, I would have to become a fundamentalist Protestant atheist.
It would be pretty tough for me to be an Orthodox atheist or a Muslim atheist or a Catholic atheist since I never grew up in any of those particular religious cultures.
I could never be an atheist anyhow. It takes way too much faith to believe there is no God.
The question actually makes more sense than it seems. If one is a non-believer, one must be a non-believer of something. What is it that one does not believe in? Usually it is whatever religious culture one was raised in. If I were an atheist, I would have to become a fundamentalist Protestant atheist.
It would be pretty tough for me to be an Orthodox atheist or a Muslim atheist or a Catholic atheist since I never grew up in any of those particular religious cultures.
I could never be an atheist anyhow. It takes way too much faith to believe there is no God.
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