Monday, March 14 2022

It’s about 7:30 and I am in the warm room waiting for the water to boil. It seems that my intuition about the gas was correct and this morning there was none. Truthfully, it could not have failed at a better time. The gas delivery comes on Wednesdays and today is a perfect day to call and make my order. I can make that call in about a half hour or so when they open.

Breakfast is going to be some oatmeal and coffee. I am deeply considering my use of coffee. On Saturday, I did not have any coffee in the morning and it absolutely added to the restfulness of the day. I’m just not really sure I need the stimulation. And it’s an import product. And true, it’s connected to Alla, a very nice lady at our most beleaguered marketplace. I only buy from her. But maybe it’s about time to let it go and stay with local herbs and say it’s a healthier choice. 

As for this morning, I’ve already put coffee in the pot. I also want to say that I do not have a particularly special way of making coffee. I do what they call Turkish style. I have a particular cauldron and I put one spoonful of coffee in every day and let it come to a boil. There is always some coffee that sits up on the top that only comes loose when the bubbles disturb it and break it. It’s an attention specific way of making coffee because you have to handle the coffee the moment the boiling starts. This is part of the way I learned it and you don’t get to walk away and come back and have your coffee ready.

It is a lot tastier than what I’m doing right now, which is just pouring boiling water into the pot and covering it for a while to let it do whatever it’s going to do. 

Breakfast today is oatmeal with sunflower seeds and raisins. I’m not sure whether this is oatmeal or rolled oats mixed with rolled barley. I don’t remember what I put in the glass jar. This is going to be my first non cooking breakfast in a while. I guess I could use the day off.

I’m thinking of taking the train into town today. I have a couple of pieces of bureaucracy I can take care of but also today is Zhenya’s day off. He always does working days off and he’s never told me that I disturb him when I come to visit him. Lots of people come to visit him actually and he is always warm-hearted about it.

The bike needs some work done. I could do part of it myself. I’m going to change the gear on my rear cog from 16 to 20 to lighten the load on the bike generally. This is to make traveling through sand a little bit more easy. But also, I lost one of the chain tensioners we made 2 years ago. We forgot to put nylon filled nuts on the tensioner bolts and one of them fell off from road vibration. Amateur mistake. We had cut some grommets into locking rings but one of them failed and the entire piece ended up on the road somewhere. I can also bring my favorite saw over to him. He can do a couple of tack welds or use his drill press to go through the metal.

If I stay overnight in town, I can even go to the market on Tuesday. The traditional day off of all of our outdoor markets are Monday. Also, I could probably use a shower. 

An alternative plan however would be for me to go to Minsk tonight. The least expensive way for me to go would be to take the train which leaves at midnight and gets into Minsk at 6:00 in the morning. This is a most miserable travel for me because sleeping on the train is a massive pain in the ass. I could go in a minivan which is slightly more expensive but leaves from exactly the same place and comes at a slightly more convenient hour. My original plan was to bring my bike with me but I don’t think I can bring my bike on a minivan anymore. There is no rear compartment for baggage. 

But this is not a bad idea for me because everything that I need to do in Minsk is on the same route. I would land or at the train station, the next place I need to go is very close to the train station and right next to one of the electric trams which takes me up to my second deal. I’m leaving this vague on purpose because I don’t feel like expressing publicly what I have to do. It’s nothing nefarious. Or it’s very nefarious if you like the intrigue. Let’s just say that one of these things is a personal necessity and the other is a personal necessity and both are made more difficult by the laws of the Republic of Belarus and the way they have things set up. Let’s leave it at that and just say that it’s all pretty distressing not to have better variants available.

The coffee is actually not bad today. I’ve only tried this type of coffee one other time and it was pretty bad then. Today it has some richness to it.

Most probably, this is the best possible plan I could have. The only thing that’s lacking from all of this would be that if I went to Minsk on Tuesday, I’m most probably would not have time to go to the market. However, if I went to the market, because I always buy too much food from the ladies, I would be obligated to take a taxi back to my house. If I miss this, I can grab a train back home because I would not be carrying so many things.

Actually, all of this requires a little bit of thinking and planning. 

Okay, I think this is the way to do things. Procrastination is not going to make anything go away. 

***

Well this is interesting. I am sitting in the grass next to the railroad tracks and doing what I can to work with the most minimal internet connection in the world. I’m actually lucky to be able to put these words down to be honest with you. I missed the train. Too many things to get in my bag and I was just slow and foolish. Procrastination will get you every time.

It’s about a half hour back to my house and then it would be another half hour to get back to where I am right now and the next train is in about 90 minutes. The sun is shining, the grass here is soft it’s slightly plus weather and I can’t think of anything to do but just sit around for 90 minutes. If I get cold, I can always push my bike back and forth but I can’t see any reason to ride all the way back.

It is possible that I have solved a couple of my problems. I’m not at the finish line yet but I think I have found a way to get by. I guess I will talk a little bit more about this if things go well and in fact, there are some elements of this that probably need to be brought out but I shouldn’t do this journalism until I find out it is okay. I’m not being investigative here, but a story is a story and telling it means making it public and I don’t want to hurt my friend if I don’t have to. There is a war after all.

Don’t usually take pictures here but where I’m sitting is incredibly beautiful and peaceful. I know that it’s a place where the train often goes by and every time the train comes the peace is disturbed. But between trains, it’s a remarkable place. It is warm weather today and there are birds getting active in the bear trees. There is a little town here to my left where people come to do their farming away from the city. I’m sure some people live here full time but it’s not a full-sized community.

I guess if there was a decent road, I would just ride out of here but the trip either towards town, towards the next town or back home is all through service roads or single tracks. Maybe somebody would think it was fun but I don’t really want to do it. I mean, I have the legs for this and I can do it but I don’t really want to risk getting stuck in between if I don’t have to.

Actually, I don’t really feel very writerish right now. I think I’m going to go do something else for a while. I feel pretty stupid being stuck here. It’s not really that warm.

***

Well, that was unexpected and unappreciated. My ex partner made the phone call to the gas service and they said that they would not bring gas for me on Wednesday because I have not bought a new gas stove. The stove that I’ve been cooking on is extremely old and quite dilapidated but it works. Actually, it’s a very pleasant machine to cook on. Maybe it’s not but maybe I kind of like that it’s old and dilapidated but works. In any case, I’ve eaten a lot of good food prepared on that gas stove.

So now, everything gets a little bit tighter. The gas company has their own outlet that sells products. There are also several appliance places in town. I think the least expensive stove might be about 100 bucks. With any luck, this is not that big of a deal and maybe life gets better. Maybe I’ll have an oven and I can do some baking.

Or maybe I should just switch to an electric stove already. I kind of like cooking on gas and I think anybody who cooks likes to have that direct to fire contact. It gives you more control over the amount of heat. 

I could also go another direction and avoid the stove and just by a two-burner table top. I thought of this several times because I really don’t bake. Maybe I could start. Crackers are nice. Regular bread instead of flatbread might be a nice change of pace. Baked pumpkin is fantastic.

There is a train coming right now. Damn those things are loud…

Yeah, there are several places to buy stoves but I think it might be a good idea to shop at the company store. I don’t really think they have the best possible prices but I’m sure they are competitive and of course they would have a direct connection to delivering it, taking away the old stove and installing the new one. And I’d probably get a new gas tank.

It’s getting cold. I think I should move a little bit.

***

I am sitting just outside Belarus Bank which is absolutely packed right now. I have some bureaucracy here and it looks like it’s going to be a little bit of a wait.

However, it is worth noting that what my ex partner told me about the cost of the ruble is absolutely correct. They are buying and selling for about four rubles to the dollar right now and as you can imagine, this is why so many people are here hanging out at the bank.

I’m not trying to buy dollars. At least not yet. Actually, I couldn’t buy dollars if I tried. Let’s see if I’ve got this problem solved and even if I can be helpful.

I understand that the Jewish community is housing quite a few Ukrainian refugees. A little bit later in the day, I will find out a little bit more about that and if there is something I can do to help.

And one more extremely negative fact that I’ve learned since being in town for some bean soup with noodles with my ex, it’s been verified that they shot two missiles from a neighboring town. Obviously these were aimed at something. The absolute claim is that these were Russian missiles shot by Russians and not Belarus. But it just doesn’t matter very much because one of my last avenues to get some money out here just got closed as well.

So how do we sum this up? They are having a run on the bank, the currency is dropping like a Stone, we are either directly or indirectly involved in the fighting, we are getting crushed financially by International sanctions and at least the Jewish community is now getting flooded with Ukrainian refugees.

And my knee hurts.

The soup wasn’t bad though. A little supermarkety, but not terrible.

***

Wow. That was interesting.

It’s 9:00 in the evening and I am on the couch of my ex partner’s apartment. Dinner was polenta followed by some absolutely fresh baked bread, this the one with the whole wheat and the pea flour. The polenta sort of went in my mouth tastefully and disappeared into my body without me noticing that I was eating. I was very hungry and though perhaps we should admire people that eat like birds, I am a land animal. The bread saved the night. The bread was one of those body orgasm types. This is when you take a bite of something and your entire body says thank you. Really, she is a much better cook than I am.

That was a really nice statement but it’s not really true. I mean, if you are looking for something that you would consider very normal or at least normal vegan, she’s your girl. In fact, if we took the trouble to do some plating and garnished things and served it up and photographed it well, she is instagrammable. 

However, about an hour after I eat one of her meals I start gnawing on the walls like a mouse looking for some more nourishment. When I cook, I don’t want to eat for a long time. I make heavy meals with a lot of things in it and when I eat, the food stays eaten. You don’t want to eat anymore because your belly says that it’s on strike for overuse. When I cook, we have food to eat. When she cooks, it’s all very decorative.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Unless you actually want to sleep at night.

Okay she’s sitting here and she’s not laughing at what I’m doing so I’m going to get off this subject.

The bank finished well and everything that needed to happen happened and I think the ladies working at the bank were very happy to have me as a customer because I think I was the only one in the room who was not either a murderer or suicidal. I was the only one not begging for dollars, which you have to wait 2 weeks to get. Or asking for credit or free cards or news about why we are getting beaten up again and why they have to lose their money again and why the bank can’t ever, ever, ever do anything to save them. I was not one of those guys.

Not that I don’t have pity but, you know, I have my own problems.

After this I visited my friend in the Jewish community. I am not going to give a lot of details about this meeting except to say that they have almost a hundred ukrainians being sheltered in the girls’ school. I’m not giving out any details from the meeting because the area around the school is filled with Orthodox Jews to the point that it’s obvious what has happened.

Give credit where credit is due and they are working diligently trying to find places for people to live and some money for those who can’t get it. Everybody’s being exceptionally clever right now trying to make sure that they can take care of each other. I am not a synagogue goer and I don’t work for the Jewish community but we know each other and I think everybody was happy to see each other.

And after this, I went to the store that is run by the gas company. There are other places that I could have gone to get a new stove but I thought it was a good idea to go to them because they could talk to each other and maybe I would get my gas on Wednesday.

Perhaps you can imagine what a store run by the gas company is like. Perhaps you would imagine the lack of motivation that the sales people have to do something. Perhaps you understand that this is not a private organization in any way and that no one who works there feels any particular need to be gracious to anyone. This is the machine. These are machine people and no one should expect any kind of an enjoyable shopping experience. And I was not disappointed.

I walked in the store quietly enough, made a beeline towards the row of stoves that they had, found the cheapest four burner stove with an oven, pointed at it and asked if I was good for credit.

There were three sales people and all of them were busying themselves with something despite the fact that there were no other customers in the store but me. When I pointed and mentioned credit, the one who seemed least genuinely active immediately exploded on me. “Are you sure you live here? Are you sure you’re the owner of the house? Do you have any documentation proving that you’re actually the owner of a house?” I took it in stride. There was no other way to take it and unfortunately, this was the only place to buy from. Actually, this was probably the cheapest stove you could buy anywhere in town.

So I kept my calm and pointed them in the right direction towards making a sale whether they liked it or not. They agreed that I was a serious guy and that the address I gave him would be exactly the place they should deliver it. I led them to understand that they needed to make sure that I get a gas delivery on Wednesday anyway so I can continue cooking until they finally get around to delivering this thing. Eventually everything got done but I was denied credit.

The sales lady immediately said that I must have some kind of a court sentence against me that was stopping me from getting credit. I asked her if she actually knew that the reason they wouldn’t give me credit was because I have a court case against me. I asked this because I don’t have any court cases against me but it was very interesting that she should think that I do. She then admitted that she didn’t know but that this was just something that popped into her mind and she just couldn’t help herself but blurt it out in my face.

Are there any questions about why I don’t go to a lot of parties in this town?

To be honest with you I think the credit problem came from one or two places. Number one, the police department screwed up my residency card and the address listed is different than the one I actually live in. In the old residency card which was a book, it was clearly marked that I changed my official residence to the house I live in. This residency card for some reason says that I still live in the old place. I wanted to have this fixed but I needed the card for other reasons so it hasn’t been fixed yet.

So maybe this was the reason. An alternative reason is that our currency is dropping like a heavy Stone in light water. Basically, this extremely inexpensive box with some metal piping with holes drilled in it used to cost $150. Without changing a word of the tag, I got 33% off and it cost me a whole $100 to replace my ancient but magical stove. Everybody’s happy, I actually had the money much to the surprise and chagrin of the salespeople and they will call me within a couple of weeks when they plan on bringing it out and hooking it up for me. And yes, they will haul away my old stove. I will wipe a tear from my eye at that thought.

And that was it. Everything got done that needed to get done. The economic problem seems to be in my favor at the moment and tomorrow morning at 6:30, I will ride my bike over to the train station and get on a bus to Minsk. When I get there, I am a short walk, a city bus or tram, another short walk and I am taking care of my body with some medical experts. Nothing’s going to get solved tomorrow but I have high hopes that this will not be a wasted trip. And if it means anything, with the devaluation of the dollar, it does even cost that much to take the trip.

And what else? Not much. I bought some extremely dark chocolate, 85% and some salty peanuts. Have you ever had dark chocolate and salty peanuts? It’s amazingly tasty as a dessert snack with tea. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that you should have dark chocolate with something sweet like fresh fruit or even dried fruit. And for sure, that dark chocolate would be delicious with raisins. But try it with salty peanuts. I think it’s downright addictive. Just keep your fingers away from your white shirt after you’ve had a piece. That’s the last thing you need to do is to touch your white shirt after eating dark chocolate and salty peanuts.

***

Okay, I’m being flippant and sarcastic and I doubt I’m even being that funny. I’ve just had a nice meal and a hot bath and I’ve got most of my problems fixed. On the window of my ex partner’s house, a huge selection of baby cabbages is starting to emerge from their seeds. And we have a lot more.

I came up with an interesting design for a trellis that I could put on one of my boxes and I think I have exactly the material lying around to put one or even two of those boxes under plastic. I’m not really that interested in Italian summer vegetables but my ex partner is an eggplant freak and I’m sure we can make one box that can be as hot and humid as we can make it without too much problem.

I don’t really know what to say. My friends in the Jewish community are being helpful to others. They are helping families who have found themselves to be refugees because of an unjust war. I told them about my book and mentioned that I had been writing about Russian corruption for 5 years. I called the whole thing pig shit. It’s not really nice to use bad words with religious people but that was the best way for me to describe the situation. Everybody here has just lost 40% of their money. I’m no king or oligarch. But it is a pig shit situation and there’s not a damn thing anybody can do about it but to try to work through it. And that includes about 100 families that need to figure out where they’re going to live next, what kind of job they can get, where their food is coming from and why this had to happen.