Ukraine & Hungary

 The European Union is set to disburse the first €45 billion ($52.9 billion) installment of its €90 billion ($106 billion) loan to Ukraine within the current quarter, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced during a speech at the European Parliament.

The 2026 funding is split between macrofinancial aid and military support, with one-third allocated to cover Ukraine’s budgetary needs and two-thirds dedicated to defense. The first military package, worth approximately €6 billion ($7.05 billion), will be used to procure drones “from Ukraine, for Ukraine.”

“Our message is clear: we will continue our support to the brave Ukrainian people and their armed forces,” von der Leyen stated, noting that the EU is “doubling down” on its support as Russia intensifies its aggression. 

 Incoming Hungarian leader Peter Magyar met EU chiefs Wednesday on his first visit to Brussels since his election win, looking to turn the page on the bad blood of nationalist Viktor Orbán’s tenure.

EU leaders feted his victory this month, which ended Kremlin-friendly Orbán’s 16 years in power, and before even taking office Magyar has sought to kickstart a new era of cooperation with Brussels that he hopes will unlock billions of euros for Budapest.

Magyar said in a video posted online that he was “very optimistic and hopeful” ahead of talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. He hoped to agree a deal by late May on how to free up some €10 billion ($11.6 billion) in frozen COVID-19 recovery funds, he added.Advertisement

Funeral

Today was the day, cousin Krzysztof Wisniewski joined his mother and father in Milostowo Cemetery. He was cremated and put into the same grave. It is not an unusual custom here in Poland.

I woke up at 7:30 to shave and get dressed in my black suit, then woke Joan. Paige was coming to sit with her while I attended the funeral at 10 AM.

It has been years since I was in that cemetery, and I wasn't sure where exactly to go. I believe it is one of the two largest cemeteries in Poznan.

 Fortunately, I arrived just after several of my cousins were there in the parking lot.

I went to one of the flower shops at the entrance and bought a lovely bouquet to place on the grave. As I was purchasing them, I heard someone call my name, and I turned around. My cousin Ania was standing there to greet me. It was wonderful seeing her again. She was there with her father, mother, sister, niece, and nephew. Also, cousin Marcelina was there with her husband and two daughters. Cousin Grazyna was there from Golina, and cousin Anna from Konin was also there with her son.

We walked to the chapel for a short prayer session where cousin Malgorzata, her husband, and daughter.

When it was over, we followed the priest in a procession to the grave site. Cousin Maciej, his wife, Wioletta, and their daughter, Jagoda, were there.

The service only lasted about 15 minutes, all the bouquets were laid on the grave, and then people dispersed or stayed to talk with each other.

I was very happy that I was able to attend.

82

 I thought I would be dead at 35. Today, I am 82. I am happy I was wrong.

Not upset.

I slept in today until 11:00. Joan was awake already, and just waiting for me to wake up.

For breakfast, I made French toast with blueberry syrup. Something new I learned. How to make blueberry syrup. Next, I have to learn about maple syrup because I haven't found it in any store.

I worked on my project in the morning and in the afternoon we were surprised to see a meeting on YouTube with Rick Steves. He is an avid proponent of video travel guides and books. His whole speech was about the disaster facing the U.S. because of the Trumpican Party. It used to be the Republican Party.

Well, enough about politics. I had a reader who said she followed my blog for years just to keep up on our life in Poland. However, when I started writing about the disaster in the U.S., she said she was done reading my blog because of that. Sorry, folks. I may live in Poland now, but I am still an American and won't stay quiet while democracy is being destroyed.

Chapter 7 begins.

Because we had more than 23 travels in Europe between 2010-2026, it isn't possible to tell about all to tell about all of them. I only wrote about 23, the most interesting ones.

At last, Radek has returned from his trip to Nepal. He wasn't able to come to our flat today, so Paige came to sit with Joan while I went to his house.

The whole first hour, he told me about his trip to Nepal and Bhutan. He and Alina were part of 11 people who had booked a tour with a tour guide. However, they had also booked 4 days in Katmandu before the tour started, and 4 days in Katmandu after the tour was over. He said he was glad they did. While the tour and tour guide were very interesting, being a tour it was rather rushed, and there was always a schedule to uphold. They preferred to be able to explore a new country on their own and not feel like they were rushed all of the time.

I can understand that. Whenever Joan and I go anywhere, we do it on our own, we plan our trip, and we do it not so much on a schedule. If we feel we need more time to see something, it's always our option to take a longer time. I learned a long time ago, the clock is not always your friend.

For the second hour, we went back to our Spanish lesson, but since we are at the end of the book, we decided not to start on the advanced Spanish book. Instead, we're going to go back to the beginning of the first book and use it as a review until we finish it the second time. I think that's a good idea because I am sure there are many things I don't remember, and maybe a few that he doesn't.

 

Chapter 6

Finally, I completed chapter 6 of my digital archive project. I could have made it larger, but already, I have 47 pages and I think that's more than enough for one chapter. Even then, it doesn't cover every trip we've made in Poland. That's what the chapters are about, some of the trips we've made around Poland in the 19 years that we've lived here. The next chapter, chapter 7, will be called " Travels in Europe". I expect that chapter to be even bigger.

There's just so much to say about the traveling we've done since we've been here to many different countries, to many different cities, villages, towns, and other places of interest.

Joan has not been doing well lately. She gets very agitated when there are people, or a person, standing behind her. She almost gets to the point of being angry about it. It doesn't matter what I say or do, I just can't get her out of that phase. It's very frustrating. I hate this credit dementia. It's taking a toll on both of us.

Meanwhile, Ukraine.

Spain will provide Ukraine with 100 VAMTAC armored tactical vehicles and 155-millimeter artillery ammunition, with shipments beginning in May, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reported.
During a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles confirmed the donation to President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying the donation reflects Madrid’s continued commitment to supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Following the visit, she met with Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who thanked Spain for its decision to allocate €1 billion ($1.152 billion) in military aid in 2026 and discussed how the funds could be used efficiently in accordance with Ukraine’s priorities.Source-Kyiv Post

Tuesday shopping.

Food shopping day for the week. I set a new record for myself today: total shopping time was under 30 minutes. That was mainly because I only had to shop for 4 days. I had three menus from last week that I did not fulfill, so I was able to use them for this week, and I already had all of the ingredients. So, the total cost for the week was $38, which is the lowest it's been in the last 2 years.

Page came today to sit with John while I did the shopping, and it gave me a chance to sit in the park for about an hour and listen to an audiobook of Big Sur, written by Jack Kerouac. I read that book twice in recent years, and it was nice to listen to someone else read it. I don't know if one listens more intently and absorbs more by listening to an audiobook than they do by reading the book.

So, my next audiobook will be Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving. This book I have read at least three times since my love affair with the Alhambra began when I was 19 years old. At that time, it was not a popular tourist destination and went, and one could easily access it. The architecture of the Arabic inscriptions on the walls is really incredible. Just looking at it in pictures doesn't give it justice. You really have to see it. However, now that it is so popular, you have to make a reservation 3 months in advance. Times have changed!

On my project of making a digital archive of Our Last 19 years in Poland, I am about 3/4 of the way finished with chapter 6. Chapter 6 is entitled trips in Poland. When I finish that, my next chapter will be Travels in Europe.

AI

73 F today. The trees are exploding with green leaves, the forsythias are in their brightest yellow, the dandelions are blossoming everywhere and Spring is definitely here. At last! It was just too nice of a day to stay inside.

I put Joan into the car, took her to Cafe Lokum or a cinnamon bun and coffee, and then I went across town, going northeast toward Napachania. It's funny because I'm using this voice dictation method for writing this blog, and when I say the name of the village Napachania, the Voice picks it up and spells it like Napa Honda. I think the AI program doing this voice collection is not earned enough yet about foreign names or foreign city or villages. That's why you have to be careful with it and read everything it prints because sometimes there are mistakes.

Okay, I can see a new paragraph, and it did jump to start this paragraph.

AI. Now that's an interesting topic for discussion. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people know very little about it. For myself, I find it useful to some degree. For example, in giving myself the project of making a digital archive of Our Last 20 years in Poland, it can be helpful. Now there's evidence right here in the last sentence of its mistake. Look at the last sentence. There is no reason why our last wasn't cap, was capitalized the first time I said it, but now the second time it's in proper lowercase, our last.

What I've done in my project, first I gave it explicit guidelines on what to do with things like the font size, define style, when to start a paragraph. It usually follows my direction, however, at times it tries to rewrite what I wrote according to its own process. So, in that case, I have to go back and tell it again "follow the directions I gave you". Sometimes, it takes two or three tries to get it corrected. When it does correct it I tell it to lock that rule in place, so it doesn't happen again.

So, after we had our cinnamon bun and coffee the direction I was going to go was to the Village of napahanya. Okay, AI, you just made another mistake spelling The Village name.

Because I know now that there has been a new owner of the palace in that place, I was interested to see if any work had been done, any new work. I wasn't surprised when I saw there has been no change since the last time we looked at that Palace Maybe 8 or 9 months ago.

If you're reading this blog and see mistakes, they are all being made by AI, not by me.

Hello 11

I made the plunge today into Windows 11. Right now I am waiting for it to finish loading the system. Then I have to start adding the additional software programs that I use.  I'm not used to a 15.6 screen and keyboard so that will be another adjustment to make. I'm at 35% so far.

I received sad news from cousin Andrzej that another cousin here in Poland has died early this morning. His name was Krzysztof, and he was 74 years old. It's been a few years since I saw him last. He was from my Kazmierczak bloodline. 8 cousins have left since we first arrived. 

Project

I swear, this digital archive is taking a lot of time. I'm only half-way through chapter 5 with ten more chapters already structured. I hope it's worth the effort.

Missing Radek.

Unfortunately, although he is back from Nepal, our schedules just couldn't match up to have a meeting this week. It seems like months since we saw each other. Well, actually, it has been a little more than one month. We already talked about a meeting next week, so I hope it happens.

I know I’ve mentioned our friend Zbyszek. He helped us in many ways over the years we knew him. Unfortunately, he died four years ago.

In Poland, social circles are often defined by the level of emotional closeness and commitment involved. In English, the word “friend” is used very loosely, but in Polish culture there are clear distinctions between levels of relationships.

Znajomy (Acquaintance)
This is the broadest category. A znajomy is someone you know by name and interact with regularly, but without a deep emotional connection. This could be a colleague, a neighbor, or someone you see often. Conversations are usually polite and at the surface level. You would not normally share personal matters or invite them into your private family life.

Kolega / Koleżanka (Colleague or Peer)
This is the middle level. These are people connected through work, school, or shared activities. You may meet for coffee or a drink, and the relationship is friendly, but it is often tied to that shared environment. If the job or activity ends, the relationship may fade. Many people in Poland remain at this level for years.

Przyjaciel (Close Friend)
This is a much deeper and more meaningful relationship. A przyjaciel is someone you trust completely, almost like family. The word carries a strong sense of loyalty and long-term commitment. It is not used lightly. Most people have only one or two true przyjaciele in their lifetime. This is someone you can call in the middle of the night and know they will be there.

Zbyszek, Joanna, and Radek I consider to be przyjaciele.

Joanna was someone I helped practice English with. She was an ophthalmologist, and we met on Saturday mornings, usually for an hour or more, just to talk. She was the kind of doctor who truly cared about her patients. She loved her family and always greeted you with a smile.

When I needed cataract surgery, instead of waiting months, she called one of the best eye surgeons in Poznań and arranged for me to have the procedure the following week. When I had back problems, she and her husband, who was an orthopedic surgeon, came to our flat and helped solve the issue.

She and her husband were always invited to our New Year’s Eve parties, along with Zbyszek. It was Zbyszek who originally introduced me to her so I could help with her English. Later, when her son was old enough, I helped him as well. He has now completed his initial studies to become a doctor.

Like Zbyszek, she died suddenly three years ago. Of the three of them, only Radek remains.

---

Interesting

All of my wife's life, her mother told her that she had German ancestry. In the last few months, I have done some preliminary research into her family. What I found shocked Joan, Her grand parents and great-grandparents originally came from a small village northeast of Budapest, Hungary. So, her ancestry is really Hungarian.

Looking at this picture of her when she was 19 she looks Hungarian. 

 

Only Ukraine

 US Vice President JD Vance in an Apr. 8 public discussion at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) spoke on several subjects, among them the Russo-Ukrainian War, White House efforts to bring peace, and his view of Budapest’s role in that process. Almost all of what he said was misleading and factually inaccurate.

Specifically, Vance comments regarding Ukraine, Russia and Hungary in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War were:

 Vance: “Uh we have made significant progress…over time, their positions have gotten closer and closer together.”

In fact, progress has been close to nil and movement between the sides has been negligible, and by Russia not at all.

How much land is at stake in the Russo-Ukrainian War

Vance: “We’re talking about bargaining over a few square kilometers of territory one way or the other.”

In fact, the land space involved is very substantial and by most definitions massive.

Value of what is at stake in the Russo-Ukrainian War

Vance: “ Is that worth the loss of hundreds of thousands of additional Russian and Ukrainian young men?”

In fact, with the qualification that it is impossible to assign a real monetary value on a human life, Vance’s messaging that little of value is at stake in the Russo-Ukrainian War is obviously and by many measures spectacularly wrong.

 The best-known Vance comment on Ukraine dates back to Feb. 19 2022, five days before Russia invaded Ukraine a second time and started a war that has now killed more than a million people, in which Vance told US Republican pundit Steve Bannon:

 “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”

Russian drone and artillery strikes killed at least three civilians and wounded several others across the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions on Saturday morning, April 11, local officials reported.

In the Kherson region, a 73-year-old woman was killed in the village of Fedorivka when a “Molniya” type drone struck the settlement around 9:30 a.m. Earlier that morning, the body of a 50-year-old man was discovered in Kherson’s Korabelny district, a victim of overnight shelling.

The morning also saw targeted attacks on civilian transport in Kherson. A 24-year-old nurse was hospitalized with a concussion and blast injuries after a drone hit a public bus at 7:20 a.m. Shortly after, a 61-year-old man was wounded when another drone targeted his car.

 The escalation in strikes on Saturday morning followed a massive overnight drone offensive that killed two people in Odesa and wounded 17 in Sumy. In total, the Ukrainian Air Force reported 160 drones launched across the country overnight.

These attacks occurred in the final hours before a unilateral ceasefire, decreed by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Orthodox Easter holiday, was set to begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The persistent bombardment of residential areas and public transport has fueled deep skepticism in Kyiv, where President Zelensky’s earlier proposals for a holiday truce were dismissed by the Kremlin.

And on the war front, Russia launched over a hundre drones overnight just hours after its Easter ceasefire announcement, while the Ukrainian military took out an S-300V System on the southern Zaporizhzhia front and expanded the recent oil strikes to the Casian Sea..

There is also positive news on the sanctions front, as Zelensky’s envoy said  Dutch parts are no longer being found in Russian Shahed drones, though he cautioned that fresh chips, including US ones, are still showing up in new drones.

Digital Archive, chair covers.

Yeah, I didn't get back before midnight yesterday. I stayed up way too late last night working on this archive project. It's going to be a digital archive, kind of like a book, but it's not a book. It would be hard for me to get 1500 pages into one book. Therefore, the other alternative is just to do a digital archive and save it to a pen drive or an external drive. If any of my relatives should happen to want a copy of it, all they would have to do is send me a pin Drive. I could put everything on it and return it to them, and then it would have a history of our family. Who knows if any future generation would have any interest in such a thing, but if they do, at least there will be one. I know myself, personally, would love to have had a copy like that telling about ancestors, who they were, where they lived, where they were born, or where they died, whether they were married, did they have kids, all of that information would be very valuable.

Right now, I'm at the beginning of chapter 4, which is entitled coming a foreigner in total there will be 15 chapters, and " chapter " is used loosely; there's no set amount of pages I have to put into it in a digital format.

Carolina came today but could only stay long enough to give John a shower and wash your hair. So, next week she will make up for the half hour she missed this week. That's fine, that's okay. But it was a little irritating because I had several things I needed to get done today, and now I'll have to take John with me tomorrow to complete all of them. I just hope we have good weather, like sunny, warm, and no clouds. 

I have a smaller project going on, also. Something that actually started 4 years ago when I decided it was time to change the covers on our two recliner chairs. I ordered them from the internet, and received them 4 years ago. It's taken me this long to start putting them on. It is no easy project to remove the old ones.

Progress

 Well, I've done it now. I've taken on another project that's going to consume too much of my evening free time. I started it about a week ago, after thinking about it for 2 weeks before that. I looked at the reasons why I should do it, and I looked at the reasons why I shouldn't. These shouldn't reasons would have won the battle, but my conscience dominated.

Okay, you know I've written about completing my idea of putting all of my blogs in chronological order. Considering I have 6,747 blogs, that was a big order to fulfill. It took me about three and a half weeks to complete it, but now it's done, and I'm satisfied with the end result. I did use an AI to put them in order, check spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as well as separate the blogs into proper paragraphs. At times it was frustrating, but I managed to work through it, and complete it.

I wasn't about to try to make an actual book out of it because if it were printed out the way it is, I would have $1,557 pages. Nobody in their right mind would read a book that long. Besides, I didn't write the blogs to turn into a book; it was just a way to write about most daily events of our lives in Poland.

So, my new project is to turn all those blocks into a digital archive of Our Life in Poland, covering many different topics during her life here. I utilized AI to give me a structure for the archive and make it easy to navigate. Again, part of the purpose is to have documentation of our family history going back to 1771. It may be that no relative is interested in it, but maybe in the future generation, there will be one, and they will have access to all of the work I've done.

With all the different topics that I've covered, or will cover in this archive, AI told me I would need 15 chapters. The first thing I did was to set up 15 different chapters with names. Then I wrote the introduction, and I started to work on chapter one. As of this blog, I have just completed chapter number three. Now, I have 12 more to go.

Grodziec Palace.

This is a palace where my great-grandfather, Jozef, worked as a blacksmith for what were called a Noble family. My grandmother was born in this village.

 

About 30 kilometers from Konin, in Grodziec, there stands an abandoned palace and park complex that has been deserted for many years. The buildings catch the eye from the road, emerging from an overgrown park where some trees are several centuries old. See what this place looks like today and discover its sad yet fascinating history.

In Grodziec there is an abandoned palace and park complex covering an area of 16.12 hectares. The first palace, whose partial ruins have survived to this day, was built in 1639 for Abraham Ciświcki. Today, the term “palace” usually refers to the structure with characteristic columns, which was built in the second half of the 18th century.

Subsequent owners of the palace included the Jaskólski family, followed by Aleksander Kożuchowski and Franciszek Stadnicki.

A six-column portico was added at the beginning of the 19th century for the next owners, the Bieliński family. Piotr Bieliński was the voivode (provincial governor) at that time. Around 1810, an annex was also built — a second building referred to as a manor house or a new palace.

Later, in 1875, the palace was purchased by the Kwilecki family, who modernized the residence. This building is the first and one of three historic structures located within the complex.

The estate remained in the hands of the Kwilecki family until World War II. Just over a month after the war began, Stanisław Kwilecki was murdered by the Germans, shot in the back of the head. Many others were killed that same day, including Czesław Freudenreich, owner of the faience factory in Koło, and Józef Pechęrski, the headmaster of the school in Grodziec.

After the war, the entire estate was taken over by the state treasury. A primary school was established there, and the farm was managed by State Agricultural Farms. Later, the site also housed the Society of Friends of Children, evidence of which still remains today — a plaque by the main entrance indicates that the institution once operated there.

Beyond the man-made buildings, the Grodziec palace and park complex has much more to offer. A canal runs through the park, and in some places it can be crossed either directly or by walking across a thick plank stretched over the water.

However, the most fascinating elements of the area are the enormous trees, including oaks whose trunk circumference can reach up to seven meters. Some of them bear small plaques indicating that they are legally protected as natural monuments.

Since 2020, the Grodziec estate has had a new owner: Ede Cassia Segnini Brandão Sapieha. Previously, the issue of ownership rights had been tied up in court for many years, but it has now reached a successful conclusion. Legal matters and future plans have been agreed upon with the rightful and former heir, Anna Kwilecka-Krzyżanowska.

Easter.

Another quiet day at home. Breakfast was hard-boiled eggs, ham, sausage, white sausage, bread, butter, and coffee. It didn't take long to prepare which was a good thing because I didn't really feel like making breakfast. I considered smoothies but felt it was a bit inappropriate for today.

In the afternoon, we started watching a new series on Netflix called Ripple. It's a series about 5 different lives and how they all fit together in the story. I recommend it for it's lack of violence.

ViaYouTube, we also visited the country of Macedonia in the evening.

Meanwhile, Ukraine.

The head of the President’s Office, Kyrylo Budanov, confirmed that international partners have requested Ukraine suspend its airstrikes on Russian oil refineries due to rising global energy prices triggered by the war in the Middle East, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, April 5.

Budanov revealed that Kyiv has been approached regarding the regular drone attacks, though he did not disclose which specific allies issued the plea. “I will answer this diplomatically: we are receiving some signals regarding this,” he said.

The request comes as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran enters a critical phase, causing a major disruption in global oil supplies. These geopolitical factors have significantly bolstered the Kremlin’s war budget through increased oil revenues, a development President Volodymyr Zelensky previously identified as a key challenge to Ukraine’s strategy of weakening Moscow’s economic capacity to sustain the invasion.

 Despite the diplomatic pressure, Budanov expressed optimism that the conflict in the Middle East would conclude relatively soon. His comments follow a series of successful Ukrainian drone strikes on Saturday night and Sunday morning,  which targeted the Lukoil refinery in Kstovo and the Primorsk oil terminal on theBaltic Sea.

Neglectful.

Yes, I have been neglectful in writing this blog for too long. I will tell you why. Finishing my project of putting all of my blogs, all 6,747 of them, into chronological order, checking spelling, grammar, punctuation, and making paragraphs, I have come to realize I have a lot of material. Collaborating with another person, I thought it might be time to consider writing a book about our last 20 years living as expats in Poland. It may not be something I would actually try to publish, but rather a more condensed version for my relatives to have so that they would know their ancestry.

Each night, after I put John to bed, I've been spending my time trying to figure out how to structure a book. I confess I've consulted ChatGPT about that. The information it gives me has been very helpful. I don't want AI to actually write the book for me, I am only interested in how the structure and the chapters should lay out. I've sent about a Year's worth of blogs to Gemini so that it would know what my blog has been about. In return, it has given me much advice on how to structure the book, chapter by chapter. It tells me that I have so much information available that it could actually be an 11-volume set of books. Of course, I'm not interested in writing 11 books. I would be perfectly happy with one book.

I've also been neglectful in my study of Spanish which I regret. I just get so involved in this book project, I've been missing my deadlines to write my blog by midnight each night. Therefore, you see these lapses of two and three days in between my blocks. I have to get into a routine of writing my blog in the afternoon rather than waiting until evening. If I can do that, it should eliminate these lapses. Anyway, that's what I'm going to try to do.

Dog, shoping & Ukraine.

Paige came today and I headed to Carrefour to do the weekly shopping. About 20 minutes into shopping, she called and asked if I could come back. Her dog has been extremely ill this last month and her husband just called to tell her they were at the vet again. The dog's condition was deteriorating and Paige had to leave. I finished my shopping and arrived back home in about 30 minutes. Paige left immediately.

There were some things I still need from Auchan, so I put Joan's shoes, hat and coat on, and we went there to pick them up. It wasn't too much, so we could put it all into a bag I took with us.  

Between Carrefour and Auchan, I spent $54 for a week of food. I hesitate to think how much it will cost for gasoline for the car when I need it, thanks to that moron in the White House. 

Meanwhile: Ukraine

The European Union has received €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in profits generated from immobilized Russian central bank assets, the European Commission said on Wednesday, April 1.

The funds, derived from interest accumulated on frozen assets held within the EU, will be directed to support Ukraine.

According to the European Commission, 95% of the proceeds will be used to support Ukraine through the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism, which helps Kyiv service loans provided by the EU and G7 partners.

The remaining 5% will be allocated via the European Peace Facility to address Ukraine’s military and defense needs.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the funds would help sustain public services and support Ukraine’s armed forces.

 ===================================================================

Russia launched a drone attack on western Ukraine on Tuesday, April 1, targeting multiple regions and damaging infrastructure, regional officials said.

Strikes and drone activity were reported in Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions, with emergency services deployed to assess the damage.

Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said air defenses were engaged during the attack and debris from downed drones was found across the region.

No casualties or damage were reported in Lviv region, he said, urging residents to avoid approaching drone fragments due to the risk of explosion.

In Ternopil region, a drone strike hit an agricultural facility in Chortkiv district, sparking a fire, regional officials said. No injuries were reported. Source Kyiv Post

Moths, shopping and Project.

Paige was supposed to come today, but she called and said her dog was not well and had to cancel. Fortunately, I was able to put together enough food for dinner tonight, blueberry pancake. However, I have not mastered the fine art of making what I think are good pancakes. I had no complaint from Joan, but I was not satisfied with the end result.

It seems we have food moths now, so I spent some time cleaning out the cabinet where I store different flours and grains. I did but two sticky things that are supposed to attract them, something like fly paper. However, I do spend a little time each day killing about 6-8 that I see on walls.

I'm almost at the end of my "Project Blog" that I started about two weeks ago. Just 5 months of 2025, then the 3 months of this year and I will be done. At present, if I printed them all, I would have 1,547 pages. Any body want to read it? :-) 

Visiting cousin.

Cousin Artur came to visit with us today. Even though we live in the same city, it's been more than 7 years since we have seen each other. He stayed for about 2 1/2 hours during witch we told each other what's been happening in our respective lives. We didn't know he has a second daughter now, born in 2019. Her name is Gaja.

It all happened because I wanted to give something to cousin Wiesia who lives in Konin. Her daughter, Oliwia who lives in Edinburgh, was coming back to visit her. She  was flying in to Poznan and I asked Oliwia to take it to her mother. However. Oliwia was on a tight plane to train schedule and couldn't meet me. She said cousin Artur was going there last weekend.

I called Artur, told him what I needed and he agreed to taking it. I told him I would come to his flat and give it to him. While I was there, I was able to also see his oldest daughter, Lena, age 17. The last time I saw her was even longer. Artur said he would come for a visit today after work with Lena. Unfortunately for us, Lena's boyfriend was sick, so she went to visit him.

 

It's over.

Night before NO KINGS #3

So, it is the night before NO KINGS #3 protest. Everyone is hoping that with 3,000 protests across the United States against Dictator Trump and his band of lackeys, thugs, weak Congressmen/women, and cult members, there will at least 12 million people protesting. I hope they are right. I really do. If it were possible, I would be one of them. Joan would too.

I just thought about that word, Congressmen/women. At present time, I think Con should be emphasized. Because, they really are con men/women. They all swore an oath to protect the Constitution, and instead, they have broken it for any and every reason their dictator told them to. The main reason is to keep their jobs serving the "people", even though they only serve the orang-head man.

I support any and every person who protests tomorrow even though I seriously doubt it will stop any of the illegal actions done by the current administration. I, wholeheartedly, believe that only a general strike of 12 million people can have an effect. That is why I work with General Strike US.(GSUS) A well known fact is that if 3.5% of a population has a general strike, it has the ability to change a government. Of course, that is based on small countries, nothing like the Divided States of America.

I am totally interested to see what happens once a one day protest will have. I believe it will be ZERO. 

2023

I just finished the year 2023 with the help of Chad GPT. It gave me problems when I returned to it this morning.  What I have done since the beginning is give it a specific set of guidelines to follow to put my blogs in chronological order, check spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and use six different commands I gave it. Depending on which AI server I get logged into when I log in, sometimes it was a totally frustrating experience. However, I remembered that 2 days ago, when I had some problems again, I communicated with this AI, actually told it how to correct the problem, and then I was able to process six complete months in about 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours.

Today when I started, I had only two problems that were being repeated, and through another conversation with AI, they were corrected. That's how I was able to complete the year 2023. Now, I have only two more years to go.

It's really amazing, the amount of pages it produces if I wanted to print them out. At present, there are    1,398 pages. That is a huge amount. There's no way I would print that. It would be bigger than the Bible. I'm just going to save it as a digital archive. And I'm not really sure why I'm doing this. Certainly, no one would be willing to read that many pages.

Persistence

There is something to be said about it. I have it. After spending a few hours on Chatgpt trying to get my massive amount of blocks together, I found I spent much of the time correcting errors that the AI made. I felt very frustrated. Frustrated enough that I was going to cancel the subscription I had just paid for a few hours ago. However, I thought I would give it one last try, and make my guidelines and rules a little easier to understand. Basically, I just shortened them.

Finally, after what was going to be my last attempt, everything came out the way I wanted it. I had had so many problems that I didn't feel I could trust the Post return to me to be accurate. My idea was to send 10 blogs of one month and have ai process it according to my guidelines. On this last try, everything was perfect. And then compared each block I gave it with its return post. Everything looked good. So, I gave it the next 10 posts, and check those. Again, it was perfect.

I gave it a complete month, and spot checked every 4th blog for accuracy. I regained some Trust in it and gave it the next month. Once again I spot checked, and it was fine.

Over a 2-hour. I was able to give six complete months, and accomplished finishing the year 2021.

Now I have only five more years to complete this project. If it continues the way it is I should have it done by the end or middle of the next week.

This is a very big project, and I could not have accomplished as much doing it by myself. So, in this instance AI was very helpful. When I am completely done, I will cancel this month's subscription.

Gemini & Ukraine.

Yesterday, I got side-tracked from blogging. I spend too much time trying to put it all in order using Gemini AI. It was successful for the first 15 years, but now even one month takes way too long. It makes mistakes even though it has a set of guidelines I gave it to process with. Example: I give it 10 blogs to process, and one guideline is to use my complete text. It processes it, and when I check the post compared to mine, it is not complete. I inform AI of the problem, it apologizes, says it will correct the problem, and reposts. The repost is not different. I tell it, it apologizes again and reposts. The problem is fixed, however, it creates a different problem. This can go on for an hour or more. I have five years of posts to complete the project, but now have to find another way to put them in order. That is the reason my posts have not been daily. 

Meanwhile:Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Air Defense Forces successfully intercepted 148 of 154 Russian drones in a large-scale attack that began Friday evening, March 20, Ukrinform reported.
The assault involved multiple drone types – primarily Shahed-type UAVs alongside Gerbera and Italmas variants – launched from five locations across Russian territory and occupied Crimea. About 90 of the 154 drones were Shahed aircraft.

Ukrainian aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups coordinated the defense.
Still, five drones struck four locations, with debris scattered across seven additional sites as of 8:30 a.m. Saturday, March 21.
Ukraine launched more than 280 drones at Russia overnight, one of Kyiv’s largest barrages since the start of the war, Russia’s state news agency reported, citing the defence ministry.
Around 90 drones were shot down in the southern Rostov region, its governor Yuri Slyusar posted on Telegram.
Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin in a series of posts reported that 27 drones headed to the capital had been intercepted.
In retaliation for Russian attacks that have targeted its territory daily since 2022, Kyiv regularly strikes within Russia, saying it primarily targets military and energy infrastructure.Source-Kyiv Post

Easy come, easy go!

That's the way it is with money!  I received 400 PLN($108) this morning, and in two hours it was gone. 130 PLN($35) for toner for my printer and 260($70) PLN for food for next week. It was so high this time because I had to buy Kleenex, toilet paper, olive oil, and paper towels. Those, alone, were 60($17) PLN.

I finished year 2020 of my project today. Only 5 more years to go.

Paige came at 11, so I was able to go out and do the food shopping. I'm a very fast shopper. The most time I have spent gathering the ingredients for the menu Joan has prepared is 45 minutes. As long as they don't rearrange the Carrefour store, it goes quickly.

Still working

It's taking a while to get all of these blogs in chronological order, spelling, grammar, and punctuation checked, but I expect to be done in two weeks. Or, should I say, maybe. 

I've asked Joan to begin selecting the week's menus from the recipes I've collected. She was hesitant to take on the task. I'm just trying to get her away from the TV and keep her brain more active. She stopped reading. I think she needs new glasses. I will make an appointment tomorrow to have her eyes checked, although she will be reluctant to go.

 

Clothes, meds, & gardens.

Yesterday, I stopped at the Look of London store and bought Joan 5 Spring blouses. It coincided with the 5 old ones I donated. I only paid $35 in total.

Today was a trip to the Apteka to get her multi-vitamins and Calperos. Calperos is for the prevention of osteoporosis.

When we were done, we went to the botanical gardens to sit for a while. Very little is showing yet for springtime, maybe in another month if the weather keeps getting warmer. 

Karolina did not come yesterday and is on vacation to Egypt until April. I have the honor now of giving Joan her shower and washing her hair. Her hair is a little concern for me because she seems to be slowly losing it. She doesn't see it yet because it is mainly from the top of her head.

Planting

For Christmas, we received two plants. a Poinsettia and an Ardisia Credata. Now, it's the middle of March, and they are still alive. I hope to keep the growing, so I thought it was time to transplant them to larger pots.

We had to go to Auchan to buy some frozen and dried fruits for morning smoothies. I thought I would check out the gardening section for two bigger pots and buy the extra soil I would need. 5 liters bags were less than $1, so I bought two of them. It was just the amount I needed.

The original pot with the Poinsettia was a clay pot, but the Ardisia was plastic. I took the Poinsettia out of its pot and broke it into smaller pieces. Then I put half of the pieces into the new pots to help with water drainage. They both look happier now.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine;

1.  Russia has launched dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones at Ukraine’s largest oil refinery in an effort to cripple the country’s fuel supply, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said during a speech in Ukraine’s parliament.

Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada, Shmyhal said the Kremenchuk oil refinery alone had been targeted by 69 missiles and around 260 drones since the start of Russia’s campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“Russia is trying to destroy Ukraine’s energy sector with thousands of missiles and drones, including our oil refining industry,” he said.

 Despite the attacks, Ukraine has managed to stabilize fuel supplies through increased imports, he added.

2.  A spat over huge EU defense loans has erupted into trench warfare between Poland’s pro-European government and nationalist president.

The fiery row over multi-billion-euro plans to beef up its military is unprecedented in a country where there is usually consensus on defense. 

With war raging in neighboring Ukraine, and Russia and Belarus just across the border, frontline Poland has upped its defense budget to 4.8 percent of its GDP, one of the highest in NATO. 

The government is counting on nearly 44 billion euros in European loans from the Security Action For Europe (SAFE) scheme, which it says is a big win for Poland, set to get nearly a third of the total 150-billion-euro pot.

The deal has already passed through parliament, but nationalist President Karol Nawrocki – who could veto it – arguing it will allow Brussels to exert undue pressure on Warsaw through monitoring how funds will be allocated. 

 But the plan is backed by 52 percent of Poles, with only 35 against it, according to a poll by Poland’s Centre for Public Opinion Research. Sources-Kyiv Post

Time & Drones

So, I got a late start. I should write these blog posts in the afternoon, but I'm usually busy until night. Then, at night, when Joan is in bed, I get distracted by something I read, and I have to respond to it. Before I know it, it's past the midnight deadline for the particular blogging program. I've been missing too many writing sessions over the last several months, or I'm just getting tired of writing.

I'm so damn involved with resistance groups against the Trump administration that it takes valuable time away from my learning Spanish.  Now that I've started putting all of my 6,427 blogs from the last 20 years in Poland in chronological order, I'm missing too many writings. So much to do, too little time.

Meanwhile, Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine now has “cards” after the United States asked Kyiv to help protect American military bases in the Middle East from Iranian drones.

Speaking in an interview with Irish blogger Caolan Robertson released on Wednesday, March 11, Zelensky was asked whether Ukraine now has leverage in negotiations.

“Do you think Ukraine has the cards now?” the interviewer asked.

“I don’t know, you tell me,” Zelensky replied. “I think yes. But I think that we had them.”

“It’s like a good player,” he continued. “You can have good cards, but it’s not important to show everybody that you have these cards.”

“I think that a year ago we had them. I didn’t show them. But now everybody understands that we have,” he said.

On Monday, Zelensky said Ukraine has sent drone specialists and interceptor drones to help defend US military bases in Jordan from Iranian drone attacks. Zelensky said that the United States requested assistance last week and that a Ukrainian team departed the following day.