Shopping Day

Okay, it's Tuesday, and you know what that means. It's food shopping day. I didn't get up at 6:30 this morning. Instead, I waited until Paige came here to sit with Joan, and then I went shopping at 11:00. And at 11:00, there were always more people shopping than at 6:30 a.m.. I prefer the list people; however, I also prefer sleeping past 6:30 in the morning when it's possible. 

These last two days, I've slept more consistently than I had for the last 3 months. By that, I mean I have slept 10 or 11 hours without waking up. That's very unusual for me. This morning I woke up after having slept only 5 hours. I don't know why. I had my clock alarm set for 9:30, but at 6:30 I'm just automatically woke up. Maybe my brain has been trained after all of these months to wake up automatically at 6:30. How my brain knows when it's 6:30 is beyond me.

So, getting back to the food shopping, the cost for today was 211 PLN. That is about normal in this year 2026 with high inflation, greedy companies wanting to make more money, and the general population can do nothing to bring the prices down. Basically, we're screwed.

Joan had a good time with Paige today. They get along very well, and although Joan hates waking up early, for her, anything before 9:00 is early. She's falling into the habit of going to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 in the evening, always commenting that she has to get enough rest before work tomorrow. It's useless for me to keep reminding her that she hasn't worked in 19 years. The only thing it does is cause friction between the two of us, and we both can do without that. I just don't know how to get her brain to let go of the idea that she still works. I suggested to her that we go see a psychologist, and maybe she can help Joan. But like exercising, she just doesn't want to do it. I cannot force her.

A day in life.

Another heavy sleeping day. I woke up at 9:30, put my head down for five minutes, and when I awoke it was 2:30 in the afternoon. I think my body is trying to tell me something. I need to stop staying up until 2-3 AM every night. It's the only time I can get accomplished on my laptop without being needed by Joan.

I put together a pasta, blue cheese, Parmesan cheese, heavy cream, walnuts, and sunflower seed dish for dinner tonight. It turned out editable.

It was another warm day, 80 F, but we stayed at home all day. 

Good weather

It was 79 F yesterday and 87 F today, and it's only May 3rd. Wonder how the summer will be? Me too,

Yesterday it was nice enough to sit in the park and take a few pictures. We sat for a while and watched the people walk by, ride by on bicycles, and a few being pushed in wheelchairs. It was just too nice to stay indoors.

When we did finally return home, it was time to make dinner. Last night, we had gazpacho soup with a really nice bread.

I went to bed, and for the first time in ages, I slept for ten hours without a break. Joan went to bed earlier, so she slept for 15 hours. She is getting more and more like Rip Van Winkle. I suppose it's mainly the dementia.

Today, we had 3 choices to choose from. Solacki Park, Citadella Park, or the Botanical Gardens.

We decided we would think about it over a cup of coffee at Cafe Lokum.

With the good weather, most of the outdoor cafes are open. Lokum has many tables outdoors, and their prices are lower than Sowas or Kandulkis. We love their cinnamon buns, and the coffee is acceptable. Two buns and two Lattes cost 48 PLN. The other two places charge around 60 PLN.

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.

 dfgbnhmjn

Nice day & taxes.

Today was another lovely day, so I took Joan to Citadela Park for a nice Cruise around, looking at the people. Being Sunday, there were many people in the park, lots of grandparents with children, and other people. We spent about 2 hours there, and then, because she hasn't been out for a few days, I took her to Cafe Locum for coffee and chesto.

Several of the cafes already have their tables out, even though the official opening day for outside cafes isn't until April 1st. However, with the nice weather we have been having, it's only natural that the cafes are opening up.

After we were done having her coffee, took her for another Cruise down the Main Street of the city. The Main Street was renovated a few years ago and looks exceptionally nice. There is much more room for pedestrians, and they have newly planted trees everywhere.

Yesterday, after correcting a few mistakes in the United States tax forms, I was able to email the forms back to the country. Fortunately, or unfortunately, since our income is so low, we don't owe any money to the government. However, we also don't get any refund.

The next step is to scan our Polish tax forms and send them to cousin Andrzej to complete and send in. Usually, we do get some amount of refund..

Slow progress.

I've been spending way too much time with Gemini putting all 6,427 blogs in chronological order, As of today, I have only gotten to the first half of 2013. The program that Pawel wrote to do that, does it.

However, there is a character limit in Gemini, so the most I can do is one month at a time. I average about 30 blogs per month and each one needs spelling, grammar, separation of paragraphs, eliminate bar lines between blogs, specific font sizes for datelines and text checked.

I gave Gemini a set or guidelines to follow, but during any month, it can alter what it pays attention to. Therefore, I still have to check every month before I add to the continuation of my project. The goal is to have one printable, continuous story of our life here. I already have 250 pages with12 more years to go. Call me crazy for doing it, but on a pen drive, it might be of values to any relative who wants it. Call it an Expats History of Life in Poland. 

We had a good day. I filed our U.S. via email and Joan and I spent 1 1/2 hours, sunning ourselves in Solacki Park. It was a good day to do that and watch the people going by. The of the day,  is was James Taylor, Billy Joel, and Paul Simon concerts watching. A night of only music. 

 

 

Moon, Party & Haircuts.

I looked at a full moon tonight, and it reminded me of the party we had at our house on New Year's Eve many years ago. The moon was full that night. With snow everywhere on the ground, it was a perfect night to go skiing. We had about 14 guests, and of course, all of them knew how to ski. It wasn't downhill skiing, it was cross-country skiing. About 1:00 a.m., we all put on our skis and left the house. There wasn't any Trail to follow, so it was a random ski to wherever we wanted to go. I think it lasted about an hour and a half, and then we returned home. It was a great New Year's Eve party. Something I will never forget.

Now, at my age and, of course, given the location, there isn't much opportunity to do much cross-country skiing. It's really a pity. Back then, cross-country skiing was a necessity. Since the house I built was located off the main dirt road, it was necessary to park my truck on the side of the main road and then ski to my house.

Now I live in a concrete world, with underground parking, so it's very convenient to get from the car to the elevator, and then up to the floor we live on. I really miss living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I made a mistake today, and didn't know it until it was too late. At 12:45, I put Joan's shoes on, put her coat on her, and drove to the salon for our haircuts. Our appointment was for 1:30. After I finished parking the car, putting down in the wheelchair, and going to the salon across the street, the receptionist came out to greet us. However, she informed me that our appointment wasn't until Thursday. Of course, I was somewhat shocked, but did not disagree with her. I thanked her and said we would return on Thursday. I really don't know how I could have made that mistake.

When I got back home, I checked my schedule, and it said Tuesday, 1:30 hair appointment. Somehow, I must have written on the wrong day.

Raczynski Library, House, Monument

We have lived here 18 years and passed the building where the Raczynski Library is but have never been in it. Today, I remedied that.

Count Edward Raczyński, (April 2, 1786 in Poznan– died January 20, 1845) in Zaniemysl) was a Polish conservative politician, protector of arts, founder of the Raczyński Library and the first aqueduct in Poznan, who also contributed to nature conservation in Rogalin (Oaks of Rogalin).

His son, Edward Raczynski(1891-1993), was a Polish aristocrat, diplomat, politician and the President of Poland in exile.

During the Second World War, the building was demolished with explosives by the Nazi German troops, and nearly all of the library's books (90%) were destroyed in the resulting fire, except for the special collections looted earlier by Nazi Germany.  In 1953, the library was rebuilt according to the project by Janina Czarnecka. In 1994, the library was in possession of around 252,000 books.

Between 2010 and 2013, a new wing of the library was constructed, which helped to better display the library's collections. It was officially opened on 1 July 2013 and covers an area of 11,000 square meters and was co-financed by European Union funds.

Now, the interior is very modern.  Upon entering, you have the option of going up or down. Good news is, if you are disabled, there is a chair lift to each floor.

Going down takes you to the cloakroom to leave your coat or bags with an attendant. There is also a community hangout area.

If you decide to go up, you will find a huge collection of books on different topics as well as a floor with computers you may use. 

After that, I passed by a large old house that, for many years, was neglected and falling apart. Someone of corparation bought it, and now it's been completely renovated. I had to take pictures. 

This house sits across from the monument. God, Honor, Fatherland (Bog, Honoru, Ojczyna). It is the motto of the Polish Army. It is dedicated to many soldiers who died for their country. 

Blog

I've made a count of how many blogs I have written since I started in September of 2006. The total was a little overwhelming. 6,426. That is a large number. I have saved the text of every one of thcould.m to pen drives and to Proton Drive, so I wouldn't lose them. The problem has always been that when I look at a particular month, they are in reverse chronological order.

Several months ago, I asked my IT specialist friend, Pawel, if he could write a program to put them in the right order, with the first blog on top and then the following blogs. During his free time, he worked on it for about two months and developed a usable program. Thank you, Pawel.

However, when it did the reversal, it did not maintain paragraph separation, check spelling, grammar, or punctuation. That meant I had to go through every blog and do that. It was tedious, and after a month and a half, I stopped.

Last week, thinking about how I could accomplish those tasks and decided to see what Gemini could do with a set of guidelines the missing tasks. 

Project Notes: The Poland Memoirs

• Current Narrative Date: Through February 20, 2026.

• Next Milestone: Cousin Kazia’s visit and the "Four Soups" lesson.

• Total Estimated Pages: ~300–350 pages.

• Core Goal: Transforming 20 years of blog archives into a cohesive 300-page book.

---

Printing & Formatting Rules (For OpenOffice Compatibility)

To ensure the text pastes correctly as "Default" style with proper spacing and bolding, I will continue to use the following structure:

1. Date/Header: Bolded at the start of each entry (e.g., Monday, September 3, 2007 - First Month!).

2. Paragraph Spacing: A full double-space between every paragraph to prevent "Text Body" merging.

3. Clean Text: No special AI-generated summaries or bulleted lists unless requested.

4. No Code Blocks: Standard text only, as code blocks often force a fixed-width font (like Courier) in OpenOffice.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

I gave Gemini 25 blogs to run through the program and checked them all. The tasks were all completed, and I was satisfied with the result. So, I've decided to continue on with Gemini doing the tasks. One year takes about two hours to complete. With 23 years x 2, I hope to be done within one week. Am I crazy? "Still crazy, after all these years. I'm still crazy, after all these years"-P.Simon

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Strolling.

Karolina came today. It was such a lovely day, she decided to take Joan outside for a little stroll before she helped her shower and wash her hair. As you can tell by the picture, Karolina was taking no chance that Joan might get cold. When I came back, Karolina said it was about a 40 minutes stroll, not too far.

I didn't really have anything important to take care of during my free two hours, so I called my friend, Michal, and met him for a coffee in the center of town. The meeting lasted for an hour, and then I had to head back home. 

For dinner, I made an avocado, tomato, blue cheese and pasta salad. I also prepared tomorrow's dinner soup, Zucchini. We will have it with a salad and fresh bread.  

Taxes 2025

I had to go to the bank today because yesterday I received one form for filing our Polish taxes. The problem is I should have three more. I sent a message about it, but being an impatient person, I decided a bank trip would be faster. It wasn't.

When I asked to speak to the person who handles our accounts, I was taken into a room to wait. I waited, and waited and waited. Finally, after twenty minutes, a lady came in.  She asked me if I had an appointment, and she replied my agent was in another meeting now. She could have told me twenty minutes ago. 

Aggravated, I told the receptionist to have the lady call me, and I left the bank. Nothing accomplished.

I suppose I should have known better, but I've gone to the bank before and was usually met within ten minutes. The bank seems to have a rotating staff for lower level clients. Maybe, it's because the bank is being sold to another company.

 

 

Joan, Books, Ukraine

Karolina arrived around 1:30 PM to help Joan shower and was her hair. After that, she applied finger nail Polish and Joan was happy.

I'm glad I made the decision for Karolina to attend to Joan's hygiene needs and for Paige to come twice a week for three hours to sit with her. I felt we both needed a break from each other, and it gives Joan a chance to talk with two women instead of just me.

Today, I just put gas in the car and then sat in Solacki Park for an hour listening to the audiobook of Big Sur by Jack Kerouac. His writings had a big influence in my life and I still like reading at different time. It's much easier to have the read to me by an audiobook.

Like Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, I enjoy rereads,

Meanwhile, Ukraine.

One of Australia’s most highly valued defense firms is helping Ukrainian soldiers knock Russian drones off the battlefield, riding a surge in military spending by Western governments with tech combating the weapon of the future.

From the trenches of Ukraine to the Red Sea and the cartel wars of South and Central America, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are an ubiquitous part of modern conflict conducting surveillance, taking airports offline, dropping deadly payloads, and carrying out so-called “kamikaze” strikes.

Shares in the Sydney-based DroneShield– whose tech was originally conceived as a high-tech mosquito swatter– soared over 300 percent in the last year on hopes that it is uniquely positioned to profit from the wars of the 21st century.

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out any withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the eastern Donbas region as part of a potential peace agreement with Russia, insisting Kyiv will not abandon what he described as its “real defending line.”

In an interview with Kyodo News in Kyiv, Zelensky rejected Moscow’s demand that Ukrainian forces pull back from the region, where some of the heaviest fighting of the full-scale war has taken place.
“We can’t withdraw from our territory. It’s our real defending line,” he said, as negotiations with Russia continue.

 Zelensky stressed that Ukraine is prepared for genuine compromises to achieve peace – but not at the expense of its independence or sovereignty.

“We are ready to talk about compromises with the United States. But not to receive ultimatums from the Russians again and again. They are the aggressor. Everyone has recognized this. This has not changed,” he said. Source-Kyiv Post

Not happy.

Another young cousin is very happy now, after graduating from high-school. She just received her acceptance letter to Clemson University, where she applied. Congratulations to her. She is a fine gymnast, and I'm sure she will be a great addition to their team.

Back at home, Joan's hygienist gave us another late call, cancelling her visit today. It made me a little angry because I had two things I had to take care of outside the house, and it would have been easier to do it by myself. Instead, I had to change Joan into warmer clothing, and take her with me. The problem was both tasks were on the second or third floor of buildings without an elevator. Consequently, Joan had to wait in the parked car each time I went in. Oh, well, such is our life now.

Revolut.

 I sold some small stocks we had in Revolut and wanted the money transferred to my bank. It has been several months since I did that, and I couldn't make the transfer on my cell. I tried a few different approaches, but they didn't work. I gave up and called my friend, the IT specialist.

I explained my problem, and he said to come over. He lives on the opposite side of the city. I didn't see any need to take my laptop.

After a half-hour drive, I reached his flat. He tried for 30 minutes to transfer the money with no success. The password would not be accepted. He asked me if I remembered it. I laughed and told him there are so many passwords for each different app that I didn't. He said we need to go to my laptop.

Half an hour later we were at my laptop. He checked my password, successfully made the transfer. He looked at my cell, and now it was accepting the same password. Go figure,

Half an hour passed as I returned him to his flat.

That is how I spent my 3-hour break today. 

The guitar.

Feels like Saturday. But then, everyday does when you're retired. I would have said Sunday, but during a life, Sunday was the day before you had to go back to school, or back to work. Neither were something I looked forward to, except for university.

Attending the School of Music at DePaul University in Chicago was something I looked forward to each weekday. The only thing about it, I didn't like was getting up early to take a train to Chicago and lugging 2 guitars, one classical, and one jazz guitar. The classical was light enough, the electric one not.

That was mainly because I had a gem of a jazz guitar. It was a yellow, 1936 Gibson wide-bodied guitar that I, miraculously, came across and bought.

It happened because I was working in a small music store that sold guitar and also had lessons there.

One evening, an elderly woman came into the store with her granddaughter, who, I guess, was about 10 years old. She wanted to buy a guitar for her. I told the lady, for the girl's age, I would recommend a nylon-string guitar because it would be easier on her fingers just starting out. I showed her two models and the girl made the decision.

The grandmother said she had an old guitar in her closet that her husband had bought that year. A few years later he went to WWII and never returned. I asked her if she knew the brand name of it, and she said it started with a G. My heart leaped, and I asked if it was Gibson. She said yes.

I told her my story of music school and how much I loved playing guitar. Before she left, I asked her if she would bring it for me to see, and she did the next day.

As soon as she walked through the door and I saw the metal case it was in, I knew it was old.

The case was not the standard colors for the present year. Instead, it was yellow with two orange wide-stripes across the top of the case. I picked it up, it was heavy, and placed it on top of a table to open.

Inside, this beautiful antique guitar still rested in it's allotted space of deep-red velvet. None of the other velvet had a mark on it. The strings were a little rusty, as well as the tuning keys. I played a short tune on it after I tuned the strings and holding the strings down, even rusty, were like putting your fingers down through a soft stick of butter. I was in love.

I told the lady to call Gibson, give them the visible serial number inside the sound hole, and they could estimate the value. Not only that, but I said it would be much, much more than she paid yesterday.

Then, I reiterated my love of guitar, music school, and said I would love owning that beautiful instrument. However, I only had $150 in my bank and couldn't afford the real value of it.

She shocked me when she said I could have it for$100 and to keep the $50 in the bank. I asked her why she would sell it for that little money when it was worth so much more. She said she would rather know that someone loved it as much as her husband did, and she knew I would.

The next day I called Gibson, gave them the serial number, and they told me it was a 1936 ES-150, hollow-body guitar, And it was mine! 

 

 

Missing guitarist.

Many years ago, I made the acquaintance of another guitar player, Robert Savage. At that time, we both had girlfriends who were very close. It was only natural that, at some point in time, we would meet. From time to time, we would meet and talk about the usual thing, music.

Eventually, our lives drew us apart, and we lost track of each other. Several months ago, for the heck of it, I did a Facebook search and found him. Ialso found some videos of him playing on YouTube. Of course, I sent him several messages to which he didn't respond.

Last week, I was surprised when I finally got a response. We set up a time to video-chat this past Saturday, and we did. It was great, like those past years just disappeared. Naturally, we both explained what had happened to us during those missing years, and we agreed to keep in video touch more often. It was a good night.

Meanwhile, here in Poland, I did the weekly food shopping. Total cost $48.50. Dinners will be Potato & Bacon Soup, Avocado, Tomato & Blue Cheese Pasta Salad, Skillet Lemon Chicken with Potatoes & Spinach, Hungarian Chili, Pizza, and Roasted Chicken Thighs, Potatoes, and Greek Salad. The soup is for 2 days. Joan made the menu, and I did the shopping.

Tonight we watched a good video about Hungary on YouTube. We've been there twice, but there is still so much more to see. I hope we will be able to.

Crucial-end.

After realizing that my crucial external drives had to be sent to Hungary instead of the United States, I went back to the post office and asked them if they were sending packages to Hungary. Actually, I didn't ask them because I had written all of my questions into a translator and had them before me in Polish. I showed it to the lady, and she smiled as she read the translation. It was probably because the translation was understandable, but not in proper Polish.

She told me that yes, they were sending packages to Hungary. My second question was, "Do you have a bubble pack mailer that I can buy?" She opened a drawer and produced it.

My final question was, "How much does it cost to mail it? She replied that it depended on whether or not I wanted to receive proof of delivery. I told her that yes, I did, and she said take the mailer and the form you need to fill out, and bring it back when you are done.

Because my handwriting is so bad, when I got home, I asked Karolina, who was here, to please fill out this form for me. She did it, and now on Monday, I will take it and mail it to Hungary. I won't know the cost until I do that. Nevertheless, I'm pleased that I've accomplished this much due to my persistence.

Meanwhile, Ukraine.

Since early January, Ukrainian drone and artillery forces have attacked regional energy generation and public heating infrastructure in the western Russian region of Belgorod in a month-long bombardment campaign that has forced local authorities to call for mass evacuations.

The raids mixing domestically developed kamikaze aircraft with NATO state-manufactured long-range artillery – rockets or missiles have hit Belgorod targets at least six times with complex attacks. Most of the region’s major power and heating facilities have been struck repeatedly.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, in Wednesday’s public comments, called the state of power and heating deliveries in the region home to some 1.4 million people “extremely difficult, critical, and prolonged.” In public announcements, Gladkov over the weekend called the situation with power and heating in Belgorod “almost catastrophic.”

Crucial problem still.

 Following up on my story about my external drive problem, I contacted FedEx to see what it would cost to send my Crucial Drive back to them as required. It was to be sent back to Hungary, and once they received it, they would send me a new Drive.

I've already mentioned that the Polish post office cannot send packages to the United States. I assumed that was the case also for Hungary, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, there were four different prices to send a packet by FedEx to hungry ranging from 1,700 to 81 PLN. The economy one was the cheapest, and that's the one I wanted. It didn't matter that it would take a week or two for them to return the new product to me.

So, today I went to the nearest FedEx office to send the drive to Hungary. The people were very helpful, and they filled out the required documents that I needed. When it was all done, I asked what the cost was going to be. The clerk said he didn't know, and I wouldn't know until I looked at my own account and saw what the payment was.

Back at home, I checked my account, and there was nothing written in. I then spoke to someone on chat to find out the cost. After 10 or 15 minutes, the person came back and said the cost was 671 PLN. I told her that was outrageous, and that I could buy a new Drive for much less money. Of course, I didn't find that out until I was home. I told her I refused to pay that cost and wanted to cancel my shipment. Naturally, she gave me another website to go to to do that, but it was unable to tell me. Finally, after three tries, I asked to speak to a human being. I had to do that three times before someone actually spoke. I told her what had happened and that I wanted to cancel my order. Unfortunately, she could not understand much of what I said.

My next step was to call Gabriela and ask her to call the FedEx office, explain what I told her, and tell them to cancel the order. Gabriella did that and said she was waiting now for an email to be sent to her with the cancellation information.

So, tomorrow I have to go back to FedEx and get the defective CD. This whole process took about 3 hours. It was a total waste of time.