Cruising and bailing out

I’m back from Antarctica! Lots of adjectives to describe it: amazing, once-in-a-lifetime, phenomenal, long. Really glad I went and also really glad it’s behind me now.

Ushuaia

The only way get to Antarctica, short of working at one of the research facilities there (I applied for a job once) is to cruise, so, even though I didn’t think I was much of a cruiser, that’s what I did.

And you know what? I am not much of a cruiser. I hated it. Well, at least the sea days, of which there were a dozen. Normally, I would guess, there are more port days, but the point was to go to Antarctica, and you can’t get there easily. It’s three days from Ushuaia, Argentina, which is basically the bottom of the civilized world.

I loved Ushuaia, and would go back again to spend more time there. It was incredibly outdoorsy and surprisingly populated. As the guide explained it, there are lots of factories there and people have come from all over Argentina to work. There was even a Hard Rock Café!

The cruise people tried. It just wasn’t for me. I like active vacations, and sitting in a chair reading for 20 hours a day isn’t for me. I read my share of books – including Gone With the Wind! – but was bored out of my mind even before we left.

That might not have happened had we left on time, but so be it. There was an issue with a fuel ship, so we spent the entire first day tied up to a dock in the little town of San Antonio, Chile. Beyond a little mall I’d explored the first day, before we were due to leave, I’d explored that mall and was done with it, so I didn’t bother getting off again. We finally set sail something like 20 hours late.

It didn’t get much better for me, but at least there was a schedule and a gym. I was up early every morning and in the gym. The fitness classes cost extra, so I didn’t do those. Everything costs extra, it seemed, or at least there was an upsell to everything. A “free facial” class led to pressure to sign up for $200 treatments and $50 skin care products. Even bingo cost extra.

Trivia didn’t, though, and that was the other “must do” for me. At first, I jumped on any team I could find and then eventually settled with one group that was pretty fun. Despite trivia happening four times a day, I mostly aimed at the afternoon one. Most of the times, my teams did pretty well and we won twice. (Yes, a frog uses its eyeballs to push food to its stomach – no one believed me but it was right.) That was, by far, my favorite on-board activity.

Spa treatments, which were outrageously priced, were No. 2, followed by watching reruns of “The Love Boat,” if you can believe that. They did not have much TV on board but every day they played a “Love Boat” episode about 4-5 times. When I got sick down the road (a lot of people did), I wound up watching it 2-3 times a day. They had that, “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Cheers.” I only say 2-3 episodes of each, but I saw those 2-3 episodes multiple times daily. There were just huge gaps where there was nothing to do. Not for me.

There were pools, but it was too cold out to sit on the deck or contemplate getting in the pool. Way down the road, I learned there was a sauna and started on that, but I’d initially thought they either didn’t have one or there was an extra  charge for it, because the spa person who’d showed me around made a point to point out the steamroom, which was $299 for the entire cruise. I wasn’t into that, but the free sauna – once I knew about it – was great.

Antarctica itself was definitely worth it. Although since I have a crappy camera, I can’t prove it, but we saw seals, whales and penguins. Plus oh so many icebergs! And, something I didn’t expect, other ships. Not many, but over the course of two days in Antarctica, I think we saw three of them, not counting the one some scientists came on board with to tell us about their work.

“The Drake” – the Drake Passage, right around from Cape Horn, is apparently quite a horrid ride most of the time. All the cruise information I read said it’s 2-3 days of rolling waves and people puking their guts out. But we got extremely lucky. We had one day early on with rough weather, but not at The Drake. It was calm and gorgeous. Really, most of the cruising was except that one day. I noticed a lot of people wearing those seasick patches behind their ears.

I realize what I did wasn’t a typical cruise, but I’m certainly in no rush to join another. I do see the draw; it’s just not for me. However, I enjoyed a lot of the parts, including trivia, the dinner meal and the evening shows. We had a good table of people (and perhaps the loudest and most jovial) at dinner and that was great fun. So were the desserts. I got spoiled right off when they had Key Lime pie, but that never happened again and I kept the fallback of caramel sundaes, which is not a bad fallback. Every time I opened that dinner menu, though, I kept hoping for more Key Lime.

 

The cruise life really did crack me up because of Baghdad. Upon getting Baghdad as an assignment, people said it was like a cruise ship that never docks. Now, after actually going on a cruise ship that rarely docked (for ports in 15 days), I really get the comparison.

There is food everywhere, right along with signs to wash your hands, and there is a full schedule of stuff to do. Both have captive audiences, but is way more diverse in many ways. Beyond more people from different places, they also have more fitness classes in Baghdad. I guess if I had a job (or anything else) I could have done for 8-9 hours a day I wouldn’t have been so bored but man I sure was.

The shows were pretty good, though. I did the 9:30 p.m. one every night since our dinner was 7:30 p.m. There was a juggler, a magic guy, a couple of ship-produced shows, plus some outside entertainers. My two favorites were Ric Steele, a country music writer/singer, and Carlos Somebody, who had an amazing voice and huge range. He opened his second show with “Unchained Medley” in Spanish and  closed it with an Italian opera, and this was a guy who’d done “Billie Jean” in his first show.

During that performance, his microphone cut out a couple of times. We could tell it was while some announcement was going on, but Carlos continued with the song, thanking the captain at the end of the song for “being part of the entertainment.” At that moment, his mic cut out again and the captain came on, saying something about it being contained or something like that.

Turned out, one of the engines had caught fire, and they came over with an announcement that the crew needed to reports to their drill stations. With that, the seven-piece band got up and walked off the stage – they had to report.

Fortunately, nothing bad happened with the fire. It would have been the absolute worst timing, because we were just headed out of Antarctica – 800 miles from the nearest outpost, which would have taken two days to get to.

That next port was Stanley, in the Falkland Islands. Sadly, four cruisers were in a car accident on their way to see penguins and they weren’t able to get back on the boat and had to stay in the hospital there. Also there, one of the crew members had to get off the boat and have surgery, which we later found out had happened in Santiago. I’ve no idea what the hospital facilities are like in the Falkland Islands, but I can’t imagine being that poor crew member, who had to have some emergency surgery (our guess: appendix) and wound up having to fly from Stanley to Santiago. But the report back was that he or she was doing good.

I didn’t do a tour in Stanley and just wandered around a bit. In Montevideo, I did a regular city tour and enjoyed that, and once in Buenos Aires – cruise end – I went to a ranch one day and did a city tour the next. I’d also arrived early and spent three days in Valparaiso, Chile.

It was a long vacation – initially intended to be taken from Baghdad, not Minsk – and I had been planning it for a long time. Now it’s over and I really don’t know what’s next, although for now, long-haul flights are off the table. I had two full travel days on the way there and one the way back, and I was under the weather for both segments.

I’m really glad to be home, even though I can’t wrap my brain around the fact I have to go to work tomorrow. I’m sick, let-lagged and exhausted and planned on taking it easy today. I took melatonin last night and didn’t wake up until about 11 a.m., at which point I tossed clothes into the washer. When I made it as far as the kitchen, though, everything went South: the sink was filled with dirty water, the counter was covered in it and dirt, and there was standing water in my utensil drawers and on the floor, including water that had soaked one of my Turkish rugs.

It wasn’t the washer; apparently it was someone else’s dishwasher hitting a clog and backing up into my kitchen. Not fun, but I called the person to help and the right people came over so I think it’s fixed now. I just had to wash every utensil I own and sop up the floor. I used the giant bucket to bail out the sink (which was still filling up with water) and it took six trips with the bucket to the toilet to get it under control. When the guy texted me to back if thee kitchen was flooded, I wasn’t even sure how to answer because it had been flooded but by that time I’d cleaned 80 percent of it up.

Not how I hoped to be spending my last day before going back to work, but it’s a good reminder to not count on making definite plans. I didn’t have anything I really needed to do today, but bailing out a sink with a cup, a saucepan and a bucket certainly wasn’t in my realm of possibilities of how to spend a Sunday.

The Force is with us

So ready for “Star Wars” to come out. We get movies in English, but they apparently don’t stay long and it’s sort of a guess what will be available. “Midway” was here for a bit, but it ever came in English. “Ford v. Ferrari” did, for a week or so, and that last “Terminator” was here in English for at least three weeks. I came close to caving and watching that one.

“Ford v. Ferrari” was totally worth the hassle of tracking it down and seeing it. We have a couple of theaters that will show movies in English (with Russian subtitles) and I have a hard time figuring out which is the theater near me and which is the one across the little city in the building with the Marriott.

But “Star Wars” is coming, in English, on Thursday. I’m just not sure where and when I will see it. I’ve told people that’s what I’d like to do on Christmas; for some reason people seem to think I’m joking but it’s absolutely an option. Since Belarusians celebrate Orthodox Christmas the following week, there shouldn’t be a crowd.

This weekend I babysat Shelby again and also had a second pup, Warrior. Warrior’s family went on leave and Shelby’s mom will be keeping him for most of the time, but she got called out of town for a night so I got them both. It was a good weekend to re-watch the original “Star Wars” trilogy. I’ve just finished those and have “The Force Awakens,” but I don’t own “The Last Jedi,” so, whenever I see the movie, I hope I remember where we all left off. Dang, it better be good.

After giving the pups back, I went out to yet another Georgian restaurant last night. In maybe six weeks here that’s three different Georgian restaurants and three times I’ve had My Thai. Sensing some patterns forming early on, all involving dumplings. Like others, this place was within walking distance, and on the way back, I was walking part of the way with a Fellow Foodie and she wanted to duck into another place for dessert. I’d seen a placed called, as God is my witness, “Honky Tonk,” and on the way in, I heard Montgomery Gentry blaring “My Town” and figured it was Belarus’s version of a country bar. We went in, and it looked that way, although at that point, the music was more jazz. And under “Honky Tonk,” the sign read, “Piano Bar.” Because those two things go together in Belarus.

We went in and I had tea and piece of cheesecake and Fellow Foodie had some kind of drink and a brownie. The live music started at 9 a.m., and the trio set up – a guitarist, a drummer (electronic kit) and a cello, which was also electric. This didn’t exactly scream Waylon so we figured we’d have to stay and see some of it jut to figure out what it was. I mean, the theme of the bar really was country-ish, with little cowboy hats and baby beer barrels. I never saw a piano in the piano honky tonk and when the music started, it was absolutely … jazz. Not bad, but definitely not country. However, how American is that? A country and western piano bar with live jazz?

 

While we were in there, it started snowing again – really, really fat flakes. I never took weather so I’ve no idea how fat flakes form, but these were March-ish flakes, not November. But today, Sunday, it was fairly warm – 36 degrees – and the existing snow melted. Since we probably won’t see the sun until May, though, it’s not drying up; it’s just pooling everywhere. That doesn’t bode well for staying away from slip and fall accidents.

My LL Bean order isn’t in yet, so the nonskid things I got for my shoes are still en route and I just hope I don’t wipe out before they arrive. I am becoming babushka-like in my walk to work. I walk slow and grip every handrail possible.

But I finally feel better. In addition to all the Thai food, we also have a Thai massage place on my way home from work. I popped in there and made an appointment for a massage and feel much better now. It was my first massage there, but probably not my last. I filled out the first-visit questionnaire and was highly amused by the questions:

• ·        Where does it hurt?
• ·        Do you have any allergies?
• ·        How do you take your tea?

 Love it.

So far, the tour is just great. This week, I did my second outreach. Previously, I’d gone to a school and discussed Thanksgiving, and this week I did a “My Hometown” presentation. I love PowerPoint and had a great time talking up Tallahassee, even wearing my FSU baseball jersey. 

WHOMP. There she goes.

Thanksgiving in Minsk was quite memorable for me. Not so much for the turkey, though there was that, but more so for my very first utter wipeout on black ice.

It’s going to be a long, long winter. Thanksgiving day itself was great, for the most part. I walked to a particular market to buy eggs and a few other things, enjoying what started out as fairly decent, if chilly, weather. In all, I walked about 8 kilometers, then made mashed potatoes for a meal with some colleagues.

One had offered a ride, so I went down to wait for them to arrive, carrying the mashed potatoes in a pot in a sack. After maybe 10 minutes of wandering around in a little circle (mostly to stay warm, as it started getting sleety), my ride drove up. I took maybe four steps to the car and, I guess, reached for the handle and then WHOMP. I fell backwards before anything like, “Holy crap, I’m falling” could run through my head. My first thought was extreme pain and “I didn’t lose consciousness” and I realized I wasn’t dead or dying. I also figured out that my head hadn’t burst open with brain pieces everywhere because I was thinking. Honestly, I don’t know how that was possible. I landed with a hard smack.

You know the feeling after someone pulls your hair really hard? I had that for 15 minutes solid. Then we arrived at the Thanksgiving dinner destination and I had Advil as my hor d’voures and the sensation dulled once the turkey hit home.

The next day, I learned how fast word spreads in a small post when everyone already knew what happened. I conceded to go to the hospital to get checked out, and that was an event unto itself. It was reminiscent of my visit to the Midelt hospital during Peace Corps, where I saw many people who were trying to help me, but I had no concept of what was going on. In Peace Corps, though, I had the phone to the PC doctor, who was translating. In this case, I had a doctor from the embassy with me to help translate, and I am thankful for that. Although I still don’t completely know what happened, I got a CT scan and four X-rays that were all negative. At the end of the 2-hour visit, I paid just under $200 and got immediate results. America’s health care system stinks.

Over a week on, my hips still hurt and I still have a bump on my head, so I’m not completely convinced there are no long-term effects. They gave me no painkillers so I’ve just taken Advil-ish PM to sleep. At first, I was really stiff and store but I’m down to it just being the hips and the top of my head. Next week I’m debating a Thai massage. There’s a place fairly near the office.

Other things Thai include a restaurant called My Thai, which is about a half a kilometer from me. My apartment is really smack in the middle of everything. Tonight, I went to a Georgian restaurant. It’s not the first Georgian food I’ve had here, so I had figured I was going to the other one. When I asked where this one was, my eating companion said it was right next door to the Australian pub. Both those restaurants are on the way to My Thai.

I’m working on my Cyrillic, and I realized that the storefront across the road is an Uzbek restaurant, which is next door to a coffee shop that I just figured out spells “Iskander,” which means it’s a Turkish coffee place. There’s a Chinese place above the Thai massage and somewhere I ran into an Irish pub, too. And that’s stuff that’s all fairly nearby. And it doesn’t count the McDonald’s, KFCs, Burger Kings or the TGI Friday, though I guess those don’t really constitute international cuisine.

While walking Shelby, whom I’m babysitting again this week, I’ve stopped at signs to sound out some of the words and realized that Karl Marx road is right behind me. I also passed some “consular service” place, so it must have been part of an embassy but I didn’t recognize the flag. It’s right around the corner from me, though. I’m totally in the middle of everything.

In spring and summer, this place will be gorgeous and lovely to walk around. I hope I make it.

Babysitting and Breaking Bad but Winter Is Coming

Almost a month into my stay in Minsk and I’m settling in. The pictures aren’t on the wall yet, but the floors are full of rugs and the fridge is stocked with magnets, if not food.

I’ve explored on foot in my area, but there’s a lot more to see. However, winter hit here, or at least what I’d call winter hit here. Last weekend, it was in the high 40s but on Friday it went down to 20. And that was an all-day 20, not a low.

The baby in babysitting.

The walk into work isn’t bad; it’s about a mile and I have varying routes I can take. There are several big roads, so the alternate routes vary in which road I cross, go over or under, how many staircases I go up and down and on which side of the road I cross the river. 

Although Belarus is a pretty flat country – cross-country skiing is apparently the thing to do once the white stuff is on the ground – I feel like I walk up and down a lot of stairs on the way to and from work. Now, that’s not so bad but once ice gets on the ground it’s going to freak me out.

All of my shipments came already and in the process of unpacking everything, I found the “Breaking Bad’ DVDs and binged. It’s my third viewing, and I think it was worse the second time but better the third. You just have to accept that Walt is the most abusive boss ever and you’re fine. I also liked Marie a lot more this time around – her character is about the only one with pure intentions. I also went down the bunny holes on color as it relates to BB and wow, the writers were absolutely diligent in how they presented the show, to the point of people’s names adding up to numbers that translated to whatever colors. That show is truly a study in many different topics.

On the Isle of Tears

Right when my big shipment came, I also got custody of a sweet dog. Shelby’s owner had to work over the weekend so I got to babysit a sweet pup. Shelby, who was, in her youth, a Ukrainian street dog, is now a collie-ish sweetheart who knows how to shake hands and dance and howls in her sleep. (She woke herself up with that one.) We had a lot of fun and I really miss having a dog, but keeping her – and walking her in the 40something-degree weather – reinforced the fact I am not ready for my own. Hopefully, though, I will get to babysit Shelby again. She will leave in spring.

In settling in, someone gave me a TV, for which I am thankful. It’s an older one but seems to do everything I need it to, but I haven’t figured out all the right combinations. I get cable TV but I have no earthly idea of how to get that to the TV. There’s only one reliable channel in English, but I had been watching “Bones,” now and then so I’d like to figure out how to get that back. But in the meantime. I’m still good with AFN and my DVDs.

At some point, they’re going to come and take the “welcome kit” back, which includes the old TV as well as the vacuum, so I spent this cold weekend vacuuming and trying to get the rugs laid out. If I counted correctly, I have nine, but not all are large, and none of them are room-sized. Some are lying on top of the pre-existing rugs that came in the apartment.

I love the apartment; there are some quirks, of course. Every kitchen should have a drawer for junk and mine doesn’t. I also think I have about three heating zones through the house. The extra bedroom I’ve marked as my study/gym is super cold, but the bathroom is nice and toasty. I’m not sure I have control over the temperatures; I think the city regulates the heat.

Yes I do.

I’ve been to a couple restaurants nearby, but not TGI Friday’s. I will at some point just to be geeky but I’ll be here two years so no rush. I discovered My Thai, which has amazing dumplings, and there is doner place that will likely be my go-to. A decent-size schwarma is about $1.50.

Also started on Russian lessons, and man, it’s a tough language. I really want to learn a language, though, and a head start on this one would not only help me communicate (duh) but maybe give me a leg up down the road.

God knows I don’t think I am going to be venturing out much this winter, so I am glad to have something productive to do. I feel like I did in North Dakota; I am rooting for December 21 to get here more so than Christmas. The sun is coming up around 9 a.m. now and setting before 5 p.m., and we’re still about a month off from the shortest day of the year. I leave for work in the morning and it’s still dark, then I walk home in the dark. Today I went into work to run on the treadmill and it was sunny, nice and 21. It makes such a difference when it’s sunny out! But I won’t see that for a couple months.

It’s supposed to snow this week, which probably means it’ll be here to stay until March. I am not looking forward to it. I have lots of winter clothes, but I’m never going to be ready for it.

To get into the winter mood, I got “Game of Thrones” in audio book. I didn’t see the HBO series and the book was over 30 hours long. I listened to the entire thing but only have the vaguest notion of what was going on. Fantasy aloud is hard, but I am going to plug along. It gives me something to listen to on the half-hour walk to and from work.

So yeah, winter is coming. I hope I make it.

As the days go fly

It’s been a week since my arrival to Minsk. The very first day, I opened a window and three flies managed to get in. I thought the average life span of aa housefly was 2-3 days; whenever one bothers me, I think, “In four days, max, you’ll never annoy anyone again.”

But Minsk must have superflies. On about day, one flew too close to the sun in going too far down in the plastic trash bag. I snapped it shut and smothered the pest. A second one died a similar fate, but not on purpose. I meant to smack it down, which I did, but it didn’t die instantly. It buzzed a bit and then I stepped on it and thought I killed it, so I picked it up with a piece of paper to toss it in the trash. As I did so, it rebounded like Adonis Creed, but I zipped him in the plastic bag and never heard those wings buzz again.

But holy smokes, it’s now Day Nine and I’ve still got one flying around. I’m torn between being impressed and utterly annoyed with The Last Super Fly. I don’t own a flyswatter, or I don’t think I own a flyswatter. I might, but as I’ve only received one of my three shipments, I don’t have one with me.

They’re hard things to track down, flyswatters are. I’ve gone through this before, when I tried to buy one in another country, though I don’t remember which one. Honestly, when was the last time you bought a flyswatter? Where did you get it from? And in which part of the store? Stick me in a Publix, Target or Walmart, and I’m fairly certain all would carry at least one kind, but where would it be? Pest control? Plastics? Outdoor-ish stuff? It’s a little scavenger hunt.

Then add the wrinkle of another language. It’s not something that translates easily. For one thing, is it one word or two? And would this be a literal translation? Today, I tried to order some office supplies and, having virtually no Russian to speak of, relied on Google Translate, but I came up empty in some searches.  “Desk organizer,” “bulletin board” and “whiteboard eraser” didn’t pan out, so I’d really have no hope for “flyswatter.”

So now I’m waiting on nature to take its course and have Super Fly die of old age. If not, I’m going to have to go to a store and do it the old-fashioned way, with old fashioned body language and a buzzing noise.

Besides the fly, which is really only a minor inconvenience because my apartment is so big I don’t see him often, things are just fine. Work is a bit overwhelming because I don’t know where to start; there are a lot of big projects and it’s a matter of prioritizing.

I’m now walking to work, which is enjoyable if cold and/or wet and getting colder and/or wetter. Luckily, one of my shipments arrived, and it was the one that had both my warm stuff – hats, gloves and some scarves – and my raincoat.

Over the weekend, I walked a ton and explored the area. It was much chillier over the weekend than it’s been this week, but I took off in all directions and poked around. The city seems to be nice and compact, very walkable. There is a metro system, though, and I’ll have to get one of those cards.

I hadn’t realized last weekend was going to be a three-day one, and I realized yesterday that this weekend is, too. I’m a little bummed because usually I like to do road trips but it’s just too early in the game for me to get out.  I hope to do a little more than just walk – there are lots of museums and such – but all in all it’s been a nice, slow way to start a new assignment.

No Starbucks to be found, but Cinnabon is nearby

I’m settling into my new apartment in my new city. So far, Minsk, the apartment and my assignment are all fabulous.

Yes, it’s going to be a lot colder than I have been in awhile, but I got a short reprieve upon arrival and made do with a light hoodie. That’s going to change quickly but I’m enjoying it right now. Friday’s a holiday and I’m hoping to wander around in what might be the last decent weekend weather-wise.

My apartment is pretty awesome. It’ll be lost on me, since I’m pretty boring and don’t entertain, but it’s still the envy of the housing pool. I’m smack dab in the city center. It’s about a mile to the office; I’m hoping to hoof it as much as possible and it’s a nice walk. Granted, it’s going to be a cold and dark walk in the winter, but that’s the intention. I have a couple of metro stops nearby and that’s an option, but as I understand it, it takes about as long to metro as it does to walk so, unless I’m in danger of frostbite, why not walk? (We’ll see how that plays out …)

Location aside, the apartment itself is still pretty incredible. I have a bedroom with a walk-in closet bigger than Wendy’s living room and the apartment itself is larger than the Tallahassee home. The bathroom is phenomenal, probably bigger than Zippy’s bedroom, although it’s not shaped like a square. It’s kind of a triangle with a Nebraska-like foot sticking out. The whole thing is absolutely huge and made me wonder how to heat it in the winter, but then I realized it had heated floors. That’s awesome!

My guest room has two twin beds and my office has enough room to have a big workout space once my shipments get here. The kitchen, too, is pretty large as far as I’m concerned. It’s kind of a shame because in reality, I’ll camp out in one chair and my room. Oh! Speaking of, there’s a little balcony off my room, too.

Really, it’s an amazing apartment. I don’t deserve it, and I mean that. My department is really hierarchal, and I’m on the bottom. The apartment is for someone who’s far closer to the top than me, but because it was the only thing available when I arrived, I got it. Score.

Looking forward to my new assignment, too. I’ve got a cool opportunity as the first one in my position in about 10 years. There’s a lot to wrap my mind around and prioritize. So far everyone is really nice; there aren’t many American staff in the office so the arrival of new one means I can take over some of other people’s workloads. That’s not limited to American staff members’ work, but in shouldering anything, it frees up people’s time to focus on other stuff, something that’s welcome.

Minsk is very nice. Everyone says it’s great living and that you can find everything here. (I found peanut butter, so that’s a good start.) There are a lot of American places. Of course, there’s McDonald’s; we’re also having Domino’s today. Oddly, though, there’s no Starbucks. In Guangzhou, I had two within sight of my apartment. There’s a Cinnabon, though, which is pretty incredible. I remember one being in Yerevan, but other than that, the only ones I’ve seen are in U.S. malls. So that’s cool. According to my map, there’s one 600 meters from my house. There’s a movie theater that has an English language movie for a heartbeat every once in awhile (show showing: Shawshank Redemption!) 890 meters away. I’ll be checking into that for sure, though not for something I’ve seen 17,821 times. Ford v. Ferrari is coming soon.    

Besides McD’s, there’s also a TGI Friday’s right near my house. It’s across from this really cool department store called GUM. (I saw it on the map and thought it must be a gym, but no, it’s GUM.) It’s a Soviet-era department store in an old building and is apparently organized in a haphazard way. I went into the bottom floor and poked around the household stuff. At some point, I have to do a shopping spree for fun stuff like a broom, vacuum and TV but that can wait.

Yeah, the initial cash outlay is going to hurt in a few weeks. So far, I’ve been posted to places that didn’t need me to bring stuff like dishes, TVs or flatware. As a result, all that stuff – which I do own – is sitting, out of reach, in a warehouse somewhere. So now I’m checking out Target, Walmart and the local stores and trying to price stuff I’ll need.

Friday is a holiday here, so I can do some staycationing. No idea what I’ll do. There’s so much!

Been awhile

 I’m back, meaning both America and Florida. I’m midway through my home leave; time flies.

Arrived on Mackenzie’s birthday, but since she was out of town I’d planned on going to the FSU game. Zippy got me at the airport and had her little pups with her, so we went home first. I noticed Rally got out of the car at home and immediately went to pee, and I saw he hiked his little leg for a much longer time than would be normal. However, the poor little thing has a torn ACL, so I didn’t think much of it.

I'm not a vet, but I knew immediately what Rally had.

Nor did I think much of Z telling me that Rally kept waking her up several times a night to pee. He’s a pesky little thing, so that seemed normal. However, while at the house before the game, I saw that he asked to go out a couple of times, and each time he seemed to hike his leg up longer than it takes to pee.

We headed out to the game and decided to hit The Wharf for fish before, then popped back by the house to give Rally and The Bat some leftover cheese grits. For the first time ever, Rally turned down People Food.  Something seemed wrong. I asked Z if she’d noticed Rally actually peeing, because, so much as I’d seen him hike the little ACL-torn leg, I didn’t remember seeing a pee stream. She hadn’t noticed. Perhaps realizing we were talking about him, Rally got up and went to sit behind a chair, where he just stared listlessly. Bless his heart. No was Z was going to leave her favorite son like that.

After doing such internet searches as “dog can’t pee” and “how to help dog pee” (the latter yielded this video: https://www.handicappedpets.com/blog/how-to-express-dog-bladder/, which I tried but never really figured out where Rally’s bladder was), texted Wendy, who said to take Rally’s temperature. Never mind the correct kind of thermometer, we didn’t have a thermometer at all, so I called Allied, the Pup ER that’s maybe two miles away. After explaining the symptoms, they said yes, we should come in because something sounded really wrong.

No Evening at Doak for me. Instead, we loaded up both Rally and Batgirl, lest she be left alone, and took the little boy in, where he was subsequently X-rayed. The result: massive amounts of bladder stones, essentially a rock collection going from his bladder to his little pee pipe. He’d been trying to pass the stones – which ranged in size from sand to pebbles – probably for weeks. He’s too dumb to tell you something is wrong, so no telling what kind of pain he’d been in.

The verdict: surgery. Well, initially, I think “procedure” would be a better word. He had a catheter put in to flush as much as possible back into his bladder so he could then have surgery by his regular vet on Monday, which, presumably, would cost less than emergency surgery.

Having traveled to and lived in countries far poorer than the U.S., it really wrenches me to see how we treat our pets here. Rally’s procedure, surgery and tooth-cleaning (which we tossed in because he would be under anyway) cost roughly the amount an Indian earns in a year. I just don’t know how to feel about that; there’s guilt on several fronts. First world problems, but it’s Zippy’s baby, and he’s worth it to her.

Batgirl went home and Rally stayed at Allied for two nights. We went to visit him the second day, after his successful pebble flush. He had a catheter in and was passing some of the little ones, too. But visiting him was pretty bad. He had on his little Cone of Shame and was so utterly confused at being there. When we went to visit him, he was the only overnight guest and he was so baffled as to why he was put into some kind of jail cell wearing an Elizabethan collar, a needle in one paw and a pipe shoved up his own pee pipe. Seeing Mama come to visit him but not take him home put both of them into fits.

Rally's by-products.

Batgirl, though, after being initially baffled where her brother went, seemed fine with it. We wound up picking Rally up from Dr. Winter on Tuesday, and after three nights alone, she had started adjusting. She was happy, though, once he returned, even though he did come in wearing that darned collar. He was pretty thrilled, too, despite the collar. He had a bunch of staples that Wendy came over and removed after about a week, so he’s pretty good to go now.

The how-they-formed verdict was both from some kind of infection and his diet, so he’s supposed to be on some special diet from here on out. We’ll see how seriously that gets taken. I’ve noticed both of the little spoiled monsters get all kinds of treats daily. Sticks, greenies, some kind of Newman’s Own dog treat, little snap things, People Food, etc. They are not dogs in need.

They’re pretty spoiled with me here, too. They’ve been coming along for rides more often, because sometimes I’ll take Z to pickleball and bring them with me to pick her up. We walked around Lake Ella, too, which those little fat monsters really need to do more often. And in general, four hands are twice as good to rub tummies.

In other home leave happenings, I’ve been doing yard work, but not planting grass seed. It’s been ridiculously dry and hot, which does not make for ideal fall grass-growing weather. Instead, I’ve been tackling the existing yard, taking down branches and raking, although, two weeks after raking, you can’t tell I did anything.

Leanne had a garage sale, so I helped with that and took a lot of Zippy’s stuff that did not sell in her garage sale last year. Between that and random ads here and there, I unloaded some china, my old Breyer’s horses (though I decided to hold back Misty and Stormy) and more stuff Mimi painted. Reduced the “needs to go” to about two boxes instead of a car full, which wasn’t bad at all.

To Z’s surprise, I sold Batgirl’s chair. Not as in I sold it without it being OK to sell, but she didn’t think anyone would pay money for it, but within two days, a guy came for it and didn’t even try to talk me down. In fact, when I helped him load it, he offered to tip me!

Z was shocked, but not near as shocked as Batgirl was. She sauntered in to the living room and went to jump on it and it was gone. I never thought a dog could do a double-take but she did. She’s made herself at home, though, on the back of the sofa, so she’s not wanting for naps. But man, taking both Rally and her favorite chair out of the house must have been a little bit disconcerting for her.