Another quiet night. Why am I staying? A bunny rabbit. People going and coming.

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We have passed yet another quiet evening, with the now commonplace missile attacks, still distant. Eddie and I filled eight sandbags this morning. We have about another 10 to go this afternoon.

People build their own houses here, and they often go up slowly. There is one that has been under construction for three years kitty corner from where we got the sand. Eddie and I reconnoitered it this morning. The shell is complete, and there is a lot of aerated concrete block left over from the construction. That will be perfect for our in-house bunker. The gate is only secured by a bicycle lock. Sooner rather than later I think my bolt cutters are going to liberate that stuff and I will haul it up here. If anybody asks, we will tell them who we are and that we will certainly be glad to return the blocks when the war is over.

We also located a couple of piles of 2x6 equivalent lumber that will be good to hold the covering. The top will be more important for keeping heat in and for protecting us. We also, by the way, have some corrugated concrete roofing material left over from the old dacha that we took down a couple years ago.

Other families are leaving. Some of you may ask, why are we staying? I have several observations on that.

First of all, people are terrible at assessing risk. See my reviews of Freakonomics, The Folly of Fools, Thinking Fast and Slow among other books.

Let's put it in perspective. According to the (fraudulent, of course) statistics 100,000 Ukrainians have died from Covid. As in the United States, that includes people with comorbidities who would have died anyhow, people who died of the jab but they called it Covid, and so on. Anyhow, a lot more than the 2000 war dead. 8000 people per year die in road accidents.

Those 2000 dead civilians were in villages that were on invasion routes, apartment houses the got levels, cars that were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and so on. I thank God that none of that applies to us – at least so far. I see no strategic or tactical reason for the war to find us here, though of course one never knows for sure.

We don't have a car – if we left for Poland I, as the only strong man in the group, would have to carry suitcases with stuff for a family of seven. There is a long wait for trains heading west. There are already upwards of 600,000 refugees in Poland. My guess is that accommodations are scarce, cramped and expensive.

Oksana argues that Zoriana is going stir crazy here. Yes, but it would be a whole lot worse in some distant, small accommodation elsewhere, where she didn't speak the language.

Just as there is a huge wave leaving, there would be a huge wave coming back. If Kyiv is occupied by Russians we would probably have squatters in our house. Almost 50 years ago a German lady in East Berlin told me what Russians did to her house. They tore up all of the good bedding, ruined the furniture, and they were so provincial that they didn't know what a flush toilet was. She laughed at the recollection that they washed their potatoes in the commode and were shocked that they disappeared when they push the button. I don't want Russians in my house.

It's time to recite the fundamental reasons I am here. My three thirty-something children in the United States are woke. They have not talked to me for 10 years. They will not produce grandchildren. They are an evolutionary and cultural dead end.

Most of my friends thought it was a risky move coming here in 2007 to try to start a new family. The evidence is that it was well worth taking. I had no life, now I do. If in living, we risk dying, that's the way it is.

Back to the Covid argument, those fired insurance company executives indicate a 40% increase in excess mortality year-over-year since the jabs began. The vast spike in deaths occurred within two weeks of vaccination, so they could conveniently be called unvaccinated deaths. However, pericarditis and myocarditis also cause long-term damage. Cancers, autoimmune diseases, opportunistic diseases caused by diminished immune response, neurological disorders and so on are also up significantly. Any place we went, there is a chance they would demand an immunization. That is a chance I will not take, for me or my children.

Other elements of the woke agenda such as global warming simply aren't an issue here. Ukrainians have been glad to buy the used diesel cars that the virtuous Germans are trading in for electric cars. For which there is not enough juice. We drag our feet on things like carbon trading and so on. Nuclear provides half of our energy, and we are certainly not afraid to build more reactors if we get the money.

The West discriminates against people like me on the basis of my gender, race, fecundity  and political views. Ukraine does not. I am comfortable here. You have read many accounts here of how my neighbors treat me just like one of them. My neighbors in Bethesda were distant and cold. After 17 years I had been in the houses of only about three of them.

For all the things one can say about the evil Putin, the family values he espouses are not that far from my own. If he were to take over – still a very long shot – I am confident that I could learn to keep my mouth shut and raise my children to give me grandchildren. In the United States I would be fighting CRT, 1619, bathroom questions and the like endlessly.

I love this country. I'm glad my children are growing up to be Ukrainian. We are going to stay. The odds are very strong that we will lose the Internet in a couple of days. If and when that happens, I look forward to writing about the path forward when it is restored.

Our neighbor Ilia asked Oksana if we wanted a rabbit. Somebody could not take it with them to Poland. I said yes. Rabbits are stupid but cuddly and undemanding animals. I am sure that the little girls will really love having a bunny to play with.

That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, from which many strong men have gone – but not me. Where the good looking women want constant reassurance – and get it. And the children are getting a lot of attention.

Graham