Farmers market outing. Speech about exes. Eddie’s birthday. Vaccines again.

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I had the three kids to myself because Oksana had a conference all day. The morning was 36° – kind of cold. I bundled them up and set out for the farmers market. Shopping was secondary – the main idea was to get the kids out of the house. One of the benefits is that they stop squabbling when they hit the fresh air and have something to do.

Marianna’s pace would be too slow for the rest of us. Besides that, she loves riding on my shoulders. At about 25 pounds that was no problem. I still occasionally carry 50 pound Zoriana for a few blocks.

Without Oksana this is definitely an outing, not an expedition. No water, no food, no umbrellas and no extra clothes. The glitch came five minutes after he left home. Oksana called to make sure we had left the house unlocked. Her mother was arriving from five days in Svetlovodsk and didn’t have a key with her. Of course I had locked the house. I gave Eddie my keys and sent him running back to open it up as the rest of us continued at our very measured pace. Eddie caught up just as we were playing on some gym equipment.

The first lady at the market remembered us from a month ago. She even addressed Eddie by name. We bought some more of the good cheese she had had last time. Eddie said that her butter had been bad. I’ve been eating it all week and I thought it was wonderful – I overruled him.

I got some outstanding looking pears, broccoli, cauliflower, dill, parsley and green onions. Inflation is so rampant it is hard to know if you are getting a good price. Just as an example, eggs have gone up from 4 to 7 Hryvnia the piece just over the last month and a half.  That’s about $1.80 a dozen.  The broccoli and cauliflower are about 90¢ per pound. We buy it frequently so I know that that’s a good price for Kyiv. I guess it’s a good price by world standards but I have no idea. Milk is about $2.25 a gallon.

The excitement is being in the market. The kids asked for some string cheese and some tasty little sausages. These are of course somewhat expensive, but they are at least not sweets. I indulge them.

The kids have too much of a sweet tooth. I do myself. We are all trying to cut down. The more I read about the adverse impact on your health of refined sugar the stronger my resolve to avoid it. Also I observed that Eddie has the smallest of incipient love handles. That’s not a good sign for a kid just turned 11. More than that, he is getting cavities in his adult teeth. It’s time for us all to show some discipline.

Last night we made an exception for Eddie’s birthday. We had his friend Artem over with his whole family. Mother Vita led the effort to make a delicious chocolate cake, in which we all indulged. She is the one who beats the drum most loudly about the importance of good diet, but birthdays are an exception.

Father Sasha is a sea captain, temporarily out of work on account of the war. It was a pleasure getting to know him. He has quite a bit of life experience. He envied mine, and I think rightly so. Although he has seen a great deal of the world, he doesn’t spend more than one or two nights at a time in foreign ports. Spending months and years in foreign countries I had time enough to learn the languages and get to know the people.

Coming home from the market Marianna stopped and said that she had to pee. I pulled her pants down but it was too late – her sweatpants were soaked. I appreciated my wisdom in having dressed her in snow pants. That not only keeps outside moisture from getting in, but inside moisture from getting out. I could comfortably wait until we got home to change her.

Grandma Nadia was home when we arrived. Having carried Marianna and about 15 pounds of groceries I was ready for lunch and a rest. As we were walking I had been collecting thoughts for a speech.

Yesterday at Toastmasters they proposed “Exes” as the theme for a meeting around Halloween. Specifically, ex-husbands and ex-wives. So far as I know I’m the only one with two ex-spouses, and without a doubt the only one with more than 30 years of unsuccessful matrimonial experience. I’ve already got a draft speech in the form of a dialogue between wives number one and two about being married to me. This week I’m going to the Oriental market to buy two props: a Japanese fan and a Vietnamese coolie hat that I can flash as I assume the personas of each wife.

As I’m making slow progress on the movies I’m doing on education and research, I’m being overtaken by other writers.  Here is a two hour movie by Gary Null entitled Science for Hire, going right to my topic about research. Looking back at past videos I have made, the experts keep pounding the points I’ve already made.  Here is a story about how governments are fudging the statistics to cover up the surging incidence of cancer since the Covid injectable biological products were introduced.

This led me to look up how prevalent cancer is in the first place. Worldwide cancer is not even in the top 10 causes of death. In the US, however, at 22% it is a close second to 23% heart disease and catching up fast. The third most significant cause is accidental death, at about 9%. Most significant fact about that is that the category includes drug overdoses, which are also rising rapidly.

The third topic that is getting more press is the danger of vaccines in general.  Even if they do what they’re supposed to, provide protection against specified diseases, the evidence is accumulating that they render you more susceptible to other problems.  Here’s the graphic:

That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the good-looking woman is rehearsing jingle bells with the kids and probably muttering to herself about how the strong man wastes all this time on the computer. Time to wrap it up.

Graham