Since it was raining yesterday at 6:00 when we had to pick up Zoriana to take her to music lessons, she had to leave her bicycle at kindergarten overnight. This morning I walked and she rode her scooter. Oksana asked if I could take Marianna with me to get her out of the house.
Good idea. Marianna, at 25 pounds, fits nicely on my shoulders. Since Zoriana on the scooter was the fastest of us all, that's where Marianna rode all the way to kindergarten. I put her down so she could explore the kindergarten and get to know pretty young Olga who was greeting people this morning.
Shortly after we left Oksana called and asked me to get a sweet soda pop for her father. I put Marianna down and asked a couple of times if she wanted to pee. No response – she kept on walking.
Things were a bit complicated at the store. They had the cheap lemonade that we wanted, a liter and a half for 60¢, but they did not have change for a 100 hryvnia note – $2.50. We went back-and-forth as to whether I should owe them or they should owe me. We finally decided that I would owe them. They know us. In this neighborhood everybody knows everybody's business. A little while back she gave me a bit of a surprise by talking about the land we have bought last year a quarter of a mile from them.
When the transaction was done I put Marianna back on my shoulders. Whoops! She was warm and damp. There was a puddle on the floor.
I of course knew why. Oksana does not believe in diapers. She thinks that children can be potty trained before they are two. That's the reason I had asked Marianna, unsuccessfully, if she needed to go. I had not given and gracefully on the question, but since it is Oksana and her mother who usually have to clean things up, and it does save money and environmental damage, I relented.
This puts us in good company. Building houses in rural Nicaragua and Brazil, and doing community service in Honduras, I noticed that all of the kids were naked from the waist down. They all seemed healthy and well-adjusted. Perhaps diapers are just a quirk associated with an excessive level of civilization.
The clerk and the other customer in the store just laughed. Baby pee is watery and doesn't smell all that bad. It is nothing they hadn't seen before. Back on the street I took off Marianna’s wet shoes and pants, wiped her bottom with the pants, tied her shoes to my belt loops with the Velcro straps, tucked the dry end of her pants into a back pocket and carried her back home on my shoulders. The story gave Oksana a bit of a laugh.
Oksana will pay the lady as she bicycles to school for her music lesson this morning. She is also bringing a couple of empty egg cartons. When I bought eggs a couple of weeks back the proprietor had asked me if I had empties to exchange. The question took me by surprise. The deal was that I used their boxes and brought them back the next day. I’m glad to find somebody who can reuse our empty cartons and keep them out of our garbage.
The harvest is coming in. Yesterday I made the biggest apple pie of my life. I picked up all of the apples under the tree. Cleaned, there were 4 ½ pounds of apple slices - along with about two cups of the sour cherry-plums I recently mentioned. Eddie or my mother would have displayed a bit more artistry with the piecrust, but I have no doubt that it will be eaten
I was planning a video on the theme of my recent post about what follows the coming collapse. It looks like it will take more than one. It raises the question of how you string together a series of videos. It’s not as natural as assembling chapters in a book.
A movie has several advantages over a written piece. It can reach a broader audience, or at least a different one. Using PowerPoint, as I have done with several earlier movies, I combine written and vocal presentation. With book titles and other information in text in the movie, the viewer can stop the it and exactly copy what I am presenting. Hyperlinks would be hard for them to retype, but providing text to use as a search argument is pretty effective.
A movie has disadvantages as well. A person can absorb information faster reading than listening. Hyperlinks are natural with online text. My plan will be to post the movie script, or a rich outline in any case, here on Substack for viewers who want to get into the details.
That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where a whiff of baby pee just compelled the strong man to change his T-shirt, the good-looking woman is off to do what she loves best, teach young children, and the three children are all an good care with people other than their parents. Hallelujah.
Personally I find video tedious for factual information, but many younger folk are no longer capable of reading hence prefer video or podcasts. But I do appreciate your efforts at trying to reach an audience and think the effort is worthwhile (as long as I don't have to do it!).