Watching the war go by

 I got things cleaned up and ready to list but didn't list them. I practiced a bit and this time didn't go into a coughing fit so that's good. 

The Russians have been busy doing what they do best: war crimes. The latest is blowing a dam that's created Katrina-type conditions over a large area. Now the world seems to be waking up to the fact that the Russians, Dark Ages people, are truly doing Dark Ages things. This is the kind of thing Hitler, under his own wistful-for-the-Dark-Ages regime, wanted to do. He wanted Paris to burn to the ground, and Germany also "Even the cows" der Fuehrer is reputed to have said. 

These regimes always look back fondly on a romanticized past, full of righteous massacres and wiping-out of everyone who's ever looked at you crossways. A scorn for modern science except for those parts that help you create more dead bodies. 

The Middle East, with no small help from the USA, has been prone to this type of thinking but history shows us that even nations like Germany, at one time the most cultured state in Europe, can fall to this kind of thinking, now it's Russia that's its main proponent, and in the US we have large numbers of people who are doing some kind of historical mash-up where they both pine for a native Hitlerism and also for a return to the 1600s. 

I packed things and headed out the usual time. Everything was post office stuff so I dropped off things there, then went over to 99 Ranch thinking I'd get a couple of tea eggs and a can of black coffee. The tea egg lady was gone for the day and I got a pastry and a can of what I thought was black coffee but ended up having milk and sugar in it. The purchase took up all the change I had, a bit more than $5, it came to $5 and I told the gal to keep the rest in case anyone else is a bit short. 

I stopped behind H Mart on my way back and got cooked ears of corn and some cooked sweet potatoes for Tom and about $20 worth of fried fish for myself.

At least it was kind of cool and rather nice riding weather. I stopped at the EMT training place and pulled out 7 packages  of Datrex also for Tom, then took my goodies over to Tom's and gave them to him. We hung out talking while I drank some of his coffee and he worked on the grout in the tiles he's tiling the front part of his warehouse area with. We talked about various plans and things, and he reiterated that I've always got a bunk at his place. 

I finally said I have to go, and came back here and unloaded. There was a van at the HVAC place noisily loading or unloading or ... I dunno what. So I had a look at my ongoing project to get rid of the big dump of wire insulation - from big wire like an inch or more in diameter - that I wanted to get rid off. I'd stopped last night when it got dark and a zombie started prowling around. 

I got the bike out again with the trailer and as soon as the van was gone I was over there, dumping insulation in the salt place's dumpster. I also checked out what the van had left and there was nothing I wanted. I got the 2nd load of insulation plus some other junk I had in the trash enclosure and fit that all into the dumpster and tossed the big box in there for later - it's a good box. Now there's no hint that the big mess was even there. 

I got back in here and did stuff, had the fried fish for dinner, cleaned the office and bathroom, and Ken was here on the dot. I got my check and we talked about stuff, and also he'd gotten one of his specials - 2 dinners from Wendy's for something like $3 apiece so he gave me some fries and a double burger. I ate the "salad" and patties out of the burger and about half of the fries, and when Ken had left tossed the buns and fries out with the fish scraps for the birds. 

One of the things Ken and I talked about was, I said the Russians probably have no idea how much they've alienated the rest of the world by blowing that dam. In world opinion I only see Bucha as being possibly this bad. So old Putti's going to get just what he doesn't want, as I put it before, more NATO. Putin's plans to take over other counties in the region are being treated more seriously now too. 

I told Ken this is like when Hitler got pushed out of France and planned to level Paris. The general he left in charge of doing so flat-out didn't do it, but it's the same sort of playbook. Whether he wins or loses, Putti's objective is to kill every Ukrainian and like Hitler before him, he feels that if he can get enough territory he can use the resources in it to support more conquest. 

Just watching the war go by, a thing probably as random as a tornado, and hoping it doesn't end up *here*.