Yesterday, a friend of mine invited me to her home in a nearby village for a meal and girly chit-chat. We had a wonderful time eating stuffed peppers and drinking copious amounts of tea, but let me tell you, getting there was about as enjoyable as plucking one's toenails out one by one.
In a normal car, getting there would take about 20 minutes; it's pretty much a straight shot out the "highway" from our house. But The Water Guy was at work, so Roo and I had to go by local minivan. Because it's a small-ish village, there is only one "bus" line out there- the #16. Imagine a normal 15 passenger van, with the seats turned sideways and metal bars on the roof at the sides for the not-so-lucky "standers". Now, this particular van doesn't go by my house, so we had to first get ourselves to a point of transfer. No big deal, one 5 minute bus ride later, we had squeezed onto a #16. When we got on there were already about 20 people on the bus. So it was standing room only. After 20 minutes and 4 stops, 15 more people had crammed onto the bus. At this point, I'm afraid you will begin to suspect I am exagerating, but I assure I am not!
It was so tight in this bus, that it had become dangerous! There was very little breathing air, and 3 people were half lying on me as we journeyed. I've never had a panic attack, but I was seriously close to having a full-on meltdown about 15 mintutes into our trip! Half standing, half lying on the woman behind me, we crept along our hour(!!!) long route. I have never, ever been so glad to get out of somewhere as I was that bus! Today, I am so sore I literally can hardly move. My obliques and thighs are burning still with the pain of being squashed.
Winter is Coming
One can certainly tell winter is close at hand. Today the city began checking the huge hot water pipes in town; and it is very obvious where work is needed to mend blowouts. There were many flooded apartment courtyards. Our own house has several small leaks in the pipes that will have to be fixed in the next couple of weeks before they turn the hot water on.
The garden is toast now. The last tomatoes have been harvested, as well as the last eggplants. But we will have chard for another month if we don't get too hard of a freeze. The beets are getting nice and big, and will be nice for winter eating. We had a record amount of grapes that we are still enjoying as well.
Fall brings wind to us as well. The last few days have been quite breezy which kicks up a lot of dust from where they tore up our street for our new water pipes. We are really hoping they repave our street before the cold weather. Almost every street around us has been repaved now, so we are hopeful. Even the street near the office where raw sewage regularly stood has been fixed!! Yay for that!
Looking forward to cozy evenings reading good books aloud to the family with steaming cups of cocoa or tea in hand!
Until Next Time,
SteppeSister
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