Birds

I have no idea what kind of bird this is but it was a picture of this or of me in the office. I wish I could tell you tomorrow’s will be more interesting, but it probably won’t be. That said, I do plan to fly to Cape Town after work tomorrow, so maybe. Saturday! That is the day! Maybe Sunday, I’m having brunch on Sunday. Next week, nothing but office. Maybe the weekend after that some cool pictures, I haven’t made plans yet.

I went into the office. Someone in the cube outside my office occasionally had to speak, so I closed my office door (what a blessing those are). Really, why go in? I did get to have lunch with a couple of coworkers. (Hoping the Taffix protects me because I ate, indoors, around people.) I did see and briefly interact with other people. AND the office I’m using has two wonderful monitors that are so much easier to use than a laptop. 

I decided to lift weights at the gym last night and I’ll continue doing that. Wearing a mask while running on the treadmill sounds lousy. 

Today I did correctly everything I didn’t do correctly yesterday. I got an omelette. I got to the correct workplace. I took the correct shuttle back to the hotel. Yay me. 

There is a video on the internet that supposedly shows Russian women gratefully showing off the fur coats they got because their husbands were killed in combat. I know, it is insane. Supposedly they were donated by Russian activists. Supposedly they are in the same vein as women in Sakhalin, in Russia's far east, being given frozen fish, and in Tuva, sheep carcasses and wood. Depending on the husband I suppose it could be a good trade. 


When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, everyone, myself included, thought Ukraine would lose in days. Kurt Volker a former ambassador to NATO, didn’t. Now he thinks Ukraine, with its morale and Western assistance, can prevail militarily. He doesn’t think Russia would use nuclear weapons because then we’d retaliate and Russia would be destroyed. 


Wagner has run into great difficulty recruiting from prisons. Word has gotten back about the high fatality rate and prisoners don’t want to go, even for money and pardons. 


According to British defense officials Russia has been TRYING to go on the offensive but has been having too much trouble with manpower and ammunition. They only made incremental gains despite unrealistically massive demands from their leaders. 


Russian soldiers have been moved from the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) to a different brigade after being attacked by their own allies, Ukrainian separatists! 

The mayor of Paris has changed her mind and said Russian athletes should not be part of the Olympics if Russia is still hurting Ukraine. She said her previous comments were “indecent.” This adds to the pressure on the International Olympic Committee. She suggested dissident Russian athletes be allowed to participate on the Refugee Olympic Team.