two men in the middle of the road

 Two men standing in the middle of the road, one with a steaming can with a spout and one with a bucket. The one with a can pours molten black tar into the cracks between the cobble stones, and some seconds later the man with the bucket puts handfuls of sand over the tar. They are slow and concentrated in their work, and the traffic has to wait.

filling the cracks in the road

At the italian café there is a new waitress, a very clever young girl who thinks that she has a way with customers and can trick them into extra tips. It is not much money, but it is the principle of the thing.

Buy eggs and pretzels at the supermarket, and salt for the dishwasher too. Exhaustion is starting to set in again, and there is a constant feeling of freezing, even though the clothes are really warm enough.

The situation in the Ukraine is more than depressing. It is impossible to understand. Why would Russia attempt to take over a country that it was not at war with? Why all this violence? Why this disregard for international convention? Is it just nationalist stupidity, or do they really believe that they can get away with this? They will never get their oil and gas market back, and who is to trust the Russians as a nation now?

Too many questions, and no idea what it is all about. 

But everybody is scared. It is like a schoolyard with a big bully worrying everybody.