Burning Down the House!

Hold tight
Wait 'til the party's over
Hold tight
We're in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house


Wee early hours this morning I was a character in an action-adventure movie. I am pretty sure I was the villain. 
Scene: nighttime in the house
Main character creeping up the stairs, as quietly as a ..... mouse
Villain gets off the couch and begins creeping up the stairs after
Why? What was I thinking? What did I hope to accomplish? Was I going to grab her/him bare-handed? Apparently not because I didn't.
At the turn in the stairs, the main character is right at the door to the storage area when s/he spots the villain! Panics! Attempts to leap up the next stair! 
FAILS! 
FALLS backward!
What will the villain do?
Villain must have blinked because main character is GONE.
Where did s/he go? 
Villain stands still (secretly wondering where the hell the main character went)
when
main character looks around the corner at the villain
Villain yells, "You!!!" and then chases main character up the stairs, towards the bedroom, thinks to herself, "this is not a good idea." 
Villain goes into bedroom and turns on every single ultrasonic device to maximum, goes back down, opens the door to the storage area so the main character can more easily escape and not be in the bedroom!
and then sits on the couch again
At some point the main character snuck back down the stairs, ran all around the living room, including around the ferocious (sleeping, elderly) dog, and then raced near the villain.
But the villain was not asleep!
Villain sees main character!
and yells, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??!!"
at which point the main character turns around and runs the opposite direction


Today was NOT spent going into DC to see the cherry blossoms. It was spent doing just enough cleaning to make me cranky and shoving an extraordinary amount of steel wool into two holes. What kind of badass sheep makes steel wool? Don't mess with that sheep. Tomorrow I will follow up the steel wool with the rubber spackle I ordered. Yes, we were going to hire someone to do this. But last night KAREN saw the mouse so now she is fine with my doing it so that it is done NOW. 


There will be plenty we will still need contractors to do. We need a plumber to move the dishwasher. I'm not strong enough to move the refrigerator by myself and we should look back there. There are big gaps between the floor and the walls in the storage area on the stairs and this is their favorite location. Tomorrow, with the spackle, I'll do the giant hole under the stove. I've given up on anyone ever eating any of my various forms of bait. 


On the very positive side, I drove back to the nursery. By the time I got to the song, "Loco Motion" I had cheered up and was dancing while driving. I bought a tree and when the weather gets better it will be delivered and planted. 


*No animals were harmed in the making of this movie. One animal was frightened, but not, I believe, traumatized. If it was traumatized may I suggest that there is excellent treatment OUTSIDE MY HOUSE. 


Had a terrific time talking about war with our Canadian relatives. I asked how this refugee experience differed from the WWII experience and Ana had great, highly illuminating answers. They didn't all flee at once. It was the wealthier, more educated people who understood they needed to flee. By the time everyone understood they needed to it was too late and they couldn't get out. 


This is going to seem ... wild .... but I planted lettuce for the rabbit. I'm wondering if better-tasting food might encourage her to not eat my crocuses and whatever else she is eating. 


Russia's central bank Governor is very highly regarded. She tried to quit after the invasion but was told by Putin to stay. I think the fact that she tried to go is a good sign and I don't think people do their best work under these circumstances. "Some central bank officials describe a state of hopelessness in the weeks since the invasion...At one point, the pace of departures was intense enough that the IT department was short of hands to terminate accounts."


The Russian shipping firm Sovcomflot (SCF) is struggling. SCF is a key transporter of Russian oil and LNG. No one else wants to carry Russian cargo. No one wants SCF in their ports. The UK imposed an asset freeze on it. The international companies that certify ships don't want to certify it. Certification is essential to get insurance and entry into ports. 


There is a nine year old piano prodigy named Stellos Kersadis from Greece who wrote a composition, "Anti-War Etude" and dedicated it to Ukraine.  


Runner Valentyna Vereteska fled Ukraine with her 11 year old daughter. They waited 15 hours in the cold, hungry, waiting to cross the border. Friday she won the women's race at the Jerusalem Marathon. She'd only recently been able to resume training and that in donated clothing and shoes collected by her Polish host family. 


There is a really sweet guy in Poland who is dressing up as a dinosaur and handing out candy to Ukrainian kids in the train station. Someone took a video of him. It went viral. Now lots of people are doing the same thing. He found the woman who took the video, thinking she was another volunteer. She was a refugee with two young children bouncing from shelter to shelter. He took them in. They are staying with his family now.