I'm on sunshine baby oh, oh yeah

This year we only have the annual cicadas. 
The world feels so ..... empty. 

It was wonderful just reading documents for work and writing a little. Then I took yet another required course, and it was a good course, but it required discipline when you really just want to look up things related to Iceland. 

I took some spices out. I put them back in. I need to just stop touching the suitcase. 

My watch told me that if the sky was clear I could see the aurora. Cool. Good start. 

My watch told me to be asleep already to get ready for Iceland time. 

When we're tired, it won't be jet lag. It will be sleep deprivation from being too excited to sleep for a week. 

Liubov Yarosh is 102. She helps her daughters make camouflage suits for Ukrainian soldiers. 

Poland and the Baltics impose entry bans on most Russians with EU visas. It doesn't apply to Russians visiting relatives or requiring humanitarian assistance. 

UK Defence Intelligence (so odd to spell it that way) says Russia has probably lost at least four combat jets in the last 10 days, for approximately 55 since the beginning of the invasion. They speculate that the increase may be because the Russian Air Force is accepting greater risk to try to support ground forces and they just don't know where they are. 

A college friend of mine's son was in Sandy Hook (school shooting in the US). He lived but his family became advocates. Now one of her other sons is at the US Capitol advocating for US support to Ukraine. Because he has so much experience he's been asked to be a group leader, training and leading other advocated through the >130 meetings they have in the coming days.  

Europe's natural gas futures fell to their lowest level in nearly two months as Germany, the UK, and others make plans to reduce their reliance on Russian imports, rescue local energy companies, and cap prices. This includes high deliveries of LNG and a recently begun Eemshaven LNG terminal. EC proposals still need to be signed off on. 

wow. I was just sent a message with my departure gate. Travel is very different now. 

Ukraine now controls the eastern bank of the Oskil River in Kharkiv. This puts them within 20 miles of the Luhansk region which Kremlin repeatedly said was one of its priorities. 

Former NATO Supremem Allied Commander James Stavridis said that Russian "incompetence" has exceeded expectations. 

Russia's biggest pop icon is Alla Pugacheva, 73. She publicly voiced her opposition to the war on Sunday and said Russians were dying needlessly.