They grow up so fast

My favorite model, who was an infant at the beginning of Covid, now has her own car. It is electric, naturally. They grow up so fast. 

Her grandmother, who was trapped here due to Covid (to her incredible relief and joy, because the idea of leaving her granddaughter had her in tears), just got her Maryland driver's license. Now that her granddaughter is in pre-school she is planning on driving around the country before returning to China. I'm so thrilled for her. 

I'm going through GoPro videos of my hiking the Incan trail in 2018. For a lot of them I messed up and had the camera aimed right in front of my feet, which does not make for fascinating footage. It does emphasize that there were a lot of steps. A LOT. It also reminds me that our paths were right next to extremely steep mountains and that the trails themselves were insanely steep, both up and down. I can't fully believe we did this. 

Now I've done both things on my bucket list. 

Kate did persuade me that Oregon is impressive and now I've begun watching videos of the Oregon coast. 

If I were in South Africa now I would have gone to Pride today. It was the first one since Covid. There were warnings of a possible terrorist attack. One of my friends was there. Looks like it was a terrific time. 


If you can have lifelong impairments from a bad concussion at age 45, how can you be expected to make a full recovery from a skull fracture at 82? I dearly want Mr. Pelosi to be ok but I do not see how "full recovery" is possible. 

Ukrainian troops are in control of a key road that links two Russian-occupied districts in the east.

There was a CNN article today on what causes soldiers to stop fighting. The story about German and British soldiers stopping fighting and celebrating Christmas together was considered so unlikely it was thought by many to be a myth. An estimated 100,000 soldiers refused to fight. 

They gave three reasons for why armies stop fighting:
they lose faith in their cause 
they lose faith in their leaders
they lose the backing of their country

The Russians do not have faith in this cause. They are attacking people who are not fascists and who do not feel rescued. They are torturing and murdering civilians. It is no longer just poor ethnic minorities who live far away, prisoners, and homeless people. They are drafting men of means in Moscow and St. Petersburg and none of them care enough about the “cause” to die for it. 
The Russian soldiers have to buy their own uniforms. They have to buy their own protective gear. They are at the front without training or supplies. Russian soldiers have been heard discussing how absurd their orders are. With bribes to their commanding officer, soldiers can avoid being at the very front. 
If the Russian people can be turned against the war, then it will help turn the soldiers against the war. 

It is a very interesting article. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/29/europe/russian-army-ukraine-blake-cec