When I came home, it was too late for yoga. I suppered and then took a bath in the washing-tub.
It's half-past-ten pm. Routine shooting outdoors.
Ahshaut's fast asleep.
December 21
This goodly day-off Ahshaut became two years old. What a tall guy: 92 cm!
In the morning he and I jaunted to the Site to collect the last bagful of apples from the cellar. On our way back I bought three bottles of wine at the shop by the Shooshva Corner.
Carina and Sashic, with their children, came to congratulate.
After lunch, the scheduled sexual intercourse (the only suitable time during the whole week while Roozahna is on a visit to her relatives, Ahshaut napping, the mother-in-law tactfully gone to her place: all fixed and fitted).
(…frankly, I am anything but fond of fucking with your eye on the ticking clock and no matter if it's before, at, or after the action…)
Past 4 pm, Lydia came to our place bringing some grapes and roses. The feast got a fresh start.
It's ten past ten pm.
Five minutes ago I saw Sahtik and Roozahna off. Ahshaut sleeps home.
The full moon outdoors and the first shell-burst of the day, I wish it were also the last.
December 22
The second day-off. Till four pm I was doing my hard labors time on our Site.
The layout improvement is a choice pastime; breaking up frost-tightened clay and shoveling it down into the bottomless gorge that serves the natural border to the Site.
On my way home I stopped for a chat with Goorgan, the only neighbor we have on our side of the gorge. He shared that all the truck-drivers at their state-owned firm work for phedayees now. He also has to transport the arms flown in from Armenia to the Kolatac village.
Going under the pine trees that line the sidewalk opposite the Children Hospital, I picked up a big bough chopped off by a shell fragment. There's enough material to make a decent X-mass tree.
At supper Roozahna went off her rocker. To restrain my choler, I left the table and munched the meal sitting at the sideboard.
Nine pm.
After Roozahna and my mother-in-law left for the Underground, Sahtik stayed home knitting yet five-minutes ago a solitary shell-blast made her flee.
Now, only Ahshaut and I am here. He sleeps undisturbed.
Outdoors all is quiet again.
December 23
The pallid moon up in the morning sky resembles a fugitive piece of dull, ungleaming, snow over the distant mountains…