Rain and other surprises

Today Garry and I headed into Dnepropetroesk to pick up the fixed car- that's right, all is well on the car front. Turned out that a little rubber piece that was supposed to hold the wires where they went through the dash was missing and caused the short- and fire I wrote about in the last post. Garry ended up driving into Dnepro Saturday afternoon with the car- Maxim was unable to find someone to fix it in Zaporosia. So Victor's neighbor ended up fixing it (yes the same one who fixed the lights on Friday.)
We met up with Victor to trade cars- he had just ordered the metal for the feed bin Garry's going to make. We then headed downtown, parked and walked over to the Central Market to do a little Christmas shopping (I know the kids at home are excited now- sorry boys no CCCP boxer shorts like last year) as we headed inside the wind picked up and it seemed a little colder. Interesting fact- the meat section of the market smells a lot better in November than it does in July (I remarked on it and Garry said he had just thought the same thing) While we were wandering through the stalls in the back looking at toys I thought it sounded like it could be raining a little. Which seemed strange since it didn't really look like rain when we were driving.
Anyway it was sprinkling a little as we headed out to check if we could find some hand-knit mittens Garry had seen being sold out on the street another day. We gave up as the rain got heavier, and as we stopped to get Garry's favorite lunch- sharma- by the time the lady had finished piling the meat, veggies, french fries and sauces onto the wraps, rolled them like a burrito and put them in the hot press- it was really pouring. We ran inside the main building with our bags to eat our lunches and buy some fruits and vegetables, hoping the rain would let up. Of course it was still pouring as we headed up the hill a couple blocks to where we had left the car. It slowed a little as we got close to the car, but we were pretty wet, and my hands were red with cold.
We gave up on our planned trip to the art market- but hope to get there on Wednesday when we go across the river to the Bellamy's for team meeting. It would be a good chance that the cold downpour would have convinced the vendors to pack up- they do not have stalls with roofs there, they just set their creations out on folding tables and display boards between the sidewalk and the tram track.
We did go to Metro to pick up a few groceries, with the defroster running full-blast and on hot all the way home where I was glad to change out of my soaking wet socks and the jeans with the dripping cold wet bottoms!
The other surprise of the day happened when it was still dark- Maxim went out to deal with the milk buyer this morning and came back to get Garry. The milker ladies were concerned as the cow that was supposed to calve in two weeks had feet coming out of her. So they pulled the calf- it was a black one with a little white spot on it's forehead- the herd was bred with a Holstein bull. Unfortunately, in spite of smallish feet it turned out to be another bull calf. Every dairy farmer wants a heifer calf so it will grow up and make money- but in reality more than 50% are male. It looks like the cow is feeling good, and that will be one less cow for Garry to worry about calving while we are in Canada. Maybe a couple more will decide to calve in the next ten days, and we'll keep milk production at the current level (240 liters a day I think) when the ten cows due in January go dry soon.