Traffic, tractors and teeth

Here I am again, giving up and going online at 1:30 in the morning. Since our return to Ukraine a week ago, I have twice gone to bed at 10 and woke up a couple hours later, and mostly been unable to sleep until 2 or 3 am. Meanwhile Seth and Jonah fall asleep before 8 pm and get up at 4 am. So we've got the lights on alot.

Yesterday Garry successfully got his block water heater attached and working on the tractor- the first time they made too many turns and it couldn`t get the air out of the system to move the water, so he picked up some more clamps before playing basketball on Sunday. So Maxim was busy spreading manure from the pad behind the barn (I believe they are piling it in one of the fields we rented to be spread in the spring- but its getting moved anyway.)I took a photo as he passed the house today.

This afternoon we headed into downtown Dnepropetroesk to the orthodontist office. It has been nine days since the big snowfall and with the warmer weather (it was just over freezing today) even the icy sections are melting away on the highways. Snow clearing around here is different than at home- no plowing the sides of the road, so melting snow runs on the highway. Turn-arounds and merges tend to be unplowed and the turn into the village is like a Y with a lot of snow in the top of the Y. One track for going in and one for going out. Based on last year, it may stay that way until all the snow melts. There are good reasons for the potholes to form here. You can read more about winter driving last February- March`s posts. 

It was interesting to check out the new parking patterns downtown with the snow piled up (the sidewalks are normally popular parking spots- some people park diagonally onto the sidewalk, even if they are hanging out on the street, some park more parallel- not that I`ve seem anyone actually parallel-park except Garry) All these things tend to make three lanes going one way down the hill into a tight two. Two-lane traffic can get kinda iffy as you can see in the photo, in Ukraine having a nice car seems to get you more rights in driving and parking (if there isn`t a sign saying no, you can park there- even if you`re blocking traffic is the motto)

Both boys have new elastics to weave through their braces and wear all night, Seth had me take photos in case he forgets how it goes. Jonah was excited to find out he no longer has to wear his headgear (his siblings were calling him Hannibal Lecter while we were home in Manitoba)- he`s worn it every night since September 1st, except when we were flying. Both boys had milkshakes at McDonalds on the way home, and Jonah squeezed some fries in past his elastics.