Dispatches from Vilnius

We haven't gone anywhere in two years, mostly due to COVID.  We had planned on a trip to the Salzburg festival last summer, only to cancel when the pandemic broke out in March.  We were given vouchers good through December 2021 in lieu of the canceled airline tickets and got our money back for the shows.  So, we finally decided to cash in those vouchers and travel to Milan next week.  The trip is still not without anxiety, as there are so many rules and regulations for airline travel and entry to countries, but we seem to have our papers in order.  Won't know until we actually board the plane. Lithuania is discouraging travel to most European countries, including Italy, with the spike in cases throughout the EU, but then Lithuania itself is no better, reporting 2000 new cases per day.  I checked Italy.  While it is reporting 12,000 cases per day, its per capita rate is much lower than Lithuania.  So, we are probably safer there than here.  ...

It really is hard to figure out what is going on in America these days.  It no longer feels like the land of the free or home of the brave, but rather a country on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  Over what I'm not exactly sure, but I read all the worry of my American friends on facebook.  Oddly enough, it's not my conservative friends posting on Trump, but rather my liberal friends.  They can't let him go.  I suppose it comes from him being able to get off scot-free for the January 6 insurrection.  Many other high crimes and misdemeanors that could be leveled against him too, but it seems the justice department is not overly anxious to go after him.  I suppose they are trying to build a compelling case against him as it is pretty hard to find a courtroom these days where the deck isn't stacked against the prosecution.  Just look at this kid in Kenosha, who literally got away with shooting two persons dead with an unregistered AR-15 assault rifl...

Neither one of us felt very good after our booster shots this past Wednesday, but Daina was hit the hardest.  Fever, chills, body pains, the whole works.  We curled up on the couch and watched the last remaining season of The Office on Netflix, mostly just to get it done with.  Whatever humor we found in the show was in the early going, when Jim was chasing after Pam and vice versa, Michael found himself under the thumb of Jan, and Dwight was trying to establish his authority, albeit he did that throughout.   There were some characters I hated in the past, some of them listed here , but Andy Bernard would have to top my list.  Comedy is about getting under your skin.  We've seen that with  the flack  comedians have gotten recently for hitting a little too close to the bone with their brand of humor.  The problem with Andy is that he is not funny, not in the least.  He grew from an annoying distraction in the office to a mean-spirit...

We've been watching The Office on Netflix, and sad to say we are a lot like Ryan and Kelly stuck back in the annex with little communication with the rest of our office.  I suppose some of that is our own doing as we tend to keep the door closed now, but for months it has felt like we have been frozen out of office functions.  There seemed to be a little bit of an attempt yesterday to bring us back into the fold, but at this point we are wary of such gestures. Much of it stemmed from our lack of ability to nail down clients during the lockdown.  We had multiple leads the director had given us, but for whatever reason couldn't get a client to commit to a project beyond our good friend Julius.  Unfortunately, we don't work for him through the office, as he doesn't like paying any extras and the office puts 15 percent on top of any commission we secure.  We've been doing projects for him for 12 years now through our own personal company.  My wife likes keepin...

I have my Wilson #3 Seahawks dark blue road jersey on today.  It seems they always play the Packers on the road and lose.  Let's hope today is different.  Half debating whether to plunk down the 5 euros to watch it on NFL Europe, as it comes on at 8 pm Lithuania time.  The only problem is that my wife hates me watching these games on the couch, looking down at my cellphone as I rub her feet while she watches something else on television.  There was a time I would get all excited about these games but the Seahawks are really struggling this year and it would be a miracle for Wilson to rally this team to the playoffs.  It's just not worth getting my wife upset, given I can catch the highlight reel on Youtube tomorrow morning. Green Bay is going through its drama with Aaron Rodgers.  He is cleared to play today but apparently stubbed his toe and is limping around a bit.  The least of his worries after making such an ass of himself over COVID two week...

Van and Eric have become comrades in arms in this age of coronavirus, lashing out at what they view as an oppressive regime imposing lockdowns, and making them take vaccines against their wills.  They imagine their latest song, Stand and Deliver , will become an anthem to the oppressed, in which they liken their lost freedom of choice to slavery.  This was the last straw for Robert Cray, who refused to open up anymore shows for Eric Clapton. The problem with all this grandstanding is that it will probably help Van and Eric sell their anti-vax albums and live shows.  They are fast becoming the darlings of the MAGA crowd.  Who knows, Donald may even add "Stand and Deliver" to his campaign play lists. All this has left a bitter taste in my mouth, similar to when Neil Young dumped his wife Pegi,  after 30 years of marriage, to run off with Darryl Hannah.  I didn't want to listen to anymore of Neil's music but made an exception for the Buffalo Springfield years...

If America is starting to resemble the country Ayn Rand described in Atlas Shrugged, it is no coincidence.  It seems that a lot of American billionaires have found ways to sock away their money that would be out of reach of any billionaires' tax, meeting each year in Davos (Galt's Gulch) to discuss their strategies for saving the world, with nothing more than empty commitments coming out of it.  What they have managed to do is consolidate an incredible amount of wealth, leaving the vast majority of the country, and by extension the world, scrambling to make ends meet.   It took a while but Lithuania now has a handful of billionaires, who like to consider themselves self-made.  Like the architect who got stiffed by Trump , my experiences have not been positive.  Suffice it to say, I don't have any sympathy for billionaires, or millionaires for that matter.  I know that they didn't earn it.  They made their money off the backs of others.  If th...