MAR 21, 16 .. PEANUT BUTTER AND THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET

I was just on the phone visiting with Patti and I told her that this is how I am going to begin this post ..

“Captain! IF you insist on going through with this Post .. Do us all a great favor!  Immediately before you press the Publish button .. Over on the far left side of the edit page in really small letters click onto .. Move to Trash.”  / sign us / Your Jury aka The Committee Inside Your Head 

“Dad! How do you think the above comment makes me feel Dad?!”  /signed/ Your yet to be published Post

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IF you want to read-a-book .. consider .. Eckhart Tolle .. The author of the amazing spiritual book .. ‘The Power of Now’ ..

In the preface to the book Eckhart Tolle says words to the effect of :

“I can no longer live with myself. Isn’t that an interesting thought. If I can no longer live with myself are there two of me? The ‘I’ and ‘Myself’?”

IF YOU READ AND THINK ABOUT WHAT I JUST WROTE ABOVE .. AND IF YOU HAVE NOT READ HIS BOOK .. ‘THE POWER OF NOW’ .. YOU MAY FIND IT TO BE BEYOND INTERESTING.

He stresses : We are not our mind. We need to leave our analytical mind and its false-created-self behind.  We can find our way out of psychological pain; authentic human power is found by surrendering to the Now.

Amazing book. Fascinating book. Life changing book.

So to my Jury aka The Committee Inside My Head I say :

“Take a short hike .. Take a long hike .. Just go away and come back when I finish and indeed have pressed the Publish button on the edit page here.”

Thank you my followers who understand .. Who REALLY UNDERSTAND .. What I am talking about here.

“Good Lord he is actually going to go ahead with this nonsense. What are we going to do with him?” 

Too funny huh? The Committee actually talk to themselves!

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PEANUT BUTTER .. I WILL GET TO THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET FURTHER BELOW ..

Once upon a time .. March the 1st to be specific .. I had a little Peanut Butter Drama on my flight up here from Hong Kong.

https://babakaps.net/?p=17620

But all’s well that ends well and I got the two large 48-oz jars up here to Ulaanbaatar with me.

I myself wondered just how long this stash would last. So I decided I would find out. I began eating from one jar exactly two weeks ago on Monday March the 7th. Before we go further I will explain that .. IT IS THE FAULT OF THE BREAD! 95% of the time I do NOT eat Peanut Butter directly out of the jar. I eat it on BREAD.

This bread is way WAY BEYOND outstanding in taste and texture and it is reasonably priced. A loaf costs M₮ 2,179 / US $ 1.07.

It is so good that perhaps 5% of the time I don’t even wait to cut it into slices. I just gnaw-away-at the bread and peanut butter right from the loaf.

THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET

One of the ladies at MobiCom let me snap the below photo of her keyboard. Fascinating.My first interest in the Mongolian Cyrillic characters began with the packaging of my bread. I noticed that the first letter Б resembled our number 5 with the loop closed on the left with a vertical line.

This is how I ‘befriend’ the Mongolian Cyrillic characters and thus learn them.Writing the Mongolian Cyrillic letter Б does NOT begin with a number 5. As I show on the left below it begins with half of a letter T or an upside down letter L. Then you add the loop at the bottom and voila you have him! Б

By the way .. the Б is ‘sounded’ as our letter b .. But the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet character B.. is sounded as our letter V. Whew! Go figure! Can you see the two of them Б  and B on the MobiCom red keyboard up above. Top row left side and they are side-by-side.

“Peanut Butter Captain .. Remember?” ..  “Isn’t it absolutely amazing where one goes when one just begins!”

After two weeks .. After 14 days .. I am getting very close to finishing one of the 48 oz jars.

This amazes and frankly surprises me. I had ‘banked on’ the two jars getting me through my 2 and 1/2 months here. Go figure.

“Well Dad? How are we doing Dad? Am I going to be published and become a real Post Dad?”   / signed your /  YET TO BE PUBLISHED POST

“You will notice that I did NOT listen to the Committee.”  ..  “Way to Go Dad.” ..

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“Patti?” .. “What does Cap do all day?”

I will NEVER  in this lifetime master the Celsius Temperature Scale. I know it in very broad general terms. Because of my trips to India I KNOW from on-the-ground actual experience that 48C is very hot and that it is around 120F. Because of being in Hong Kong I KNOW 30C to 33C is around 90F. I think that almost all of us KNOW zero C is 32F. Living in Alaska I KNOW -40C = -40F.

When it comes to the daily grind of dealing with all of the mid-range temperatures I get lost.

What To Do? I took the time and I went to the effort to go on-line and write down the C / F equivalent temperatures.
I know .. I KNOW .. Double the temperature in Celsius and add 30 you will be close-enough to the Fahrenheit temperature. It is pretty good in certain ranges.

8C = 46.4F ..  Doing the above approximation .. 8C x 2 = 16C + 30 = 46F. Very nice.

38C = 100.4F .. Doing the above approximation .. 38C x 2 = 76C + 30 = 106F. Not spot on.

0C = 32F .. Doing the above approximation .. 0C x 2 = 0C + 3o = 30F. Not too bad.

No-matter-what I do not ‘think’ in terms of Celsius temperatures. It does NOT come easily. My little ‘work around sheets’ with the equivalent temperatures is serving me very well. Just one example of a myriad of things I do on a daily basis.

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“Patti? What does Cap do all day?”

“He does not do it all day everyday but Cap writes a lot of post cards.”

Below are fifty (50) post cards. Many of them are actually a small pile of from 5 to 10 identical post cards. Each post card costs M₮ 550 / US $ 0.27.  IF YOU see one that you do not have and would like to have let me know.

The postage for each post card is M₮ 1,100 / US $ 0.54. The stamps on the right below are called Ger stamps because they have a picture of a Mongolian Ger on them. Each of the Ger stamps cost M₮ 1,100 so you just need one stamp per post card.

The special collectors stamps (shown on the left below) have a face value of M₮ 550. Therefore each post card takes two (2) of the special collector’s stamps to mail. Below you see stamps for sixty (60) some post cards.

IF YOU would like to have a post card with two of the special collector’s stamps let me know. Your wish will be my command.

Doing-the-math this batch of post cards and stamps cost M₮ 96,470 / US $ 47.34. 

Again let-me-know IF YOU would like a certain post card and / or a pair of the special collector’s stamps.

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“Patti? What does Cap do all day?” .. “Cap spends hour upon hour writing Posts such as about what just happened to him a few hours ago.”

September 11, 2019 ..

Sad to say, the ОЛОН ОРНЫ ХООЛ restaurant is now out-of-business. As I write it is being demolished and its interior re-furbished.

I was in my favorite restaurant ..

MY cashier / waitress / bus-person / floor sweeper & mopper-upper / you-name-it she-does-it / was not working.
She knows what I want and She knows how to deal with me.

No biggie. I motioned to the lady on duty as I went to the picture-menu. I pointed to and I ordered one of my two most favorite dinners. Man-O-Manischewitz those potatoes make this dinner.In the above photo and in the actual dinner below .. Note the three side-dishes.
All of you (I HOPE) can see that the dinner comes with three side dishes one of them being white rice. I get one white rice with the dinner no questions asked very simple. I also get the two other side-dishes.

With the cooperation and with the understanding of MY cashier / waitress / bus-person / floor sweeper & mopper-upper / you-name-it she-does-it we two have worked out a deal. With my one white rice I have gotten her to give me a second white rice in return for NOT giving me the other two side dishes. Got it?

A little trade-off .. One White Rice = Two Side-Dishes. Voila you see it below.
What could possibly be more simple.

“I sighed, I swore, I strode the floor; I thought I would go mad..” THE BALLAD OF SALVATION BILL .. ROBERT W. SERVICE

I did everything I thought to be humanly possible to explain to the Lady what I wanted. I could see a certain ‘dimness’ in her eyes. What cometh to my table?
IF you think that the above little tete-a-tete (noun: French .. A private conversation between two people) is over and done with forget that.

‘Zilla .. Ol’ Buddy Ol’ Friend Ol’ Pal .. This is a test .. This is an examination .. Are You Ready ‘Zilla?

“What do you see in the photo below ‘Zilla? I am not interested in the color white. What is it ‘Zilla?”

“Ladies and Gentlemen ‘Zilla wins (the Booby) Prize.” .. ” ‘Zilla correctly identified that the above object is a plate.” .. ” ‘Zilla I just knew I could count-on-you!”

Motioning the Lady over I said .. “Ma’am May I have a plate?” I wanted an extra plate to mix the dinner and the rice together.

I could see the ‘dimness’ reappear in her eyes.

“No shit Dick Tracy!” AN OFT USED EXPRESSION BY MY U.S.M.C. JUNIOR DRILL INSTRUCTOR STAFF SERGEANT HARDY .. FEB – MAY 1958 .. Let me .. Allow me .. To tell you that IF you missed out on being a member of THE CORPS .. Friend YOU missed out on a lot ! 

Over the next five minutes nothing .. I could do nothing to explain to her what a plate is. No other customers spoke English. I even tried (she followed me and blocked me putting her arms in an X in front of her) to go back into the kitchen to get a plate to use and to show her what I meant.

I telephoned Changer. I put Changer on the phone with her. She said nothing. Changer must have said something and she spoke.

Thanks to Changer I got a plate. Thanks to Changer (I double-dipped on my phone call) I got a second bowl of rice.

The dinner ..
The entire total dinner (the lower right corner) as shown on the picture-menu cost M₮ 6,500 / US $ 3.19. For the extra small bowl of white rice I paid M₮ 2,000 / US $ 0.98! I paid 30% of the cost of the dinner for one small bowl of white rice.

MY cashier / waitress / bus-person / floor sweeper & mopper-upper / you-name-it she-does-it charges me nothing absolutely nothing because she understands the rice is a trade-off for the two side-dishes I don’t get.

AND YOU ALL THINK THAT I AM JUST ‘LIVING THE LIFE OF RILEY’ OVER HERE!

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Rhetorical Question :  IF I am .. And I AM .. Hoarding safe drinking water here .. Am I a Pack Rat?When I finish a bottle of the soda that I use to flavor my boiled tap water so that I like its taste and drink more .. I am filling the empty bottles with more safe boiled tap water.Anything can happen. Electrical problems and I cannot boil water. City or building water delivery issues and I have no incoming tap water.

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IF the local thieves and pickpockets don’t get my camera ..

https://babakaps.net/?cat=243

Sadly I get my camera! It was on the bed .. My foot hooked the neck lanyard as I walked past the foot of my bed ..

It was only an 18-inch drop onto a soft carpeted floor ..

I thought nothing about it when I picked it up and put it away. An hour or so later when I went to use the camera the dreaded bad news came onto the camera’s screen ..

Lens error. Try again after turning the camera off and on.

Yes. The camera is dead and finished.

The GOOD NEWS. I did not lose the memory chip. I did not lose my two rechargeable batteries. I have a backup camera that was instantly ready to go and went into full time service.

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“Well Dad are you happy you did not give up on me and you finished me!”  / signed  / THIS POST ..

I sure am .. Here we go .. It truly IS .. TIME to Press Publish ..

All In A Day’s Work .. Smiles .. Cap

Please don’t forget ..

If you want a certain post card or if you want a special collector’s postage stamp .. Let Me Know ..

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