We've been here tooo long

We went into Zagreb yesterday to try to find a sewing store where Liz could get a few little parts for her sewing machine.  The machine is a Pfaff that was discovered by the elders in one of the apartments.  Nobody knows how or why it was there, but it is Liz's now.  We found the place, but there was no parking there.  We turned onto a side street and were going along slowly, looking for an empty spot, when, WHAM!  I knew something had hit the car, but I couldn't see anything behind us.  Liz was driving, and she pulled over into a driveway and got out.  I fumbled around for a minute, and when I got out a guy was apologizing for hitting us.  He said he was delivering hot food to somebody and he was looking at his GPS instead of the road.  We looked around, and the mission car has no visible damage, but his car is dented in the front.  The mission rule is that we are supposed to call the police, but he was anxious to deliver his hot food, and we were kind of rattled.  I did get him to put his registration down so I could photograph it, but then he insisted on leaving.  liz's head was hurting and my neck was a little tight, but she decided she still wanted to walk.  So, we found a real parking spot and walked to the Centar (Center of town).  The place we'd come to see carried only fabric, but we had noticed a SINGER store on another trip into Centar, so we walked 12 minutes to that store.  It had been a Singer store four years ago, but now it is a book store.  We gave up and went home.  Liz was the one who hurt after the accident, but now I am the one who is feeling the effects.  My head aches, and my back is stiff.  My knee is also hurting quite a bit, but I think that is from going down into the steep orchard, again.  I put up some containers with a hole in the side and some apple cider vinegar inside.  I hung them in the apple trees to intercept coddling moths and drown them, hopefully before they lay eggs in the apples.  But, there is a question.  Do they have coddling moths in Europe? ???    ?????

WE came to the Adriatic North Mission with the understanding that we would be living in Osijek, but traveling around the mission for auditing.  We did live in Osijek for a month.   Then we came to Zagreb on an errand to help the new senior couple transition to their duties in the office.  Then we got news that Croatia might close city to city movements, so we made a mad dash to retrieve our stuff, our food, the missionaries, and their food, from Osijek.  We got back Saturday night.  Sunday morning we had an earthquake.  Monday morning Croatia closed city to city traffic and we have been in Zagreb for about six weeks.  Lots of excitement.  Lots of changes.  BIG changes.  Many, many, BIG changes.
  A few days ago I told President M. that things would probably loosen up some day, and that Osijek might not be the best place to put us when that happens.  I wanted him to know that we would go wherever made good sense.  It seems that the best place is Maribor, up in the mountains of Slovenia, only 18 kilometers from Austria.
  We still have stuff in Osijek, including some furniture, so we'll have to go retrieve that when the inter city borders open up - possibly as soon as May 11.  Then we have to get that stuff, as well as the stuff we have here, up to Maribor.  We will have a darling, little apartment overlooking the Drava River, right in the heart of beautiful, fought-over, old-town Maribor.  Our kitchen window will look down onto a fountain and the Old Vine House,  The Old Vine House used to be a winery, but is now more of a museum.  One of the things they have is the oldest grape vine in the World.  Every year there is a festival where they take cuttings and send them to cities all over the World where they will be propagated.  It seems like it is a very good variety of grape, and its leaves have an opening in the center, shaped like a heart, which makes the wine even sweeter (?).
  I always said this mission would be a GRAND Adventure.  It is more than living up to the hype, and I love it!