I Told You So

I Remember

3 years ago Katrina made its landfall not far from New Orleans. Soon the levies failed and water rushed onto the streets of the poorest districts of not the richest city in the USA.

I remember everything as if it had happened just yesterday. Mandatory evacuation was called for for the first time in the city’s history. Contraflow plan opened roads only in one direction, out of town. Rows of cars move slowly. There’s impatience and fear, questions and confusion in people’s eyes.

When power and TV were back in the evening on the 29th in Baton Rouge the first thing we saw were New Orleans flooded streets. It was unbelievable. Then Superdome roof leaked. And no one could possibly say how soon they would be able to return. Only a few months later some could return to the least affected areas.

Independence Day-2008

Happy Independence Day to all of my American friends! Guys, I am with you.

From the Snow-Country #2

Dear friends,

I am here alive and joyful of the now rare opportunity to see my city covered with pure white snow knee-deep and up. The number of cars is close to the not-so-rich times of late Soviet Union (using “late” in both senses). Walking is rather interesting along narrow paths cleared from snow where only one person can walk at a time. Just of pure curiosity I walked to work and back today again, just like yesterday.

Some people keep walking, some even skiing to wherever they head. Some people catch whatever public transport is out there. Some roads were cleared (kind of) last night. There hasn’t been snow falling today but they say it is beginning to do so and might continue (probably with less force) for two more days. I wonder if I can use this to advantage taking pics for my blog.

Some people say it is a great opportunity to shoot a Hollywood disaster movie. Well, they actually say that it all looks like scenes from one, but I’d go further and use this for some actual shooting while all you need is a script (sorry, forgot that scriptwriters are on strike) and the cast. The sets are provided and no snow-making machines are needed.

I guess the state of emergency in the city is still I force which means no schools are open and people might get excused if they fail to even try getting to work. Some have experience of 30-minutes to 5-hours attempts of either walking or being somehow transported in a more traditional way across the whole city. Some less fortunate (in the “having less brains” sense) venture in their cars, get stuck and make other cars form jams.

Yesterday Russian TV showed an ambulance driver saying that they spent three hours trying to get to somebody, had to stop at some point and walk to the house. No snow-clearing devices were seen at that. It is only last night (the second night of snowfalls) that the streets were visibly attempted to be cleaned.

I am through with exams this week and am going to a classical music concert at the Philharmonic tomorrow night. Hope you are having as enjoyable and interesting time as me here wherever you are.

Love,

Andrey

PS: I really enjoy all this and therefore must be proclaimed a complete anti-social type. But then I am joined in this weather-appreciation by numerous other “anti-social types”.

From the Snow-Country #1

Dear friends,

How are you doing there in your parts of the world?

Here I am in Samara where a state of emergency is declared today after two days of snow and in view of another two days of snowfalls. I am fine: been to work today, am going to work tomorrow, am warm and have food, am even writing this (so I have Internet). It’s just that city authorities somehow managed to fuck up all the measures to clear the streets and these streets now vary from impassable to barely passable to somewhat passable. Again, cars have winter tyres, but tyres are of little help when a car is stick in snow, or when other cars in a jam before you are stuck. Schools are closed for two days. Yet it is only childish -11 C (12 F). I would say we have such snowfalls at least once or twice in the worst years to five-ten in the best years. And I am not kidding here: children of Russia should know what a typical Russian winter is. It is time for them to enjoy what I used to enjoy a lot when I was a child. We don’t die or get paralyzed at times like these. Yet, the city administration seems to have managed to do so…die in the streets and prosper on TV.

Some photos are here (the text is in Russian): http://samaralife.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/255/. Don’t think it is always so “dark” and “gloomy”. To make you believe we have had lots of sunny bright days I am sending you links to my other pics of this winter (just a few) that I put on a Samara photo site:

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.30951.html From the right bank of the Volga to where I went across the river on ice in -25 C (-13 F)

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.31616.html A Soviet-style mosaic on one of the buildings in the city centre

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.31143.html Lenin Memorial building (part; after some retouching on the computer)

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.30771.html Lenin Memorial building (part)

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.32072.html Ladya (an old Russian boat – monument)

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.31837.html Real space rocket as a monument in one of Samara streets (view from under it)

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.31049.html An old street sign

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.30555.html My cat under the table)

http://samara-photo.ru/photo/id.32265.html At the embankment before crossing the Volga

 

Sending you all my love and best wishes,

My Next Thirty Years

My Next Thirty Years, by Tim McGraw	My Next Thirty Years, by me
I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age The ending of an era and the turning of a page Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here Lord have mercy on my next thirty years	I don’t think I’ll celebrate it much differently from any other birthday of mine. It is sort of ending of an era, yet I don’t yet feel it. Yes, I’ve finally defended my PhD dissertation and may look at my future prospects with more precision, yet can I?
Hey my next thirty years I’m gonna have some fun Try to forget about all the crazy things I’ve done Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears And I’ll do it better in my next thirty years	I sure hope I’ll have some fun in my next thirty years. And I am sure that not all the crazy things have yet been done. I didn’t have any particular adolescent fears, so there’s nothing much to have conquered.
My next thirty years I’m gonna settle all the scores Cry a little less, laugh a little more Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear Figure out just what I’m doing here In my next thirty years	What I need less is crying (even though I mainly cry silently), what I need more is laughing and being happy. What I need to discard and leave behind is at least part of my nervousness, being easily frustrated at petty things, being rancorous.
Oh my next thirty years, I’m gonna watch my weight Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers Maybe I’ll remember my next thirty years	Luckily I don’t have to watch my weight, it is bordering on the under than than above. So, no less meat, pastry, pasta etc. With my going to bed more or less at about 10 pm I don’t think I have to go to bed even earlier. I’ve spent my first 30 years practically missing on the night part of life. Not that I’ve missed a lot. But I’ll never quite know now when I’ve already missed it. So, I’ll try to miss less, be it nightlife of daytime life, in my next thirty years. And, of course, drinking beer is not a problem for me, as I don’t drink it at all.
My next thirty years will be the best years of my life Raise a little family and hang out with my wife Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear Make up for lost time here, in my next thirty years In my next thirty years	I do hope the next thirty years will be happy years and I won’t quite feel rolling on to forty and beyond. I hope to settle even more with the one I am now. Not closing the door on the options, I look forward to better options only and am ready to fight against the worse ones. I can even try to make up for the lost time and lost options, to make up for the blunders and mistakes. Yet nothing can protect a living person from making mistakes along the road. So, let the road be a good one.

Mom is 73

Mom is 73 today. But frankly she looks and behaves as if she were 50 something. At least to me. She definitely has lots of health problems, but the many errands she has to run for her elder sister and our little family makes her forget or disregard those.

Besides today they celebrate the Russian Day of Air Forces and Air Fleet, and in December this year there will be 50 years since the United Kuibyshev Aviation Unit of Aeroflot was formed. She worked there as a stewardess in 1963-1979.

So this is usually a double holiday: her birthday and Air Fleet Day.

One more reason to celebrate is that for the last three months she hasn’t sworn at me whenever I left to my boyfriend’s and she talks to me cheerfully. Are we through the rough period or is it just a temporary peace?

Cucumbers

Today I’ve been to our neighbour’s dacha (summer house) to gather cucumbers. There hadn’t been anyone on the cucumber plot for at least a week, and there I was with two heavy bags tightly filled with those green things, little, medium, big, overgrown (some of them, they will go to my aunt who will grate them to eat). I even picked very little ones as when anyone gets there the next time they would be too big.

Recently I’ve found out that cucumbers go well with sausage (smoked or semi-smoked), with or without bread, and you can even drink tea at that. Bizarre, isn’t it?

By the way, cucumbers are said to have quite a nice balance of minerals and they contain great amounts of water. All this makes them quite perfect for quenching thirst, healthy diet, and a mandatory ingredient of many mixed salads.

In Russia cucumbers are also pickled (or, to be exact, salted). You can choose between little-salted (when in the summer cucumbers are salted/pickled and eaten after a short while, often salted in barrels), and regular salted/pickled (securely closed in glass jars and eaten in autumn, winter and next spring). You can also find mixed versions with tomatoes, sweet peppers. Obligatory ingredients of pickles are black currant leaves, dill trunks and seeds, salt, pepper, vinegar, garlic, sometimes onions (I don’t like it personally). In the past (and some people maybe even now) some also used to put aspirin tablets. Pickles can be eaten on their own, as garnish to other dishes (most often, mashed potatoes), as ingredients of “vinegret” (mixed salad of pickled cucumbers, pickled cabbage, boiled and diced beetroot and carrots, sunflower oil, salt and pepper).

My Flying History in Logos

The time of flying logos are used. Thanks to Aerosite for all except Aeroflot Nord logos. Aeroflot, Atlantic Coast Airlines and Delta have changed their logos since I last flew them. Vanguard Airlines went bankrupt. Air France teamed with KLM and there is a joint new logo.

My Screenshot

This is a screenshot of my computer monitor. I’ve had it stylised for Apple Mac computer monitor for more than a year. Only recently I’ve changed the screensaver from traditional blue Mac one to this picture of a corn ear.

The computer is run by Windows XP SP2. The Windows taskbar is not fixed, therefore it is not seen in the screenshot. The taskbar at the bottom of the screen is freeware ObjectDock with icons I found on the net, mostly from Deviant Art. From left to right the icons represent the following applications that go under my personalised [names]: My Computer [iMach], Control Panel [iCon] (Mac dashboard icon), My Documents [iDoc], Picasa [iMage] (variation of iPhoto), Orange CD Player [iMuse] (Mac iTunes icon), Windows Media Player [iMovie] (Mac icon), Maxthon web browser [iSurf] (Mac Safari icon), QIP instant messenger [iChat] (variation of Mac icon), Address Book [iDress] (Mac icon), Recycle Bin (Mac icon), CCleaner [iSweep], ObjectDock clock. The iNet icon (variation of some Mac icon) is clicked to connect to the Internet.

The calendar (with Events and To Do Sections) is freeware Rainlendar 2.