Biking to Physical Therapy Early in the Morning
Month: April 2020
Spending Time: a Book Review
I am two months behind on blogging about the books I read, life takes precedence, and there is no time for anything else. However, keeping a promise to myself and others, I am still trying to catch up on my past reading. Below is a short review of the book Spending Time – The Most Valuable Resource, which I read back in February.
As it often happens, the title and the annotation promised more than the book delivered; however, I do not regret I read it. As my friends now, I take pride in using my time wisely because I always want to do more things than time permits. As a result, I deeply regret that I do not have Hermione’s Time Turner, and continuously search for a substitute of it :).
Each time somebody promises me that they have a secret of getting more done within the same time slot, I am ready to jump in.
This book does not provide any magic solutions. However, I was very curious about the time dairies which people participating in the research were filling in. I want to know where does my time goes! Once, when my co-worker told us about the Clokiefy app, which she uses to track her time spent on the projects, I decided to try to use it to trace my time in general.
It didn’t work, and after a little bit over a week, I gave up. It took too much time to record every ten minutes spent on something. The classification of time usage had quickly become very complicated, and I was having a hard time recording activities that I was doing in parallel with others. But it looks like the time dairies mentioned in that book worked perfectly. I would love to be called to participate in such research!
One particular observation caught my attention. The author was saying that the more money a person makes, the more activities are becoming available (yes, that was “before the war”). At the same time, a person does not have time to participate in these activities because… well, because they spend all their time working!
At that time, I thought that there is a lot of wisdom in that statement, but now I am not sure. The quarantine cut all my massive volunteering work, on all cultural events, which were either canceled or moved online. And still, I feel like I need twice more time to do all the things I want to do. So it looks like it is something else :).
I know that I do not have time to email, or call, or to FaceTime many of my friends, and I often find myself talking to them in my mind, while I am doing something else. I do not have enough time to document what’s going on in the world these days. And I do not have enough time to do all the professional – non-work things. I will keep trying 🙂
How is My Mom
Many people are asking me how my mom is doing. She is doing great, taking into account her age and other circumstances.
However, because she firmly believes that she can’t understand English, mom does not watch TV, and she does not read anything in English on the internet. At the times when things started to be bad here, and I started to realize what is coming ahead, she was clueless – in Russia, the virus “did not exist” at that time. And she was asking me why I worry so much. I was trying to explain to her that the situation is bad and getting worse, but since she didn’t receive any proof from Russia, she didn’t take it in. I remember that when I came to visit her two days later, after we had that first conversation, she started to ask me, “whether I feel better that day.”
On the one hand, I didn’t want to make her worry; on the other hand, I needed her to understand the severity of the situation and to be cautious. And then, all of a sudden, it was officially announced in Russia that the virus exists. And then she finally started to worry. Just in time, when things began to be more stable here, not better, but we’ve adjusted to the situation.
Then she started to tell me what she read about the virus on the Russian internet. Most of the time, I listen quietly to what she has read on the Russian internet and not comment, but in the situation when she can make bad choices based on what she read on the Russian internet, I had to interfere. She was very upset and told me that I think that everything is better in America :). I decided to be smarter next time, and try to let her talk as much as she needs. Then I tell her that while she lives in Illinois, she has to follow the orders of our governor, and that’s all that should matter for her.
She was still keeping telling me what she read in Russian. It was funny that she mentioned that “people create the panic,” and I told her – Mom, don’t worry, there is plenty of food in the stores, she replied: yes, Putin told that there is plenty of food! I didn’t comment on it.
Then, when Russia went into quarantine, her Russian friends started to ask her in emails: so, you are going out for the walks? Is it allowed? Won’t you be punished if you go outside? The also anxiously asked her whether there is food in the stores. As a result, about a week ago she told me: it looks like in Russia they sometimes publish wrong things about America! Same as here about Russia! I decided it was good enough 🙂
She is complaining that she has nobody to socialize with and that previously she was going out with me, and visiting my friends and so on. I am keeping telling her that she has to wait.
Yesterday, I filed her short-form tax returns for her so that she could receive a stimulus payment. She didn’t think she is eligible, but I told her she is. I think it will be great when she receives it!
Health Updates
It’s hard for me to tell whether the problems with my back have returned because I am working from home, or they just returned – after all, last spring, the situation was the same. It started to get worse when it should have become better. This time, it is all related to walking. Standing is fine, but walking started to be more and more painful again. On the one hand, it could be because I do not walk with my backpack anymore (it helps me to stay in balance); on the other hand – it still shouldn’t have been like this.
I do not like to go at length about “how exactly I feel unwell,” so I will stop here. I still had some leftovers from the last year’s prescription, but I had to use it often recently and was running out of it. I was not sure whether the orthopedics is considered essential, but I was hoping that I could get a prescription refill.
When I called the doctor’s office, they told me that they are open and that if I am comfortable with it, they would rather see me in person.
I went there last Friday; there was almost nobody in the waiting area, and I didn’t wait at all. They took the Xrays, and it looks like all the same problems I had a year ago, which does not go away, and which was not supposed to go away.
So I started everything again, as last spring: a steroid pack, already done, which, as usual, caused a short-term relief. On Wednesday, I started physical therapy. My usual place is in business, which means I do not need to travel far. Fortunately, I got my favorite therapist, who has scoliosis herself. Last year, she showed me a lot of great exercises which help me a lot, if done consistently. I already had two sessions with her and will continue for two more weeks. They all wear masks, and I wear a mask when I come in. They also have a box of disposable gloves, so when a patient needs to get on an elliptical or to do some other exercises, they put the gloves on. They also limited the number of patients they treat simultaneously.
Last week, when I was at the doctor, he said I might need steroid shots (which I refused the previous year), and that he hopes I won’t need another surgery. I hope so, too! It’s frustrating that I do not quite understand what causes the problem. All these “narrow exits” do not bear any meaning to me, and I can’t consider steroid shots being treatment, it’s just pain management.
Most likely (and hopefully), I will feel better in a couple of weeks, but most likely, it won’t be permanent. It might become my seasonal activity :).
About Politics
First, I hope that all the recent tragic events will help the people of the United States to understand that Universal Health Care is the only solution to our health care crisis. Nothing partial will work. Any other system will lead to a situation when either a doctor will need to play God and decide who is worth living, or to the situation which we have now when people are not left to die on the streets. Still, society as a whole pays for the care for non-insured, and it pays more than it would if Universal Health Care would be officially on place.
I hope this will indeed happen. I recall that my republican friends would suddenly become proponents of Universal Health care the moment they lose their jobs. Now I hope that the twenty-two million newly unemployed people will finally realize that “keeping their insurance” does not work as well as they wished.
Second, I find it ironic how Trump had to revert to the UBI at the time of crisis, and how for several weeks, some tried to explain that it is not a PBI :).
Third, I am mad that the payroll credits for small businesses were rolled out so late after millions of people were laid off already. Probably the most important part of COVID stimulus, it was open for applications way too late, and it ran out of money way too soon… We are promised that more money will be distributed soon, but for now – twenty-two million.
The rest of my complaints are minor 🙂
My Daughter Got a New Job
Two months ago, it would sound differently! It would still be happy news to share, but nowadays it’s more than happy news.
She started to look for new opportunities during “the normal times,” and I was encouraging her to move forward – she was with the same company since she graduated from college. But at the time, when people are laid off en mass, especially the most recent hires, at the time when a new baby is coming in two months, and when they are about to move to another town – even my adventurism won’t play.
To say that I am immensely proud of her won’t be enough. Under all of the circumstances mentioned above, she got a new job; she negotiated her salary and stock options, she negotiated a higher title, and on top of all of that, she will get sixteen weeks of fully paid maternity leave.
The next two months are going to be very exciting, and the complete uncertainty about everything adds to that excitement (Not like the months after will be less exciting!)
I do not have much to add; I wish her good luck in everything she has to accomplish in the upcoming months and years:)
Masks
When ten days ago, the Illinois residents were asked by the governor to wear masks when in public, my first thought was to revive the skills we were taught in grade school at the lessons of Civic Defense.
However, when I shared this idea with Anna, she was quick to react that they do not seem to bee good for the current purpose. I think that their design goes back to the days of chemical weapons being the biggest scare.
Anna told me that her friend, who in the times of peace is a theatrical costume maker, is making masks to order. That sounded great – will there be any other occasion when I could order something from a real costume designer?! I ordered two for each of the boys, and two for myself, and two – just in case. They arrived on Monday, and when I demonstrated them in the office slack channel, everybody got jealous!
Because I Love It: an Apple Cobbler
Not sure why my other blog didn’t allow me simply to reblog this, but whatever!
Here is it, the Apple Cobbler recipe, originally from here, and I finally made it right on Easter Sunday. Who says you can’t have a cobbler for breakfast?!
Mom loved it, too, although I was not optimistic about that. And as it happens sometimes (often) I didn’t get a chance to take a picture while it was still a whole thing 🙂
Film Center from Your Sofa: Mephisto
To be precise, it didn’t need to be a Siskel Center member to watch this movie online. But one of the reasons I love Siskel center is that they make me aware of the great movies I might never hear about otherwise.
I believe the Mephisto was the first film directed by Istvan Szabo I ever saw, and I can’t even describe how much it impressed me! Often, when you watch the movies made in the 60s-70s-80s, you can’t but notice some “old” ways. Not the case here. The film feels so up to date!Â
Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Szabó’s most celebrated film features a mesmerizing turn by Klaus Maria Brandauer that Roger Ebert called “one of the greatest movie performances I have ever seen.” Brandauer plays Hendrik Hoefgen, a German provincial actor who starts out in the 1920s with high ambitions and fashionably leftist ideals. His signature role is Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust, but he proves to be more temptee than tempter when the Nazis take over and cultivate him as an all-too-willing tool of the regime. MEPHISTO is more than just a showcase for Brandauer, as Szabó crafts a rich and vivid picture of both the Nazi and theatrical worlds, whose shared reliance on sham and spectacle exposes the slippery slope between artistic self-absorption and moral/political corruption.Â
Gene Siskel Film Center
When I was watching the film it felt like I heard it just yesterday: I am not interested in politics! I am an artist (scientist, writer)! I am doing things which are more important to mankind than politics. And I need to be here, to preserve theater, science, art for future generations! And by the way, <put the name of a political figure here> is way better than others! He is smart, and he cares about art-science-theater, you name it…. Great movie…
And yes, I am planning to watch the other two!
Operation “Easter”
Friday night, I made my meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Saturday, I colored eggs and made a plum pie. And I baked some cookies a week before. And then Saturday afternoon, I was packing :).
I packed a bag for Igor, and I also included some food items which are either hard to find where he lives, or they are just more expensive (like buckwheat). I also packed a bag for Vlad.
Several days before that, I mailed to Igor my April monthly pass, the one which I never used and which I wanted to keep for future generations :).
That’s how our “Operation Easter” went. Igor called me when he arrived at Palatine. There are barely any people on the train these days, let along on the weekends. I put the bag in my car’s trunk and drove to the station. Igor got out when I stopped at the passengers’ drop-off location, opened the trunk, and took the bags. And then he went back to the city and stopped by Vlad ti deliver a package for him.
It was all as safe as we could make it, and I feel very good knowing that the boys got their emoji eggs, and kinder surprises, and cookies, and that I was able to send them a piece of home.
This morning, I drove to my Mom to take her to celebrate Easter with me. I tried to get all the food she enjoys, and I also asked Igor and Anna to call in, which they did. It was bitter-sweet; Anna, John, and Nadia said Christos Voskres (traditional Russian Easter greeting) to Mom, and Mom told everybody that she wishes them to escape the virus.
We all are hopeful that next Easter, we all will be together!
Hettie's Reflections 