Month: July 2022

Juvenile Intruder

After the latest incident with a mouse, I called for an inspection, and when an inspector came, he found one more mouse in a trap under the kitchen shelf! God knows how long it was there – probably since my last European trip. I told him, I did not want to see it, and he was: are you sure? It’s such a little mouse, just a juvenile! I had no desire to see the dead body, so he deposited it into one of the boxes he had with him, put new traps, and recharged the bait. Now, I need to check the mouse traps again, and I am afraid of mice!

I guess I have to pay for my independence and for living in the city 🙂

After The Meeting With An Author

Today, the Chicago Public Library hosted a meeting with Toya Wolfe, and my goal was to finish Last Summer on State Street before this event. (by the way, all library copies were taken, including the audiobooks, so I purchased it).

I am glad that I could attend and be a part of the conversation with the author. As someone who actively participates in the work of several volunteering organizations which service underprivileged communities, I was deeply touched by the events described in this book. Way too often, I see similar stories unfolding: no matter how hard we try to help the youth in crisis, in most cases, we can do nothing.

Answering one of the questions from the audience, Toya Wolfe made the following analogy: if you go to the war, you might return alive, or you might die; it’s often the question of chance. But if you go to war malnourished, there are higher chances that you won’t survive, although there is still a chance. In the same way, growing up in an unhealthy environment or in a broken home increases the chances of a youth getting into trouble, but at the same time, there are still chances for a good outcome. After today’s meeting, the book feels a little bit less depressing:).

Another New Mac – My Own

I got another Mac, and it is my own, and not Mac Air. I never thought I would purchase a Mac for myself, and the most recent model, but here I am.

There were a couple of things that I did for the first time with this Mac. my first trade-in (I traded in my old Mac Air), my first time applying, and getting an Apple card – for the sake of getting 0% financing for a year. They also said that I could order a physical card for this account – a “titanium card.” I ordered it; to be honest, I thought that the usage of the word “titanium” had no more to do with reality than multiple “gold,” “diamond,” or “sapphire.” But when the card arrived, it turned out that it was titanium! Which means it’s too thick to put her into my phone case.

But I guess, it’s OK since I have it in the Apple Wallet 🙂

Or and also, that was the first time I completely restored my new laptop from the time machine, and I was surprised that it actually worked (like I didn’t have to look for all the passwords and licenses one more time :))

Igor’s Article

Today, one more time, a person who has known me for a long time, but does not talk to me too often, asked me “how am I” other than “lots of work.” I told him: there is a war in my life; it is here, it does not go away, and it will never go away from my life until it will be actually over.

That’s how I am, and although most news sources moved the war in Ukraine to the second tier of coverage, I didn’t move it there.

That’s why I was so happy that Igor’s article about the war in the Wednesday Journal made it to the front page of the Opinion section. I hope that enough people will see it – here is it.

Rogers Park Adventures

I still can’t believe that Lena and I did each and single thing we planned for that weekend! Today, it was raining in the morning, and I thought both our biking and swimming were not going to happen. But the rain suddenly stopped at 6-30 AM, and Lena didn’t leave me an option to think about whether it was too late or too wet – she just emerged out of her room and said that she was going to walk to her car to get her helmet :).

We biked to the “Windmill” and returned to a late breakfast, then went swimming, trying to catch the time before the lifeguards would be in. I was skeptical about swimming at 72F and with no sun, but it was perfect -the water was already so warmed up that even the cool temperatures of the previous two days did not affect it.

Continue reading “Rogers Park Adventures” →

Chicago Adventures With Lena

Yesterday, my friend Lena from Ann Arbor came to visit me for the weekend, and today was a blast! Not even mentioning how much I enjoy Lena’s company, what a fun person she is, but we did tons of cool things together.

We started the day with the Millennium Art Fair on Michigan Avenue, where I bought two rings with flowers inside, and Lena bought a pair of earrings with butterfly wings (they explained to us that they collect the wings from dead butterflies).

Continue reading “Chicago Adventures With Lena” →

Not Again!

Even though the inspection a couple of months ago confirmed that there are no rodents in my house, I still had some doubts. Recently, I realized that somebody was cutting into the plastic bags with the bread and eating tiny pieces.

I vividly remember that on Wednesday morning, I thought: I need to call exterminators. And on Thursday, when I woke up and when to the bathroom, I heard these squeaking noises, and I saw that one of the mouse traps which an inspector left changed its position on the floor… Here we go!

I am capable of picking up and discarding mouse traps without looking, but since this one was not transparent, I was not sure whether the mouse was indeed there. And I was afraid to look. Then I remembered that the painter who will be working in my apartment next week was going to stop for his advance later in the day, and I decided to ask him.

When he came, I told him: I wanted to ask you for a favor. You know I am a strong woman, but there is one thing I am afraid of – I am afraid of mice! And he looked at me and said: I am afraid of mice, too!

Then he said: if it’s not a rat, but a mouse, I can look! I showed him a trap and told him that I could discard this mouse. He looked and then said – where is your broom? I handed him a broom and a shovel. He asked: are you ready with a garbage bag? Because I am not going to look! I said – yes, and with this collective effort, we successfully deposited the mouse into the garbage, and I took the garbage out:)

When Everything Goes Wrong

Today’s meetup was another epic disaster.

I ordered a new MacBook, and it arrived on Monday. By midday Tuesday, I had it restored from my old Mac Air and started to use it. There were a couple of minor hiccups, but overall, everything looked and felt like I was on the same computer.

Today, I was hosting a Chicago PUG meetup. First, when I scheduled it, I tried “integration of meetup and zoom,” which resulted in me having three zoom meetings :). It took me a while to figure out which one was the right one, but finally, I was there, and people started to join. Then, I was going to start my 5-minute intro, but it turned out that zoom didn’t have screen share permission! I quickly went to the settings to fix it, but then zoom had to restart. I have no idea what happened next, but for some reason, people could not get back in! Zoom was asking for the password, which technically speaking was in the URL provided.

Also, I could not edit the existing meeup and could not paste a new link! And all on top of the fact that my speaker requested an earlier start!!!

The good news was that, after all, the meetup happened. But boy, what a disaster!!!

The Lake At It’s Best

This year, the spring was cold, and it took a while for the lake to warm up. Today was the first time that I didn’t want to get out of the water. It was a perfect moment in the evening when the air was still warm and the sun was just about to start to come down, and the water was magical.

Thank you, my lake!

The State Of War – Again

In the past couple of days, my optimism about the development at the war front started to return partially because there was some good news, partially because I could see some panic in the ranks of pro-war bloggers.

At the same time, I was deeply saddened by some conversations I had with my Russian friends. All of them are against the war. All of them say that they feel endless shame and disgust with the actions of the Russian government and pain a sorrow for the sufferings of the people of Ukraine.

But that’s where the similarities end. The are two ways they think about “how this can end.” One – Russia will become a complete outcast in the world, a country completely isolated from civilization, and will stay like this for long, maybe forever. And another way – Russia will be destroyed and disappear from the earth’s surface, “and we deserve it.”

s I mentioned before, I firmly believe that only the defeat in this war might give Russia a chance to come back as a new country, a defeat as profound as Nazi Germany in WWII. But with my friends, such a defeat is either a tragedy or “it won’t be enough, it won’t change the people.

Both make me sad, and I do not know what to do with it…