- Mom’s internet was finally fixed! I am exceptionally thankful to Igor, who was able to come and be present during the technician’s visit. I am still switching my mom to another internet provider because I don’t want another poor customer service experience, but at least she has internet and is happy.
- I attended the first Chicago GNU/Linux meetup, and it was 2.5 hours of infinite positive emotions! Interested and enthusiastic people, great conversations, lots of new plans and new connections, and a great feeling that I am doing something good and making a positive impact.
Month: August 2026
Why I Am Not Going To Russia Any Time Soon
Sometimes, people (not those who know me, but just random people with whom I talk, like Uber drivers, inevitably asking, “Where are you from?”) ask me whether I visit Russia, and I always reply, “Not anymore.” Sometimes (to my surprise!) they are surprised to the level of: why, what war, etc., and sometimes I have to go at length explaining what and why. Well, here is something that happened to someone living very close to me: Igor’s article. Not only because of that, of course, but it was definitely one of the factors.
Note that if this person were more cooperative with the FSB, the latter might spy on me as well (not like I do not express my views publicly).
CTA Adds Crisis Intervention Teams
I saw this initiative announced in several news sources, and I hope it will work! At least it’s a move in the right direction, and I would love my tax dollars to go toward it. Even though sometimes I need to take Uber or Lyft, I would much prefer never to take either of them because of safety concerns.
CTA to add crisis intervention, community violence prevention teams
By Talia Soglin | tasoglin@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHED: August 12, 2026 at 3:24 PM CDT
New teams of crisis intervention and community violence prevention workers will soon roam portions of the agency’s Red, Blue and Green rail lines.
The CTA plans to spend $9.6 million to fund the teams over the course of a one-year pilot program.
The teams will be composed of workers trained in de-escalation, crisis intervention, mental health, and in first aid like CPR and Narcan administration, the CTA’s Chief Innovation Officer Molly Poppe told CTA board members Wednesday. They will all wear branded uniforms, the CTA said.
The CTA’s board of directors approved contracts with several nonprofits for the teams of what the CTA is calling “safe ride specialists” at the agency’s monthly board meeting.
It was among the final actions taken by the current iteration of the CTA’s board, which will be replaced in just a few weeks pursuant to statewide transit funding and reform legislation that mandates a significant shake-up of the governing bodies that oversee the Chicago area’s transit systems.
The crisis intervention pilot program comes amid ongoing conversations about how to best address crime and quality-of-life issues like smoking on the CTA — as well as how best to help people who are unhoused or experiencing mental health crises who seek shelter on the city’s transit system.
Those issues played a prominent role in transit reform conversations last year and have continued to be a focus of transit leaders as the region gets ready to transition to a new system of transit governance — with more than $1 billion in expected new revenue available to it annually.
The teams of specialists are expected to be at work on the rail system in September, according to the CTA.
The launch of the new program comes after the CTA significantly increased law enforcement presence on the system after the administration of President Donald Trump threatened last year to withhold millions in federal funding from the system unless it did so.
Transit and law enforcement leaders have cited significant decreases in crime on the system following that boost in law enforcement hours, which includes officers from the Cook County sheriff’s police.
FBI-classified serious crimes on the portion of the CTA within city limits are down about 29% when compared with last year, according to Chicago police data.
Acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen touted the results of the agency’s security efforts Wednesday.
“We talk a lot about our multilayered security strategy, our dynamic security strategy,” she said, noting the increase in law enforcement decrease in crime. “We’ve layered on another layer here today. And it’s not just one type of resource, it’s several.”
The biggest contract under the CTA’s new safe ride program is slated for the Metropolitan Family Services nonprofit. The group will get up to $6.6 million to fund 20 community violence intervention specialists on the portion of the Red Line downtown between the Lake and Roosevelt stations.
The violence prevention workers will “engage proactively” with young people on the system and “serve as a positive presence, building a rapport and trust on the system,” said Joe Bird, the CTA’s chief security officer. They will work the system seven days a week between 12 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.
The other contracts funded under the pilot program will go to the homelessness organizations Housing Forward and Street Samaritans as well as to mental health and substance use group Healthcare Alternative Systems.
Teams staffed by those groups will work on the CTA’s Green Line between Harlem and Central avenues; on the Blue Line’s O’Hare branch between Logan Square and O’Hare and on the Blue Line’s Forest Park branch between Austin and Forest Park.
Also Wednesday, the CTA’s board approved additional funding for an existing program in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Family & Support Services.
That program, dedicated to assisting unhoused people who seek shelter on the CTA, helps fund outreach work on the CTA’s Red and Blue lines as well as shelter beds set aside specifically for people who shelter on the CTA. The agency expects the program to cost up to $4.2 million annually, the agency said. Board members approved the program through the end of 2027 with an option to extend for an additional year.
Despite police data that shows a sustained decrease in CTA crime, the agency continues to take heat on safety.
During the public comment portion of Wednesday’s meeting, Pennie McCoach, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 — which represents CTA rail workers — slammed the agency over safety, calling its current security measures “inadequate.” McCoach’s comments followed the June killing of CTA worker Thomas Kevin Barlow, who was shot and killed outside of a South Side rail maintenance facility.
Wednesday’s board meeting was the CTA board’s last regularly scheduled meeting before their terms expire on Sept. 1 pursuant to the transit legislation.
At least two current CTA board members, including its current chairman, attorney Lester Barclay and Michael Eaddy, a pastor, will serve on the new iteration of the transit board. Both were appointed to serve on the new CTA board by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The board will also see some new faces. The mayor’s third CTA board pick is Dee Atkins, chief of community engagement and equity at mental health and substance use organization Thresholds.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who gets two appointees on the new board, named Tom Kotarac — a current board member of the nearly defunct Regional Transportation Authority — and Ann Kalayil, associate vice president of facilities and construction at Columbia College Chicago.
Gov. JB Pritzker, who will appoint the board’s remaining two members, has yet to announce his picks.
Visiting Palatine
On Sunday, I made a trip to Palatine, which I had planned for a while. I wanted to see at least some of my friends, especially my old neighbors who never visited me at my new place and are unlikely to ever visit due to multiple health issues. I was ready to take public transportation when one of my friends I wanted to visit offered to drive me both ways. At first, I wanted to say, ” No, thank you”, but then I realized that this would give us almost two extra hours of talking/catching up, and also that she could visit my mom, who is always happy to speak Russian with someone, so I enthusiastically agreed.
It’s interesting how familiar my old place still feels. I loved visiting and noticing both what stayed the same and what changed: new businesses, new names on old establishments, new construction, and new green patches. Looking at an almost sterile environment, with no garbage in sight, with perfectly manicured lawns everywhere I looked and impeccable landscaping, I was thinking about whether I would want to observe this site day after day, after day. I know I liked it when I lived in Palatine; I loved seeing this picture-perfect everywhere I looked, and at some point, I thought all of America was like that :). I also realized I haven’t been that far inland in a while, and I forgot how humid and stuffy the air can get!
I also wanted to visit Deer Grove Forest Preserve, which, as I keep saying, is the only thing I really miss after moving to Rogers Park. My friend, who is a steward in Deer Grove, took me there for a walk at the end of our visit, and it was great to see the prairie in full bloom and lots of restoration being done.
The best part of the day, however, was talking to my friends. All of them have very different backgrounds, different perspectives, and are in different places in their lives. Still, all of them are near and dear to me. I told the story of “what had happened with me during the last year” three times and got different reactions, different questions, and heard three different stories in return. And all three were very deep and meaningful conversations, not me merely nodding or reassuring someone that their life is not over :). Love my friends 🥰
Continue reading “Visiting Palatine”Mom’s Internet
Mom’s internet has not been working since last Sunday (August 9), and I have already spent close to ten hours on the phone with tech support. The worst part is that each time you have to go through an AI agent that tries to send you back to troubleshooting, and you can’t explain that this’s your tenth call about the same issue and that you’ve already done all the troubleshooting. On Friday, a technician finally came to my mom’s house, but even there, he was unable to identify a problem and said that he would pass the call to another technician and that someone would call me later, but no one called, and I had to start the process all over again. My mom has a hotspot on her phone, but it was a project to teach her to enable it and to reconnect after she walks away from the computer.
On Saturday, I gave up and called another internet provider (the one I have my service with) and asked them for a new line for her. Unfortunately, they can only come on August 21. I still have a second appointment with her current provider on Wednesday, but I can’t spend that much time away from work, as there are more things I will need to address in the near future. The reason I am not canceling it is that I want my mom to get at least “some” internet sooner, and also, if for whatever reason, the Friday appointment would be delayed (things happen!), I want to have at least a temporary solution.
I could not imagine it is even possible to deliver such poor customer service! I wanted to cry on Friday night when I got off my last call with a human – it lasted 40 minutes, including all the wait time, and there was no satisfactory resolution of our issue. I left them a “zero” review the next day. 😂
Jaan Kross, Between Three Plagues: Final Review
That’s the last book of Jaan Kross’ “Between Three Plagues.” It took me a while to find all four parts (and it was very confusing to learn that there are actually four books, but parts two and three come as one book), but anyway, I finally turned the last page. I am as sad finishing this epic as my kids used to feel finishing the newest Harry Potter book, since for such a long time, Baltazar Russow was my companion. Each time I came to Tallinn, and it happened several times during my reading, I wanted to walk the streets that were mentioned in the book, stay by the building, and try to imagine events that happened over 400 years ago. My last trip, just over a month ago, was especially memorable since we stayed in a hotel with a mid-16th-century ceiling painted with some lively scenes, and I imagined that Baltazar could see this exact ceiling. It was also the first time I went inside the Holy Spirit Cathedral and saw the Baltazar Russow memorial plaque.
Having my connections to Finland and Estonia, it’s one of the most important books I’ve read. I think that only now do I fully understand the centuries of struggle of the people of Estonia and appreciate the entire complexity of it, as well as Estonia’s relationships with other neighboring (or non-neighboring) countries. I feel ashamed of not being informed for such a long time, and having mostly the “touristy” perspective of the country.
Another important aspect of this epic is Baltazar’s continuous reflection on the role of a historian, his responsibility for preserving the truth about his people, and at the same time, making sure that his work can be published, and all these never-ending compromises which, in the end, make him call his chronicles “a book of falsehoods,” while it still remains the most complete historical evidence of that period.
And finally, as I already mentioned while I reviewed the previous volumes, this is the most “lively” historical novel I ever read. I so loved the feeling of being there, witnessing everything that was happening. I read page after page, and I could smell coals on the snow-covered streets of Tallinn and the sweat of people packed in a tavern after a day of hard work. I could hear the neighing horses and screaming kids. I could feel the cold, wet November snow, and the warmth of moss in the summer forest. People, their feelings and their thoughts, their hesitations, love and betrayal – everything is so real!
I knew that Balthasar Russow was a real person, but reading the book made him even more real for me than many of my contemporaries. As if I were actually there.
We know very little about him, so everything except for his three wives is fictional. But I still want to believe that Epp was a real person, and that he saw her before his death. And the only thing that saddens me about the end of this book is that his last thought was about feeling guilty of being happy sometimes. How can anyone feel guilty of being happy? I guess I can think that Jaan Kross imagined it. But just that! 🙂
Taxes
When I lost all hope. IRS finally got back to me, and not only did they get back, but they also informed me that my tax returns were approved. And not only that, but they also corrected my mistake (I forgot to submit the information about my last year’s estimates because I was not paying them in 2026 anymore), and they paid me back more than I originally submitted, and even added interest because they paid me several months later!
Unbelievable! Although I guess that’s how it should be!
A Very Eventful Day And Bats Monitoring
Yesterday was one of the record days in terms of the number of times the weather changed, and how much it took to an extreme. I had a nice early morning bike ride before work, then, it was a tornado warning during the day. Fortunately, it didn’t touch Rogers Park, but in the office, we were instructed to shelter in place, and it continued for 45 minutes. The rain was pouring, and it was very windy, and it was hard to believe it will get better any time soon.
Then, suddenly, things started to clear up, and by 4 PM, there were no traces of it. I was hoping I could go to the beach right after I get home, but for some reason, the beach alert ws not removed. The red flag was up, and a lifeguard was marching around the pier. I was extremely disappointed, but decided to repeat the attempt at 7 PM. The problem was that I also wanted to attend the Bat Monitoring event, which was scheduled for 7:30, so I had very little time. Still, I decided that something is better than mothing, and I didn’t regret it! Just half on hour was plenty to be thankful to the lake and the happy fact that I live so close to it!
The Bat Monitoring was another super-interesting thing. The presentation took place at the Loyola fieldhouse. Liza Lehrer, Assistant Director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo, gave an overview of the Urban Wildlife Institute’s bat research program and its key findings. I learned a lot! For start, I didn’t know we have bats right here, in Chicago! I didn’t know that they migrate, like birds, and that some of them hybernate in winter! And I didn’t know they are closer to humans than rodents.
The most exiting part was a live demo! It turned out, that there is a special equipment one can use to detect and record the bats that are flying around us! Also, there is a program which can autoamtically decode the sounds and identify the species, and also record the place were recording was made. The Lincoln Park Zoo people had two of these sets, and we had an opportunity to see them in action! It was surreal – I never ever thought that there are bats, and so many, right there, by the beach, where I walk almost every day.
If it wouldn’t be so late, I would stay longer!
Fort Sheridan And One More Thunderstorm
Since the time I first learned about Fort Sheriday Forest preserve, I try to visit it a couple times a year, and at least once in summer. I didn’t have a chance to go there this summer yet, and I wanted to make sure I sivit it before summer ends. Even in July, I knew I will have very few options, and this Sunday was “one before last one.’ Usually, I listed to my gut feeling very careflly, gaging whether I should or should not do something, but this time, I was not sure. I felt like I am trying to squizz in too many things, and the weather was not ideal, but then I thought that if I would give in and not go, I will regret it, so I decided to go even though I knew it will be a very short visit,
The prairie exceeded my expectations :). Because of so many rains we had this summer, it was in bloom like I never saw it! I walked on the trail with a smile on my face, and was quitely saying hello to all my wild friends.
Kira In Chicago
This weekend, we finally had Kira’s special Chicago adventure. Since February, when she was sick on the day we were supposed to have a pottery class together, I promised her a solo stay with me, but it took us more than six months to schedule. It was the first time that she visited me without anyone else, including Nadia, and we had a great time!
She made a huge developmental leap and is now so mature, so interesting to talk with, such a loving and helpful person, that I can only admire Anna’s parental skills; she is a way better parent than I was! I see her in both girls, and although Nadia and Kira are very different people, I see that they took the best from both parents.
We had breakfast on my balcony, went to the beach early in the morning, visited my mom, and then headed to the Field Museum, where Kira planned to stay until closing :).
She changed her mind only when I suggested getting a gelato flower at Amorino, where, fortunately, the wait was not 45 minutes, but only 20!
And another thing which really touched me was how patient and kind she was with my mom. Initially, I thought my mom could meet us at the beach in the morning, but later I realized we would be there before she normally gets out for a walk, so I removed our meeting from her calendar. Then, as Kira and I were already heading out for the Field Museum, I saw an email from my mom asking whether she should wait for my call or head to the beach. I realized that the only option we had was to stop by on our way, so I called her to let her know we were coming.
Then I explained to Kira that my mom wanted to see her very much, and that she often forgets things, but she remembered that I wanted to see her. And I told Kira that if I lived for another thirty years, I might also become very forgetful, and I argued with Kira that she never told me this and that. She laughed at this perspective, didn’t complain that we didn’t go to the museum right away, and was very kind and respectful to my mom. And I was very thankful for that!
Hettie's Reflections 