Author: Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

More From Greenfield Village

I still wanted to post more photos from our last weekend’s visit to Greenfield Village. We saw more houses than we had seen last year with Lena. Boris said he didn’t care that much about famous people’s houses, but as for me, 1) I do if I know something about this person, 2) there were a lot of houses which showed in great detail how people had lived two hundred years ago, and unlike many other museums of that kind, they had not just “some artifacts,” but a very detailed reconstruction of how people actually lived. For example, not just a washing pitch, but a complete set of teeth hygiene pieces, chamber pots under each bed, and so on.

Dugget Farmhouse

Henry Fords’ house, Wright’s house or boarding house – does not really matter 🙂

Ukraine Says Thank You

Can’t watch these videos without tears in my eyes
“Ukraine Says Thank You”

Amtrak Travels

The thing that I always forget when I take Amtrak to Ann Arbor is that there is one big reason for delays – a single track for a very long stretch. Because of that, if a train traveling in the opposite direction is delayed, your train will have to wait for a very long time. This time, on our onward journey, we waited for a record one hour and forty minutes and then were delayed a little bit more for the crew switch. In addition, the air conditioning was brutal, and Boris and I were completely frozen. The only thing that saved us was the dining car, which was open.

This announcement came as a pleasant surprise because it was the first time after the pandemic that I encountered an operating dining car. On the way back, I already planned on that and then had to listen to announcements about how they were quickly running out of things.

Stayin in the line in the dining car, I heard that they were out of burgers and then – out of breakfast sandwiches, and then they said they are “out of food,” although I overheard that they mentioned “veggie boxes.” When my turn came, I asked whether they still had veggie boxes with hummus. They said – yes, and they also had fruit cups, but “they were out of food.” 😀

Good News!

Yesterday, I spoke to an old colleague of mine with whom I do not speak so often. Even when we speak, that’s usually a quick exchange on our careers. Yesterday, I spoke to him for longer than three minutes, and I asked him whether he would attend my next meetup, which will feature Bruce Momjian. He replied: It would be great, but I will be in Ukraine! My jaw dropped. I know his wife, and I know she’s Ukrainian, but as I said, we do not talk much recently. Sensing my unspoken question, he continued: You probably don’t know that N. (his wife) quit her job as a lawyer and now runs a non-for-profit. They supply all sorts of equipment to Ukraine, and she was going there every two to three months. They are opening a new distribution center, and this time, I am going to accompany her.

I can’t even describe how good it made me feel (and how inadequate I feel myself, trying to be everywhere and not committed enough to anything; at least, that’s how I feel sometimes.

Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!

Twenty-Eight Years Ago, I Think

There is no specific reason to make this random photo a birthday photo. I just thought that I needed to post something different from my usual two tiny babies and me. At least, I think Anna can relate :).

Happy birthday, my extraordinary twins!

***

I used to think that Boris was not involved enough in Vlad’s and Anna’s early years, and it might be objectively so, but he often remembers things that I had forgotten.

Last week, he asked me whether I remember Vlad’s “very important question.” He said that Vlad was about eight or nine years old then, but I still can’t recall the episode. Maybe it was during the summer of 2000 when I started my consulting job, and Boris was without any job and didn’t move to Finland yet, and babysat Vlad and Anna.

According to Boris, Vlad walked into the room and announced that he had a very important question, and his whole future depended on the answer. He knew that “grown-ups don’t play with toys,” and he worried what would happen if he still loved playing with his toys when he grew up :).

***

Happy birthday 🙂

Forest Ranger Camp

The reconstruction of a forest ranger camp from the 1900s was one of the things Lena and I missed last year. The staff member (whom I didn’t photograph) was dressed as on of these very first forest rangers, and he talked about their jobs and how they had to be away from home on horseback for months. I immediately started to estimate how much they would have to carry with them. Even if we assume they didn’t take s change of clothes with them (which is possible!), he still had just this one saddle bag with two compartments. And he had to hack his tent, a blanket, some tools, his pan and a coffee pot, and a mug, and supplies like coffee, sugar and salt for several months!

Greenfield Village

Last year, when I visited Lena in Ann Arbor, she took me to Greenfield Village. We spent the whole day there but didn’t get enough, and I wanted to do it again, see more things, and show Boris what we saw last year.

Still, it was not enough :). Your mind gets overloaded with information, and you want to take in more but can’t 🙂

See the moving train on the third card!
Old diesel train ride
Wright brothers bike shop
Somebody thought of aesthetics!

I tried not to repeat the pictures I took last year… and still took them again, and still it is not enough!

To be continued 🙂

Everything The Lake Can Give

I didn’t have a single day off while Boris was here. First, I just took a week and a half of vacation, and second: there was too much work! I was glad that Lena and I chose this weekend for our visit – it gave me an opportunity to disconnect from work almost entirely. Granted, I was doing a lot of “other” things, but it was still a disconnect.

Today I took the morning off, and Boris and I went for a relatively long bike ride in the morning (the weather was absolutely perfect!), and when we returned, I told him that I saw the waves on the lake while we were biking, and I want to go and jump in these waves before the lifeguards come. Boris does not understand the joy of jumping in the waves, but he walked to the beach with me and took some pictures of me in the waves.

About The Situation Around the Clinics

Now we know why the journalists ignored our requests not to come to the clinic: see the article.

It is very well written, and it rightly focuses on Alderman Conway’s activity, which we really appreciate! Also, valid concerns about the bike lane blocking and the noise level.

Here is a picture from the article:

That day, I was there. My shift was over at 9-30AM. I saw that the situation was getting worse, but I was just three days back from our trip, and Boris was arriving on the evening of that day, so I could not stay later.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous blog: when I was staying at the street corner on a lookout, a lady who passed the clinic entrance earlier stopped by me and asked: how are you doing this? I didn’t understand the question first, and she repeated: how are you doing this? I still didn’t get it. She continued: how can you keep doing this and not get mad? I won’t be able to do it! I would kill them! I said: I understand! But that’s why you are not doing this :). We are here for the patients, to make a safe passage for them. She paused: yea, I can see that…

To my point – that’s not the place to express your feelings towards antis. But the article is good 🙂

Anti-Putin Rally

I am sure that Igor will post about today’s event in more detail, but I still want to post a couple of his pictures. He reports that the meeting went really well, and the participants were especially ecstatic seeing Putin jailed.