Category: everyday life

The Clock Is Ticking

On Monday, the clock started ticking – we are official “in” for our book. I feel very nervous. We drafted quite a bit before the official start, but now it seems like we won’t have that extra time for the subsequent chapters. Also, since we started to draft something more than a month earlier, I expect that we would have more written. 

The huge part is a training database which is still not finished. First, I assumed that Boris would do it since we are using a public database that he helped create several years ago as our starting point. It turned out that he is not as familiar with the generation scripts as I thought he would. I started to dig into the generation myself. Then at some point, when I found several chunks of raw data missing, Boris told me that I could hand it out to him; he will finish. And now it is stalled. 

Now I have this weird feeling that I  can’t do, I am not allowed to do anything entertaining, while I do not have at least one chapter drafted, preferably two. And I might end up living with that feeling about each next chapter until we will be done at the end of the year.

Nope, I do not need anybody feeling sorry for me; after all, I wanted it, and I got it all started. Just bear in mind that I might be in that anxious mood more often than usual. 

How Is It Being In the Office

So far, went I come to the office, I am either alone, or there is one more person there. People are asking me “how is the office,” and I am saying I like being back. It’s not like I less productive at home, but when I am coming to the office, it helps me to separate work and non-work, so that it won’t be one endless workday.

Also, when I am in the city, I can meet Igor for lunch, and I can walk the streets of Chicago, which I missed a lot during these months!

There is no food in the kitchen
And the nespresso machine stopped working, so I bought another percolator for work
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June 1995. Our Trip to Poland. Part 3

Waldek dropped us off at Krynica Morska in their small house and left. 

There were several small rooms, I do not remember exactly, how many, a kitchen and a bathroom. Waldek showed us where the local grocery store was and how to get to the beach and to the pier. And then he left.

I had to start living in our temporary home by going to the grocery store and buying literally everything I needed and cook our first dinner. By that time, younger people already didn’t learn Russian at school, and almost nobody spoke English. Not at the grocery store. My Polish was marginal. I struggled with every other word: I remember that it took me three days to figure out that smetana and smetanka are two different dairy products, and I needed the former.   

Well, cooking was not a big deal, and the store had everything I needed. But I was planning for a beach vacation, and that was not going to happen! It was cold and rainy. For the first two days, the rain was pouring non-stop. The kids had almost no toys, we had only one book with us, and after I figured out how to turn on the TV, it appeared not much use, since everything was in Polish. Also, the roof started to leak, and I was frantically searching the house for a bucket. 

I remember me sitting in this house, pouring rain outside, the water from the ceiling dripping into a bucket, Polish cartoons on the TV… and thinking: why in the world did I decide to bring my kids on this trip?!

On the third day, the rain stopped, and we walked to the beach. The white sand beach was empty, the kids wore jeans and sweatshirts (the only ones we had with us, I didn’t plan for cold weather).

Krynica Morska beach nowadays (By rysnal, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56541574)

On the pier, vendors were selling all that regular touristy-resort stuff, like beach towels, inflatables, beach balls, and toys. Vlad and Anna took turns in throwing tantrums because they wanted this or that.

Another day passed, and it started to warm up. But then Anna started coughing and having her usual thing, and I did not let her go into the water. In the end, we had several nice days, and everything was almost picture-perfect. 

From the house to the beach, it was a thirty minutes walk. I was making sure we didn’t forget anything we needed for a half-day away on the beach. I remember that once we forgot something. I can’t remember now what exactly, but apparently something important. I realized that we forgot that something half-way to the beach, and I had to give Igor the key to run back to the house and get whatever we were missing. Sounds crazy now, especially in the world with no cell phones. 

I was also looking for some cultural activities, and found that we could take a boat to the Copernicus Museum, which we did one of the days – one more post to follow.

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.

More Optimistic Eyes Update

On Wednesday, I went to the two-weeks checkup after my retina surgery. My left eye is now better than before the surgery and is some aspects even better than the right one. However, the horizontal lines are still wavy, and there are some blank spots in the middle. I told the surgeon that I do not want to do the right eye, because I won’t be able to last with my left eye only for a week. He agreed to wait till October to decide whether I will do the second one. I am most likely not going to come back because I have lots of issues with that office.

Since my eye doctor is still not open, I decided to go to the LensCrafters in the city, who made my last glasses. Their location works perfectly for me, and I had an excellent impression of their office in general when they replaced a lense in my glasses.

I scheduled an appointment with them for Thursday, which is now my in-office day. I spent there two and a half hours and I felt extremely guilty missing time at work, but the results are very promising. The doctor fitted me with bifocal glasses, and also I tried bifocal lenses for the first time. He gave me a week to get to adjust to them. That’s a new experience, and I am excited to be almost a normal person. I could not see so well for a long time; I can’t even recall since when.

Hopefully, this all will work out!

Maybe, It Does Not Sound Funny, But It Was Funny!

You know, how one thing leads to another… after I picked up an additional external monitor from the office so that I could have two external monitors to work from home, I realized that my first monitor is not of great quality. And when you mostly work from home, it matters.

I discussed it with Boris, and we agreed that I would purchase the same model as I have upstairs for online classes. The only thing that scared me a little bit was the fact that this monitor was sitting not on the stand but the adjustable desk mount. I asked Boris whether he is sure I can affix it myself. He said: definitely, it’s just four screws, and that’s it. And I believed him!

That was another project for the holiday weekend. The monitor was delivered, and I told Boris that he would need to guide me through the process using Facetime.

Now, it’s not that much space on my desk. This desk used to be spacious fifteen years ago or so, but since then, the standards have changed. And the monitor sizes, as well.

I was able to unscrew the old monitor from the mount. But after that, the mount, free of the monitor weight, went up, and would not come down. And I had to hold it to screw on the new monitor without being able to see what I am doing.

That was a challenge! First, I didn’t realize that the new monitor has it’s own four screws in and wondered why I couldn’t find the holes! Then, it was almost impossible to keep the whole construction down. Boris kept telling me that I should turn the mount ninety degrees so that it would be easier to attach a new device, but again, without the weight, the mount won’t cooperate. At some point, it jumped up and hurt my upper lip and the bottom of the nouse. I screamed; that’s how bad it was!

Boris suggested finding a box that will support the monitor on the height of the mount’s natural position, which I did, and then I was able to screw it in, and everything was great. But looking back at that situation, even though my nouse still hurts, I can’t keep from laughing! Who else would complete such a project remotely?!

My First Back to Office Day

Breakfast at Starbucks
By the fountain at the train station
People socially distancing on the train
Masks are required
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What Worries Me Now

I never planned to write anything about this here. Still, I can hardly think about anything else for the past several days. Since this blog is partially for future generations, and partially for a small circle of people who are close to me, let it be.

When you see somebody every day, you usually do not notice the changes. But all the changes which happened to my mom during these past several months, can’t be ignored. For those who haven’t seen her for some time, the changes are even more striking. Ten days ago, when I still couldn’t see well after the last surgery, I asked my neighbor to take mom and me to the grocery store. And she commented that mom became very fragile. There are more things that she forgets, and I understand that it’s difficult for her to be happy when she often feels disoriented.

I always feel upset when I can sense her unhappiness because the whole idea of bringing her here was that she could live whatever years she still has happier than before. I tend to reprimand her that she always finds reasons to be unhappy, but to be honest – how can you feel happy when things are slipping away?

During our July 4th gathering, there was one incident when she got very upset about a minor thing, and Vlad had to drive her to her home so that she could pick up the missing item there. Afterward, Vlad commented that she became like a child. The trend was there for a while, but now it is more pronounced.

Today was my first day back to the office, and I didn’t plan to stop by her. Tomorrow I am taking her to the dentist, so I thought that I could skip today. It turned out that her air conditioner is not working properly. To be precise, it does not cool her apartment enough in the energy-saving mode. I figured it out last week and turned it to the cooling mode, but then you need to turn it off periodically, and it gets back to the energy-saving mode. I was keeping asking here over the phone whether her air conditioner is working, and she was saying that yes, and that she turns it off when she gets out. But today, she said that it was very difficult to get by, and she had to lie down often. It turned out, that it was back to the energy-saving mode, and the temperature in her apartment was 84F. The outside temperature today was 92F, and it will be worse tomorrow.

I got into the car, drove to her and yelled at her that she could die that way. She got very upset that I yelled at her, but I didn’t care. She was keeping saying that she didn’t change anything in the air conditioner, and I told her just to remember which lights should be green.

Then I tried to fix her color printing thing, without much luck, so I will still need to google her printer situation.

Not all days are like this, sometimes there are better days. When I took mom to the forest preserve on Sunday, she was in a good mood, and alert, and conversational. But when something goes off, even some rather innocent things, I am scared because I do not know what will go off next.

I understand that things are being accelerated by the isolation and the lack of external stimulation. That’s why I started taking her shopping instead of bringing her groceries and was trying to come up with other activities outside her home.

Tomorrow, I am taking her to the dentist. There will be teeth extractions and new dentures. I need to make sure she will take the antibiotic and the pain killer; she often tries to ignore both after the dental appointments.

And I need to be more patient, which does not happen all the time.

Distancing on the Fourth

We had a small family gathering on the Fourth, primarily for my mom’s benefit as she was keeping asking when she will see everybody together again. That way, she could see all the boys, and I could treat them with some homemade food.

I had two major challenges: to cook everything myself, without any help from the kids (and I only had about two and a half hours), and how to serve the food in a safe way. Our traditional buffet-style won’t work these days. After all, everything turned out great, and Vlad approved all my preparations. I even had gloves to serve food, which had to be taken by hand.

The time I picked (5-30 PM) was perfect since the heat started to subside, and my deck is a summer-time haven that seldom gets any direct sun. Also, I have a huge umbrella, and I took outside my gym fan to add to the natural breeze.

Visiting the Gym

On Sunday, I went to my local gym for the third time since its reopening last Friday. The first time, I went there to check it out on the first day. Then I want twice, checking the early morning situation on both weekdays and weekends. And I decided that for the time being, I will use it only as a last resort. If it will be pouring rain and I won’t be able to bike or walk. At least until fall. 

Here is why. It’s a 24X7 facility, so the situation depends solely on how the individual members behave, but the management still has ways to encourage the desired behavior. On Tuesday, there were only three people except me in the gym, but theses three people were socializing (and they were not one household). Yes, by the governor’s order, masks are not required in the gyms, but people should think for themselves, especially when they choose to socialize. 

There is no explicit marking on the floor regarding the 6 feet distance; the blue dots are in random places. Out of six disinfecting wipes disposers, five were empty. One bottle of hand sanitizer was empty. Yes, I know it was a long weekend, but in the situation of a pandemic, this should not happen. 

I wore a mask (a good one, which allows me to breathe while exercising.) Another member stated to set up his weights and a bench very close to me. But after looking at my mask, he asked: do you mind that I am so close to you? I said – no, it’s OK, I am in the mask. And then I added: I knew right away it will be challenging to keep the distance, so I decided I will wear a mask when coming here, although it is not required. He nodded, and then he said: you know what, I think I will move further. 

I remember that the last week before the gym closed in March, they had plenty of sanitizer and disinfection wipes, and they had signed everywhere they people should clean the equipment after each use. And even though we know now that the virus does not spread significantly through the surfaces, it’s still a b=public indoor place, with no staff on-site for extended periods, so I believe they should provide their members with more cleaning supplies. 

Another Long Day…

Once again, way too many things happened today. Some were good, some – very satisfying, some funny, and some sad.

And because I do not feel like writing about the sad things at the moment, I will put here several pictures from the forest preserve. First, the ones I took on Friday early morning, when I was biking.

Continue reading “Another Long Day…” →