Category: everyday life

Ninotchka

Siskel Center started a new lecture series, “Propaganda and Counterculture.” The program is incredibly interesting. However, I can hardly attend any because most of my Tuesdays are already scheduled. Because of that, I made a point to see “Nonotchka” last Tuesday.

The auditorium was packed with students who stayed for a class after the screening. I am curious to know their impressions! The movie is funny. Even with the obligatory dose of “cranberry trees,” it still captures some utterly funny details that are pretty close to reality.

Now that I think about it, maybe “funny” is exactly what feels slightly disturbing. One may say that we are not afraid of things we can laugh about, but at the same time, that exact feeling that “things are not too scary” prompts the viewers to believe that the communist regime was not so bad…

Fort Sheridan: Late Summer

Yesterday was Labor Day, the official end of the summer season. I spent this long weekend balancing matching up on one million in-flight projects, both personal and professional, and making sure this summer had a proper final accord. It was a very busy one, but I took as much of it as I could.

Since the beginning of summer, Igor and I have been planning to go to the Dunes on Labor Day, but then the weather forecast showed dropping temperatures. First, we decided to give up. Then, there were signs of hope, and we decided to go in the afternoon when it should have warmed up. And then, in the morning, it was so cold and windy that I texted Igor to call it off. Besides, I remembered that there was one more thing I hadn’t had time for since May, and I won’t have time till mid-October: going to Fort Sheridan. So I decided to go there in the afternoon.

Since I was going North and close to the Lake, I was sure it would be colder there (as it usually is), so I even put an extra layer in my backpack. Forgot about the lake effect :). To my surprise, it was much warmer than in Rogers Park, and it was even less windy.

Continue reading “Fort Sheridan: Late Summer” →

Bike The Drive

For the second year in a row, I did a full course of Bike the Drive! The weather was perfect except for heavy winds after 8 AM, which slowed down the last portion of my ride. Other than that – just perfect. This time, I didn’t pay for breakfast because, for two years in a row, I found it expensive and not good. I much preferred the snacks at the rest stops: bananas, apples, dried fruits and nuts packs. Also, Urban Remedy was giving away small bottles of coffee and cookies.

I checked my bike and attached the number the night before
At the event starting point
At the turning point – the rest stop by the Museum of Science and Industry
Stopping on the overpass on the way back
30 miles challenge medal
Urban Remedy goodies. I checked their website – their products are very expensive, so I don’t think I will buy any, but it was great to try.

Atlantis

I finally watched Atlantis – it is not the kind of movie you watch in parallel with cooking or cleaning. When I rented it for the first time, i was unable to allocate almost two hours of uninterrupted time.

It’s an amazing work of art. It might be strange to say “it’s beautiful” because it shows horrible things, but the cinematography is really stunning. The most horrific thing is that this movie was filmed in 2019, and yet, it is painfully close to what later happened in reality. Also, it is horrifying that 2025 is just around the corner, and the war is not nearly over.

“Almost Cezanne”

When I was in Ann Arbor, Lena and I visited the Artisan Market, and I put my eye on a fruit bowl.

I couldn’t tell what was so special about it except that the colors agreed with some of my tableware. Several bowls were made by the same artist. The colors of all of them were very similar, but I chose the one you can see in the photo below because of the combination of the size and the color.

The way it blended into my dining room exceeded my expectations. Wouldn’t you agree it’s “almost Cezanne”?!

More DNC Follow-up

Igor was at Union Park on the last day of the DNC and took lots of pictures. Usually, I post the link to his album and also post selected photos in my blog, but this time, I do not want to post any. Here is a link you can check out. And if you click it, you’ll probably realize why there are no pictures here.

I always strive to present an objective picture, and this time, an objective picture is not appealing: I do not want to multiply any Palestinian propaganda here. If you do not see these people and their posters, you might think there is some truth in what they say. But if you just take a look, there will be no mistake. That proves my point that these days, anybody who agitates people against Harris is an enemy of good. I do not know how else to put it – it literally means that this individual is on the dark side of things. And since I know that Igor captures such events with all possible objectivity, I can tell that there were way more supporters of the Palestinian extremists than anybody else. Ukrainians and their supporters, pro-choice activists and pro-life activists, communists, and socialists, all of them combined, made a lesser crowd than pro-Palestinian protesters. And I can’t get over it.

On a separate (but still DNC-related) topic, there were lots of comments about “CTA has done a great job keeping the stations clean.” I do not disagree with that; it was hard not to notice the unusual cleanliness. However, the immediate questions are: 1) why does it have to be a convention to make this change? 2) what did it cost in terms of time, labor, etc? I do not like shows like this, and I genuinely want these questions to be answered.

The Rest Of The Weekend

There were tons of things we could do and wanted to do over this weekend, but it was not even remotely possible to fit everything in, so I suggested a couple revisions to our plans to make sure we do what’s most important for us and not rush. We ended up doing only two things today: the beach and Aquarium. Both Anna and I felt we didn’t do enough beach time on Saturday (partially because both she and I had to take calls), and Annd hardly had any beach time this summer, so we decided to skip the market and all other potential morning activities and to spend more time at the beach. Then, we took an Uber to the Aquarium and left all the luggage in a locker.

For her birthday, I gave Anna a Beluga encounter experience at the Aquarium, which ended up being a two-hour thing, and Anna said it was “one of the best things she had ever done.” (Now I want to do it myself!)

Now, Actually Today!

I just realized I didn’t hit “publish” on yesterday’s post. And I know why I didn’t – I wanted to add that for the third year in a row, on Vlad and Anna’s birthday, I think not about the last Russian revolution which was happening when they were born, but about Ukraine Independence Day, and the war, and about everything my generation didn’t do back then. Then I decided that I would write a separate post about it, and then I didn’t press “Post.”

The birthday was yesterday. Today, we just did things together: we went to the beach, had a post-birthday lunch, and then went to Chalk Howard, decorated our square and looked at how others decorated their’s.

The number of people on the beach was insane:

I was glad that we camped in the part which is usually less crowded because there are small rocks in the water. We had a great time and a lot of space around us. And Chalk Howard was a blast, as always.

Our square – I think next year I will buy two or three squares to accommodate all the art our family can create:)
Anna reads Igor’s birthday card

Today

Today, my twins turned thirty-three, and I have no idea when it happened 🙂 I even checked my calculation several times to ensure I was right!

Every year, on the day they are born, I tell myself and the rest of the world that having them was the best decision I ever made. Their presence in my life drove many of my decisions, which would have been drastically different otherwise.

***

This week, I listened to “Moral Decision Making,” one of the Audible Great courses. Once again, the lecturer explained that what Boris and I did thirty-six years ago was completely and unquestionably morally wrong—not like I didn’t know it before. But that was the best thing that happened to both him and me. Not only because there won’t be Vlad and Anna otherwise but also because even thirty-six years later, I smile each time I think about him, and he smiles each time he thinks about me. And this is the most impossible thing in the world, which never happens :).

***

Solar Energy

I have been a community solar farm subscriber for over four years, and I couldn’t be happier about it – not only with the environmental impact but also with significantly lower electric bills. Since the time I subscribed, I have orgotten about the concept of “summer peaks.”

The savings work the following way: Nexamp bills me the price of electricity and sends my credits to ComEd, which subtracts them from my ComEd bill. The problem started at the end of February when ComEd switched to a new billing system and changed all account numbers. Somehow, they forgot to include Nexamp into this conversion process, and it took several months to resolve the issue. Finally about a month ago Nexamp informed their subscribers that the issue was finally resolved. They warned us that we “will receive a gigantic bill” from Mexamp, but no worries, it’s for all these missing months. They also suggested that we should request an immediate refund from ComEd, instead of waiting for them to adjust their bills with our credits.

I decided not to do anything and just wait until ComEd will adjust all the credits. It turned out that is was the right decision! The “gigantic bill” was $48, which I just paid, and ComEd had already sent me two $0 bills. 🙃 And that’s for two months with the hottest temperatures outside. I am wondering whether they will bill me something in September