Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts

Children’s Hospitals In The Soviet Union

Some time ago, a fellow blogger mentioned staying in the hospital with her son, who got severe burns. I commented that I remember how I was coming to the children’s hospital every day when Igor had his eyes surgeries. I felt that a short comment was not enough to describe the difference and thought I should write more about this story.

Igor had severe nearsightedness from birth, and when he was four, the ophthalmologist told me he needs scleraplastic surgery. Even now, I can’t tell whether it was necessary. Here in the US, nobody heard about this surgery. But I was told that he absolutely has to have it; otherwise, he may go blind.

Before I proceed, I need to explain several things about hospitals in the Soviet Union. First, the patients would stay for a long period. Here, if you had surgery and no complications and concerns, you will be dismissed in a couple of days to recover at home. Also, you do not need to come to the hospital “in advance.”

However, back in the Soviet Union, a person, regardless of their age, would be admitted a week before the surgery “to get ready.” I am not sure about the rationale behind this practice. Were the doctors afraid of infections? Still, it seems completely unreasonable.

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Nasturtium Salad

I didn’t make this salad for six years! But when I was shopping for my herbs, I saw nasturtiums, and I immediately knew I want them. All the childhood memories which I mentioned in this six-year-old post came to life:). Now that I had them for almost a month, I finally got a chance to harvest some and make a salad precisely like the one I mentioned in that old post. Just added almonds – I do not remember why I didn’t have any nuts in it six years ago, it’s not like me 🙂

One More Step Toward Normalcy :)

Although I am absolutely happy at my new place, the move itself was quite disastrous, and even a month after I moved there were still numerous problems not fixed. Moreover, the moment one thing got fixed, another would break (just remember my air conditioning story!)

But recently, the havoc retreated, and multiple things got back to normal or were resolved.

Accepting the offer on my old house was one of these things (although I didn’t close yet). Finally starting my new job is another one. The fact that Etsy returned me money when one of the sellers didn’t ship the shelves to me was another nice and almost unexpected thing.

Saturday was the day of major progress: I finally (almost) resolved my ceiling fans problems.

Among many things which were wrong with this condo were the ceiling fans, none of which were fully operational. It was especially frustrating because they are expensive light fixtures of excellent quality, but I didn’t have either remotes or users’ manuals. In three places, the fans were not working. In the living room and the guest bedroom, the fans were moving, but the lights were not turning on.

Both Vlad and John tried to address the problem, and Vlad even sent me a link to purchase a remote, but neither he nor John could connect this remote to any of the lights. I knew I needed to find a proper electrician, but things were piling up, and I just didn’t have time to start solving this problem.

Finally, I made an effort and went to the NextDoor to search for posts about electricians. Soon I found a person who had a problem similar to mine and was looking for an electrician two months ago. I messaged them and asked whether any of the contractors who were recommended to them worked. I added that everybody tells me good electricians are hard to find.

That was it! Immediately, several people replied to me with, “there are good electricians in Rogers Park!”
The one I hired promptly suggested that he come on Saturday (I couldn’t stay at home during the week of job changing).

After a little bit over an hour, the living room light/fan was working. The guest bedroom fixture could be operated with the new remote. We also discussed the plan to fix the rest of the fans and to get new remotes. Oh, and we also talked about Universal Health Care and Berni Sanders :). So it’s all close to eternal happiness :).

… Can you imagine the joy of being able to turn the lights on?!

I am a Featured Author for July

A Featured Author 🙂

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

ANd the last piece of my updates:

I am a featured database author for the month of July on Apress – check it out here!

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Insurrection

So that we remember

rmichaelroman's avatarYip Abides

This is an outstanding and thought-provoking piece of work by the New York Times. It deserves to be circulated. Spread it around.

After watching this, I was left uncertain about my reaction to it and what I might want to say about it. So I’ll limit myself to a tangential observation. I’m not a pacifist so I hope I’m not sounding sanctimonious about this, but unless you have some ideological commitment to violent revolution, this is headed in the wrong direction. Whatever else this video is, it is a warning about how violence in politics feeds on itself.

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Hello, New Job!

My multiple posts about “life in general” and “history” will have to wait.

Today was the day.

I just posted my updates on LinkedIn, and LinkedIn is exploding. As for me – I am just happy. I didn’t even think I will be that happy. I already worked for BrokerX for a while, I already had fights with almost everybody, and I was sad to leave Braviant. I didn’t think today will make such a difference. But it did. 

Do you know what the best part of my day was? When I left work at 5-30, which was not early at all, I realized that I do not need to rush home to do work for my second job! I will have less money now, significantly less, both because my new position pays less and because I am losing consulting income, but I felt so happy! For the whole workday, I could 100% focus on the work I wanted to do for a long time! 

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an “I am so happy” picture on Instagram. I was referring to my new place, saying that I am so happy to live here.

Now, I want to post the same picture here, because it reflects my level of happiness 🙂

Goodbye, Previous Job!

Yesterday was my last day at Braviant Holdings, and I had a Farewell Party. It turned out it was close to impossible to reserve a space anywhere in the Loop without a substantial deposit. If it weren’t for Vlad, who still knows everybody in the hospitality business, I would be miserable. But because of his connections, we ended up having a corner in Miller’s pub and had a great time.
I am very thankful for the people who came out to see me off in person!

Books About Pandemic

I wanted to mention two books that I recently finished; both are about the COVID pandemic. 

The first one is The Premonition, and the second is The Plague Year. It may feel that it’s “too early” to write books about the pandemic, especially because we are not out of it yet. But I think that both books are very timely. 

As you can imagine, the contents of both books overlap significantly, but even when they talk about the same events, they view them from slightly different perspectives. The first book focuses more on the political side of things, Trump’s inadequate response to the thread, and the health care officials who stood up against it. The second book touches more on science, epidemiology, details of vaccine development. 

Both are very informative. Some things I learned: 

  • that the vaccine was technically “ready” before the start of the pandemic; the scientists had to plug in the genome details; that’s why it was developed so fast
  • that most of the decisions about opening/closing/guaranteeing, which looked erratic at least, were based on multiple AI models. For example, there are certain estimates on the effect of schools closing depending on the level of infections at the time of closing.
  • more detail on the shortage of swabs for tests
  • why there were so many questions on the origin of the virus

And many other things! 

Also, these books allowed me to recall the events of the past sixteen months, how our knowledge about the virus changed, and how and why the health officials’ guidelines evolved. 

A Day Without Deaths

Today is the first day after the beginning of the pandemic when there were no deaths recorded in the state of Illinois. It does not mean that it’s all over. It does not even mean that there were no deaths. And we may wait for a while to see another day like this. But still – that’s the day to celebrate. To celebrate and to remember those who died during pandemic. That’s the day to multiply our efforts to prevent as many deaths as possible. That’s the day to encourage people to get vaccinated.

Oh yes, and the Crown Fountain is operating again 🙂

Grant Park Music Festival Is Back!

The Grant Park Music Festival season opened on July 1, but on that day, the weather was just a little bit too cool for the outdoor evening concert. I decided to give it a shot on Saturday (after returning from the Dunes) even though there was a risk of a big crowd.

And boy, there was a crowd! For a moment, I was questioning the sanity of my decision, especially because I asked mom to come and meet us there, but it turned out great!

We sat on the stairs, which instantly provided more distance. There was a large screen over the stage – new this year, so we could see everything that was going on on stage.

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