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November 22, 1998
Hi Loyal Fans,
It's the Kyiv Krew again. It's been a couple weeks and we haven't intruded lately. But now it's time for show and tell about our recent weather. Hopefully, all these pictures of snow and ice will put you in a holiday mood. I know it's put us in a mood.
About two weeks ago, we got an inch or two of snow between 8:15 and 8:35 in the morning. It immediately changed to ice. The roads were exciting but not very picturesque so you'll have to use your imagination. Imagine glass over cobblestone streets. Imagine cars, buses, trams, trucks going every which way. Imagine prayer as I rode to work in a car the size of a big suitcase. There, that should do it.
The next day we got real snow. This is from the doorway to our apartment building. I stood here for an hour before I concluded my car was not going to show up. The driver's excuse was that it took until 6:00pm to uncover the little lump in the snow. Anyway, it has snowed off and on since then and the driver has showed up on and off as well. I had thought that having a taxi take me to work was going to relieve me of all that tension of driving in the snow but it just changes the tension.
Marianne walks to work of course. A lovely 20 minute stroll through the winter wonderland. Except that we have discovered the real threat to human health around here. It's not Chernobyl. It's not food poisoning. It's not even the traffic. It's .... drain pipes. All the buildings have them and they just drain onto the sidewalks. If they stay open, they spread a sheet of ice clear across the sidewalk. Try walking across that with book bags or groceries or both. But the higher risk is if the drains plug because then the water backs up and forms huge ice chunks up high on the building. Those chunks then come loose and fall on the pedestrians and kill a few every year. Obviously the liability lawyer industry hasn't caught up here in Ukraine.
The snow can be beautiful however. Here's the yard in our church next door. The church itself is spectacular in snow too. I'm sure by April, we will hate the stuff but we just have to remember the beauty too. We have to view the glass as half full. Maybe a quarter full will be enough.
We don't let this sort of thing slow us too much. Last weekend we went to the Marine Ball. Marianne had a gown and coat made for the occasion so that was probably the highlight of the evening - except my John Travolta impersonation. For some reason, the Marines supplied music that was popular before any of them were born. But it was fun to get out and about.
Our other activities are pretty much "as usual". Here's Marianne on our way to Arizona Bar B Que for breakfast yesterday. Sure doesn't look like Arizona to me. By the way, that's the new coat, complete with fox hood and cuffs. Here I am (with THE HAT) riding home from downtown. We discovered a way to use the interconnected Metro stations to make it most of the way home without walking on the streets. It's great. For a 10 cent fare, we ride four escalators (down, down, up, up) but never have to get on the crowded train cars themselves. The Metro really is pretty handy and all the lower levels can be closed with nuclear blast doors. Just in case the OTHER Evil Empire decides to strike.
Finally, our weekend might not be complete without a tour of "The Spuce" where we join all the other tourists. By the way, this car did not make it to the top of the hill. We even bought a real Christmas present for Marianne. She loves it. I like it. And it proves we haven't lost our taste and culture out here in the far, frozen East.
Take care and enjoy Thanksgiving. We'll be thinking of everyone.
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Originally sent in late November, 1998. Reformatted for website May 12, 2001.
This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.