Chipping Away

To mark the end of a truly lousy day yesterday, I chipped my tooth at dinner!  It was raining much to hard for us to walk to any restaurant so I made some mushroom and rice omelets, which doesn’t sound like something you could chip a tooth on, unless you consider that I served it with day old toasted crunchy French bread.  I must have chipped it on a crust of bread and then swallowed the chips.  The good news is that it doesn’t hurt, just feels funny. The bad news is that now I have to find a dentist in Moscow, always an adventure.

I miss not having some power tools here in the apartment.  Yesterday I purchased a shoe rack, some assembly required but no instructions.  This is a 24”x14”x14 two level shoe rack and it came in a box the size of a thick magazine. Thirty-two screws later and I’ve got blisters on my hand from manually trying to put the darn thing together.  It is done and it is beautiful. The Russians, like the Asians and other cultures, insist that you remove your shoes when entering a home, so you have to have a place for folks to place their shoes and a small stool for them to sit on to change.

Cindy found out something about Russian culture that answers a lot of my concerns.  In Russia, you only say hello to someone once a day. If you greet one of the Green Guys in the morning, do not expect to be greeted or to greet again if you encounter him in the afternoon or evening. I think they like to keep social contact at a minimum. One of Cindy’s colleagues, who had been working in Brazil, said that twenty percent of her day was spent in greeting, kissing, and handshakes. Must have something to do with number of hours of sunlight and temperature.

You’ll be pleased to know that The 54 Club has reconvened at the bus bench, none the worst for their ordeal, although it is very hard to tell what worst is with that bunch.  They were assembled for morning beers at about nine, despite the rain and chill. It appears that they might have gotten some new clothes out of the deal because they were looking and smelling a bit better than the last time I saw them.  I know that they were feeling better since they remembered to ask me for money.  

It is a cold, grey day with the temps hovering in the low 40’s.  I would not be surprised if the Ministry of Central Heating decides to flip the switch this week, since the long range forecast isn’t much of an improvement over today. In fact the weekend is supposed to be clear, bright and rather cold.  We had just started putting away our summer clothes and now we need to put away the light jackets as well. By put away, I mean we have to fold everything and place it in a big suitcase and slip it under the bed. We have very little closet space here. 

Who Loves Yuri?

The papers were filled with stories of the ousted Mayor of Moscow.  In typical Russian fashion, now they suspect that there might have been corruption during his administration. I’m shocked, simply shocked.  Here is a picture of Yuri in happier times with the contestants for Miss Massive Moscow.

Nothing I can add to this so adieu, Cindy and Wm