My wife, Irina, lived in Sevastopol, Crimea,
when the Soviet Union collapsed. Being at the
end of the natural gas pipeline, the heating
plants prioritized hospitals and other essential
services. As a result, for years, she, her
neighbors, and many other people in the region
typically lacked heating and hot water for the
entire winter and had running water for limited,
scheduled periods during the day. There were
no electric heaters. The only saving grace was
she worked as a medical technologist in a
hospital, which had heating and showers. She
and everybody else had to adjust to complete
lack of heat at home. Staying warm is not a
problem limited to the 19th century. However,
she did not have rattlesnakes.

Yours,

Paul H.


"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
William Faulkner, Act 1, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun (1951)