We traditionally think of “the dog days of summer” – for what reason I do not know; perhaps that’s when Sirius, the Dog Star, is on its closest approach to earth. But since I have no more respect for consensus tradition than for any other form of consensus reality, I now dub this Moscow morning the first of the dog days of winter. Can I get a woof? Amen. It’s finally gotten cold here, really cold, all the way down on the bottom of my personal scale of cold that goes something like this:
Cold
Really Cold
Stupid Cold
Incredibly Miserably Cold
Are You Fricking Kidding Me?!
We’re right down there at AYFKM, and this is when I especially like centigrade best, because something that sounds only ridiculously cold in Fahrenheit (0 degrees, say) sounds off-the-charts insane at –18 in centigrade. Really underscores your suffering, yeah?
Nah. I’m not suffering. Not really. I work indoors. As noted before, since I have a car and driver I never have to get into a cold car. The only time I’m really cold is when I choose to be by going outside, and while, yeah, your life can get a little claustrophobic if you mostly stay indoors, it’s still your choice. You don’t have to be cold.
I think about those recent ice storm victims in Kentucky, without power for days, or residents of this place during the many, many bad years of the past (Crisis of ‘92, Soviet Times, Tsarist Era, take your pick). For an hour, a day, or a whole winter, it’s so easy to suffer with the cold. Be thankful you’re not if you’re not. I’m thankful. Not “romping in the California sunshine” thankful, but thankful.
The current Crisis continues to rock Russian society. Lots of layoffs, or as they charmingly call them here, “optimizations.” The ruble is sinking against the dollar and euro, which is good for me but bad for almost everybody else. Television production lies fallow, and even shows that continue to get shot, like the one I’m working on, seem to lurch from week to week with their continued funding ever in doubt and their productions ever at risk for going dark. Word is that it’ll all turn around sometime in the spring, but is that thoughtful analysis, wishful thinking, or just the sound of happy sailors dancing on a sinking ship? I don’t know. I just know it’s cold. But trust me, I don’t feel sorry for myself. I still have a job. It’s still an interesting and challenging one. I’m still learning and growing and facing new challenges. (Though some of these can be difficult, like trying to inspire the sailors to keep dancing as the ship goes down.) If the price I have to pay is a little mind-numbing cold (and a whole lot of of loneliness), still I willingly pay.
I played poker last night at Le Poker Club, the poker joint around the corner from my flat. The game was 1 and 2 blind pot-limit Texas hold’em, and if you’re wondering 1 and 2 what… well, so was I. Dollars? Rubles? Euros? It turns out that the betting units are the equivalent of 30 rubles each. That was about $1.25 when I first got to Moscow, but less than $1 each now. So… not a very expensive game. Still, it was poker, and any poker is better than no poker, right?
Not necessarily. Oh, the game was okay. Of course I won. I always (say I) win. Trouble was, I had no one to yack with. It’s isolating and alienating to play poker when everyone can talk to each other and no one can talk to you. You’re literally left out of the joke. I wasn’t worried about people discussing my play or colluding against me – it wasn’t that kind of game. But after a while I just had to leave, because it wasn’t all that interesting to be there.
Plus the smoke, of course. Gack.
Anyway, it’s Sunday in Moscow. My day off (my two current projects require that I work 6-day weeks just now). It’s like having birthday money to spend. dog day of winter, to spend as I choose. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m not going to spend a single second more on this
If it gets a little colder, it will be the same temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius (-40 degrees).
Posted by: Craig | February 04, 2009 at 08:19 PM