Cue the Brady Bunch: We had a bright, bright, bright sunshiny day!

Amidst the dark cold that is Minsk in winter, somehow, a perfect Saturday appeared. Oh, the joy of sunshine! Real sunshine, not a random glimpse through clouds. And it was above freezing to boot – I think we hit 40F, even.

Everyone and their brother took the opportunity to go outside, I am pretty sure. My venture out was productive: I went to the big market, which is about two miles away. I braved the wet walk in tennis shoes and hoped I didn’t crash. More concerning, I knew, would be the way back, since I’d be loaded down with eggs, but I made it.

The weather was beautiful but oh, man, it’s a mess out there. We’ve had so much snow that the sidewalks are packed ice and the roofs are just loaded down. With some of it melting so quickly, there were city avalanches coming off the roofs to the sidewalks. Fortunately, Belarusians are pros at this and know to rope off the sidewalk close to the buildings so people don’t walk there. (Note: in the subtleties of the opposition’s white-red-white, I was amused/inspired the plastic rope used is red and white.)

The melting snow has no place to go. I mean, there are drains but there’s just so much melting and it’s really only borderline over freezing, so it’s not like it’s all going to go away with one glorious 40-degree day. It’s back down to 30 now and may hover at freezing today, but it’ll nosedive again soon. There’s no way it all – or even the bulk of it – will suddenly go away. I’m more than a little terrified of tomorrow’s walk to work. They do a really good job of clearing it off in most places, but there’s always some spot where I feel like I tempt fate a little too much.

The river, by which I love walking, is one spot. As I walk to work, I have to pass over it and there’s a stretch where one of the roads I also have to cross has a walkway under it, by the river. Because it’s water, this is my preferred crossing but holy cow, the stairs. They are not first on the list to be cleaned off and have been covered in ice more than once.

Close to the office, there’s also one spot that has two steps, and, even during the summer, these steps are a little iffy. Minsk also has a lot of bikers (not during winter) and, on quite a few of the stairs, they also have two little ramps to ride your bike up and down. (It’s not really handicap accessible, but it’s a start, I guess.) Those two stairs in that one place have those, so the step-down part is miniscule and broken -  in the summer. Now, the non-ramp part is essentially an ice ramp, and I have been known to step off in the street to avoid that short little trek. It doesn’t help that once you get down those two stairs, you’re basically on a mini ice rink, because there’s some kind of driveway that goes underground and there are pools of standing H2O all year round, and in winter, basically these are just huge, unavoidable ice slicks.

So far I’ve been lucky this year, though, and, after next week, we just have one more horribly brutal month left. March is still bad, I know, but at least it’s light out.

It’s been noticeably brighter when I leave the office, though. If I leave on time, I have five whole minutes to walk before the sun sets, and it’s not pitch black by the time I arrive. Mornings are still bleak, though, because in addition to the ice, it’s going to be dark upon departure for awhile. Since I walk to work, I tend to leave before 8 a.m. and the sun isn’t rising until after 9 a.m. still.

There is always the promise of summer, I know, but at the rate I am going, I don’t know how long I will be here. My intent was always to stay for my entire tour – October – and I put in for my next assignment with that in mind. However, I am learning that the person who’s in the job I am taking plans on leaving early so it might be that I’m expected to depart here early. I’ve come to terms with likely having to leave in September but really don’t want to and really don’t want to leave earlier than that, but it’s not looking good. In the end, I’m not sure how much say I have in it.

I just want to travel. It’s really going to kill me if I’m this close and can’t get to Poland and Slovakia. I mean, I was on my way to Slovakia when COVID started. Well, technically, I guess I was in Antarctica when COVID started, but I was on my way to Slovakia when all the shutdowns happened and I had to turn around and go home.

Just over it, but no one sees the end. I’m hopeful for the vaccine, but there’s no telling when it will get here. There are a couple of Americans who live in my building and they are headed to Florida next month specifically to get it. Me, no clue but I sure have a lot of masks to ward off anything. I hope it works.  

New Year, Same Old

I’m really glad to be posted overseas right now.  Yeah, Belarus has protesters resulting from the presidential election but here, there’s widespread evidence that the election wasn’t free or fair and the protestors entail people walking around with flowers. I’ll take this over Washington any day.

But man, it is really cold here right now. Last winter, it was warm and didn’t snow much. So far this winter, we’ve already more snow, ice and ridiculously cold temperatures than we had all of last year. This is what I expected during the winter but was spared in 2020; now I am just so very cold.

Today, I think the high was something like 3, but that’s better than it will be tomorrow. The good thing about the Hoth-type weather is that it’s too cold to snow. I’ve gotten a glimpse for the sun for the first time in weeks, but I did it from inside my fairly warm apartment.

We have a long weekend, but of course there’s no travel. I’m doing the same thing I did at Christmas – lining up a massage. There’s just not a lot else to do. At the moment, there is a project ongoing at the office and I’ve been able to get some OT but it’s really kinda sad when that’s what you’re looking forward to in order to pass the time.

The vaccine hasn’t made its way to us; last I heard it probably wouldn’t be earlier than March. Just trying to stay out of the way when it’s raging all around. Seems it’s getting closer; we’ve had a few cases at the office now, though, as far as I know, no one in my building.

Not that there is anyone in my building most of the time. I’m in the office most days but I’m pretty much the only one who’s in the office most days. I can do a lot from home, but it seems like the few days I work from home, there’s something right off the bat that I can only do from the office. And honestly don’t mind. It’s better than staying in the house all day.

The one plus of working from home is that I can go out to lunch once in awhile, but right now it’s so cold, I am not at all motivated to go outside. Too much Florida in me.

At some point this year, we’re supposed to get an ambassador. It’s gone through the Senate and I don’t know what steps come next, but at some point my life is going to shift into overdrive as far as work goes.  It’s fine – it’s why I took this job – but at some point it’s going to get real and my head is going to start spinning.