October 10th 2023

In addition to the Ukrainian war, we got another Israeli war, just what the world needed (😟 ).

I have no opinion other than that it's terrible. I'm going to read and talk to my husband about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just to find out something for myself.

My friend sent me photos of the autumn and was waiting for emotions from me about how beautiful it is there. Yes, it's beautiful, but, unfortunately, no emotions.

However, Tomsk, like other Russian cities, is full of life and events.

On October 7, people celebrated Putin's birthday. Really?

I watch several YouTube news channels from Russia, official government channels. Here's what I found:

“An action in support of the president was held in Russia.

People turned to the People's Front movement with a proposal to hold a car rally. ”

I saw it on the news and decided to find out what the “people’s front” is and what people wanted to congratulate the president.

So,

The People’s Front is an organization created on Putin's initiative (meaning by Putin) in 2011 to fight corruption. Funny.

I can't go to their website here in America, they don't allow me, but there is Wikipedia, though in Russian, the link is here.

So, Putin's team (which was called the word PEOPLE in the news), together with the People's front, decided to organize events (various: cleaning the territory in Kalmykia in a regional nursing home, a car rally in 27 regions of the country, etc ...) but all in support and for Putin.

I didn’t hear about Tomsk joining that event.

Tomsk has its own reasons for celebrating.

Actually, there are three holidays dedicated to Tomsk in Tomsk.

June 7th (City Day) - this day in 1604 the Cossacks landed on the Tom River and started to build the fortress.

October 7th - on this day, in 1604, the construction of the fortress was completed. October 7 is considered the founding day of Tomsk.

Tomich's* Day appeared on the initiative of the Mayor Klein in 2015, celebrated in September, there is no date.

This year, Foundation Day and Tomich's Day were celebrated together. Here is the link to the Ria Tomsk news article with photos.

So, it turns out that bloggers banned in Russia talk about the war (now about two), official state TV channels show different activities such as celebrating the birthdays of cities and the president. True, they do not forget pressing problems such as the lack of heating in houses and hot water, rising prices for new housing and mortgages, etc.

There is no heating in almost 90 apartment buildings in Tomsk, there is no hot water in six houses; the reason is gusts on heating mains and unavailability of intra–house networks, a representative of the Department of Municipal Economy told RIA Tomsk on Friday.

I will try to explain the heating system of many Russian cities.

If you live in a high-rise building, you have practically no control over the air temperature in your apartment. Heating is turned ON/OFF throughout the house when a certain temperature of the air outside is kept for three days. (I do not know the exact temperature, it may vary in different cities). Previously, heating was turned ON in Tomsk on September 15. By this time, the buildings were very cold and it was damp in apartments.

The payment depends on the square meters of your apartment. It doesn't matter if it's cold or hot (a certain tariff for a square meter).

If you are very hot (it also happens), you can install a tool (sort of faucet) to turn on/off hot water in the batteries in your apartment, but you will still pay the full amount of payment (per square meter).

But anyway. There are photos from my friend Marina.

As for us, here in New Bedford,

The weather is really comfortable: it's cool at night, and it's still warm and sunny during the day.

I slowly started decorating for Halloween. Tomatoes are still ripening on plants, zinnias bloom and not only zinnias - I found a blooming rhododendron(!) in October, it doesn’t seem right to me.

The Wilkes Library is expanding its opening hours. Now we are going to be open every day (Mon-Sat) at 9 am, and will be closing at 5pm, and on Tues and Thurs at 8 pm.

During the long weekend I baked bread. Love my bread! Will bake again before returning the bread maker to the library.

I did the windows (some of them), took my dog for walks and for a ride, and so on…there is always something to do at home.