In Moscow, you know it's summer when it's been over a month since you last saw the next-door neighbor you spent the whole winter smoking with on the staircase. First, when it just got only slightly warm, he must've moved his ashtray to his balcony, and then, he probably migrated to his dacha. I'll know winter is close when I see him again, I'm afraid.

***

It's cold and rainy here now, and I miss the heat. We had bought a fan right before the heat wave departed. Many people shopped for fans that day, actually, so many that there weren't enough staff at the store to explain the difference between models - and so some customers, having spent some time figuring things out for themselves, were then volunteering as consultants to other customers. I told a friend about it, and he was skeptical - the fans, how different can they be? But they are: many come with remote control now.

:)