An update on the first day of summer, as it is measured here.

Today is the first day of summer.  Perhaps not where you live, but according to the Kyrgyz, June 1st represents the first day of the season.  I am hoping that October 1st will not be the first day of winter as measured by the Kyrgyz, but I will not ask as I will find out soon enough.

A few of you inquired, so I am sending an update. Yes, I do have hot water.  My water heater was fixed about 24 hours after I made my blog post on the topic.  I still don't know what was wrong, but I don't mind being without explanations.  When you don't speak any of the official languages of a nation you might get lucky and be able to figure out the "who" or the "where" of a situation, but usually it's the "why" that gets completely lost, like Amelia Earhart, never to be discovered.  And so it is with my hot water heater.  I was never able to find a "why" to explain the reason it wasn't working, but when it's a good outcome, you let the "why" slide by.

And, I got my dental filling last week.  No problems at all.  The English-speaking receptionist wasn't working on that particular day, so I really have no idea what the dentist did exactly or why, but there was no pain in the dental procedure and I have a new object in my mouth and the pain of a sore tooth I had experienced has dissipated.  Let's hope Kyrgyz fillings aren't made out of lead or uranium, but otherwise, I think I'm set in the dental realm for awhile, knock on wood.

But, don't believe for a moment that everything is clear sailing. Not only is June 1, the first day of summer, but it's also "Everything Falls Apart at Your Office Day" in Kyrgyzstan. We lost our electricity for much of the day, the worst of it was having one of my co-workers trapped in the building's elevator for half an hour until they pried the door open and hauled her out.  We also lost our water, and our internet, and the connections on half the phone calls I had to make to Tajikistan never even got established as I must have set a world's record for uttering the phrase "Can you hear me?" in the course of an hour.  Why had all this mayhem taken place?  Why?  No one seemed able to explain.  Evidently the "why" was missing, located, I'm assuming, somewhere near the lost continent of Atlantis.

By the time the work day had ended, I sat in my sweltering office as the mercury today hit 32 degrees--that's 90 degrees for you medieval folks--and I let out an exasperated laugh to myself because I realized it really isn't a normal day in Kyrgyzstan unless something has gone completely, and inexplicably, sideways.